Little E
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2016
Hi Disfriends!
My old college roommate and I recently returned from a WDW trip where we stayed at Pop Century. We were supposed to go last fall, arriving on the day Hurricane Ian hit, so this was our rescheduled trip. We were there from late 1-18 (4 hour delayed flight) to 1-23. We had a terrific time! Weather was sunny and in the 80's all but two days. Those two days were partly cloudy and in the 60's; we are two midwestern gals, so that was just fine with us.
Here are some reflections and highlights, in no particular order:
1. We had TERRIFIC experiences with CMs wherever we went. In particular, we got great service from Sami at Topolino's Terrace and Luis on a Disney bus. We used the cast compliments section on the MDE app frequently. What a great way to give shoutouts to terrific CMs!
2. We stayed in building 3 at Pop, and it continues to be the best location at Pop. We used the room as simply a place to sleep and enjoyed the fact that building 3 is quiet, close to the Skyliner, and close to the food court. Pop is a great resort; we appreciated the refurbed rooms and the Skyliner at our fingertips. We also enjoyed the fact that housekeeping came every other day of our stay. Good stuff!
3. Since we are two Disney fanatic moms in our 50's, raising four boys between us, we don't usually get to do a lot of princess heavy or tour heavy things when we vacation with our families. Our boys are all very ride focused (which is A-OK with me), so we chose to do this trip differently. We did the Keys to the Kingdom tour, and Zoe was our tour guide. She did a fantastic job, and we marveled at how exhausted she must be at the end of every tour; she talked non-stop for 5 hours and was so knowledgeable! We also did the upclose with rhinos experience, and that was fantastic! I got to check "pet a rhino" off my bucket list!
4. We ate at places our boys would never agree to: Topolino's Terrace, Chefs de France, Cinderella's Royal Table, and Storybook Dining at Artist Point with Snow White. We had terrific meals at almost every place we ate, we had great character interactions, and we had terrific service at every restaurant. The only "miss" for us was at Chefs de France. We had a fabulous server, but we found the food very "meh" and we found the dining room to be uncomfortably loud. We felt the ambient noise in the restaurant was too high to hold a meaningful conversation, and we felt the food was mediocre.
5. My DH and I bought DVC direct in April of 2022 at VGF, sight unseen. In the past, we visited GF to eat at restaurants, and we stayed for a long weekend in a regular hotel room in 2016, but we had never seen the villa side of GF. So, my college roomie and I walked to GF from MK to see if we could get a peek at the villas. (My DH, two DSs, their buddy, and I are staying at the end of March in a 2 bedroom for our welcome home trip.) Chris, a terrific DVC guide at GF, gave us an on-the-spot tour. We were able to see the two bedroom model and the model of the new studio, and I am SO excited to get back to WDW to stay there! The rooms are beautiful, and it made me excited for our welcome home visit.
6. Transportation was great during our stay! We took the Sunshine Flyer from MCO for the first time, and while we had to wait a bit for our bus at MCO, once we were on board, the bus trip was quick and Pop was the first stop. We found it interesting that there are seat belts on every seat on the bus. We found Disney busses to and from the parks from Pop to be plentiful and timely, and when we Ubered a few times to get to places directly and quickly, we had great Uber drivers.
7. While my Disney gal pal is not adventurous when it comes to rollercoasters, I am! I skipped most of the rollercoasters this trip, because we had other things planned, but on a whim, I tried to get into the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. I wanted to gather "intel" to report to my family who can't wait to ride this for the first time in March. I missed the 7am window, and I was in another park on the morning of the day I wanted to ride it. I had to wait until 2 pm when I tapped in to Epcot to try to get into the afternoon queue, and I figured I had no chance, as it was an hour after the 1 pm queue. To my surprise, I was able to get a boarding group! Granted it was a very late boarding group, and I was worried that I would be called during our Chefs de France dinner, and I would miss my chance. I did, in fact, get called during our dinner, but I was able to head over to Guardians after dinner and get in line, no problem. The line moved fast, and I only waited maybe 20 minutes to get on the ride. And...it was AWESOME! The music during my ride was Miami Sound Machine: Conga, and it was so incredibly smooth. The technology was amazing to see, and I can't wait for my family to experience it in March. They'll love it!
8. We thoroughly enjoyed the Festival of the Arts at Epcot! We loved browsing the artists' booths (we each bought a print signed by the artist and my friend even got a selfie with him!) and we loved watching two artists rock out to fantastic music while creating side by side artistic pieces! So fun! The food booths were tasty, and while I found the long line at Canada for the specialty poutine disappointing, everything else we tried was phenomenal. The deconstructed Key Lime Pie was the definite winner of the food booths for us. Our original trip in the fall would have fallen during the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot, and we were so bummed that we missed that. We decided that the Festival of the Arts was as good, if not better than Food and Wine. The food booths were every bit as good as F & W, and we had the added bonus of lots of art booths. Plus, we LOVED the photo ops sprinkled throughout the area at Epcot. So funny to photograph ourselves as the Mona Lisa, Frida Khalo, and a CM even snapped our pic crossing the Delaware with George Washington. We howled with laughter each time we snapped ourselves, and we ran into so many friendly guests who were willing to snap our pictures in exchange for taking their pictures.
As you can see, we had a terrific trip. How can you go wrong when you take a trip to WDW with a bestie of 35+ years who shares your love of all things Disney? Feel free to ask me anything! I'll gladly report out on whatever I can!
P.S. Sorry! I don't know how to make the two pics of the artists straight and not sideways! Any advice?
