It has been two decades since we had a stay at Disney's Pop Century Resort, so this visit was over due. We did spend a brief time here a while back when we did the Skyliner Scavenger Hunt. You can check that out HERE.
I will admit, for longer visits to Disney World, the value resorts are not my favorite because of the small rooms, and lack of on site amenities. However, Since we would be park hopping two of our days here and then transferring to a deluxe resort, the time we did spend here was super enjoyable!
Upon arriving to the resort, we headed straight to the food court at Everything Pop, to grab lunch. This is the only location to get food at this resort, but there are plenty of options for everyone.
I got a pulled pork sandwich with fries.
Lacey got a Gouda burger with a side of Street corn fries.
After lunch, we headed to our room. We were on the the 4th floor in one of the 1950's buildings. If you are unfamiliar with Pop Century Resort, let me give you a little background. Pop Century is a value resort and is similar in price, layout, and overall vibe as the Disney All-Star Resorts. They have motel style rooms, where you enter from an exterior corridor ( meaning your hotel room door leads right to the outside, not a hallway). This is layout is sort of convenient, and fun because some guests decorate their windows! The rooms here ( and at other value resorts) are quite small. I would not suggest having more than two adults and one small child in these rooms. The theming here ( because every Disney resort has a theme), is Through the Decades!
There are three pools at this resort. The Hippy Dippy pool is the main resort pool. This is where the organized pool activities will take place during the day, like trivia, dance parties, and movies under the stars. This pool has flower shaped water jets that spray directly into the pool. It has a kiddie pool next to it which has its own pop jet water fountain. This is the only pool that has a pool bar.
This is the Bowling pool in the 1950's section. This is more of a leisure pool.
Now let's go inside and take a look at our room.
All of the rooms are the same decor, no matter what building you are in. They are not themed to your decade. The wood panel behind the table and chairs is a Murphy bed that pulls down from the wall.
This room has two queen beds, which is the standard set up. Rooms with one king bed ( and no pull down bed) can be requested. I hear the King bed rooms are mostly ADA rooms.
We had a large dresser here, along with a mini fridge, coffee maker, and disposable cups.
The "get around" area only has one sink, which can be a challenge when two people are getting ready at the same time, but it had plenty of storage spaces which we appreciated.
After getting ourselves settle into our room, we got dressed for Typhoon Lagoon and headed down to the bus stop. There is only one bus stop at this resort. To get to the bus stop, we decided to walk through the resort lobby. In the lobby we were greeted with a fun surprise.
Disney characters were here greeting guests. Daisy Duck, Minnie, and Mickey were all here. Just for time reference, this was about 1:30pm. We caught them as they were leaving the resort. we did see them again another day, around the same time and they left around 1:30 pm again. There really is no set time they meet in the lobby but I am guessing their time frame here is probably between 1:00 -1:30 pm.
After the character sighting, we made our way to the bus stop. There is no direct bus to either of the Disney water parks, but the bus directory sign will let you know which bus to take and then where to transfer buses. For Typhoon Lagoon, we had to take a bus to Disney Springs and then transfer from there.
When we returned from Typhoon Lagoon, we had planned to take the Skyliner to another Disney resort to have dinner, but the truth is we got lazy and just wanted to eat here at Pop Century.
During lunch there were a lot of options, but for dinner time they opened up another food station, so now we had even more options.
I got this marinated shrimp and broccoli dish.
After dinner, I had to get one the desserts Pop Century is known for. One of their famous desserts is the tie dye cheesecake ( but I'm not a fan of cheesecake so that one was out), and the other notable dessert here is the Flashback oatmeal cream pie.
Not only was this pretty, it was very tasty, and plenty for the two of us to share!
After dinner, we took a nice walk around the resort to see the decor at some of the other buildings.
Disney's Art of Animation resort is just a short walk away from Pop Century, so we took a quick walk over there. ( Art of Animation is right across the Generation Gap bridge, where the skyliner is).
This particular skyliner will take you directly to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, or you can transfer at the skyliner station to go to EPCOT or Hollywood Studios ( Those are separate skyliners). The EPCOT skyliner will also take you to Disney's Riviera Resort. Also, keep in mind the skyliner does not drop you off inside EPCOT, only outside the park. This is a good thing, because you do not need to be going to EPCOT to ride this skyliner. You can ride it just to gain access to the Disney Boardwalk and all the other great resorts in that area such as Boardwalk Inn, Yacht and Beach Club, and the Disney World Swan and Dolphin resorts. So basically, resorts along the skyliner route open you up for easy access to other Disney properties without having to use a Disney bus!
On the day we were going to Animal Kingdom, we did have to take a Disney bus. We met the bus outside of the resort lobby and the wait was not very long. When we went to EPCOT, we took the skyliner. The line here was super long, as we knew it would be for early in the morning. However, the line moved pretty quickly.
On the day we checked out of the resort, the characters were back in the lobby again. This time it was Donald Duck with Minnie and Mickey. Again, the time was between 1:00 pm and 1:30 pm.
Overall we did enjoy our stay at Disney's Pop Century Resort. Although the rooms are small, the theming is top notch, the food at Everything Pop was better than expected, and the proximity to walk or take the skyliner to other Disney resorts is much appreciated. There are several things here we did not get time to do, such as the movies under the stars, the t-shirt tie dye ( which I would have loved to done), or even swim in the pool. I was curious about those flower shaped water jets! I wish I would have had a chance to try it. Maybe next time!
Till then~ M and L
You might also enjoy these posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Fairytales and Fitness is a personal blog authored and edited by us, Meranda and Lacey. The thoughts expressed here represent only our own and are not meant to be taken as professional advice. Please note that our thoughts and opinions change from time to time. We consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind in an ever changing society. Any thoughts and opinions expressed within our out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those we may express today. Some links may contain affiliate links. Some links are just to pages we'd like to share.