First time at Pop...calling all Pop lovers!

[smk]

I just made my reservations today for our October trip (21st thru 26th) and we are staying at Pop for the first time. :sohappy: We have stayed at other values before but Pop comes so highly recommened I thought we would give it a try. Now, what building do I want to hope for? I requested a king bed and a preferred room and I am hoping to be a short distance from the food court and bus stops. All you Pop experts give me some advice! :wave:

 

[smk]

No kidding! :lol: That's funny, I thought they got the weather report wrong when I read that there was going to be snow in the mountains, but it turned out to be true. Where were you staying? I live in the suburbs, so we got rained on the entire weekend, but no snow (it was SO dry for several weeks, so two straight days of rain was like a breath of fresh air). CO is a beautiful state, and I love it here! Can't wait for FL weather though, just 10 more days!!

We were passing thru after spending time in CA and Utah but planned to go to RMNP for a few days, instead we stayed in Grand Junction a day longer than planned and went thru the Loveland Pass on Sunday. It was FREEZING cold, we didn't plan on snow so we only had fleece jackets, flip flops and shorts . We have pictures of snow capped mountains and lots of rain and ice pellets, here we call it hail but there the locals called them ice pellets? I do love CO tho, how can you stand all the scenary? I would be in a different place everyday just to look at the mountains! Utah is absolutley gorgeous too. This was my first time in St. George area and Zion, OMG. Gotta make another trip to RMNP tho, I have been one time and loved it but that was 10 years ago, I was sad but we couldn't risk driving up there, we didn't have time to get caught by a freak storm, we had to get home by Wednesday so we drove on.

Have a blast in WDW, I have days to go before I leave but happiness in my heart about going!

 

[smk]

No matter which building you stay in, be sure to walk around the entire resort! My husband is 6'6'' and it was so much fun taking pics of him next to all the huge icons. He looked so short by comparison, it was hilarious.....:lol:

It does look like fun to see all the icons. My DH is 6'4" so I will have to get his pics too, I can call him "shorty" instead of Grumpy for a change....just kidding, kinda.

 

[smk]

My husband and I went in April and stayed in the 80's building. We loved it! We didn't find it was a far walk at all after the long day at the parks. Also the noise of the pool didn't bother us and we don't have kids. Like everyone is saying, whichever building you end up in you'll love. It's a very fun resort! Enjoy!!!

Thanks! I think I will!

 

[smk]

We have stayed at the Pop twice and I never recall anything going on on the lake. Enjoyed it both times. First time was in the 60's building and last year it was the 50's building. Both were very close to the main pool and the bus stop. As far as the Generation Bridge, I think it is supposed to link the two sections of the resort together when and if the rest is completed. As far as right now, it's only a dead end bridge to the past.

That's sad the bridge of "generations" goes no where! Fitting, maybe a symbol for the generation gap?

 

[Mikester71]

The 80s and 90s are fairly far away from Classic Hall, but are still only a few minutes walk at most.

Agreed. We have stayed at Pop both trips to WDW and are staying there again next March, and we LOVE staying in the 80's or 90's buildings. If you cut through the parking lot from the 90's building, it only takes a few minutes tops anyways. Last trip, we were stuck in the 50's buildings way at the back upon arrival and asked if we could be moved to the 90's section and they accommodated us.

GOTTA LOVE THE POP! :sohappy::sohappy::sohappy:

 

[Gooch]

Awesome. I've stayed at Pop about 6 or 7 times since my first stay in April of '04. Nice, clean, fun, and best yet AFFORDABLE!

I love the food court set-up. Really convenient with it being connected to the hotel's store. Make sure you stroll around the entire premises - read all the signage they have up as you walk by all the different sections of the hotel near the lake. Lots to do for a "Value" resort. Just squeeze as much as you can at the hotel (don't forget the pools!) when you're not at the parks or doing any other activities. I like spending a quiet night at the hotel whenever I visit DW - PC is a great place to have one.

 

[KC82271]

Been to POP several times. First time, I swore I would never go back again! We stayed in the 90's in the Cell Phones. It was just my husband and I, we wanted a King Size bed. It was too long of a walk at midnight coming in. Plus, everytime we went to the food court to fill our mugs with the frozen Coke, it was gone before we got back to the room - as it was so hot walking we drank it all!

