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Disney World raised its theme park ticket prices over the weekend, with the most common ticket types going up 6-9%.

My friends at Undercover Tourist, a sponsor of this site, remind me that they still have an inventory of tickets priced based on the former prices, and will make these available until sold out.

These tickets don’t expire, so you can buy them at these old prices now–while they last–and use them on your next visit, whenever it is!

For more, see this.

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

THEMING AND ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

Disney’s Pop Century Resort is one of 5 value resorts at Walt Disney World:

• Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort, opened in April 1994
• Disney’s All-Star Music Resort, opened in November 1994
• Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort, opened in January 1999
• Disney’s Pop Century Resort, opened in December 2003
• Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, opened in May 2012

Each of these five has four-person standard rooms. At Pop Century, All-Star Movies and shortly in All-Star Music, you get two queen beds and a coffee maker. In the not-yet refurbed rooms at Music, and in All-Star Sports and Art of Animation, you get full beds and no coffee makers. Queen beds in All-Star Sports are possible soon.

For most families looking for standard rooms and not worried about full beds or coffee makers, Art of Animation is the best choice, followed by Pop Century. Art of Animation rooms are also the most expensive–especially in the summer, when they approach moderate-level pricing. The All-Stars are all priced the same, and are the least expensive. Pop rooms average $40 more per night than the All-Stars, and $40 less per night than Art of Animation.

Disney’s Pop Century Resort officially salutes “many of the 20th-century popular culture crazes—including toys, gadgets, music, movies, fads and catch phrases.”

Pop Century’s theme is to recall the later decades of the twentieth century, through enormous statues of toys, games, Disney characters, and other stuff relevant to the decades. You’ll find scattered around the resort a Mickey Mouse Telephone, Roger Rabbit, a Big Wheel, bowling pins, Baloo and Mowgli, Lady and the Tramp and more…all 30 to over 60 feet tall!

Elsewhere you’ll find Play-Doh, Mr. Potato Head, a more than life sized foosball game, a pool designed to look like a bowling alley, a four-story laptop, and more.

ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

There are 2,880 rooms at Pop Century, evenly divided among ten accommodations buildings, each with elevators.

They are available in four booking classes, basically preferred or standard, with each of these available as pool view or not.  The least expensive rooms are standard without a pool view, and most expensive are preferred pool view.

Preferred rooms are scattered in wings of several buildings and in general are a shorter walk to the main pool, the gift shop and food court, and the bus stops. Pool view rooms overlook one of the three pools, and will be louder than others.

Once you’d booked your class, during online check in (or over the phone) you can further request particular areas, a lake view, upper or lower floors, near transportation, and near elevators.

These rooms a refurb completed in 2018 now have two queen beds–the second is a fold-down bed that makes the table disappear when it’s down. Refurbed rooms also have more storage, more power points, bigger TVs, more bath privacy, and coffeemakers.  A full photo tour of a refurbed room begins here.

Also available are rooms that sleep two on one king bed.  There’s fewer than 200 of these, and they too are not directly bookable, nor do they show up on the on-line forms.

My general recommendation is an upper floor lake view room. These will be quietest and loveliest. Here’s some lake views:

THE AREAS AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

A quick look at the map tells you a lot about Disney’s Pop Century Resort.

The key points to notice are Hourglass Lake, at the top, the Disney Skyliner gondola station here, circled in black, and the central resort services, circled in red and orange at the middle.

Rooms facing Hourglass Lake will have the best views, and many will be close to the Skyliner station.  Rooms closer to the central resort services will have the shortest walks to concierge services, dining, and the bus stops.

Pop Century’s ten buildings are nominally divided into five areas–1950s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s–representing the icons and memories of each decade, each area with a different set of larger-than-life Disney characters, toys from the era, and other decorations, with a particular focus on music playback tools.

However, there’s just one ’90s building, grouped in with the ’80s buildings, so in fact Pop Century really has just four areas.

• The three ’50s buildings, grouped around the Bowling Pin pool
• The two ’60s buildings, grouped around the main Hippy Dippy pool
• The two ’70s buildings, the only ones without a pool in their center–making them quieter–and
• The two ’80s and one ’90s buildings grouped around the Computer pool

THE 50s AREA AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

The three buildings in the 50s area– Buildings 1, 2 and 3–take dancing at a sock hop and bowling as their overall theme, with a bowling pin shaped pool and bowling pins hiding the stairs. While bowling was more popular in the 60s, its popularity began to take off in the 50s.

