Disney's Pop Century Resort is located just down the road from Disney's Wide World of Sports and next to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort (well the West side of it). Half of the Resort opened in 2003 and there is no opening date slated for the rest. The resort's rooms are similiar in size and amenities to those of Disney's All Star Resorts. They are the smallest Disney owned rooms. You have your choice of two double beds or a king. They have many more adjoining rooms than the All Stars. Each cluster of buildings is themed to a different decade and has props and theming to match. Ranging from giant Yo-Yos to Rubics Cubes. Each room is also themed to the decade. For example the rooms in the 50s are heavy on Disneyland Memorabillia(the park opened in 1955). The pool in the 50s area is themed to a giant Juke Box. The resort is build along a lake and there will be a bridge connecting the two halfs. Each half has its own food court, gift shop, bus stops, and guest services area.

In the Classic Years the foodcourt/giftshop are called Everything Pop! and are connected. If you enter through the main lobby you pass through the gift shop to enter the dining area, the food court is in the back. There is a wide variety of hot, warm, and cold meals available from 6am-midnight most days. Also the areas of the dining room each have a theme, so be sure to look around.

My first stayed at the Pop Century, Classic Years, for three nights in May 2004 and we were really impressed with the resort, since 2004 we have stayed here several times. We have stayed at all three of the All Star Resorts over the years and it seems Disney learned from them. I talked with several Disney Cast Members and several other guests and everyone had positive things to say about Pop and all said it was better than the All Star Resorts, but no one could but their finger on exactly why. It was not because they were new, several, including us, had stayed at the All Stars when they were new. It might have been the layout. There seemed to be much more green around the resort. Green being gardens, paths, trees, etc.. The rooms seemed about the same (one nice thing, they have bottles of shampoo and not dispensers like All Star). The food court was much nicer to us, but most of the food is the same Disney faire, so that's not why its better. It may have been the theme, but that doesn't quite match either. Were big sports and movie fans (and several of the large elements are Pop are classic Disney characters just as All Star Movies has). So I will have to leave it as inconclusive, but we definitely thought Pop Century was a step above All Star, sort of version 2.0 of Disney Value resorts.

Since 2004 we have stayed at Pop Century several times and each time thought the resort fit the bill (an affordable Disney solution) quite well.

"How is breakfast at the food court? Does the gift shop carry doughnuts and food items? Are the rooms really small? How loud does it seem at night? "

And our reply was:

Breakfast: The first note on breakfast is that it opens at 6am, but the hot food really doesn't start until 7am. At 6 you could buy pastries, fruits, and the "mini-grocery store" was open. You have a good selection of hot meals once it opens, the traditional hotcakes, frenchtoast, bacon, sausage, waffles, omlets, etc.. I really thought the variety was there and if you wanted something different each morning odds were you could find it. But then again remember its all considered "fastfood" not a sit down breakfast like you would find at the Concourse Steakhouse or Yacht Club Galley, but its good food and really got the days started on the right note. Also it seemed affordable by Disney standards. I don't remember the prices off the top of my head but I could look it up if your interested.

As for the gift shop... the Gift shop and food court are combined into one entitity called "Everything Pop", but inside they are separated. As for doughnuts and other food items they are all located in middle (well a corner in the middle) of the foodcourt. There was a good selection of juices, bakery items, bagels, cerals, fruits, etc... in this area. As well as cookies, candy, ice cream, etc.. We were surprised that some of the boxed bakegoods made by outside companies had the same prices marked as the local grocery stores did.

The rooms are about equal to the All Star Resorts, which makes them the smallest Disney owned rooms. There were four adults in our group and we ended up getting two rooms (that adjoined) so it did not seem small to us. If we were to try and have all four in one room plus all the luggage it would have been extremely tight, for a night or two it would have been tolerable, but any longer would have been tough.

It seemed much quieter than the All Stars. Not sure if this was due to better construction or the lack of large groups of teenagers staying close by. We rarely heard the people around us (also note we did not spend that much time in the room except to sleep and change clothes). I would rate the noise level about average when compared to other resorts.

• Everything Pop!
• Pizza Delivery
  
  

Pop Century - Classic Years - 2 double beds


Pop Century - Classic Years - 2 double beds

Pop Century - Classic Years

Pop Century - Classic Years


Pop Century - Classic Years - 2 double beds

Pop Century - Classic Years - 1 King Bed

Pop Century - Classic Years