Giving up on Pop Century

[LovePop]

As my name implies, I am a big fan of Pop Century. Not the biggest, but big. But from now on, I have to stay at CBR instead, my second favorite Disney hotel, due to the unfortunate event called the Skyliner. I am old and decrepit and scared of the Skyliner, and now Pop has gotten rid of half of their buses in favor of the Skyliner. Staying at CBR also requires Skyliner, but much shorter rides, and I can take it better.

Most importantly, however, is the matter of money. Pop Century is now as expensive as CBR. That is, the most expensive rooms at Pop are as much or more as the cheapest rooms at CBR, even though Pop is still only a value hotel with no waterslides. Part of the reasons I loved Pop was because it was quite a bit cheaper than CBR, making it excellent value. CBR is still a moderate and much nicer than Pop, though not as convenient because it's more spread out. I am not paying moderate prices for Pop, that just doesn't make any sense, especially when half the buses are cut out, and I love buses.

It's just my luck that my two most favorite hotels both got chosen for the Skyliner line. I love the Skyliner and can't wait to get on it when I make it back to WDW. I just don't want to use it for regular transportation, especially in the summer. I prefer buses which I love. The Skyliner is making my favorite hotels much more expensive than they used to be, an unfortunate situation, but one cannot have everything.

 

[ppet]

Sorry that this has impacted where you stay negatively. My view is just the opposite I love the fact that the Skyliner is serving those two hotels. My traditional go to hotel was Port Orleans. I will probably stay more at CBR now. Although when my grandson is a little older we will hit POP a few times or maybe AoA again.

 

[trylon57]

As my name implies, I am a big fan of Pop Century. Not the biggest, but big. But from now on, I have to stay at CBR instead, my second favorite Disney hotel, due to the unfortunate event called the Skyliner. I am old and decrepit and scared of the Skyliner, and now Pop has gotten rid of half of their buses in favor of the Skyliner. Staying at CBR also requires Skyliner, but much shorter rides, and I can take it better.

Most importantly, however, is the matter of money. Pop Century is now as expensive as CBR. That is, the most expensive rooms at Pop are as much or more as the cheapest rooms at CBR, even though Pop is still only a value hotel with no waterslides. Part of the reasons I loved Pop was because it was quite a bit cheaper than CBR, making it excellent value. CBR is still a moderate and much nicer than Pop, though not as convenient because it's more spread out. I am not paying moderate prices for Pop, that just doesn't make any sense, especially when half the buses are cut out, and I love buses.

It's just my luck that my two most favorite hotels both got chosen for the Skyliner line. I love the Skyliner and can't wait to get on it when I make it back to WDW. I just don't want to use it for regular transportation, especially in the summer. I prefer buses which I love. The Skyliner is making my favorite hotels much more expensive than they used to be, an unfortunate situation, but one cannot have everything.

I didn't know about price increases and reduction of bus service! With Covid we haven't been thinking about WDW too much, therefore I'm not up on all the changes. We have been there 19 times, and always stay on Disney Property. Coronado, Boardwalk, Caribbean Beach, and All the All-Stars, but we've stayed at POP 11 times. Also we have been to Disneyland 6times, but Pop has always been our favorite! I was thinking about going in the fall of 2021 if the vaccine works, but now I have to re-think our plans. French Quarter was good. But disappointed hearing about Pop! I guess we go back to Anaheim until Orlando straightens out their messes!

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

And this is why I knew it would turn to a Val-Mod hotel just because of the "Special convenience".

 

[nickys]

As my name implies, I am a big fan of Pop Century. Not the biggest, but big. But from now on, I have to stay at CBR instead, my second favorite Disney hotel, due to the unfortunate event called the Skyliner. I am old and decrepit and scared of the Skyliner, and now Pop has gotten rid of half of their buses in favor of the Skyliner. Staying at CBR also requires Skyliner, but much shorter rides, and I can take it better.

