Disney’s Pop Century: Our Family’s Review

In January 2023 we had the opportunity to visit the Walt Disney World Resort for 5 nights. It was a great trip and we did four park days - Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom. Four parks in a row and our feet were feeling it!

For this trip we decided to stay at Pop Century, which is one of Disney’s value resorts. For context, our family has stayed mostly at moderate resorts (and once at Animal Kingdom’s Kidani Village), but we’d heard great things about Pop Century and wanted to give it a try. Here were some of our reasons for trying Pop Century: cost, location, access to the skyliner, and “newly” renovated rooms. Here is a breakdown of our experience.

Cost:

Value resorts will be your most economical accommodations at WDW. We stayed at Pop Century Sunday- Friday and our nightly rate was $196. As with most Disney resorts, there are room categories such as standard, pool view, preferred, etc. When we are staying at “smaller” resorts we typically find the standard rooms to be suitable for our needs and don’t find the higher priced preferred rooms to be necessary. Your family may have reasons you may want to pay more for a preferred room, which is often located near the lobby and food options, but we were happy with a standard room.

Location:

Did you know Walt Disney World is about the same size as the city of San Francisco? It’s about 47 square miles! The size of WDW makes the location of your resort matter. There are several resort areas - Magic Kingdom Resort Area, EPCOT Resort Area, Animal Kingdom Resort Area, Disney Springs Resort Area, and ESPN Wide World of Sports Area. All resorts have free transportation to all the parks and Disney Springs, but the transportation modes vary by location. The bus systems is a constant, but depending on the resort there is also monorail, boat, and skyliner transportation. Pop Century is a fairly central location, close to Hollywood Studios and EPCOT. Also fairly close to Typhoon Lagoon and Disney Springs. Your longest bus trip will be to Magic Kingdom.

Transportation:

For us, the highlight of Pop Century was access to the Disney Skyliner. We used it to travel to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios and it was convenient and fun. We didn’t have a chance to get off the skyliner to explore other resorts, but that is an option as well. If you review Walt Disney World’s Skyliner map, you’ll notice you can also connect to Disney’s Riviera Resort and Caribbean Beach Resort. The EPCOT stop also allows walking access to Disney’s Yacht Club, Beach Club, and Boardwalk in. All these resorts have great dining options just a quick ride away. For example, maybe you want grab reservations for Breakfast à la Art with Mickey & Friends at Topolino’s Terrace at Disney’s Riviera.

The Rooms:

All the rooms at Pop Century have been recently refurbished. Although a little small, we found that the design was creative with lots of storage options. We had two queen beds. One bed we stored suitcases under and the other was a murphy bed that transformed into a small table. My daughter loved using the table for breakfast before we left for the parks. Beds were comfortable and the room had everything we needed in terms of basic amenities - WIFI, coffeemaker, minifridge, iron/ironing board, in-room safe, and hair dryer.

One of the queen beds

converts to a small table

Around the Resort:

Pop Century had all the features needed to enjoy down time at the resort. The Hippy Dippy pool is central to the resort and a fun place to cool off. This is the only pool we took a dip in since we were there on some colder days. They do have two other smaller pools in the 50s and 90s sections. In the main building (Classic Hall) you can also find check-in/concierge, food court, a retail store with lots of Disney merch, and an arcade. Food court was smaller than some of the moderate resorts we’ve stayed at, but they had a variety of options. I had a good impossible burger by the pool one afternoon that was delicious!

Final Thoughts:

We will definately go back to Pop Century. The value combined with skyliner access made this a perfect resort for our family, especially in January because our pool time was limited. The moderate and deluxe resorts have better pool (and water slide) options. For those warmer months, this can be an enticing reason to upgrade to a moderate. Overall, we recommend Pop Century. It was convenient and comfortable and my daughter thought the theming was a lot of fun!