A jukebox decorates the center of one of the buildings…

…and Lady and the Tramp (1955) the other two.

The 50s buildings are reasonably good places to stay, with their principal negative being distance from the bus stops.

THE 60s AREA AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

The 60s area, with Buildings 4 and 5, is themed to flower power and other more innocuous 60s themes and has the most centrally located of the Pop Century rooms. Many of them surround the main pool at Pop Century, the Hippy Dippy pool.

These rooms have become even more convenient with the new Disney Skyliner gondola station opening on the bridge between Pop and Art of Animation, with service to the Caribbean Beach hub, from which you can re-board the gondola lines to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Stairs are themed to yo-yos, which resurged in the 60s.

The movie theming is the Jungle Book (1967).

You’ll also find here Play-Do–invented in the 30s as a wallpaper cleaner, and repurposed in the 60s as a creative toy.

THE 70s AREA AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

The 70s has buildings 6 and 10, and is the only area at Pop Century that does not surround a pool, making these rooms generally Pop’s quietest.  Still close to buses, the Skyliner, and the central services and main pool, and with plenty of lake views, it’s the area at Pop Century I recommend the most.

Stairs are themed to 8 track tapes, frankly a dull and forgettable choice.

In a testament to the state of Disney animation in the 70s, this area is the only one at Pop Century with no Disney movie highlighted…

The overall theme is active play, and the courtyard of buildings 6 and 10 is dominated by a larger than life foosball court.

Smaller play areas are also here–e.g. Twister, which nowadays is a prima facie venue for sexual harassment.

You’ll also find an enormous Micky phone which sets a Disney connection that makes up for the absence of a movie reference in the 70s area.

The Mickey phones were part of an AT&T program of “Design Line” phones that launched in the early 70s.

Across the foosball court is a Big Wheel–launched in 1969.

THE 80s AND 90s AREA AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

Two 80s buildings–7 and 9–and one 90s building, 8, make up a three building group surrounding a pool that works more as a unified area than as two separate themed areas, which is why I consider them together here.

These buildings are most distant from the main pool and central dining, gift shop and other services, but some rooms, especially in Building 9, are not far from the bus stop.

Stairs are themed as Rubik’s Cubes, invented in the 70s but licensed to be sold in the 80s…

…and to 90s-style cell ones, which are almost life-size.

The pool area in the center of the three buildings is laid out like an early laptop, with the keyboard on one side and the screen on Building 8. The green item at the left of the screen is a floppy disk, which were central to computing until they weren’t.

The Disney movie referenced here is Roger Rabbit (1988).

Across from Roger is probably the weakest principal icon at Pop Century, a Sony Walkman–introduced in Japan in 1979.

Adding some playfulness to what other than Roger Rabbit is pretty dull theming is this charming couple, found near Hourglass Lake.

PHOTO TOUR OF A ROOM 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

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

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

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Walt Disney World instituted a ticket price increase today, and after-tax prices for the most common multi-day tickets, those with three or more days, went up 6.1% to 9%.

The highest increases are for three and four day tickets, and for tickets without park hoppers, but all prices for tickets longer than 2 days went up at least 6.1%.

A family of four buying seven day tickets will pay about $90 more.

For the new prices, see this.

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WALT DISNEY WORLD ADMISSION TICKET PRICES 2013 TO SUMMER 2014

(This page is sponsored by Undercover Tourist.)

Three types of Walt Disney World prices are important to think about:

• Walt Disney World theme park admission ticket prices—the tickets that grant you admission to the parks
• Walt Disney World resort hotel prices, and
• Park and hotel food prices

This page focuses on Walt Disney World theme park admission ticket prices from summer 2013 until the summer of 2014, when, based on past practices,  they will go up.

MORE DETAILS ON WALT DISNEY WORLD ADMISSION TICKET PRICES 2013 AND 2014: HOW THE TICKETS WORK

There are multiple types of Walt Disney World theme park tickets, but the one most relevant to most first time visitors is the Magic Your Way ticket, with or without the Park Hopper option.

