Disney's POP CENTURY RESORT Information & Questions

[scrappinginontario]

A tip to all those with upcoming travel, please check your flights often. Similar to @Nick6300, our flights have been changed a number of times and I was only contacted by Southwest once. We originally had direct flights booked in both directions and with the latest changes all direct flights have been removed. Similar things have happened to many others so during these challenging times, checking flights often is recommended.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Are you sure on the Magical Express? That’s a concern and maybe axe that idea of switching. Thanks. We didn’t want to rent a car.

100% positive. Never did, in its over 15 years of operation. Dolphin, either. Or Shades of Green, or Four Seasons, or any Hotel Plaza Boulevard hotel.

 

[wendow]

What time do you think they started lining up?

I’m not sure what time people began lining up. We were definitely running late that morning and didn’t get in line til 9:09. About an hour too late! From what I’m reading, be in line at 8:00 at the latest.

 

[wendow]

A tip to all those with upcoming travel, please check your flights often. Similar to @Nick6300, our flights have been changed a number of times and I was only contacted by Southwest once. We originally had direct flights booked in both directions and with the latest changes all direct flights have been removed. Similar things have happened to many others so during these challenging times, checking flights often is recommended.

Yep, my dd’s end of sept flight has been changed twice now. SW did contact her but everyone should be checking on their own as well.

 

[wendow]

Are you sure on the Magical Express? That’s a concern and maybe axe that idea of switching. Thanks. We didn’t want to rent a car.

Agree with others! Definitely no ME for swolphin. We’ve used Uber to/from MCO when staying there.

 

[MinnieMSue]

Our southwest non-stop flights both changed slightly but wasn’t a big deal. Yesterday I checked (well, honestly I have been checking daily or more often) and my return flight was changed from a 2 hr non-stop that gave us most of our AK day to a flight leaving many hours earlier and taking 6 hours counting layover. No other decent options that day so I changed it (for no extra cost) to a non-stop going out the following day. I called Disney and got an amazing CM - wish I had gotten his name but I have him all 5’a in the survey after the call. He was able to extend our sun and fun offer another night. Not a ton of savings but every bit helped. He knew a lot about Disney and knew we were frequent visitors and we had a lovely chat when he was finalizing things. Only problem is that changed flight doesn’t exist in any other system. My flight app doesn’t recognize it and Magical express doesn’t recognize the flight number. Hopefully they fix that pretty soonn

 

[Nick6300]

Agree with others! Definitely no ME for swolphin. We’ve used Uber to/from MCO when staying there.

How pricey was your uber ea way from and to mco? There’s a shuttle too but with stops. We don’t want to rent a car given we’re also not APs and would have to pay for parking at ea park. If we were driving we’d just stay off property. I mean, I guess we can quickly explore a few other options too but I’d think the other options are going to be more $. More than likely stay at Pop but I guess we can look at CBR, and few others.

 

[StageTek]

How pricey was your uber ea way from and to mco?

You'll find that Uber to the resorts is between $30 and $35 depending on the time of day.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

How pricey was your uber ea way from and to mco? There’s a shuttle too but with stops. We don’t want to rent a car given we’re also not APs and would have to pay for parking at ea park. If we were driving we’d just stay off property. I mean, I guess we can quickly explore a few other options too but I’d think the other options are going to be more $. More than likely stay at Pop but I guess we can look at Boardwalk, CBR, and few others.

It's worth looking into Alamo.. we got a one day rate of $35 one way last spring..
I used the car to go to walmart etc before I turned it in.... we did not care what size so I picked suppliers choice on priceline. With covid this time we are keeping the car the whole time and we rented off site so the price was cheaper.. $110 the whole week at fox rental so I did not mind parking fees

 

[koquinn]

Dumb question but I was looking at the Uber app just to get an idea on price. Do they not have big enough cars for 6 people anymore? Will we have to split? I've never had to do that before.

 

[AndreaDanger]

How pricey was your uber ea way from and to mco? There’s a shuttle too but with stops. We don’t want to rent a car given we’re also not APs and would have to pay for parking at ea park. If we were driving we’d just stay off property. I mean, I guess we can quickly explore a few other options too but I’d think the other options are going to be more $. More than likely stay at Pop but I guess we can look at Boardwalk, CBR, and few others.

If you're comfortable making opaque bookings, Priceline has good Express Deals for Swan right now, too. I priced out 5 nights Labor Day week, and the average nightly rate is $127 before fees. I do have a 15% code you could also use for that (expires tomorrow, 8/6). With that code, my total for 5 nights, including all fees and taxes, was $835.50. Not sure if a non-refundable booking like that is ideal for you with the flight uncertainty, but I'd be happy to DM you the promo code if you're interested.

