Our last trip was 2016. We stayed at POP. same as before - Love the refurbished rooms. We had a queen size bed and a Murphy Bed (which we didn't use) and made the room seem so much bigger. No carpet. Sliding doors to the sink area and another the bathtub/toilet area. A separate cabinet for the frig with an added coffee maker. Loved this since I hate the coffee they serve in the food court. Huge TV. Awesome.
More scooters and strollers than I have ever seen before. Waiting on scooters to be loaded was almost on every bus and two more often than just one. On every previous trip they were few and far between (just an observation not an argument) However, in some places they did make them go through the line rather than them going directly to the front. As far as strollers they are bigger these days and take a lot of room up. However, if they weren't broke down by the time they got to the door we were told a couple of times to walk by them and get on. (on a side note: it was announced over the loud speakers while waiting in a queue: "if the party in front of you does not move ahead, go around them").
The parks didn't seem that crowed and wait times were reasonable. Our first day at HS a 15 minute wait on TOT was pretty much what we saw until we left around 3:00 in the afternoon (We actually rode Slinky, Alien Saucers, TSMM, ToT, & RnRcoaster all before our first FP kicked in at 10:20. So we rode ToT, RnRcoaster, and TSMM again. Note this was on an early entry day). We saw 15 minute waits for Soarin in EPCOT(rode it, ate breakfast, rode it again with no wait) , but TT was over 60 minutes and Frozen was 60-80 minutes.
Also, using early entry and FP we got to ride FoP 4 times without a wait. Awesome ride loved it. Na'vi River was about a 40 minute wait both times we rode it. I liked the ride even though some here don't. I would recommend going on t.
After leaving HS we went to MK to do a few things and catch the fireworks since it was on a non-Halloween Party day. The new fireworks show is amazing. The best the have put on.
HOWEVER, we could not believe the bus line when we got to our station. It took up two bays. 7 complete lines inside the rails and extended down the walkway. It took us 6 buses, which 2 were the doubles, to finally get on. I looked behind us when I got on and the line was still quite long. This happened again after going to the River of Lights show at AK. These two experiences were so unpleasant we did not go to any more night entertainment shows. These are not the only two times that we had come across long bus lines for POP. It happened at our resort and changed our plans and got on a different bus. After leaving a park, we could always tell where the POP bus station was when approaching the bus stations. It was always, yes always, the longest and most crowded station. I know POP is very popular but if they have a resort that large they should have the bus service to accommodate. With this experience I cannot recommend going to POP to anyone who asks my opinion.
All in all we made the best of our trip and had a great time.