Pop Century 60's Section — Hotel in Bay Lake

So many things to cover here. We are long time Disney goers and have stayed at Art of Animation, Caribbean, All Star Music, and several others. We stay a minimum of 6 nights each visit.

This is our first time staying at Pop Century and, with the park experienced we had this go around, we probably won’t be back to Disney World.

First- when we checked in to both rooms, only one room actually got checked in. We went to tho front desk 3 separate times the first evening because only 1 of 4 apps/ magic bands were able to be used for the doors. They said they fixed it in the 3rd visit. We get to the first park and guess what? Only 1 of the 4 bands worked. The Customer Service Cast Member said the hotel didn’t fully check us in so our reservations hadn’t started- she was able to fix it.

Day 2- no issues. Normal day at a Disney resort.

Day 3- housekeeping came through and spilled some things. Not a big deal as we know they were trying to tidy the bathroom and stuff gets knocked over.

Day 4- we asked to turn housekeeping off. The front desk sends us two “Rooms Occupied” signs to “make sure” house keeping doesn’t come in.

Day 5- Housekeeping comes in at 9am while my spouse and I are still sleeping. Both rooms had Rooms Occupied signs. Day 5 cont- Our 2 older teen girls go back to room to get a nap in around 2pm. As one is stepping out of the shower, a male housekeeper comes through the adjoining door from our room to theirs. Luckily one kid jumps up and stop him from seeing the other nude stepping out of the shower. He asks if they need any coffee… Spouse and I bolt to the hotel and front desk where they tell us housekeeping was not turned off and that a ‘Housekeeping Manager’ has to check the rooms every day- for safety. WE HAVE NEVER BEEN TOLD THIS OVER ANY STAY EVER AT A DISNEY RESORT. We spoke with Bob. We explain that it was very disturbing to our teens and to please not use the adjoining doors to access rooms.

Day 6- Housekeeping shows up 9:30pm to the teens door. Uncalled. They thought it was us. They open the door and are handed 2 blankets. They close the door and let us know. Yes- we have a second convo about keeping the door locked and bolted and that we have access should we need.

Day 7- Housekeeping doesn’t show up in the am. However, at 4pm another make “safety“ check comes to their door. They deal out and run to the bathroom. He is outside their door for over a minute calling someone over the radio. Then he goes through our door and tries to access their room again- for over a minute. He finally leaves. We go talk to the front desk again. Patty informs us that housekeeping was turned in again for our room and has now “locked” any changes to the room.

We have two more nights to go and the teens will be with us at all times- which they shouldn’t have to be.

Will report back. #WaltDisneyWorld

Update: check out was this morning. We stayed out of the rooms alll day yesterday. 1 of 4 magic bands stopped allowing charges at 11am (check out time) even though we still had one day to go.

This morning- actual check out day- all magic bands stopped allowing charges. Teens were unable to buy breakfast until a credit card showed up from one of us. Check out is still 3 hours away and we have not checked out via the app.

We ask for Bell Service to arrive at 8am. They do. When we go to retrieve our bags an hour later, they can’t find it and have to ask what colors we have as they can’t locate it via the tag receipt that we gave them…

We were used to the well oiled machine that was Disney- even during Covid. Not the same anymore. Everyone was extremely polite and cheery but not being able to figure out repetitive issues lead us down the knit picky rabbit hole that just really made us realize the magic is gone- at least for us.

Room was decently clean- we had several bugs in both rooms but it’s Florida in the early summer. Lots of storage. You can hear when your neighbors around you open the bathroom door as it’s heavy and on a track. Cafeteria- it has cafeteria food. Good selection for...

Staying on property has a lot of perks, or so I thought. Like everything else in the last year or so the pandemic has changed expectations, for sure, but experiences even more so.

There is no pull up checkin because there are hundreds of rooms. So you park a few hundred feet away. No big deal unless it starts pouring rain. Something that is very common during the summer months of June and even through November.

Checkin itself is a great experience and the staff are patient and knowledgeable. They lose a star because the prices quoted everywhere are base prices without taxes and fees. In print, in person, every price referenced to us was x and when you see the charge on your card it will be y. No big deal, taxes are a part of life, but it’s almost as if they purposely don’t mention it. It was just weird for them to quote me the base price at checkin and only tell me the difference when I inquired about the difference in charges on my card a few days later.

There is no valet, almost impossible to find luggage carts, and no room service of any kind. If you need any special requests like pharmacy items they will be very expensive compared to outside the resort and limited availability and you have to walk down and get it. This means you may have to drive off property, for something you forgot or need anyway, so again staying on a Disney resort, leaves a little of the magic fairy dust wanting. So to sum up, the hospitality part of the magic doesn’t exist at this resort at this time. One of the biggest perks I was expecting for staying on property was buying merchandise and not having to carry it around, but that perk is also not available now.

So, having stayed off, and on property now, the only real perk besides the cool factor of staying on Disney property is the use of transportation to the parks. The sky liner is incredibly useful and convenient. That alone, may be worth it for some people. That may change when magic hour comes back to the parks, but for me, having the sky liner didn’t make the other tradeoffs worth it.

If I had to do it all again right bow, I would stay off property, get a better rate, better room, better service, and pay to park when I had dates at parks.

Our stay was 5 days with two adjoining rooms in June 2021. Two adults, two teens. We enjoyed 4 Disney parks while there. They charged $15 per night for parking. We payed Florida resident rates.

Make sure you have a Disney online account and download the My Disney Experience app so you can order food at the resort and unlock your room door.

The pools are excellent for families and they have towel service there....

Normally I'll go ahead and spend a little extra to stay at one of the nicer hotels wherever I'm going. This time, I let a friend of mine talk me into this hotel. In the first 10 min of being in the room, a roach the size of a small mouse crawled across the floor. I called the front desk and the head of housekeeping came to my room with a pest control guy. They explained that they don't see them often. They said they put down some gel bait poison to make sure if that one decided to come back it would take the bait and die. The service here is typical Disney Magic. Everything I need is a short walk away. A bit longer walk than some of the higher grade hotels, but still available nonetheless. The space, amenities, and food are all in one of those get what you pay for categories. The higher level hotels on Disney property that I've stayed in were, as you might expect, quite a bit nicer than this one, but then again, you pay quite a bit extra for that. As far as cleanliness, they seem about the same. I think location plays a part in this cost savings as well. Even though the skyliner is literally right next door to the building I'm staying in, it's still quite a ways out from almost all of the parks. Like most lesser expensive dwellings around big cities, property is cheaper, but the commute is longer. It might only be 10-15 min longer, but at Disney, that just means getting up that much earlier to get in the line you want to be in so you can ride or get what or where you want. Most people who are wise with their money would probably say that this is a good compromise for a Disney property. That said, I think the moderate or deluxe levels are just a bit more magical than the...