POP Rooms

[Snickers]

We have done AKL for several years and will be doing a more budget-friendly trip in January 2014. We've tried to read as much about POP as possible, but are having a bit of trouble with deciding which building/room requests we should try to make. It's a week long trip in mid-January starting MLK weekend, and we are experienced Disney people.

Any insights and/or suggestions would be most welcome as we prepare to book our trip.

These are our priorities as far a a room is concerned:
1. Quiet!!! - It's just two adults so the less noise the better
2. Location - Close to main building and buses would be nice, but it's not a deal breaker
3. Views - I assume we won't be staring out the window much, but we do enjoy the landscapes/theming/appearance of Disney properties

*We've read that building 3 and 9 are popular as far as the buses/main building is concerned, but parking lot views seem a bit un-Disney-like... What buildings, floor levels, and facing preferences do any of you recommend?

[George]

You probably won't be looking out the window at all, since your drapes will be probably be drawn whenever you're in the room. People can walk by and look right in. So view is a non-issue for me in Values and Mods.

As far as quiet, any room that's not looking directly onto a pool are will be quiet. On this map, the yellow areas are preferred (and higher-priced) rooms; I wouldn't book that category. You're probably best off in the non-preferred areas of buildings 1, 3, 6, or 10. And not on the pool side.

[pfalcioni]

We like 60's and 70's sections, facing the lake (buildings 4, 5 & 6), and we personally like first floor. Quieter rooms are typically facing away from the pool, but we've also had a room directly facing the pool and didn't notice noise at all.

Views are a little more difficult with exterior walkways, because if you have your curtains open you can see out, everyone walking by can see in. Also, the window is pretty small, so views aren't really all that even if you had a perfect location. But that's also one of the reasons we love the first floor facing the lake because when we leave the room in the morning, it's like walking through a park.

We were in building 3 on our most recent trip, they upgraded us to a preferred room facing the pool at no cost so that we could have a king-sized bed - I was a little concerned about facing the pool, but it was actually very nice. And yes, the walk to the food court was very short, but it definitely wasn't enough of an advantage to pay extra for in my opinion.

If it's just the two of you, I'd actually suggest putting in only one request, a King bed. Your other option is a double, which is not much fun! If you really need or want anything else, try to keep it to only one other request (like first floor).

The only place we've stayed at Pop that felt like it was way too far away from everything was one night in the back side of building #2. I don't know why, but that felt like Timbuktu!

[runDisneygirl]

Personally, I love the 70's section. It's quiet, and a short walk to the buses and food court. I was in building 6, facing the courtyard area, top floor. ( I always request top floor because I feel it's more quiet. But maybe that's just in my head.) I requested and received 70's section only once out of 2 stays there. The second time, I received 50's section, building 1, facing the parking lot, top floor. It was nice having the bowling pin pool right around the corner, and the walk to the food court wasn't terrible - just a tad further than 70's.

Again, for quiet, I always request a top floor. I figure I hear fewer people walking by/near my room, plus I won't hear any footsteps above either.
As for location, perhaps simply request to be near the food court/bus stops. I think if you get too specific on your requests, they don't know why you want it. Once you check in and they show you where your room is and you don't like it, you can always ask for something different. I've done that a handful of times with no issues!

[Christie]

Building 5, lake facing, highest floor available. That's my request every year, and we have always gotten it. Our #1 requirement is NO NOISE. #2 is close to buses - my husband's feet are awful, so we minimize walking when we can.

[deebee]

We stayed at POP for the first time this May. I had requested a lake view room, and we got building 3 (Tramp), 4th floor, facing the lake. It was terrific! We could see the high fireworks from Epcot every night from our room, and it was very quiet. (We also got a front row view for the special "may the forth be with you" fireworks at HS that evening). Took maybe 3 minutes to walk to the food court and buses, and just down the elevator and around the corner for the bowling pin quiet pool.

If we stay at POP again, we will request the same section.

[AmeliaPond]

We've been in buildings 5 and 6, "facing" the lake once and maybe just a grassy/treed area the second time. Can't remember. We always request top floor because typically it's quieter. And basically anything that does NOT face a pool.

[Marianna]

Another "50's/lakeview/topfloor" fan. The resort is very well laid out, so not a long walk regardless of where you are. I much prefer the 50's pool to the Hippy Dippy pool in the 60's, and now that AOA is open, there's a nice view across the lake (used to be kind of dreary over there) and a closer walk to visit their foodcourt for a change of pace.

I haven't always received lakeview, but I've been placed in that wing,(building #3) top floor and away from the pool side, and it was still perfectly quiet.

[Momofpirates]

We really liked 50's lakeview, I think it was building 3. We were on the first floor there, but it was really quiet. Also, 60's lakeview was quiet, too.

[Micah008]

Before our last 2 trips I spent a bunch of time obsessing about what request to make, and where would be the best place at Pop Century (or ASSp the previous year).

At Pop Century we made a lakeview/topfloor request like many are recommending. But... when we arrived the system was completely down, and they had to give us whatever room was available. They were not even able to look at requests, or make any changes to room assignments for anyone ... so we got "stuck" with a poolview in the 50's area, building 2. You could see the lake (kinda), but it really wasn't what we wanted.