Most importantly, however, is the matter of money. Pop Century is now as expensive as CBR. That is, the most expensive rooms at Pop are as much or more as the cheapest rooms at CBR, even though Pop is still only a value hotel with no waterslides. Part of the reasons I loved Pop was because it was quite a bit cheaper than CBR, making it excellent value. CBR is still a moderate and much nicer than Pop, though not as convenient because it's more spread out. I am not paying moderate prices for Pop, that just doesn't make any sense, especially when half the buses are cut out, and I love buses.

It's just my luck that my two most favorite hotels both got chosen for the Skyliner line. I love the Skyliner and can't wait to get on it when I make it back to WDW. I just don't want to use it for regular transportation, especially in the summer. I prefer buses which I love. The Skyliner is making my favorite hotels much more expensive than they used to be, an unfortunate situation, but one cannot have everything.

I’m a little confused. You say you’re scared of it and then at the end you say you love it.

Seems to me it’s the price increase that’s turned you against POP which I can totally understand. It was 100% predictable that the prices were going to increase as a result of the Skyliner, moving it out of the Value category.

 

[Robbiem]

Have you tried any of the other value / moderate resorts? If you like traveling by bus the port Orleans resort, all stars or coronado springs are all served by buses. I’ve only stayed at port Orleans riverside back when it was dixie landings but it was really nice and the bayou rooms are very similar to the carribean beach resort in terms of their layout

 

[John park hopper]

POFQ has great bus service, smaller resort --we love it

 

[jaklgreen]

I agree with you about the skyliner. I rode it from Epcot to the Rivera so that I could check out the hotel. I did not like it at all and felt a bit motion sick on it. I like that it is faster but could not handle it if it were to stop for any length of time since it did get pretty hot in it. The breeze only works well if you are moving in a certain direction. As soon as it turned the corner, the breeze died down and it started getting hot.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Have you tried any of the other value / moderate resorts?

There's something about Pop! that feels..... Cleaner... Than the all-stars.

 

[UNCgolf]

I think Port Orleans is by far the best of the value/moderates. Like, none of the others are even close.

 

[tanc]

The required Skyliner I think is really the worst thing about Pop. I stayed at the Pop in August for the first time and I found the skyliner an extremely inconsistent form of transportation. It was constantly stopping I think to let handicap people on, or even worse, is being transported to the main hub after standing like 20 minutes in line to have to stand another 30+ minutes just to get to another resort/park. At that point, let me uber or take a bus.

Additionally if it closes down, their transportation back to your resort is pathetic. I had to walk from the Carribbean, to the boardwalk bus, take the bus to the MK, and from there take a bus to my resort. Complete nightmare. Wasted basically 1 hour+ doing that.
Skyliner was only super fast 1 time during my trip and I used it multiple times. It was at a time that no one was really using it though.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

There's something about Pop! that feels..... Cleaner... Than the all-stars.

Best example I know of..

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

When we stayed at Pop and AOA last year, we really didn't have any issues with the Skyliner except for the night we left Epcot. When we got to the CBR station, the line to Pop / AOA was down. We then had to take the Skyliner to DHS and then take a bus from DHS to Pop. So getting back to Pop took soooooo much longer than it should have. In that situation, they need to have buses at CBR to take people from there directly to Pop / AOA. We shouldn't have to be forced to wait in line for the skyliner again and then wait another however many minutes for the bus. I understand things happen and sometimes transportation doesn't always work (I'm looking at you, monorail!) but for the premium price the Skyliner resorts are paying, there should be better accommodations should the Skyliner go down. The MK resorts have boats in case the monorail is down. Epcot resorts have boats and you can walk if the boats aren't running. The Skyliner resorts ONLY have the Skyliner from Epcot and DHS.

