Category — q. Reviews

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 →]

VICTORIA AND ALBERT’S AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Victoria and Albert’s, located on the second floor of the Grand Floridian, is Walt Disney World’s highest-priced restaurant, the only restaurant at Disney World that does not seat children younger than 10, and the restaurant at Disney World with the most strict dress code—for men, dress pants, dress shoes, collared shirts and jackets.

Astonishingly expensive (expect dinner with wine pairings for two to exceed $500 including tax and tip), Victoria and Albert’s provides an even more astonishing dining experience—one worth well more than the price. [Read more →]

In mid-May 2013 I made my fourth visit since this site opened to Disney’s Old Key West Resort.

This time, I was assigned an accessible One-Bedroom Villa, and what follows are some of the differences between these spaces and standard rooms.

(There’s a full review of standard villas at Old Key West here.)

ACCESSIBLE VILLAS AT OLD KEY WEST

I noted three spaces with differences: the entry door, the kitchen, and the bath.

The entry has a buzzer which presumably provides both audible and visible signals for both the hearing and visually challenged. (I was visiting solo, so did not have a chance to test it.)

The kitchen has multiple differences compared to standard villas.

The items of the work triangle–sink, fridge  and stove–are pushed to the ends of the kitchen, so that the kitchen island presents fewer access problems.

The sink now is set up so a wheelchair can pull up underneath it.

The countertops are at 34 inches tall, rather than 36 inches tall–at the upper end of the sensible range of such accessible counters.  Moreover, the bottoms of the wall cabinets are only 16.5 inches above the counters.  These two changes together put the lowest shelf of the wall cabinets 3.5 inches lower than in standard rooms.

The fridge in this room gains accessibility by being side-by-side, rather than over/under as in standard rooms.

The bath has a couple of features making it much more accessible.

The bath sink has clearance for a chair below it, and note both the safety bars and fold-up seat in the shower.

The toilet area also has multiple safety bars.

My room was a lock-off One-Bedroom Villa on the ground floor.

I imagine that since only three Old Key West buildings have elevators, and because a lock-off is the most flexible type of space, that most other accessible villas at Old Key West are also first floor and lockoff.

For more on Disney’s Old Key West Resort, see this.

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This is the fifth page of this review of Disney’s Old Key West Resort. For the first page, see this.

THEMING, AMENITIES, AND CHOICES AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

Disney’s Old Key West Resort is described on Walt Disney World’s website as “an island hamlet of brilliant green landscapes, pastel-colored Victorian architecture and ornate gingerbread accents…nestled among swaying palm trees, shimmering waterways and… lush golf fairways.”

Its 156 acres include an area called the Hospitality House. You’ll find pretty much everything here except your room itself. (There’s a map on the first page of this review.)

It includes the check-in lobby, where you’ll also find concierge services…

…a comfortable lounging room off the lobby

…and a well-stocked shop…

…with a nice assortment of groceries–which makes sense, given all the kitchens here.

Also in the Hospitality House area you’ll find the table service restaurant, Olivia’s…

…a small bar…

…and a small snack bar, which is the only counter-service offering here (there’s another one at the far end of the resort near the Turtle Pond quiet pool)… understandable, I suppose, given all the kitchens, but awkward for anyone on the dining plan…or in a studio.

The bar and snack bar are close to the main pool.

At the main pool you’ll also find a hot tub…

..and a sauna!

Near the main pool you’ll also find a pool for little kids, and beyond it a playground.

Nearby there’s a marina…

…and the dock where you can catch a ferry to Downtown Disney.

Beyond this area, the resort has several different sections with their own bus stops, and, for the more distant sections, quiet pools.

The quiet pool at the far end of Old Turtle Pond Road, which is about as far from the Hospitality House as you can get, is particularly substantial and has its own snack bar.

Hours at this snack bar can be short–in mid-May 2013 they were 9a-5p–and the menu limited. (Like all the images, if you click the menu it’ll enlarge.)

The rooms at Old Key West are grouped into several different areas, and are now labeled by the roads they are on. There is no difference in theming among these areas, so use the material on the first page on best and worst rooms to pick your building.

Disney’s online check-in system lets you pick two from among many choices. However, when we did it, no choice was either “near the Hospitality House” or “in a building with elevators.”

See the image for the choices offered (at least in April 2013) and my comments on them…

Disney’s Old Key West Resort opened in December 1991 as the first of the Disney Vacation Club Resorts–its first name was the Disney Vacation Club Resort! It expanded over the years until the current layout was completed–with buildings 62, 63 and 64, the newest, opening in 2000.

It was fully renovated over the course of 2010 and 2011.

The fact that it was the first DVC resort perhaps explains both some of its negatives and some of its positives…

Its sprawling layout, community (rather than hotel) feel, and large rooms perhaps came from Disney’s attempt to figure out whether it was building vacation homes in a community or a hotel. Perhaps it split the difference.

The next wave of later DVC resorts shrank the rooms and (with the exception of Saratoga Springs) shrank the layout into hotel footprints. Planning for the most recent DVC resorts–Kidani Village, Bay Lake Tower, and The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian–added back sorely needed living/dining/kitchen space.

Among the DVC resorts, Old Key West’s strengths for first time visitors are its relatively lower prices and relatively larger rooms.

The principal negatives are its sprawl, absence of elevators in almost all buildings, awkward bath access in most buildings, and lack of convenience and kid appeal.

Returning visitors often find Old Key West to be a favorite. Its spaciousness can be a godsend for a boisterous family, and among the DVC resorts it is far and away the best value for money.

EXTERNAL LINKS FOR DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT:

• Official Disney Old Key West web page
• Official Disney Vacation Club web page

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MORE ON WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• For where to stay, see this
  • For your next best choices, in order, see this
  • For picking your resort based on appeal to kids, see this
  • For picking your resort based on convenience, see this
  • For where not to stay, see this

• For what you get in each resort price category, see this
  • For Walt Disney World resort price seasons, see this
  • For resort reviews, see this
  • For the value resorts, see this
  • For the moderate resorts, see this
  • For the deluxe resorts, see this
  • For suites at the deluxe resorts, see this
  • For the Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) Resorts, see this

• For a (geeky) overview of comparative room size, see this

• Large families should look at this, and also at
  • Large Families Looking for Value Pricing at Walt Disney World
  • Large Families Looking for Deluxe Accommodations at Disney World
  • Beds and Sleeping Spaces at the Walt Disney World Resorts
  • Renting Disney Vacation Club Points
  • Suites at Walt Disney World

• Military/DOD families should look at this

• Tightwads should look at this

• Families seeking the most comfortable place to stay should see this

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