Is Disney World’s Pop Century Resort Worth It?
The “Magical or Tragical” series offers up my group’s opinion on some of the offerings at Disney World. Pros and Cons, Dustless Pixie-style.
In the past, my group has always stayed at Disney World’s Deluxe Resorts.
We particularly like the “Epcot” or “boardwalk” resorts: Boardwalk Inn, Beach Club and Yacht Club. The price point, for us, was worth the convenience of being able to walk or boat to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Strolling in and out of the much less crowded International Gateway entrance at Epcot made it easier to take full advantage of our Park Hopper tickets.
On our last trip to the parks, we decided to test the waters (pun intended) of the Disney Cruise Line. I wasn’t quite ready to give up the parks TOTALLY, so we did a Land and Sea combo with 4 days in the parks and a 3 Day Bahamian Cruise. With the price of a cruise, we had to make some decisions.
Budget wise, we decided that if we wanted to get 4 Day Park Hopper tickets, we really needed to think about a Value Resort.
We were a little concerned that we had spoiled ourselves with Deluxe Resorts. Would a Value Resort be crowded? Noisy? Would transportation be a hassle? Would we have to walk 10 miles from our room to refill our resort mugs? Pressing questions!
Pop Century had just completed total room refurbishments. We checked out several reviews and walk through videos. It looked great. The rooms seemed big enough. We are big fans of the move from carpet to composite flooring which makes everything feel more clean and fresh. Honestly, we don’t spend that much time in our resort room anyway. We are mostly looking for clean and comfortable. We decided to give it a try.
If you are unfamiliar with Disney World’s Pop Century Resort, please take a quick second to check out the short and sweet basics of this resort here.
Pop Century is broken into five different “generational” sections ranging from the 1950’s to the 1990’s.
Each of the areas is anchored by a large central hub, Classic Hall, that houses the check in, lobby, and Everything Pop Shopping and Dining (the combined gift shop and Quick Service food court). Since it is a Value Resort, guests enter the rooms from the outside. There are no internal hallways connecting the buildings or the main hub to the rooms.
The rooms have either 1 King Bed or 2 Queen Beds
With the Deluxes, we always requested the rooms with 2 Queen Beds and a pull down sofa bed. Everyone is happier if we all sleep separately. For this trip, my sister and I had to double up and the kid got to spread out on his own. It wasn’t a deal breaker for us, but it was one of the concessions that we had to make moving from a Deluxe to a Value. Well, my son was actually thrilled.
In the Queen rooms, the bed closest to the door is a murphy bed.
This was key to having more space in the room. When Mousekeeping cleaned the room, the bed would be pushed up into the wall exposing a desk area with a chair. The chair can be moved out of the way when pulling the bed down for the evening. While the rooms are smaller than a Deluxe Resort room, I didn’t find them to be claustrophobic, even when both beds were down. There is less space when you first walk into the room if the bed is down, but it’s not super crowded. For the most part, we kept both beds down.
The bathrooms are split.
This IS a deal breaker for us when we travel. The ability to brush your teeth, wash your face and get PhotoPass ready while the toilet and/or shower is occupied is a key component to our park strategy! All kidding aside, having the sink area separate from the shower and toilet IS the only way that we can all get going in the morning and on the bus for rope drop.
The same basic amenities and storage that you would find in a Deluxe Resort are at Pop Century.
The H20 body wash, shampoo and conditioner are housed in larger pump dispensers installed inside the shower. There is a mini fridge and a coffee maker. While the closet space is smaller, it was ample for three people who notoriously over pack. Everything fit in the drawers or closet area. Our suitcases fit under the non-murphy bed and were out of way there. Ample UCB charging plugs are located on the television stand and bedside tables.
The main hub, Classic Hall, has a large food court and gift shop.
Everything Pop Shopping and Dining is centrally located which is nice. The bus stops are just outside and to the right of Classic Hall, so it’s easy to grab a quick bite or to refill your resort mugs if you have them, on the way to your room.
There is a main food court area with several different stations offering Quick Service meals and Grab ‘n Go as well as window for sweet treats including the infamous Dole Whip. It can get crowded at meal times, but we found the lines move fairly quickly for the most part. Mobile Ordering is also available at this location.
There is seating inside in the AC as well as outside. We never had a problem finding a seat. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner are all served here and it’s open 6am until midnight.
We only had two meals here. The burgers were nothing special, but I would recommend the pizza, which was pretty decent for food court fare. For those of you who just can’t get enough of the stuff, the Dole Whip at the frozen window could be a bonus. We utilized some snack credits for sundaes there. They were fine, but nothing to rave about and I can think of much better ways to use a snack credit.
The gift shop area is pretty much what you would expect at Disney World. The only difference is that much of the merchandise tends to be resort centric. Pop Century pins and shirts galore. Basic amenities and medicines are also available for purchase.