A few years later, we have a 22 month old daughter who loves bowling pins. We give it a try - but pay for preferred rooms this time. We get the 50's building - with the bowling pins! To top it off, we are the first or second room from the end closest to the food court - well worth the extra $20 it cost. We have been back 2 additional times - both in the 60's. Both times we were on the back side - not facing the pool. However, one time we were a bit further away from the end of the buildng, which, I can't figure out why it would be preferred, but we survived.

The decor is what brought us there in the first place, and at 55+, my mom and my in-laws absolutely loved Classic Hall. They spent a good deal of time looking at everything. Now we are bringing another group of 55+s with us in November and staying there - hopefulyl they will enjoy it as much.

FYI -As for the gripes on some boards about the walls being paper thin - we never encountered that to the point of running our vacation. You are in a hotel with kids - you are going to hear them running and screaming - so if you are that sensitive to being around kids - pick a different hotel.

Enjoy!

 

[smk]

I will be in Orlando for a conference so I will not have much time to play after Thursday when the meetings start but I plan to get there early and go to MNSSHP and have one free day. After that we have tickets we bought from the conference site that are good for "after 2", a special only conference attendees get in Orlando:shrug:. I couldn't pass them up at the price I got them for, non park hoppers, after 2 pm admission, 2 tickets for 2 days were 198.00. Friday we'll go to Epcot and Saturday back to MK for some fun. Have to be registered at the conference to get the tickets, sorry to say! No AK or HS this trip unless we cave in and buy an extra after 2 pm ticket, not likely to happen tho.

Kids and noise usaully don't bother me, unless it is relentless and after a decent hour (like 11 or 12 pm) so POP and I will get along fine! A few short months and I can go!

 

[TTFN-Tiggger]

I have been there a couple of times. My stay in March we were in the 60's building - elevator up right by Baloo. We did not have a pool view but we were VERY close to the pool, food court, etc. The 50's and 70's are good too - still very close to the food court/bus. Have a fun trip!

 

[DisneyJoe]

None of the bldgs. are that far a walk but since you requested a preferred room you will be in the 50s or 60s bldgs. close to the food court and the busses and have a pool.

Was the preferred room paid for or requested? There is a difference.

If paid for, you are almost guaranteed 100% to get it.

If requested, they will tell you that requests aren't guaranteed, and they can put you anywhere.

 

[smk]

Was the preferred room paid for or requested? There is a difference.

If paid for, you are almost guaranteed 100% to get it.

If requested, they will tell you that requests aren't guaranteed, and they can put you anywhere.

I paid for a preferred room, if I don't get it does that mean they owe me? How does that work? I requested a king bed, so I understand if I don't get that.

 

[SANDKRUSER]

If you've paid for a preferred room location, you'll get one - it's already reserved for you. That being said - we've stayed several times and are going back for 2 weeks the end of Sept. - all in the preferred sections - which are 50s and 60s. We love the resort - lots of fun walking around looking at all the signs along the lake. We've spent some time on the bridge watching the HUGE turtles. People bring popcorn and feed them - it's amazing how many of them are in there. One stay we were right on the ground floor and right in front of the busiest section of the Hippy Dippy pool - about 4 doors down - it was awful to try to sleep as it's very noisy and it goes on until the wee hours of the morning - sometimes 2 or 3 a.m. and when we would open the door, all the smoke from the smokers would drift in. (Now taken care of with the non-smoking except in designated areas.) We now request any room NOT in front of the Hippy Dippy pool. Last year we were on the backside of the 60's and it was a great location, quiet and fairly close. We did get a family next to us that insisted on leaving their door lock (the thing that folds over the door when closed or keeps it from shutting all the way when folded over between in front of the door) and walking in and out all night, letting it slam against the metal plate - bang, bang, bang - every 5-10 minutes. At one point I got up and did the same thing with mine a few times - they quieted down a little after that and thankfully, they only stayed a few nights. Other than those couple of things - we love the resort! As stated above, try the Tye Dye Cheesecake - it's one of our favorites! :slurp: My mouth is watering just thinking about it - have to wait a few more weeks ...

