Pop Century for a short trip?

[PHS79]

We are in the process of planning our next trip to WDW. Right now we are planning on going in December 2017, we are thinking Dec 7th-11th and stay at Pop Century then going on DCL Dream the 11th- 15th. I have been to WDW 9 times, 3 of which over Christmas. My DW and DD (will be 8 at time of trip) have only been to WDW 2 times (8 day in Feb 2013 and 10 days in Feb 2015), since they have never seen everything all lit up for Christmas and also because early Dec is usually a fairly slow time we figured it should work out pretty good.

We have never stayed at Pop Century, we did walk the grounds on our last trip since we were staying at AoA, they layout seemed to be similar to AoA which we liked. So how is Pop? I was planning on a "preferred" room, are they worth it or just a waste of money? What else should we know?

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

As you may or may not know, the preferred room has the same size beds and square footage. The reason it is "preferred" is because it is closer to the lobby/food court and buses. We stayed in Pop Century's Preferred Room and had a good experience.

 

[khollandagg]

We love Pop. Its basically the same as the All Stars, and I've never stayed at AoA but have heard it is very similar. To me, not much benefit in paying the extra for a preferred room. Steve is right, its mostly just the location on the grounds, which aren't THAT big anyways to make much of a difference. I'd recommend saving the money to go with a standard room. Pop is a good value resort, nothing flashy, great food court, a solid option to save money on a short trip.

 

[SAV]

Loved our stays at POP! Request 60's section with a Lake View. We prefer the upper floors.

 

[ScottKC]

I have stayed at the Pop 3 times, the first time was in the 70's building. This was in June '15 and the room was very muggy, musty....it was tolerable but not ideal. We followed up with a second trip to the Pop in November '15 and stayed in 50's building on the top floor on the lake side and we loved it. The room was great and there was no dankness. So we requested the same thing for our trip for last week, 50's building, upper floor, and unfortunately the room was once again muggy, musty, dank, etc. The A/C seemed to make it tolerable and after a while we didn't notice it so much...but it was a slight letdown. We have also stayed at 4 other(non-Disney) Florida hotels and 3 of them had some sort of dankness to them so I'm just starting to think this is fairly standard for the Sunshine State? What do I know I'm from dry, inland California and am not real familiar with humidity(although I've lived on the East Coast now for almost 8 years.)

The rooms are very small, you can lie on the bed and operate the door at the same time, and the beds are fulls so they are smaller. They are in the middle of a remodel though where they are upgrading to a queen bed and a murphy bed for the 2nd bed. But we did not get one of those new rooms.

I do like the Pop Century Resort though, the food court is great, love all the kitschy theming, has it's own dedicated bus line. We made rope drop/welcome show at early magic hours at the Magic Kingdom and it was only a 20 minute bus ride. I just feel happy when I'm there so even though a good business class hotel can easily be found in Celebration or near Disney Springs I just always get drawn back to the "Disney" aspect of the Pop Century.

 

[belledream]

I don't find preferred rooms to be worth it. The grounds are small as it is - even from the buildings all the way in the back, it takes us less than 5 minutes to get to the lobby. We often found ourselves catching the AoA bus and enjoying the walk through that resort, over the Generation Gap Bridge, and to our room.

 

[JillC LI]

Very much enjoyed Pop's 70s building. Stayed in a standard room and it wasn't far at all from everything.

 

[daisyduckie]

I like Pop! I always book preferred at the values, as I like being as close to the food court and bus stop as possible. I try and save all my long distance walking for the parks.

 

[PHS79]

Thanks everyone!! My DW and I are planning on sitting down and kinda finalizing our plans this afternoon, unfortunately thanks to mother nature it looks like I will be getting called into work sometime this afternoon to plow snow, the unfortunate part about living in Wisconsin and working for a public works department. I have talked with our TA about the trip and we are hoping to book everything once she gets back from her vacation in Mexico later this week.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I've stayed in the Pop a number of times and it is our go to resort as we spend a lot of our time in the parks. However, we have had a nice time relaxing at the pools and found the rooms fine for 2 adults. I could see 2 adults and up to 2 small children being able to be comfortable in the rooms. I have never booked a preferred room and I don't see the need to personally. I have requested to be close to transportation and my room has been a short walk from it. Even the time I stayed in the 90's section (I hadn't made any special room requests and just took what they gave me) I found the walk not too long, cutting through the parking lot helped. The Pop has some nice decorations at Christmastime as well, I liked the vintage decor of their main tree and some of the other smaller trees had fun themes as well. I think if you aren't expecting a deluxe you will be just fine with the Pop.

 

[Plowboy]

Just got back last month from our latest stay at Pop. As usual a thoroughly enjoyable stay. We were in the 50's on the lake side (standard room) and couldn't have been more satisfied.

 

[bunnyman]

Stayed on POP once, and found it fine for a short trip. Anything like a week or so tends to get somewhat tedious and the room seems to shrink in size every day we're there!

 

[Renouq]

Pop will always be my favorite hotel everything about it is awesome. The theme, and rooms are great. I have stayed there many times ever since I was little and it will always be the best to me.

 

[JohnD]

I don't find preferred rooms to be worth it. The grounds are small as it is - even from the buildings all the way in the back, it takes us less than 5 minutes to get to the lobby. We often found ourselves catching the AoA bus and enjoying the walk through that resort, over the Generation Gap Bridge, and to our room.

Agree. First, I like Pop. Best Value on property. As for room, I found a standard in the 60s building to work just fine. You're about as close to transportation as you're going to get and you won't be paying more.