Disney’s Pop Century Resort was the first Disney resort hotel we ever stayed at. And while we’ve been extremely lucky to stay at some other amazing locations over the past couple of years (check out my resorts tab for more reviews—including The Grand Floridian, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and Riviera!), Pop Century has such a special place in our hearts! It will always be our favorite value resort, and we can’t wait to return for another weeklong stay there this summer. We keep staying at Pop Century because we genuinely LOVE it there. Read on to see all the things we love about this family-friendly resort!
1. It’s affordable!
We love going to Disney, but it is not a cheap vacation by any means. In case you’re not super familiar with Disney hotels, there are three tiers—deluxe, moderate, and value. Disney’s Pop Century Resort falls in the value tier, which makes it very affordable for us. Values generally have less spacious rooms, fewer dining options, and fewer transportation options than moderate and deluxe resorts. But that doesn’t mean they’re bad places to stay!
We’re a family of three, so the value room size is very manageable for us. And we aren’t particularly concerned about having table service dining at our hotel. We also don’t spend a lot of time at the pool, so that’s not really a concern for us either (though Pop Century has THREE pools, and the Hippy Dippy Pool is very fun). Value resorts work great for us right now, and in my opinion, Pop is the best of all the Values!
2. It has a killer arcade.
The Fast Forward Arcade at Disney’s Pop Century Resort is a great size compared to arcades at some of the other resorts (even deluxe ones!). It can get a little crowded in the evenings, but there’s still plenty of space for kids to spread out and always enough games for everyone. It also has massage chairs (major bonus for parents)! I love to relax in the massage chair and watch my boys play Space Invaders (see above photo).
3. The theming is so fun.
The theming at Pop Century is over the top, and that’s what we love about it! As a 90s kid, I personally love the 80s/90s section (we’ve stayed there twice). From the Rubix cube stairwells to that massive walkman—I love it all!
More recently, we’ve payed the premium price tag for a preferred room in the 60s section, and I think it’s absolutely worth it for that two-minute walk to the Skyliner. It’s also really nice to be close to the lobby, the food court, the main pool, and the pool bar! I love that wall of flowers outside the pool bar. So many places at this resort make for great photo backdrops!
And the pop-art theming in the rooms is awesome, too, with Mickey and Pluto above the beds. It’s all just really well done!
4. It’s a Skyliner resort.
The Skyliner is Disney’s newest transportation option, and it is such a game-changer for Disney’s Pop Century Resort. The Skyliner will take you from Pop Century (or Art of Animation, which is right across the bridge) to the hub at Caribbean Beach Resort, where you can get a connecting Skyliner to Hollywood Studios or Epcot (or the Riviera Resort).
It cannot be overstated how awesome it is to be on the Skyliner. It’s hard to admit this, but even when we stayed at a deluxe resort on the monorail (the monorail!), we missed the Skyliner. The great thing about the Skyliner is you’re never crammed in. You might be directed to share a gondola with another party (this happens to us often since we’re a small party), but they’re capped at 8 people (I think). So it’s not like cramming into a bus or the monorail.
Additionally, even if the line looks long we’ve never waited more than 20 minutes for the Skyliner, even at park close. It takes less than 15 minutes to get to Hollywood Studios from Pop Century, and about 20 minutes to get to Epcot. I’ve written a whole post about how much we love the Skyliner, if you want more information.
The busses at Pop Century are also pretty well done. (You still need to take a bus to get to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, or Disney Springs.) I like that there is one central bus station. The lines can get long in the mornings, but we’ve never had to wait longer than 20 minutes. In my experience, Pop rarely (if ever) has to share a bus with any other resorts, and since it’s such a large resort, the busses run pretty frequently.
5. Finally, Pop Century just feels like home!
Since we’ve stayed here multiple times, we know the resort well. We know the quickest routes from our room to Classic Hall and the busses and what our favorites are in the food court (I crave that Tie Dye Cheesecake almost as much as Dole Whip!). The woosh of the automatic doors and that blast of AC and the smell of the lobby—can you just close your eyes and imagine it?—absolutely nothing beats that Disney “coming home” feeling!
Which WDW Resort gives you that “coming home” feeling? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear about it!
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[…] reservation at Chef Mickey’s (my husband’s childhood favorite). We hopped on the bus from Pop Century to Magic Kingdom, where we would catch the monorail to the Contemporary. As we walked from the bus […]
[…] easy to get to if you’re staying at another resort that’s on the Skyliner, like Pop Century!). But arriving at the Riviera to stay at the Riviera was a totally different experience! This […]