However, after seeing that the walk really wasn't too bad, and the pool in that area was actually very quiet, we just stuck with the room and never even thought about it again for the rest of the trip.

Moral of the story, no matter what you request, you may not get it.... and you will quickly remember that you are at Disney World, and you would rather head to a park than worry about standing in line to attempt to switch rooms or repack everything. Of course, I will still make room requests in the future... but I sure won't worry about it as much.

[Micah008]

One additional thing about the room types... to add to what George said and showed with the map.

There are actually 4 room types... Standard, Standard Pool View, Preferred, Preferred Pool View. If being close to the main building is most important to you, you can actually book a Preferred room (non-Pool View), and guarantee you are close while also guaranteeing you are not near a pool. But, some of these may be a little louder since there will be more foot traffic being near the main building, plus it costs extra for this.

But it is nice that they allow you to pick Pool or non-Pool now, which wasn't the case a few years ago. (it used to just be Standard and Preferred)

[NorahS]

My favorite request for Pop is "Building 9, facing the parking lot".

This puts a quiet pool close by, but on the other side of the building from the room and very little foot traffic by the room.

Very close to the buses, especially if you cut through the parking lot (for that reason, I don't recommend this location for those with kids).

[jandeeah]

My favorite request for Pop is "Building 9, facing the parking lot".

This puts a quiet pool close by, but on the other side of the building from the room and very little foot traffic by the room.

Very close to the buses, especially if you cut through the parking lot (for that reason, I don't recommend this location for those with kids).

That is our favorite place too. We have a child but she is always in the stroller so I feel safe with her.

[Snickers]

Thanks for all the feedback, advice, and suggestions. We booked our package today, but we're told a few of the things posted here were not accurate, so I'll share what we had to do.

We were told a standard room could NOT even request a lake-view but a top floor view request was possible. We ended up doing a preferred room with a top floor and lake-view request. We didn't specify a building but are thinking of calling back to try to add a building 4 or 5 request to see if that were possible. We are bit worried about POP since the past several years we have done AKL and it "feels" like a big down-grade.

So, how did we do?

[Marianna]

That's interesting. I've wondered if they were going to make the lake view rooms preferred now that AOA is across the water. Perhaps just the fact that so many request it makes it an "upgrade" in Disney's eyes.

[pfalcioni]

I would call back and talk to a different CM. There are plenty of non-preferred lake-view rooms. Also, even if they did make all the lake-view rooms preferred, even by upgrading to preferred, you're unfortunately still not guaranteed to get your request. You may end up with a pool-view room.

[deebee]

Yes - room 3433 is where we were. NOT a preferred room in May, anyway. Beautiful lake/fireworks/AofA view.

[Marianna]

No, they were never preferred before, just wondering outloud.

I recall when WL first opened, it was a moderate. The CM's would always say something like "don't you just love this resort? Isn't it just as nice as the deluxe resorts?" To which I'd always agree. Sure enough, one day they decided to make it a deluxe.

[AmeliaPond]

When I booked online, I don't think lake view was an option I could even select. So I always just requested it at check-in. It was least important to me. I just wanted top floor and somewhere away from the pool.

[Snickers]

A small clarification - I did call to book and didn't do it online. The CM was extremely helpful and friendly (she lived about 20 miles from where I currently live and we chatted about the area a bit) as we booked she asked about my requests and she said she was unable to select lake-view as a guest request on her computer; it wasn't an option at all. When she tried it as a preferred level room, she was able to enter it. So we have top floor and lake-view as our "requests" which she made sure to say were not guaranteed.

Wondering if I should try again with another CM or even bother with a preferred and just try top floor and a specific building instead...

[Micah008]

I agree with trying a different CM. You should be able to request a lake-view even with a Standard room.

[Plutopal14]

I made a Pop reservation yesterday and was also told that a lake view in 60's or 50's is preferred. I'm debating about whether to call the resort directly and ask.

[pfalcioni]

I'm decently certain there are more Preferred rooms without a lake view than with. Preferred at Pop usually means close to the pool and closer walking distance to the food court/buses. Preferred at resorts with special views (like AKL) means you're paying for the view, which isn't the case with the value resorts, although I do think they have plenty of pretty views, Disney just doesn't place a premium on them.

[Christie]

I always hesitate to link to crazytown, but the Disboards has a thread with good info on Pop. Here's the map they reference with room levels. It's possible that it's recently changed, though.

[Snickers]

The CM's explanation is that there are now 3 tiers of room instead of the four used on the diagram/map above. I was basing our recommendations on the diagram/map posted above, but I had the option for a standard, preferred, and pool views.

Seems like they wanted to include those "lake view" rooms, that are currently not highlighted in yellow on the map, as "preferred" when adding guest requests, so the option can only be entered when you book as a "preferred". I was very surprised because I had done my homework, including considering everything in this post, and thought I knew what I was doing. I will probably make a call in a day or two to verify everything.


The official confirmation e-mail states:
01/18/2014 HOTEL
POP CENTURY CLASSIC- QFVPOP CENTURY CLASSIC-PREFERRED
SPECIAL REQUEST: REQUEST KING SIZE BED *Which we didn't request...
PLEASE NOTE: TOP FLOOR LAKE VIEW NOT GTD