Category — d. Where to Stay at Walt Disney World

For the first page of this review of Disney’s Pop Century Resort, click here.

AMENITIES AND DINING AT POP CENTURY

Most amenities at Pop Century–except its pools, bar, and Skyliner stop–are in or near its main central building, Classic Hall.

You can also walk across the bridge from Pop Century to Art of Animation and use the amenities there, except for Art of Animation’s pools.

If you take the Magical Express, you’ll get dropped off on the side of Classic Hall. This is also where, if you’ve ordered one, brides are delivered.

Everyone else will enter through the center of Classic Hall…

…where you’ll find an entry lobby where games may break out.

Next to it is the check-in lobby, where you check in, and will also find a concierge staff that can help you with dining, tickets and such.

On the back wall of the lobby you’ll find a timeline of Pop Century’s decades, and various objects that reflect Pop Century’s theming.

Closer.

Just outside are the bus stops. Here you can catch buses to all the parks.

Between Pop Century and Art of Animation is a station for the Disney Skyliner gondola system, an alternate (and fun) way to get to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Between the bus stops and Building 10 you’ll find a playground.

Back inside, across from the entry lobby is the gift shop, Everything Pop.

You’ll find here mostly souvenir stuff but also sundries and some snacks. More snacks and drinks are in the food court.

The food court is on the other side of the gift shop.

Multiple stations give you a variety of dining options…

…but if you want more adventurous ones, walk across the bridge to the food court at Art of Animation. The Pop Century menu is here, and Art of Animation’s menu is here. About a third of a mile separates the two food courts.

Just outside Classic Hall you’ll find the main pool.

THE POOLS AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

This review continues here.

MATERIALS IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

• Disney’s Pop Century Resort–overview and summary
• Theming and accommodations at Disney’s Pop Century Resort
• A photo tour of a refurbed room at Disney’s Pop Century Resort
• Amenities and dining at Disney’s Pop Century Resort
• The pools at Disney’s Pop Century Resort

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them

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For the first page of this review of Disney’s Pop Century Resort, click here.

Hey, Pop Century is going through a building by building room refurb. As of late 2017, four buildings–7, 8, 9 and 10–are done, and 6 is being worked on. The new rooms bring queen beds and coffeemakers–both firsts in value resort standard rooms! A full photo tour of one of these refurbed rooms starts here.

Below is a photo tour of an un-refurbed room.

A PHOTO TOUR OF A NOT-YET-REFURBED ROOM AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

Standard not-yet-refurbed rooms at Disney’s Pop Century Resort have the same amenities as other value resort standard rooms.

However, they share with standard Art of Animation rooms a slightly different lay-out than you’ll find in the rooms at the All-Stars.

Both the beds and the table and chairs at Pop Century are closer to the entry door than in the All-Star rooms. (See for example the All-Star Music floor plan on this page.)

The near bed in particular is so close to the door that it feels like the slightest trip would dump you into it. But once you are in the room, the slightly more spread-out furniture makes it feel more spacious than the rooms at the All-Stars.

On one side of the room you’ll find two full-sized beds.

These beds from the back of the room…

…and a closer view of one of them.

Between them is a small bedside table…

…with some storage space.

There’s some poppy art on the wall between the beds and the bath

On the other side of the room there’s a table and chairs, and a combined dresser/mini-fridge/TV.

The TV side from the back.

The table and chairs are fine for dining or playing games.

The combined dresser/mini-fridge/TV.  It has a couple of cubbies for storage…

…three smallish drawers…

…and a mini-fridge.

The TV is reasonably-sized, and note what’s playing on Channel 80.

Also on this side of the room will be the connecting door, if your room has one, and a coat rack. There’s also a curtain separating the bath and main space.

Beyond, you’ll find the divided bath, with a sink/dressing/closet area segregated from the main room by a cloth divider, and a separate room with the toilet and shower.

The sink area is small but nicely done.

The hair dryer.

The closet/storage area includes 5 linear feet of clothes rod space, a luggage rack, an iron and ironing board, and a small wall safe.

A closer view of the safe. To give you a sense of its size, the book is 9 inches tall by 6 inches wide.

The toilet and tub area is behind a door next to the sink.

There’s nothing special about these rooms.  They are small; their decor is adequate but uninspired to the point of being dull, especially compared to the Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation.

Refurbed rooms are better on almost every dimension.

PHOTO TOUR OF A REFURBED ROOM AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

This review continues here.

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The Value Resorts    Pop Century    Movies    Sports    Music   Art of Animation

OVERVIEW: DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

Hey, Pop Century is going through a building by building room refurb. As of late November, four buildings–7, 8, 9 and 10–are done, and 6 is being worked on. The new rooms bring queen beds and coffeemakers–both firsts in value resort standard rooms! A full photo tour of one of these refurbed rooms starts here.

Among my 150+ stays (so far!) in Walt Disney World resort hotels, I’ve stayed at Disney’s Pop Century Resort ten times, most recently in July 2017.

These stays confirm that for those who can’t afford a deluxe resort, Disney’s Pop Century Resort is the second best place to stay, after Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, and, for families with mobility issues who can’t afford a deluxe, it’s number one.

[Read more →]

OVERVIEW: DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS

Disney’s Old Key West Resort (a Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) Resort) is a wonderful place for returning visitors to Walt Disney World to stay.

It’s the most spacious, most livable, and least expensive of the DVC resorts, and is my personal favorite among them.