Have a great trip!

 

[Rob562]

I found this page a while ago, where someone posted a map with the locations of the Preferred rooms at Pop marked.

50% of them are in the 60's (though that encompasses only 2/3 of the 60's buildings, so there *are* non-Preferred rooms in the 60's buildings), with the remaining 50% of Preferred rooms spread among the 50's and 70's buildings.

http://willcad.org/disney_maps.shtml#values

-Rob

 

[LoriMistress]

I would fax over your request three days before your arrival. Pick up to three requests (main priority request as your first). I faxed our request to POP 3 days before our arrival and asked for king size bed, a view of SSE, and our room location be in the 50's section. We got all of our requests. Our room didn't face Epcot (SSE), but the the floor Disney put us on--they considered it a "SSE view." Our room number was 2303 (50's section; building 2, 3rd floor, facing the pool).

The view when we opened our room door:

The view of SSE if you walked to the back of building from the 3rd floor:

 

[Mikester71]

I would fax over your request three days before your arrival. Pick up to three requests (main priority request as your first). I faxed our request to POP 3 days before our arrival and asked for king size bed, a view of SSE, and our room location be in the 50's section. We got all of our requests. Our room didn't face Epcot (SSE), but the the floor Disney put us on--they considered it a "SSE view." Our room number was 2303 (50's section; building 2, 3rd floor, facing the pool).

The view when we opened our room door:

The view of SSE if you walked to the back of building from the 3rd floor:

LOVE the view you had! Will have to try and remember the fax thing 3 days before we head down in March. I am hoping to get close to where we were last trip in 2007...90's building, 1st floor facing the pool area.

 

[dclick4968]

Combined with the link to the map Rob posted above, here is a live map that should help in your decision as well.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=nqrmvy8646qb&style=b&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=5221612&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

 

[bgraham34]

I just love the food court and lobby there. I just get such a good feeling there. I was not comfortable in the beds but it is still a great resort and for the money its more than worth it.

 

[aj_steig]

We were passing thru after spending time in CA and Utah but planned to go to RMNP for a few days, instead we stayed in Grand Junction a day longer than planned and went thru the Loveland Pass on Sunday. It was FREEZING cold, we didn't plan on snow so we only had fleece jackets, flip flops and shorts . We have pictures of snow capped mountains and lots of rain and ice pellets, here we call it hail but there the locals called them ice pellets? I do love CO tho, how can you stand all the scenary? I would be in a different place everyday just to look at the mountains! Utah is absolutley gorgeous too. This was my first time in St. George area and Zion, OMG. Gotta make another trip to RMNP tho, I have been one time and loved it but that was 10 years ago, I was sad but we couldn't risk driving up there, we didn't have time to get caught by a freak storm, we had to get home by Wednesday so we drove on.

Have a blast in WDW, I have days to go before I leave but happiness in my heart about going!

This may sound weird coming from someone living in CO, but I don't go to the mountains all that often (mostly because I am terrified of mountain driving and I am not much of a skier/boarder). I must say though, CO has the most gorgeous fall weather, so I can't wait for the next couple weeks! I have a mountain view, as well as a downtown Denver view from our place, so I must say the scenery is amazing!!!

Anyway, back on topic....have a great time our your trip! You'll really enjoy POP, it's a lot of fun. We're looking forward to staying there again next week (hooray!!) :sohappy:

 

[brucie]

We have stayed at Pop twice and are going back Sept 5:sohappy:

It's a great place, we are in a preferred room for the first time so I will let you know how it is.

 

[smk]

Thanks to all you POP lovers, I will be one too as soon as I get there and enjoy the views and the Ty-Dye cheesecake....did I say that right? Anyway, it's cheesecake and what is there not to love about it, right? :slurp:
I am so looking forward to this trip, we had to cancel our last trip because one year to the day we arrive in Orlando this year my DH had emergency open heart surgery . So we will be in a much better spot this year than last and fot that reason alone I am eternally grateful.

I will post a short trip report once we get back and let you all know how much fun we had :lol:! (oh, and I'll let you all know how much I enjoyed the conference I am going down for :snore: :animwink::animwink::animwink