Pop Century - TouringPlans.com Blog

Yes, it’s true, there have been times where it feels like I’ve spent more time in Disney’s Pop Century Resort than in my own home. As a father with two children, it’s difficult to take trips to Walt Disney World and splurge on hotels, because most of our time is spent in the parks, and hotels are used for sleeping. With two younger kids who are still willing to share a bed most of the time, the value of a Disney Value Resort is too much to pass up. So, on most of our trips, I find myself choosing which building at Pop Century to stay at, rather than which resort I’ll be picking.

But why Pop Century, you might ask? Aren’t the All-Star Resorts also Value Resorts? It’s true, they are. But as far as amenities and ease of access to the parks goes, Pop Century has them beat. Small touches, like the food court, shelves above the sinks, little indentions in the sink to put your soap – they all add up to make Pop a shade better than the All-Stars. For just $5-10 more per night, I’m able to enjoy myself at Pop Century and really immerse myself in the vacation. It fits like an old shoe now. Here’s what I really enjoy about Pop:

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First of all, I’m so sorry I haven’t finished my trip report sooner. I got home a week ago and have been sick, trying to get back into the swing of things at the office (and life in general), and have had illness in the family. It’s been one of those weeks. On Monday, I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled programming. So without further ado here’s an overview of the rest of my trip.

On Wednesday we checked out of Wilderness Lodge, moved back to Pop Century, and headed to the Animal Kingdom. Have you ever noticed how hot this park feels? As the day progressed we became more and more miserably hot! We hit most of the headliner attractions and had lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque. Julie had to go back to North Carolina that afternoon so Tom and I decided to take a break and go to the pool at Pop when she left. I now understand why the Unofficial Guide recommends doing this! It was exactly what we needed. That evening we headed to Downtown Disney to have dinner, ice cream at Ghirardelli’s (yum!), and do a bit of shopping.

Thursday we finally got to sleep in! Tom got up just in time to still grab breakfast at Everything Pop. It was such a nice break! When we finally got going we parked at DHS and took to boat over to Epcot’s International Gateway. We spent the afternoon finishing up our drinking around the world and exploring some of the countries we often overlook. We grabbed drinks in Morocco, Italy, and Japan to conclude our expedition. We had dinner at Biergarten in Germany which is climbing up my list of favorite places to eat in WDW. Later we headed back to DHS to try to hit up a few attractions before calling it a night. We didn’t realize it was Fantasmic! was running that night, making it pretty crowded. We decided to skip out early since we weren’t in the mood for the mob.

On our last full day of vacation we grabbed a breakfast ADR at Whispering Canyon Café. After eating far too much we hopped on the boat to visit Magic Kingdom. After wandering around Frontierland and Adventureland for a while we headed back to Pop for a pool break. After our break we went to Epcot to hang out in Future World. We tried some of the activities in Innoventions since I had never spent much time in there. Later, our friend Don came to join us after he was finished with work for the day. We capped off a good day in the parks with some drinks at Petals at Pop.

Saturday was departure day. I was planning on meeting up with Don at Magic Kingdom for a while before making my way to the airport, but I woke up sick. The idea of walking around MK in 95 degree weather not feeling well was not appealing. I called Jetblue and was able to snag a seat on an earlier flight. So my last day was sort of a bust, but luckily it didn’t spoil the trip.

Thanks for following along on twitter and my few blogs about my trip! It was another great trip with great friends. Stay tuned to future blogs to hear more detailed reports on some of my activities.

Next week I’ll give my review of Disney’s newest restaurant Sanaa…

One of the great things about traveling as a 20-something is traveling with good friends. Even better is splitting the hotel fees! When selecting a resort you have to ask yourself what you can afford and what you really need from the accommodations during your stay. A lot of times we just go for the cheapest option, allowing us to make multiple WDW trips per year. Plus, we usually are up and at ‘em early in the morning and down return to our room until the wee hours so it doesn’t make sense for us pay for fancy accommodations. But our little posse has grown this year and now we have to consider where we can get a room that will comfortably fit three adults or get a second room. Having three of us to split the bill has allowed us to stay at some deluxe resorts all in one room. So with all of that in mind, where did we decide to stay this time?

Since this upcoming trip is going to be so long we decided to split it up among a value resort and a deluxe resort. The plot gets a bit confusing, but try to stay with me. The first three nights we’re stay at Pop Century with another friend of ours, Don. The next three nights we’re going to enjoy some Pacific Northwest atmosphere at the Wilderness Lodge. Then, Julie has to leave us and Tom and I will head back to Pop since there will only be two of us.

We decided to get two rooms at Pop the first few nights because with Disney’s Hollywood Studios 20^th anniversary festivities we’ll only been in the room to sleep and we had a fourth friend so share the second room. Since we can make use of either annual pass or UK resident discounts (thanks, Tom!) we decided to splurge on the Wilderness Lodge for a few nights. We were able to book a bunk bed room since WL doesn’t offer a day bed. This is one of Julie’s favorites, but Tom and I have never stayed here before (just got harassed by the CMs at Whispering Canyon Café). We’ll probably spend a lot of time in the Magic Kingdom during this stay since we’ll have access to the Lodge’s boat. And since Julie is leaving us Tom and I decided to cheap out and go back to Pop after she takes off.

I hope our plans might give you some ideas for your own upcoming trip! Be sure to weigh all of the options for your group and get the best deal you can. Good luck and happy travels!

Next week: To rent a car or not to rent a car, that is the question.