 

[Nick6300]

It's worth looking into Alamo.. we got a one day rate of $35 one way last spring..
I used the car to go to walmart etc before I turned it in.... we did not care what size so I picked suppliers choice on priceline. With covid this time we are keeping the car the whole time and we rented off site so the price was cheaper.. $110 the whole week at fox rental so I did not mind parking fees

Sounds like a great price. If we were starting fresh with plans, I’m not sure we’d go at all, but renting a car sounds more palatable right now. We haven’t driven around property since Dec 2017, and July 2016 before that. Been spoiled with relying on Disney transportation.

I’m a little afraid of rideshares. Last time I had uber, a European hacked my acct and traveled all over different countries over there. I constantly had drivers calling me if I was ready to be picked up in various languages, and there was no customer service number to cancel your acct. You could only email an wait for a response. Haven’t used uber/lyft since.

 

[Nick6300]

If you're comfortable making opaque bookings, Priceline has good Express Deals for Swan right now, too. I priced out 5 nights Labor Day week, and the average nightly rate is $127 before fees. I do have a 15% code you could also use for that (expires tomorrow, 8/6). With that code, my total for 5 nights, including all fees and taxes, was $835.50. Not sure if a non-refundable booking like that is ideal for you with the flight uncertainty, but I'd be happy to DM you the promo code if you're interested.

Thanks for looking into it! Sure I’ll take a look and consider it, if you don’t mind. Thanks. I think the non refundable thing - is out the window for us given we have non refundable flights and I guess park tickets can be used as credits. We thought about also waiting a week or two to see if everything remains open, but we’re already within 4 weeks.

 

[disneyjr77]

You should be okay although anything could throw this off....flight delay, slow MDE, storm so Skyliner not running. It's up to you.

Probably, but not if you're going for a meal with a cancellation penalty.

This has me wondering if we should go back to our original plan of a night at DS. I thought Trattoria for dinner and a drink at Abrcadabar would be a nice romantic start to our honeymoon, but it may be too stressful and a time crunch. We could do it later in the week.

 

[AndreaDanger]

This has me wondering if we should go back to our original plan of a night at DS. I thought Trattoria for dinner and a drink at Abrcadabar would be a nice romantic start to our honeymoon, but it may be too stressful and a time crunch. We could do it later in the week.

This is just my experience, but any time I make an ADR for shortly after our arrival, I always regret it. I haven't missed a reservation, but I'm always anxious about that and feel rushed. My preference now is to wait until I'm checked in and then look to see if any reservations are available that evening. If not, on to plan b.

 

[StageTek]

This is just my experience, but any time I make an ADR for shortly after our arrival, I always regret it. I haven't missed a reservation, but I'm always anxious about that and feel rushed.

I'm with you on that!

I've tried it twice and made it to the reservation both times. But I was on edge the whole time. The last time I did it the bus made three stops before my resort. I was a mess. I got to the resort with just enough time to drop my backpack and race to the bus to the park. Not an enjoyable way to start a vacation. Never again.

 

[scrappinginontario]

This is just my experience, but any time I make an ADR for shortly after our arrival, I always regret it. I haven't missed a reservation, but I'm always anxious about that and feel rushed. My preference now is to wait until I'm checked in and then look to see if any reservations are available that evening. If not, on to plan b.

I really like this idea and offers you the opportunity to start your vacation with a surprise meal!

 

[Alli1988]

Any experience this year with grocery delivery, specifically even after opening back up? We used to amazon prime now to the resort 1-2x a trip and then go get it from Bell services later that day. Was always significantly cheapest option for us. It’s been two years since we went (coming next week!! Booked today!!) Wasn’t sure if delivery to bell services was still a thing and free.

 

[kaytieeldr]

This has me wondering if we should go back to our original plan of a night at DS. I thought Trattoria for dinner and a drink at Abrcadabar would be a nice romantic start to our honeymoon, but it may be too stressful and a time crunch. We could do it later in the week.

Okay, consider:
Open Table reservation at Disney Springs location with no penalty (eg, not Raglan Road), so you have something set.
Once your DME bus is underway, pull up MDE and see what's available at Trattoria three ofor more hours away.
If you find something, book it (and cancel your Reservation on OT).
If you don't find anything, you still have the CD reservation.

 

[wendow]

How pricey was your uber ea way from and to mco? There’s a shuttle too but with stops. We don’t want to rent a car given we’re also not APs and would have to pay for parking at ea park. If we were driving we’d just stay off property. I mean, I guess we can quickly explore a few other options too but I’d think the other options are going to be more $. More than likely stay at Pop but I guess we can look at CBR, and few others.

We are a family of 6 so we had to use Uber XL. I believe it was in the $40-45 range each way. Swolphin has high parking fees so it was cheaper for us to Uber than to rent a car and pay for parking.