For typical first-time visitors, I don’t recommend the Disney Vacation Club resorts.

That said, these “DVC” resorts can be a great choice for first time visitors with large families, needing extra sleeping spaces, or looking for a more comfortable place to stay.

Among the Disney Vacation Club Resorts, Disney’s Old Key West Resort ranks eighth overall for first time visitors, with its particular strengths being livability and value for money.

OLD KEY WEST AND THE DISNEY VACATION CLUB RESORTS

[Read more →]

LOEWS PORTOFINO BAY HOTEL AT UNIVERSAL ORLANDO

Loews Portofino Bay Hotel is one of three deluxe hotels in the Universal Orlando resort. (The other two are the Royal Pacific, reviewed here, and the Hard Rock Hotel.)

This site’s Instructions for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter suggest that families wishing to visit Harry Potter that can afford it book a room at at one of the Universal hotels.

This is because the Universal hotels give terrific perks at Universal Orlando to hotel guests.

Most relevant to Harry Potter is that the Wizarding World opens to guests of these hotels one hour before it opens to the general public.

(If you are staying just one night, this is true both your day of check-in and your day of check-out.)

This makes it particularly easy to fit in both Ollivanders and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey without hours of waiting.

Another great perk is that Universal hotel guests can use their room key as the equivalent of a FASTPASS for many rides at any time.  This does not apply to the Forbidden Journey or Ollivanders--the only perk that applies to them is the early entry.

All three hotels are nice, convenient to both parks at Universal Orlando, and expensive. Loews Portofino Bay is the most gorgeous (and expensive) of them, but its village theme will go over the head of most kids.

We had the chance to stay at Portofino Bay in early March. Our stay wasn’t long enough for a full review of the hotel and all its services, so this is really just a review of our room (though as you’ll note there’s photos of the rest of the place above). [Read more →]

THE NEXT DISNEY WORLD DVC VENUE HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED

April 1, 2013—In an announcement that caught the fan community off guard—Josh was so shocked that he immediately ran off to take more photos of merchandise—Walt Disney World, RunDisney, and Adventures by Disney today jointly announced that the next Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) venue at Walt Disney World will be high adventure backpacking campsites.

The campsites, to be known as Disney’s Villaderness Campsites, will be located in the stinking mangrove swamps pristine wetlands area northeast of Bay Lake, near where several years ago Disney announced it would build a high-speed rail line.

The idea behind the new DVC resort is fastpacking—the combination of backpacking and trail running.  It will be themed around “pain.”

Guests at Disney’s Villaderness Campsites will check in at the Contemporary Resort, and then “fastpack”: run from there along wilderness trails to the campsites, while carrying personal backpacks filled with all their gear—tents, sleeping bags, stoves, food, clothes, etc.

Transportation to and from the parks will also be via running, but guests will not be required to carry their loaded backpacks for day trips, except to the Animal Kingdom. (“Because we say so,” a Disney spokesperson explained.)

Adventures by Disney guides will accompany, goad and belittle the runners, and shout out the highlights of what is being passed—pythons, sink-holes, and the like.  (DVC guests staying on points will be able to use the Adventures by Disney guides only every fourth day.)

Sell-side analysts are quite excited.  “In the traditional DVC model, Disney convinces future guests to pay Disney to build a hotel for them, and then to pay Disney for its upkeep, but they do get a sticker,” says Bertie Wooster of UBS. “At the Villaderness Campsites,” he continues, “guests will be paying Disney for 50 years for the privilege of running their own gear to unimproved swampland!  Not even a community room or second-rate restaurant! Brilliant!”

THE STORY BEHIND THIS JUST-ANNOUNCED DVC RESORT

Disney’s Villaderness Campsites were inspired, insiders say, by the stunning growth of Disney World’s various running events.

The current RunDisney events, including the full, half, half-full, 3.1415k, sideways, silly walk, and Hoop Dee Doo marathons, were originally inspired by management’s observations of guests in the parks during peak-crowd weeks.

One insider told me “we realized that people would pay good money to stand in hot lines for two or three hours per ride.  So the question we asked ourselves was, ‘how could we take people’s willingness to be just miserable for hours and make even more money off of it?’”

And thus the marathons and other running events at Disney World were born, as there seems an almost insatiable demand to combine the best of Walt Disney World with hours of pain and misery—and pay extra for it.

Disney’s Villaderness Campsites (pronounce it like a movie-Nazi: “Veeeeelderunessss”) are the natural outgrowth of the need of many to pay for pain and Disney’s wish to grow income while limiting capital spend after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the Tangled bathrooms.

(Helping a bit on the capex front is that the plans to add Minnesota as Epcot’s next World Showcase nation were recently quietly canceled, pouring some capital back into the cash till).

Fastpacking to the pain-themed campsites creates the combined misery/Disney experience so deeply craved, while the unimproved sites, and the requirement for guests to bring their own backpacks and gear, makes the capital investment negligible.

Negligible, that is, for Disney.  Guests will still need to pay an arm, a leg—and a couple of feet. The minimum buy-in points and point calendar are still being developed, and may be related to best marathon times.  But the expectation is that pricing will be similar to One-Bedroom Villas at Saratoga Springs, since an un-developed wasteland is comparable to those tiny rooms.

But at least at Saratoga Springs you won’t have to pack in toilet paper and a trowel!

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