Pop Century has three pools.
While we don’t often spend as much time at the resort pools as we would like, we do jump in a couple of times during our stays. The most centrally located pool, The Hippy Dippy Pool, is right outside of the food court and is generally the most crowded. (Beginning in winter 2020, this pool is going under refurbishment. So be aware that it and the Petals Pool Bar will be out of commission AND the rooms near that area may be subject to construction noise.) The 1960’s theme is super cute: a towering Baloo with Mowgli and jumbo sized toys of the era.
Both the Computer (90’s area) and Bowling Pools (50’s area) are on either end of the Pop Century complex. They are a bit smaller and without as much over the top theming as the Hippy Dippy Pool. However, they are far less crowded.
While Pop Century is a large resort, it’s pretty walkable.
The central hub isn’t super far way from either end of the resort, but we did decide to pay a little bit more for a “Preferred Room” which put us closer to the lobby, the food and the bus stop. I don’t know that it was necessary, but after a long day and night in the parks, the shorter the distance between me and a bed, the better. For us, it was worth the paying a little extra.
Art of Animation Resort is a short walk away.
Our resort snooping compulsion got the best of us, and my sister and I took a walk over to check out the adjacent Art of Animation Resort. Located behind Pop Century across the Hourglass Lake, this resort’s theming is worth the walk over. Art of Animation is definitely full on Disney and the pools are super cute. It was nice to get a chance to check it out. You never knew what other larger than life character you were going to encounter along the meandering pathways.
While we didn’t eat at the popular food court, Landscape of Flavors, we did check it out. It generally gets better reviews than Everything Pop. To the eye, the menus and food looked pretty similar and both my sister and I preferred the vibe at Everything Pop.
Since Pop Century has dedicated buses, there is no stopping at another resort.
I think that this worked great and we never really waited for a bus at the resort for very long. The buses from the parks to the resorts, particularly after park close, could be a little crowded though. While that is generally true of ALL the buses going to ALL of the resorts, there are over 4 times as many rooms at Pop Century than at Yacht Club, for example. That’s a lot of people to cart back and forth, so expect the buses to be crowded in the evening. It’s just math. I suspect that buses in the morning can also fill up quickly, but we are hardcore rope droppers so we always catch buses super early in the morning.
All in all Pop Century was pretty magical.
The Epcot Deluxe Resorts aren’t big on Disney theming. It’s not something that we generally care about either way, but it was actually fun to be outside of a more stylistically refined resort and in a much more colorful and animated atmosphere. I don’t feel like we missed out on anything or that the amenities felt less than the Deluxe Resorts. Truly, aside from the size of the resort and a less formal and fragrant lobby, Pop Century was every bit as “luxurious” as the Deluxe Resorts.
While we weren’t there in the boiling heat of the summer and didn’t experience too much in the way of rain, entering the rooms from the outside instead of meandering around 7 mile corridors to get to the room was actually better. Keep in mind that we did have a “Preferred Room” which put us closer to the main hub and the bus stop. We didn’t find it to be noisy either during a pre-Easter holiday week.
If I am nitpicking, the only downside was that it took longer for Mousekeeping to get to the rooms because of the resort size. We did find our general practice of hitting the parks early and then returning after lunch for a swim to be a little bit thwarted by that. Often the room was about to be cleaned or in the middle of being cleaned when we either wanted to change into or out of our swimsuits. That could also be just a timing issue with our particular room location and that time of day.
Is Disney World’s Pop Century worth it?
For our group of Deluxe Resort snobs, it really was. The new rooms, convenient layout of the food court/gift shop and the reliable bus service were selling points for us. The ability to shop, eat, or just stroll around the adjacent Art of Animation resort is definitely a bonus as well. With the addition of the Skyliner station access to Hollywood Studios, Epcot AND Caribbean Beach Resort (which has an amazing restaurant), Pop Century may be our new go to resort of choice.
The Skyliner transportation is definitely a game changer.
Our love affair with the ease of the Epcot Deluxe Resorts will most likely be a thing of the past. With the new Skyliner Gondola, a lot more guests will be utilizing the International Gateway entrance. A more crowded entrance will definitely take away from the convenience of that “secret”.
What the Skyliner may take away from those Deluxe Resorts in terms of crowds, may actually help little old value resort Pop Century. Although folks are noticing that the “value” price point there is on the rise after all of the room refurbishments and the coming addition of a second free mode of transportation, it is still considered a Disney World Value Resort. For now. If you are thinking about Pop Century, make sure to crunch the numbers. There is a good chance that a Moderate Resort would have a similar or even BETTER price point. Always check out the current pricing at Disney World’s official web site.
For the short and sweet basics on ALL of the Disney World Resorts, check out our comprehensive guide.
