POP Century is one of the five Walt Disney World “value” resorts. The price ranges anywhere between $160 to well over $200 a night. This Resort is priced in the middle of the value resorts with the All Star Resorts being the cheapest. 

Even though it is expensive compared to area hotels, it is cheap compared to Disney Hotels. The price you are paying is for the convenience of getting to the parks. Boy is it pretty easy to get to the parks while staying here. Having the Skyliner does help justify the price being higher than the All Star Resorts. 

If you are planning a trip to WDW and looking for a good on site budget friendly hotel continue reading all about this popular Walt Disney World Resort. Some things might even surprise you.

Room

The rooms at POP Century will not blow you away but they are really nice. Each room has a queen bed and a Murphy bed that pulls down into a queen size bed. All of the rooms now have hardwood floors ever since the remodel back in 2017.

The beds are very comfortable. They will definitely give you a good night’s sleep after a long day in the park. The pillows are also very comfortable. 

I would say that the beds are a little on the softer side. I myself like a firmer bed but I was still able to get a solid rest sleeping here.

One thing I really liked was being about to fold the one bed up during the day. I wake up pretty early and sometimes like to sit at the table to read or write some posts. Thankfully, the one bed is a Murphy bed and can do this. It also makes for a great spot to eat breakfast or dinner in the room.

 Each room has a small “prep area”. Here you will find a mini fridge (and I do mean mini), shelves, and a coffee maker. It’s not a large area by any means but you can put a couple of bottles of water in the fridge and snacks on the shelves. 

The coffee in the room isn’t too bad. Of course, the coffee in the food court is much better. However, as we will get into more down below, the food court does not open until 7.

The bathroom area is a decent size. You have a sliding door where the sink is that gives you plenty of room to change at. Inside where the shower and toilet area is, it can be a little tight to try and change in there. 

The water pressure (60’s building 5, 4th floor) was really good at the sink. The temp was great as well.

Inside the shower the pressure was great too. However, trying to find the perfect temp was difficult at times. 

The flushing power for the toilet was spot on too! No need to worry about trying to find a plunger or anything. 

The room can feel a little tight at times. If you are a family of four with 2 adults and 2 teenagers you might feel cramped and on top of each other. 

It’s not too big of a deal if you won’t be spending a lot of time in the room. We spent most of our time in the parks or at the pool. Only at night trying to get ready for bed did it feel a little tight for us.  

Resort Overview 

POP Century is a pretty big resort with a total of 10 buildings. Each building has 4 floors. Each floor has 172 rooms that sleep up to four guests. 

Each different building is themed after a different decade from the 1950’s to the 90’s. You will find oversized bowling pins, yo-yos, 8 track tapes and more. Overall the themes are done really well. 

There is a nice walkway around the resort that also loops around Art of Animation. As you walk you will come across many different years and important things that happened then. It is a nice little touch.

POP Century has three different pools to pick from. They are the Bowling Pin pool, Computer Pool, and the Hippy Dippy Pool. The bowling pin pool is located in the 50’s section. The computer pool is located in the 80’s and 90’s area.

The Hippy Dippy pool is the main pool at the resort. It is a pretty decent size and is shaped like a flower. You will not find any slides here. None of the value resorts have slides at their pools. However, there are flower shaped water heads that shoot out water.

The water coming out was nice and cold unlike the pools. Now I did visit in the beginning of August when most days it felt like 110 plus. Plus during my week-long stay we never had any afternoon showers. 

Everything POP shopping & dining is the food court at POP Century Resort. The food here is pretty good. However, I wouldn’t say anything on the menu is a must try.

I would have no problem going back here again and ordering food. Everything we ordered was very good. I just know for me, I wouldn’t be upset if I didn’t get food here again.

Now I will say breakfast was very good. Plus it wasn’t over priced. The price seemed very reasonable.

POP Century also has a poolside bar. The bar is called Petals. It doesn’t have a huge selection of drinks but they do have some frozen ones that you may enjoy.

Walking around the resort you will find many nods to pop culture of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, I can clearly remember all of these things. My daughter might not have a clue but I filled her in on some things.

Transportation

POP Century offers two different ways to get to the theme parks. If you are going to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs, or the water parks they have buses out front. The buses come every 10 to 15 minutes and is a great options if you don’t have your own car.

Personally, I find it faster and easier to drive to the theme parks. Plus you get free parking at the theme parks if you are staying at a Disney Resort.

The other mode of transportation is the Skyliner. The Skyliner takes you to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. You will need to disembark at Caribbean Beach Resort and go to the correct line that will take you to either park.

The Skyliner does not run during bad weather. If the weather is bad they will usually offer buses. Most of the time the weather will improve before the buses even show up.

Now if you are scared of heights or just scared of the skyliner in general, you are out of luck. The skyliner is the only option to get you to and from EPCOT or Hollywood Studios.

The bad

I want to first start out by saying your experience may be different than ours. I have stayed at POP Century three times in the last five years and have had overall a great time. This time I’ve had some issues. Nothing that would make me say “no way am I ever staying here again”. 

But things that might have me consider a different resort. Like I said, these things didn’t ruin my trip. Just made it a little less fun.

The first thing was the lack of mousekeeping. During my 6 night, 7 day stay they came through my room once. They didn’t come and give us new towels or take out the trash till day 5. It’s supposed to be every other day.

Back when you could opt out of mousekeeping and you received a gift card. I would do that every single time. They no longer offer that so I should have them coming through the room a couple of times during a stay. I get that they are short handed and I know I can call for more towels or to get the trash. Just at the end of a long day that is the last thing I want to do.

Another thing that always seemed to happen was the main pool closing down for about an hour each day. Now this wasn’t the fault of the lifeguards or POP Century. This was the result of parents not using the proper swimwear for their babies.

Like we said earlier this is a budget resort. A lot of families that say here are on a pretty tight budget and we all know how much a stay at WDW is now a days.

Other thing I was not happy about and it happens at every Disney World Resort is the food court opening an hour later and closing an hour earlier. The hours for the food court are not 7am-11pm. It use to be 6am to midnight.

Most people are already standing in line to get to the theme parks by 7. You need to figure out if it is more important to be one of the first in line at Flight of Passage or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Or if you want to get some food and coffee in you before you hit the parks.

I know I will visit POP Century again in the future. Not sure if they will be next year or in a couple of years. POP is one of my favorite resort to stay at. I just love the bright colors and it’s price compared to other WDW Resorts.

Have you ever stayed at POP Century Resort? Do you plan on visiting soon? What makes you want to stay here? Let us know in the comments below.