Pop Century Room Renovations

[glocon]

scrappinginontario- we are staying at pop for the first time in July- would taking the generation gap bridge to aoa be a short cut? Is the bus situation there better than what is available at pop?
thanks!

 

[fla4fun]

scrappinginontario- we are staying at pop for the first time in July- would taking the generation gap bridge to aoa be a short cut? Is the bus situation there better than what is available at pop?
thanks!

I have stayed at both, and haven't seen a significant difference in service between them. If I'm waiting for a Pop bus at a park an AoA will usually come first, and if I'm waiting for an AoA bus, a Pop bus will come first - just how things go for me (although generally I haven't had to wait long for either one). I have had good luck with Pop buses everywhere except Disney Springs, but I have bad luck catching any type of transportation back from Disney Springs regardless of what resort I'm headed to. The bus stops at the parks for AoA and Pop are usually right next to each other, so there's no advantage of one over the other as far as walking distance to the bus either. Crowds seem to be about the same for both as well.

I haven't had any issue catching a bus at Pop, especially now that they have the boards up. Once you get a handle on the schedule, I got to the point I could pretty much time my arrival at the bus stop as the bus was pulling in.

If you are walking up and an AoA bus is already loading and there's no Pop bus in sight, I've been known to hop on the AoA bus, but most of the time I just wait for the Pop bus.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I have a preferred room booked at POP for early July. Since it appears all preferred rooms have been renovated or are currently closed for renovations, what should I put in my request? Preferred rooms are in the 70s, 60s and 50 sections right? Any area better than others? I understand lake view isn't an option for preferred? Don't really wanna be looking at the parking lot lol. I didn't even want a preferred room, but that's all that was available for our dates.

No preferred rooms face parking lots. Even the rooms that do, the 'view' generally inclined does vegetation.

 

[Haley R]

scrappinginontario- we are staying at pop for the first time in July- would taking the generation gap bridge to aoa be a short cut? Is the bus situation there better than what is available at pop?
thanks!

We only had one bus problem while staying at Pop and it was when we were at AK. It took about 20 minutes for a bus to show up while other resorts had lots of buses showing up. That really wasn't too long to wait, but it felt like a long time because we were hot and tired. We could've walked over and got on the AoA bus, but our niece was too tired and wouldn't have made the walk back from AoA. Our room at Pop was right next to the bus stop so we just chose to always use our buses.

 

[kaytieeldr]

We only had one bus problem while staying at Pop and it was when we were at AK. It took about 20 minutes for a bus to show up while other resorts had lots of buses showing up.

I can understand it feeling like a problem, but the typical bus interval is 20 minutes.

 

[strike4]

Hm. Trying to decide what to request. We have booked a standard rom starting June 17th. I’ve always wanted to stay in the 50’s section, but both times we’ve had 70’s.

I definitely don’t want 80’s and especially not 90’s.

I think I’ll be better off requesting lake view. Would it be a good guess that they will start on Building 2 by June 17th? I really don’t want to be in a non refurbished room. I was at Pop last summer when all the renovations were going on and didn’t get a refurbished room. I never would have thought they’d still be working on them this summer.

Or maybe I’ll just call and ask for refurbished and lake view. That’s really what I want. Maybe NEXT summer we will all be able to stay in a refurbished room (when quite a few of them will already be two years old).

I only saw one side of building one and all of it was being worked on. What I would do is wait until a week before you go and then make my requests so you can watch what is going on. I too wanted 50's section
so I watched this thread religiously.

 

[Honeypot]

scrappinginontario- we are staying at pop for the first time in July- would taking the generation gap bridge to aoa be a short cut? Is the bus situation there better than what is available at pop?
thanks!

I don't know if we got lucky, but we hardly waited for any buses to or from pop. Most of the time it took under 5 minutes before a bus showed up. There was only one time we had a big wait, and that was after park close at Hollywood Studios. And that was because there was a school group of 125-150 kids that happened to get in line just before us. That night we actually contemplated grabbing an AOA bus as their line was shorter, but we just waited it out and I think it took maybe 30 min?

 

[HopperFan]

No preferred rooms face parking lots. Even the rooms that do, the 'view' generally inclined does vegetation.

Actually there are Preferred rooms in building 10 and building 1 that face the parking lots and transportation areas. Plenty of Building 10 Preferred face a large parking lot with some rooms view being fairly unobstructed and only a few feet away, in addition to the bus exit drive and the delivery drive to the loading area. Building 3 has some Preferred that face towards the parking area, the hotel drop off driveway and the bell services walkways where they come in and out plus all the ecvs are parked. I've been "upgraded" to one of these rooms and while it was convenient to walking to the main hub, they were anything but quiet areas.

As far as standard, there are some in buildings 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 where the parking lot is right there in full view, others where it is buffered by a few trees. Of course pool noise can be much worse than parking lot noise, it just depends on how much one is bothered by it.