My old college roommate and I recently returned from a WDW trip where we stayed at Pop Century. We were supposed to go last fall, arriving on the day Hurricane Ian hit, so this was our rescheduled trip. We were there from late 1-18 (4 hour delayed flight) to 1-23. We had a terrific time! Weather was sunny and in the 80's all but two days. Those two days were partly cloudy and in the 60's; we are two midwestern gals, so that was just fine with us.
Here are some reflections and highlights, in no particular order:
1. We had TERRIFIC experiences with CMs wherever we went. In particular, we got great service from Sami at Topolino's Terrace and Luis on a Disney bus. We used the cast compliments section on the MDE app frequently. What a great way to give shoutouts to terrific CMs!
2. We stayed in building 3 at Pop, and it continues to be the best location at Pop. We used the room as simply a place to sleep and enjoyed the fact that building 3 is quiet, close to the Skyliner, and close to the food court. Pop is a great resort; we appreciated the refurbed rooms and the Skyliner at our fingertips. We also enjoyed the fact that housekeeping came every other day of our stay. Good stuff!
3. Since we are two Disney fanatic moms in our 50's, raising four boys between us, we don't usually get to do a lot of princess heavy or tour heavy things when we vacation with our families. Our boys are all very ride focused (which is A-OK with me), so we chose to do this trip differently. We did the Keys to the Kingdom tour, and Zoe was our tour guide. She did a fantastic job, and we marveled at how exhausted she must be at the end of every tour; she talked non-stop for 5 hours and was so knowledgeable! We also did the upclose with rhinos experience, and that was fantastic! I got to check "pet a rhino" off my bucket list!
4. We ate at places our boys would never agree to: Topolino's Terrace, Chefs de France, Cinderella's Royal Table, and Storybook Dining at Artist Point with Snow White. We had terrific meals at almost every place we ate, we had great character interactions, and we had terrific service at every restaurant. The only "miss" for us was at Chefs de France. We had a fabulous server, but we found the food very "meh" and we found the dining room to be uncomfortably loud. We felt the ambient noise in the restaurant was too high to hold a meaningful conversation, and we felt the food was mediocre.
5. My DH and I bought DVC direct in April of 2022 at VGF, sight unseen. In the past, we visited GF to eat at restaurants, and we stayed for a long weekend in a regular hotel room in 2016, but we had never seen the villa side of GF. So, my college roomie and I walked to GF from MK to see if we could get a peek at the villas. (My DH, two DSs, their buddy, and I are staying at the end of March in a 2 bedroom for our welcome home trip.) Chris, a terrific DVC guide at GF, gave us an on-the-spot tour. We were able to see the two bedroom model and the model of the new studio, and I am SO excited to get back to WDW to stay there! The rooms are beautiful, and it made me excited for our welcome home visit.
6. Transportation was great during our stay! We took the Sunshine Flyer from MCO for the first time, and while we had to wait a bit for our bus at MCO, once we were on board, the bus trip was quick and Pop was the first stop. We found it interesting that there are seat belts on every seat on the bus. We found Disney busses to and from the parks from Pop to be plentiful and timely, and when we Ubered a few times to get to places directly and quickly, we had great Uber drivers.
7. While my Disney gal pal is not adventurous when it comes to rollercoasters, I am! I skipped most of the rollercoasters this trip, because we had other things planned, but on a whim, I tried to get into the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. I wanted to gather "intel" to report to my family who can't wait to ride this for the first time in March. I missed the 7am window, and I was in another park on the morning of the day I wanted to ride it. I had to wait until 2 pm when I tapped in to Epcot to try to get into the afternoon queue, and I figured I had no chance, as it was an hour after the 1 pm queue. To my surprise, I was able to get a boarding group! Granted it was a very late boarding group, and I was worried that I would be called during our Chefs de France dinner, and I would miss my chance. I did, in fact, get called during our dinner, but I was able to head over to Guardians after dinner and get in line, no problem. The line moved fast, and I only waited maybe 20 minutes to get on the ride. And...it was AWESOME! The music during my ride was Miami Sound Machine: Conga, and it was so incredibly smooth. The technology was amazing to see, and I can't wait for my family to experience it in March. They'll love it!
8. We thoroughly enjoyed the Festival of the Arts at Epcot! We loved browsing the artists' booths (we each bought a print signed by the artist and my friend even got a selfie with him!) and we loved watching two artists rock out to fantastic music while creating side by side artistic pieces! So fun! The food booths were tasty, and while I found the long line at Canada for the specialty poutine disappointing, everything else we tried was phenomenal. The deconstructed Key Lime Pie was the definite winner of the food booths for us. Our original trip in the fall would have fallen during the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot, and we were so bummed that we missed that. We decided that the Festival of the Arts was as good, if not better than Food and Wine. The food booths were every bit as good as F & W, and we had the added bonus of lots of art booths. Plus, we LOVED the photo ops sprinkled throughout the area at Epcot. So funny to photograph ourselves as the Mona Lisa, Frida Khalo, and a CM even snapped our pic crossing the Delaware with George Washington. We howled with laughter each time we snapped ourselves, and we ran into so many friendly guests who were willing to snap our pictures in exchange for taking their pictures.
As you can see, we had a terrific trip. How can you go wrong when you take a trip to WDW with a bestie of 35+ years who shares your love of all things Disney? Feel free to ask me anything! I'll gladly report out on whatever I can!
P.S. Sorry! I don't know how to make the two pics of the artists straight and not sideways! Any advice?
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Sounds like the two of you had a great trip. Hope your first DVC stay is magical
