I just returned from a week at WDW (waaaahhhhh!!!) and thought I would jot some random thoughts:
Pop Century: A bit disappointed. There is nothing wrong with the resort itself, I guess I am just more of a POFQ person. Overall, very large resort and the food court could be very crowded and very noisy. The dinner choices were plentiful and tasty, breakfast was a mob scene and usually our food was cold by the time we finished waiting in all of the lines. We were in the 80's section, there were 2 adults, 1 pre-teen and an infant in the room. The rooms were clean and I did not experience any of the noise problems that had I had been warned about (of course, after a full day of trekking through the parks, I was pretty tired and went right to sleep!). The cast members were all very nice and there were no issues with other guests. We did notice several large groups of grad night students at the end of our trip and one night security had to come to the pool to herd them out, but even with that, they weren't very noisy and the kids were not out of control in the food court or the walkways (at least that we saw). The pools were large (and nice and warm!) and my 23 month old daughter just adored the Goofy Popping Fountains. That in and of itself is a really nice touch if you have little kids. One warning - the arcade has the dreaded "ticket" games (win a certain number of tickets as you play each game). We found our solution by having the kids pool all of their tickets and trade them in the day we left, that way they got a somewhat more substantial "prize".
The transportation was without a doubt the biggest issue. We waited an average of 40/45 minutes for any bus on any given day (both to and from the parks). We waited almost an hour for a bus after Wishes and the same after Illuminations. Even when my son and I left a park mid-day to return to the resort for a few hours, we waited 45 minutes. That was disappointing. Overall, if I was in a situation where it was "stay at Pop or not go to Disney at all", I would do it, but given a choice, I would book at POFQ or POR in a heartbeat.
Parks: The crowd level was not bad at all. There were some long waits for certain rides, but we just used Fast Pass and it was not an issue. Soarin' was up and down and up and down while we were there. Some of the people we traveled with did get on and all thought it was a very neat ride and that the scenery that was shown was beautiful. Rest assurred it is a gentle ride. My sister rode it and she gets dizzy on the carousel! Downtown was at it's usual busy level, but we were able to get dinner at Fultons and HOB without reservations or a wait (and we arrived at 5:00 for both). We even were able to have dinner at Alfredo's (Italy Pavilion in Epcot) without at wait or reservation. Since we usually attend during the Food and Wine Festival, this was a big change for us and we were happy that we were able to do it. Festival of the Lion King was wonderful as always but we did not get to see Lucky. LAMC was not open for us to see (or preview) but we did get to see the new Playhouse Disney with JoJo's Circus in it. Unfortunately, my daughter was so freaked out by seeing JoJo that close up, she wouldn't open her eyes!
Flower and Garden: Epcot is really beautiful with all of the displays. We did not go to any of the presentations, but just walking and looking at the topiaries was pretty enough. Several folks expressed disappointment with the Butterfly garden, I enjoyed it. It was small, but it felt very cool to have so many butterflies all around you!
The weather was great the entire time - very low 80's and sunny during the day, upper 60's at night. We only had some rain on one day and it was typical Florida rain, it poured like crazy for about 10 minutes, then stopped. We were in Epcot that day, so it was very easy to duck into a country and wait for the rain to end before moving on.
Overall, good trip. After all, it is Disney!!
Pop Century: A bit disappointed. There is nothing wrong with the resort itself, I guess I am just more of a POFQ person. Overall, very large resort and the food court could be very crowded and very noisy. The dinner choices were plentiful and tasty, breakfast was a mob scene and usually our food was cold by the time we finished waiting in all of the lines. We were in the 80's section, there were 2 adults, 1 pre-teen and an infant in the room. The rooms were clean and I did not experience any of the noise problems that had I had been warned about (of course, after a full day of trekking through the parks, I was pretty tired and went right to sleep!). The cast members were all very nice and there were no issues with other guests. We did notice several large groups of grad night students at the end of our trip and one night security had to come to the pool to herd them out, but even with that, they weren't very noisy and the kids were not out of control in the food court or the walkways (at least that we saw). The pools were large (and nice and warm!) and my 23 month old daughter just adored the Goofy Popping Fountains. That in and of itself is a really nice touch if you have little kids. One warning - the arcade has the dreaded "ticket" games (win a certain number of tickets as you play each game). We found our solution by having the kids pool all of their tickets and trade them in the day we left, that way they got a somewhat more substantial "prize".
The transportation was without a doubt the biggest issue. We waited an average of 40/45 minutes for any bus on any given day (both to and from the parks). We waited almost an hour for a bus after Wishes and the same after Illuminations. Even when my son and I left a park mid-day to return to the resort for a few hours, we waited 45 minutes. That was disappointing. Overall, if I was in a situation where it was "stay at Pop or not go to Disney at all", I would do it, but given a choice, I would book at POFQ or POR in a heartbeat.
Parks: The crowd level was not bad at all. There were some long waits for certain rides, but we just used Fast Pass and it was not an issue. Soarin' was up and down and up and down while we were there. Some of the people we traveled with did get on and all thought it was a very neat ride and that the scenery that was shown was beautiful. Rest assurred it is a gentle ride. My sister rode it and she gets dizzy on the carousel! Downtown was at it's usual busy level, but we were able to get dinner at Fultons and HOB without reservations or a wait (and we arrived at 5:00 for both). We even were able to have dinner at Alfredo's (Italy Pavilion in Epcot) without at wait or reservation. Since we usually attend during the Food and Wine Festival, this was a big change for us and we were happy that we were able to do it. Festival of the Lion King was wonderful as always but we did not get to see Lucky. LAMC was not open for us to see (or preview) but we did get to see the new Playhouse Disney with JoJo's Circus in it. Unfortunately, my daughter was so freaked out by seeing JoJo that close up, she wouldn't open her eyes!
Flower and Garden: Epcot is really beautiful with all of the displays. We did not go to any of the presentations, but just walking and looking at the topiaries was pretty enough. Several folks expressed disappointment with the Butterfly garden, I enjoyed it. It was small, but it felt very cool to have so many butterflies all around you!
The weather was great the entire time - very low 80's and sunny during the day, upper 60's at night. We only had some rain on one day and it was typical Florida rain, it poured like crazy for about 10 minutes, then stopped. We were in Epcot that day, so it was very easy to duck into a country and wait for the rain to end before moving on.
Overall, good trip. After all, it is Disney!!