You buy one theme park ticket for each person who will be three years old or older at the time of your visit (kids younger than three enter the parks for free.) The tickets have two pricing levels: one for kids who will be younger than ten at the time of your visit (but 3 or older) and the other for people ten or older.

When you buy your tickets, you also say how many “days” you want—from one to ten. Each “day” you buy permits unlimited visits to one theme park on one day. If you also add the Park Hopper option, you can make unlimited visits to any of the theme parks in one day–one theme park, two, three, or all four theme parks.

• For example, if you buy a three day ticket without the park hopper option, you could make two visits to the Magic Kingdom on day one, three visits to Epcot on day two, and two visits to the Animal Kingdom on day 3
• If you have a three day ticket with the park hopper option, you could for example make two visits to the Magic Kingdom and one to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on day one, one visit to Epcot and two to Disney’s Animal Kingdom on day two, and one to Epcot and two to the Magic Kingdom on day three
• What you can’t do without a park hopper ticket is visit more than one theme park on the same day. For example, you can’t, on November 25th, use one day of your three-day ticket to visit the Magic Kingdom, and another day of this same ticket to visit Epcot that same day. More than one theme park in a day requires a park hopper

You do not have to use your days all in a row boom boom boom—e.g. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Once you use your first day, you have 14 days to use all the days on your ticket. So on a three-day ticket you could visit the theme parks Monday, Thursday, and Sunday.

• You can also add days at the same price that you would have paid had you bought all those days at once, but have to do so no later than the day you use the last day of your original ticket (and within 14 days of the first day)
• So if you buy a three-day ticket, and realize a few days later that you need more days, you can add two days and they will cost only the difference between what you paid originally for a three day ticket, and what you would have had to have paid for a five day ticket, so long as you add these days no later than the day you use your third day
• You can also add stuff like the Park Hopper during the same day window at the same price as you would have paid when you first bought your ticket

However, you can’t “subtract” days if you overbuy.

HOW WALT DISNEY WORLD PRICES ITS THEME PARK ADMISSION TICKETS

1. While Disney typically increases ticket prices at least once a year—typically in the summer—it does not change theme park admission prices based on the seasons of the year, the way that it increases and decreases prices at its resort hotels. You pay the same amount for admission on the busiest and the least busy days of the year.

(This material, by the way, is updated as of Disney World’s June 2013 price increase, and applies to tickets bought from then until Disney’s next price increase, likely in the summer 0f 2014.)

2. Disney sells tickets by the day—one through ten days. The way it prices these days, the first three days are very expensive, while days after the third are comparatively almost free. See the image for exact Disney World prices.

For example, a three day ticket costs (including tax) an adult $279, or an average of $93 a day. A ten day ticket would cost the same adult $361. The added 7 days cost in total around $82—or less than $12 per day.

3. A park hopper costs (after tax) about $63 for all ticket lengths other than 1 day, regardless of whether you add it to a two-day, ten-day or anything in between. So a three day adult ticket with the park hopper added costs $342, and a ten day ticket with a park hopper costs $424.

I have also uploaded an excel spreadsheet with the same data in it as the image, so that you can multiply by the number of members of your own family.

4. In the summer of 2013, Disney changed its policy for one day tickets.  These used to cost the same regardless of which park at which you used them; now a one day ticket for the Magic Kingdom (including tax) is more, around $101, but for the other three theme parks a one day ticket is ~$96.  These per-park differences don’t apply to tickets with more than one day.

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD THEME PARK TICKETS

There are other ticket types than the ones discussed above—less relevant for first time visitors. For details on all of them, see this page on MouseSavers.com.

While it’s hard to find discounts on tickets, it is sometimes possible. Check sponsor Undercover Tourist, MouseSavers.com, Triple A if you are a member, and if you have military ties, this page and also MilitaryDisneyTips.com.

Since you can add on to your tickets–days, park hoppers, etc.–but can’t subtract, it doesn’t really pay to overbuy. Start with the minimum you think you need and add on later if needed.  Remember to add no later than the day you use your current last day!

All of this site’s To-Do Lists tell you exactly what ticket type you need for their associated itineraries.

FREE TICKETS ON YOUR BIRTHDAY?

Disney world no longer offers free tickets on your birthday.

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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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