Personally I think POP offers way more standard rooms with almost deluxe "views" with the lake there so would never book Preferred.

 

[Haley R]

I can understand it feeling like a problem, but the typical bus interval is 20 minutes.

That's why I said it really wasn't that long of a wait. It just felt like it because we were hot and tired from doing After Hours the night before. I don't think I've ever really waited a significant amount of time for a bus on any trip, but that's because we arrive really early to the stops in the morning and leave awhile after fireworks at night to let the crowds thin out.

 

[DisLiss]

We were there for 8 nights in Jan. Yes I gently bumped the frame once or twice but really it’s not hard to be aware of your surroundings. The platform is easy to see. Unless you are a person who moves quickly most times it isn’t difficult to avoid the platform edges.

I have truly terrible vision, so I'll chop up a pool noodle to use just in case. I saw where someone else used 6" pieces just on the very corners, so I figure fitting four 6" sliced pool noodle segments into our luggage shouldn't be any trouble. One per person, LOL!

 

[MommyinHonduras]

Update: Just took a stroll by the 50s. Building three is almost all open. There were a few random rooms with paper on the windows but I saw people coming and going on all sides. Building 2 has started. The t shape that goes off the back is closed. Pool side and those that back up to them are still open. Some of the pool side rooms on building 1 look close and others still have all the furniture wrapped in plastic and nothing installed.

 

[scrappinginontario]

scrappinginontario- we are staying at pop for the first time in July- would taking the generation gap bridge to aoa be a short cut? Is the bus situation there better than what is available at pop?
thanks!

I wouldn’t consider it s short cut (even if you’re staying in the rooms closest to the bridge) it’s just a nice option to use if you don’t mind a little extra walking and their bus arrives first. We also prefer the AoA food court to Pop’s so if we’re grabbing a bite on the way back, we sometimes go there.

When we’re in the 60’s section we end up using AoA buses about 20% of the time. Our last visit we were in the 80’s so we only used the Pop buses as that walk was more than enough at the end of a long day.

I feel there are probably more buses for Pop than AoA as there are more rooms but that’s just my guess.

Unless we’ve left a park exactly at closing, bus waits have been reasonable. I like to actually check my watch and time the wait and find it is much shorter than it feels at the end of a long day. Yes, ocassionally the waits are longer but honestly this happens about 1 bus ride out of every 2 or 3 trip and we take a lot of buses each trip!

 

[DisLiss]

Okay, so pack pool noodle pieces and have a swiffer delivered to my room. Got it. Oh, and earplugs.

 

[Haley R]

Okay, so pack pool noodle pieces and have a swiffer delivered to my room. Got it. Oh, and earplugs.

I just brought wet wipes that we used to wipe up the floor. It was easier than bringing/shipping a swiffer. As far as earplugs, my SIL went with and snored the whole trip lol. DH ended up having the brilliant idea of listening to a box fan on Youtube on our phones. I hadn't slept that well in awhile and now I do that every time I stay at a hotel.

 

[Candlelady]

Okay, so pack pool noodle pieces and have a swiffer delivered to my room. Got it. Oh, and earplugs.

We asked one of the housekeepers for extra bath towels. Folded them, tucked into the corners under the mattress so the wooden corners were covered. No cost and didn't take up precious space in our suitcases. We walked into those towels many times.

 

[Honeypot]

I was planning on packing pool noodles, I even bought a couple just for this trip, then ended up not bringing them in the last minute mad scramble. In the end it was totally fine that I didn't have them, no one walked into the bed even once as far as I know. Now noise is a totally different thing, and I always travel with a white noise machine. My kids used them when they were babies, we all sleep with fans on in our room, and it helps all of us sleep better.

 

[DisLiss]

For those who like the sound of an actual fan, they sell really small desktop fans that you can plug into your computer or a wall. They could easily be tucked into your luggage.

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

We have standard pool view, and the choice of requesting 50's or 80's. From reading it seems like I should request 80's for my best chance at a refurbished room?

 

[scrappinginontario]

We have standard pool view, and the choice of requesting 50's or 80's. From reading it seems like I should request 80's for my best chance at a refurbished room?

When do you arrive? At this point almost all Standard Pool View rooms are either refurbished or closed for refurbishment. There are portions of Bldg 2 that are still open pre-refurbished but since they've closed the back of that building I would anticipate that the remainder of the Standard Pool View rooms will be closing in the next 3-6 weeks.

If you like to go back to your room for a rest during the day, 80's is recommended as 50's will be being worked on for the next few months.

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

When do you arrive? At this point almost all Standard Pool View rooms are either refurbished or closed for refurbishment. There are portions of Bldg 2 that are still open pre-refurbished but since they've closed the back of that building I would anticipate that the remainder of the Standard Pool View rooms will be closing in the next 3-6 weeks.

If you like to go back to your room for a rest during the day, 80's is recommended as 50's will be being worked on for the next few months.

We arrive on June 28th