[cloverboy]

Hi all. Just back from a week stay at POP Century.

Just a few tidbits from my perspective to help others.

First off, we did not use Magical Express, we rented a car. We drove to every park and did not use Disney transport at all. We enjoyed having the freedom of going to the grocery store, and when we had to go into town to buy a new duffel bag for all the stuff we bought.

We loved POP. My kid really dug the Goofy Jets and the kiddie pool. Didn't get a chance to use the playground, but it looked real nice.

We had a quiet room, 4th floor corner. We checked in around 11 AM and got right in to the room. We had a fridge which was THE best investment. We kept water soda, milk cold and never had to go get ice. It was nice taking bottles of water into the park as the get expensive.

As for the Dining Plan. What a deal!!!! We got the free deal, and used it to the max. We saved close to $600 after adding it all up. It was almost too much food for one day. We ate at Le Cellier making reservations only 2 days ahead of time, and the bill for two of us was $115.00. FREE!!!

The servers were very helpful and very familiar with the plan. I figured out that they must enjoy this, because they are guaranteed 15% tip, so the bigger your bill, the better tip they get, so we always ordered everything we were entitled to. I also noticed that if you ordered a chocolate milk for the little one not on the meal plan and they ate off our plate, they never charged for the milk.

Had one small disturbing moment, but you can read about that on the other board....

Our housekeeper was so so. She never really went out of her way to do anything special even though I left that $5.00 tip everyday. Actually, I didn't have change one morning, so I left a note to her saying we would pay her twice the next day, we actually got no cups that day, and a stack of pillowcases in our room. Odd. But whatever.

The wait for rides was non existant. Walked on most rides, and used fast pass for the others. I don't think alot of people understood the FP system, because there were not a whole lot of people using them.

My 2.5 yr old went on a lot of rides. He dug Pirates of Carr. Small World, absolutely loved Pooh ride, Dumbo ride. Buzz ride (the second time, first was scary)

Went online with AOL Orlando number, was a local call .75 charge each call. Dial up is crazy slow....

Well, thats all I can remember. Ask if you have any questions, I'll answer to the best of my ability.

Toodles...

[Cavey]

Sounds like a great trip. I don't know why anyone goes during the busy season, with hour long lines!

How cool for you to get the free meal plan.

So tell us more about your trip!

[EmpressJenny]

I think the problem w/the FP system is that a lot of foreigners are in Disney this time of year, and the language barrier is an issue. Today Pete and I tried to give away FPs for TOT to a couple, and I was holding them out to the man, and he just looked at me and shook his head like we were in the open market and I was shoving a mango under his nose screaming for him to buy.

[lovemysons]

Sounds like you had a great trip. Glad the dining plan worked out well for you. Gotta love the fact that it was FREE!

We always are amazed at how many people don't use the FP system. We tried to give fast passes away too,and always get this bizarre reaction from people, like we are doing something illegal. Oh well.

[Dana]

Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for sharing it and welcome to disney central.

[mickaholic4077]

Sounds like you had a great trip. What was the small disturbing moment??(C'mon,you can't just throw out a tantalizing tidbit like that and not elaborate!!)

[lovemysons]

Originally Posted by mickaholic4077

Sounds like you had a great trip. What was the small disturbing moment??(C'mon,you can't just throw out a tantalizing tidbit like that and not elaborate!!)

( I was thinking the same thing!)

[kizzmitt]

Originally Posted by lovemysons

( I was thinking the same thing!)

Yes please tell us! Did it have anything to do with Pop? I'll be staying there real soon!

[cloverboy]

Ok, sorry for the tease. I was trying to think of a way to say it without being offensive to anyone.

What happened is that about three days after we got there, we went to the parks, and came back to the room to take a break in the afternoon.

The room had been made up by the housekeeper as usual. Well, as I sat on the bed, I looked over at the nitestand, and there was a small bottle there. Looking closer, I could see that it was a bottle, about 2/3 full, well worn and grimy. What it was was a bottle of a substance known to adults by two letters, namely the letter after J and the letter after X. It was pretty gross and grimy, and definately NOT ours! (Trying not to be offensive!!!)

Now, two theories came to mind.

1. The housekeeper just found this while cleaning (mind you three days after we got there)

2. Something was going on while we were out????

You see, my mind is a bit twisted. My wife wanted to call the manager and complain, but I can imagine how that conversation would go, and I really didn't want to cause any trouble. Would you have said anything????

After my mind stopped working overtime, we laughed it off (nervously of course) and enjoyed our stay.

That all being said, we REALLY enjoyed our stay at POP and would most definately stay there again. It's a great resort and a great price. I found the selection at the food court much improved since our last stay at the All Stars 7 years ago.

A few more hints, don't let your room key sit next to your cell phone. It will erase it and you'll have to go to the front desk for a new one. (Went thru two cards)

My verizon cell phone service worked great. Covered all areas, the signal being just a bit weak inside the Main Bldg at POP, strong everywhere else.

The full size iron board and iron was great. Used it everynight. Also, there is an alarm clock in the room which we didn't know until we got there.

Used our stroller everywhere. There were previous messages regarding stollen strollers and the such. Well, we left our stroller all over the parks, with our bag inside (nothing valuable inside) and nobody ever looked twice at it. We felt really safe just dumping it somewhere and doing what we wanted.

POP is a really big resort. You can see across the lake where they built a new Main Bldg for the rest of the resort, but nothing seems to be happening beyond that for expansion. I can envision the pool rooms at POP being very loud in the evening with kids screaming and music playing, so we were glad to be out of the way and quiet.

Again, get a fridge!! Well worth the money, cold drinks at all times, no lugging ice around, and it held a lot of stuff. There is a Publix grocery store about 5 minutes from POP that we shopped for water, milk and the sorts.

Well, that was my disturbing moment. Maybe wouldn't bother some people, but I'm the one who had to pick it up and throw it away. Yuck!

[mickaholic4077]

Yuck is right!!! I would have picked up the phone and called mousekeeping and asked them to come right away and pick it up.

[daisyd]

Thanks for the TR! Glad to hear about the free dining! You know, I had never considered one should order everything so the wait staff gets a bigger tip. Good point!

I have a question for you about your room. Did you use a port-a-crib for your son? If you did, did you have two beds, or one in there, and how crowded was it. I know it's far from spacious, but was it okay?

And all I can say about what you found in your room is "ick!"

[Boss Mouse]

eeewwwwww!

[chris5568]

I would have complained. I would have raised H***! Either they didn't clean very well the first couple of days or god only knows how long it was there. Or ?

[Cavey]

Originally Posted by cloverboy

Used our stroller everywhere. There were previous messages regarding stollen strollers and the such. Well, we left our stroller all over the parks, with our bag inside (nothing valuable inside) and nobody ever looked twice at it. We felt really safe just dumping it somewhere and doing what we wanted.

I think the majority consesus is that was a comment by a store employee who didn't know what he was talking about.

[lovemysons]

That was awfully disturbing. Sorry that we asked you to fill us in!

At least the rest of your vacation was enjoyable!