Refurb Pop Century Rooms About This Page:

[disneydreamer33]

For our upcoming trip in December for my youngest DD's early grad trip we were looking at POR. We have been discussing restaurants and other things we would like to do and I mentioned doing those things and staying at Pop or staying at POR and not doing those things (one being the MVMCP)
I showed her a video of the refurbished rooms at Pop and she absolutely fell in love and said "Can we do that, please??!!"
What are people's thoughts who have stayed in the refurbed rooms? Hoping it is worth forgoing POR (since it is my FAVE resort).
We never spend much time at the resort, we love our park time, so we just sleep and shower. I am thinking in Dec the pool is not really where we will want to be anyway.
Would LOVE people's opinions and pics if you have them of the new rooms!
TIA

[Sue M.]

I have mixed feelings about Pop. But essentially we did last Dec what you’re planning. Our focus was on touring around and seeing all the Christmas decorations at the resorts and parks. And dining. Wasn’t planning pool time, but did miss having a hot tub. We did take afternoon breaks, but shorter than we are used to then when we stay mod or deluxe.

Loved the new rooms. They did a great job, except for tub surround instead of tile they used plastic. Fail on that.

Because we wanted a renovated room and only 90s and 80s were finished and one building in 70s had just opened a few days before our arrival we got the furthest room possible to everything. The back of beyond. No way we were going to trudge back to food court after we got back to the room for a mug refill, so we traveled with them.

My experience with the busses was bad. We were there 10 days, and of all my trips This was the worst bus service. Consistently. Housekeeping kept my room clean, but keeping supplies restocked- coffee, tea, cups....was a hit or miss. Mostly a miss.
My friend who I was traveling with and had the room next to me has stayed at Pop a few times and said this was the first time she had this poor service. One morning while waiting the typical 30min for a bus I took a pic of the bus line waiting and sent it to Guest Relations along with my email. Queue extended almost to food court doors.
And my trip was early Dec, not Christmas.

Pop wasn’t and still isn’t a resort I get excited to stay at. But for our purposes that trip we thought it would work (better than it did).

Since your trip isn’t for awhile perhaps they’ll have worked things out there. But I’d prob pick POR, our fav moderate.

[joelsmom]

I don’t have experience with the new rooms, but I’ll chime in to say that on our last trip, also 10 days, and our 4th visit to Pop, I was also disappointed with the service. It was far and away the worst I’ve experienced on any WDW stay. The exception was that we did not wait anything close to 30 minutes for a bus. Our typical bus wait was more like 15, but I thought that was not the greatest average. Plus, at Pop, due to the sheer number of rooms, and the fact that it is a value, the buses are always, always packed with standing room at the beginning and end of the day, at least every time I’ve been there.

After that trip, I knew that we would look at another resort for the next trip.

[purplegal]

We were there in Oct and had a refurbished room and loved it. I like the modern decor and the fact that the Murphy bed can be out of the way during the day. Also the storage in the room is fantastic.
I cannot comment on the bus service as we had our car and used that to get around.

[JerseyDad]

.......good to hear they made significant progress regarding the room renovations since the time I was there (at POP) last August. We did a fairly large gathering of family & friends and had the not-yet-renovated rooms in the 50's Section. It was the first time in MANY stays at POP that I was disappointed in the service ....and room condition.

......I recall they had been "experimenting" with the scaled-back housekeeping with an incentive of a $$ 'give-back'. We did not opt for the 'experiment'....yet didn't see housekeeping for the first 3 days. Additionally, the condition of the room was less than stellar ....with a faucet that slow leaked all over the sink and onto the floor (thought I was losing my mind when I figured that maybe I or the wife spilled something on the carpet)....and some peeling paint on the ceiling. It took 3 days for maintenance to fix a malfunctioning A/C in my son and his girlfriend's room (...this after I finally got him to take his FIRST WDW trip ...at the age of 32!).