Another night when we were at Epcot but planned to park hop to MK at park close, we were walking by IG and the Skyliner from Epcot to CBR was down. A group next to us had walked all the way over from Test Track only to be told they had to go back to the front of the park to take a bus back to Pop. At the end of the long day, I would be SUPER annoyed by this. At that point they need to have buses at Beach Club or Boardwalk (which is close by) to get guests back to the Skyliner resorts.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I think Port Orleans is by far the best of the value/moderates. Like, none of the others are even close.

While I like POFQ the most out of the moderates, I liked Caribbean Beach better than I thought I would and Coronado Springs does have more on site amenities.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

One additional note about Pop busing would be late last Summer/Early Fall (pre-COVID) they had began sharing buses with AoA way more than ever. In the past decades we experienced AoA/Pop busing sharing on just a few occasions, but last Fall the sharing was “almost the norm” at Park closing at Epcot (Skyliner stopped prior to EME) and MK. Both the Tuesday Epcot and Wednesday MK EMEs had shared busing, as did several afternoon trips back to the resort from AK.
Should be a safe assumption when AoA reopens the busing will be shared more often...

Don’t know the AoA reopening schedule, nor the All Stars....

 

[Schweino]

AoA is open currently and we are staying our last night of 7 nights at Pop. We did not share with AoA once - the lines at park close to Pop are way too huge to share with AoA. Can't speak to later when the all stars open up and the Pop demand drops

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

I stayed at AoA in 2012. Even though I didn't use the buses then, they didn't share with Pop Century.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

AoA is open currently and we are staying our last night of 7 nights at Pop. We did not share with AoA once - the lines at park close to Pop are way too huge to share with AoA. Can't speak to later when the all stars open up and the Pop demand drops

Who knows.....the sharing seems to happen only when the crowds/lines are light ..... usually during mid day or during off-peak late nights. We experienced shared last Fall just after the Skyliner opening for the former Tuesday Night Extra Magic Evening at Epcot. I wonder how much the Skyliner NOT operating that late then played in to it?

P.S. Hopefully the EMEs will return to Epcot and MK

I stayed at AoA in 2012. Even though I didn't use the buses then, they didn't share with Pop Century

Until the Skyliner opened, we'd only experienced shared Pop/AoA a couple of times EVER. Didn't happen much back in the day, but was happening more post Skyliner open, pre-covid.

 

[Buck Wheelie]

As my name implies, I am a big fan of Pop Century. Not the biggest, but big. But from now on, I have to stay at CBR instead, my second favorite Disney hotel, due to the unfortunate event called the Skyliner. I am old and decrepit and scared of the Skyliner, and now Pop has gotten rid of half of their buses in favor of the Skyliner. Staying at CBR also requires Skyliner, but much shorter rides, and I can take it better.

Most importantly, however, is the matter of money. Pop Century is now as expensive as CBR. That is, the most expensive rooms at Pop are as much or more as the cheapest rooms at CBR, even though Pop is still only a value hotel with no waterslides. Part of the reasons I loved Pop was because it was quite a bit cheaper than CBR, making it excellent value. CBR is still a moderate and much nicer than Pop, though not as convenient because it's more spread out. I am not paying moderate prices for Pop, that just doesn't make any sense, especially when half the buses are cut out, and I love buses.

It's just my luck that my two most favorite hotels both got chosen for the Skyliner line. I love the Skyliner and can't wait to get on it when I make it back to WDW. I just don't want to use it for regular transportation, especially in the summer. I prefer buses which I love. The Skyliner is making my favorite hotels much more expensive than they used to be, an unfortunate situation, but one cannot have everything.

I'm not a fan of the Skyliner either. I hate heights and have no interest in riding those. If they are the only transportation available I think I'll walk.

 

[Schweino]

I'm not a fan of the Skyliner either. I hate heights and have no interest in riding those. If they are the only transportation available I think I'll walk.

So I am not a big heights guy either (I can get a bit anxious at the top of a roller coaster). I didn't find the skyliners, when moving, cause me any anxiety. Now...when they stopped, I definitely had some anxiety kick in. However, seeing the views was worth it. Just my two pennies on it I enjoyed the experience overall.