Disney’s Pop Century Resort
Disney’s Pop Century Resort is probably the most popular value resort on property, right next to Art of Animation. Pop Century checks off all the boxes for families who want to visit Disney, have a nice room, a resort with decent amenities, and good transportation.
Staying on Walt Disney World property doesn’t have to be a budget breaker. That is why Walt Disney World offers guests several tiers of resorts to choose from, all with various price points, amenities, and location. Disney’s Pop Century Resort offers all of these things to families, along with some excellent theming and fantastic staff. I am excited to share my stay there with you today!
Everything Pop Dining and Shopping
The Everything Pop dining and shopping area is centrally located off the main lobby. You walk right by it when walking to the bus stop in the morning or at night, so it is super convenient.
This location has a wide variety of food, and they serve all three meals of the day. Hopefully, post pandemic, the grab and go options will be available. We did miss this during our stay. However, if we needed something or wanted a snack for later, we just added it to our Mobile Order.
Everything Pop participates in Mobile Order, which is awesome. Mobile Order tip…..order your breakfast about 45 minutes BEFORE you want to be on a bus to the parks. Then you can eat and hop on a bus. For dinner, order your meal on the way back to the resort from the parks. This will allow your food to be ready when you get back, and you won’t have to wait as long.
Not only is the menu selection decent, but there is a TON of seating in the food court area.
Guests enter the food court area through the gift shop. The gift shop is huge…and has A LOT of items. I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of souvenirs, as well as essentials, at the Everything Pop shopping area.
Disney’s Pop Century Resort has great transportation
A key aspect to a successful Disney trip is park transportation. The added value of TWO transportation options at Pop Century makes this “value resort” stand out amongst the others. Disney guests will take the Skyliner to both Hollywood Studios and EPCOT. Magic Kingdom and EPCOT are accessed via motorcoaches. This is a HUGE amenity. Even the moderate resorts only offer one form of transportation to the parks ~ except Caribbean Beach. The Skyliner also allows you to access several other resorts for dining as well. In terms of buses, Pop does not share with other resorts. When all three of the All Stars are open, they share buses amongst each other, which is not ideal.
The theming at pop century is fantastic
Guests who want a fully themed resort will love Pop Century. As a deluxe resort fan myself, the theming was a bit loud for my taste. However, I can see why some guests would enjoy it.
The resort is broken down into sections. 50s-90s, with each decade having their own theming. The rooms are NOT themed by decade, just the buildings and pools {if there is a pool in that area}. Each area has pop icons from that time frame. You will find a giant Rubix Cube, yo-yos, Mickey on a rotary phone, a jukebox, and so many more fun icons! The theming at Pop makes for great photos.
They also take the theming into all areas of the resort. Just sit in the lobby for a few minutes, and you will hear songs from various decades playing on the soundtrack. So fun!
The Rooms and amenities at Pop century
Since it is a value resort, Pop Century offers families their basic room accommodations and amenities. That said, the rooms at Pop are some of the NICEST rooms I have stayed in on Disney property. The rooms have two queen beds, hardwood floors, and tons of storage. One is an actual bed, the other is a pull down Murphy bed. This allows you to have good size beds for everyone, but also extra space if you put the Murphy bed up. We booked guaranteed connecting rooms, so we had an interior door between our rooms. This gave us two full bathrooms, and plenty of sleeping space when traveling with teenagers.
The storage in the rooms at Pop Century is like a well oiled machine. There are all sorts of shelves, drawers, hooks, etc to store your items. While we didn’t fully unpack {we were only there for 3 nights} the storage options are great. The rooms also have a split bathroom. The shower and toilet are in one room, and then the vanity area is just outside that. The entire bathroom/vanity area is separated from the rest of the room by a sliding door. Each room also has a coffeemaker and small refrigerator.
Pop Century has several pools for guests. The main pool also has a small splash pad area for children. However, since it is a Value Resort, there is no water slide. The Hippy Dippy Pool is the main pool, and it has a pool bar in that area as well. It is in a centralized location, just outside of Classic Hall. The quiet pools are in the 50s and 80s sections.
Also, Pop Century has a food court, no table service dining. This is totally fine, especially when traveling with kids. Good Quick Service at our resort is important to me, since my children like a variety of different things. Letting them all choose what they want makes traveling so easy.
Overall, Disney’s Pop Century Resort is great. While I am not a “value resort” type of traveler, I enjoyed it. I can see why it is so popular with Disney travelers on a budget, but who also want good food and transportation to the parks. Plus, the recently refurbished rooms make it a top player in the race for a “nice” Disney resort.
Would you like to enjoy Disney’s Pop Century Resort? If you’d like to book a trip to Walt Disney World, I’d love to help! Please email me at carrie@destinationsinflorida.com for more details!
We LOVE Pop Century! Our very first trip to Walt Disney World with our kids involved several months of planning, a big grandparent-boosted budget, a full week of careful dining reservations, the works. We thought we’d never be able to afford to do Disney again until we looked into a last minute weekend trip at Pop Century the next year. We had just as much fun as we did during that big budget-busting week! Fun theming, great pool, kid-friendly food choices. What’s not to love?
I am so glad you enjoyed it! It’s great for a last minute reservation or if you are trying to save some money!
How did you guarantee that your rooms would be joining?
Hi, Brigitte! I had more children than adults on my reservation. In this situation, Walt Disney World will book you guaranteed connecting rooms under one resort confirmation number.