...... for the very first time my wife was motivated ....unfortunately ....to call for a manager to come and take a look at our room and to hear her concerns first-hand. Of course I KNEW what was happening ...in that the POP resort rooms were going to get renovated, and there was no incentive for WDW to repair anything that was going to be re-built in the near future. Of course, we were there "now", and should not have had to understand or deal with that mindset of business operation. For what we pay ....everything should be the best it can be ALL THE TIME. He was very sympathetic to her concerns, was in agreement with my assessment, and gave us a voucher for 3 free days in a preferred poolside room in the 60's section.

......btw ...I was also less than pleased with the truncated pool hours ....which ....were precipitated by a cut-back on life-guard hours.

....the wife took advantage of a bounce-back offer the very first day there ....so we'll tag on the free days that they gave ....but honestly, we wished that they never had to be motivated to give them to us in the first place. We'll see how it goes this September.....and am hoping the renovated rooms, and their lack of sound absorbing carpet ....don't turn out to be a let-down. .

[Sue M.]

Originally Posted by JerseyDad

.......good to hear they made significant progress regarding the room renovations since the time I was there (at POP) last August. We did a fairly large gathering of family & friends and had the not-yet-renovated rooms in the 50's Section. It was the first time in MANY stays at POP that I was disappointed in the service ....and room condition.

......I recall they had been "experimenting" with the scaled-back housekeeping with an incentive of a $$ 'give-back'. We did not opt for the 'experiment'....yet didn't see housekeeping for the first 3 days. Additionally, the condition of the room was less than stellar ....with a faucet that slow leaked all over the sink and onto the floor (thought I was losing my mind when I figured that maybe I or the wife spilled something on the carpet)....and some peeling paint on the ceiling. It took 3 days for maintenance to fix a malfunctioning A/C in my son and his girlfriend's room (...this after I finally got him to take his FIRST WDW trip ...at the age of 32!).

...... for the very first time my wife was motivated ....unfortunately ....to call for a manager to come and take a look at our room and to hear her concerns first-hand. Of course I KNEW what was happening ...in that the POP resort rooms were going to get renovated, and there was no incentive for WDW to repair anything that was going to be re-built in the near future. Of course, we were there "now", and should not have had to understand or deal with that mindset of business operation. For what we pay ....everything should be the best it can be ALL THE TIME. He was very sympathetic to her concerns, was in agreement with my assessment, and gave us a voucher for 3 free days in a preferred poolside room in the 60's section.

......btw ...I was also less than pleased with the truncated pool hours ....which ....were precipitated by a cut-back on life-guard hours.

....the wife took advantage of a bounce-back offer the very first day there ....so we'll tag on the free days that they gave ....but honestly, we wished that they never had to be motivated to give them to us in the first place. We'll see how it goes this September.....and am hoping the renovated rooms, and their lack of sound absorbing carpet ....don't turn out to be a let-down. .

I think you’ll like the renovated rooms. Beds were so comfy, queens. Loads of storage. Bathroom/ sink area a huge improvement. Also coffee centre very nice. Lots of shelves to store snacks. Didn’t like glass front fridge though because it took away in door storage.
We had a ground floor room. No noise over head. BUT my friend was in the connecting room next door, and she said she could hear me on the phone. So if you don’t need connecting room, request a non connecting one.

We were there early Dec 2017. We got housekeeping daily, but restocking room supplies was a hit or miss. Mostly miss. Had to call for cups, coffee, etc a few times.

Bus service was also very bad for most of the 10 days. 30min or more waits were the norm. My friend who’s had many Pop stays said she’s never experienced this before. And her last stay was in the Spring.

[SuzieBC]

I hate the new rooms and find them cold and barren. With three of us in the room, the Murphy bed stayed down and there was no table to eat on or store food . We also did not get regular room service. Next trip they put us in a 50's room, unrestored and I was SO glad.
I know I am the exception, but I like carpet and found the floors icy and strange.