Walt Disney World's Pop Century Resort: A Review
For a fun, larger than life hotel experience on your next family trip to Florida’s Walt Disney World, book a room at Pop Century.
This resort, with over 2800 rooms across multiple buildings, has all of the perks of staying on-site at Walt Disney World for a much lower price than nearly everywhere else on the larger resort property.
Plus, with free resort parking and a free bus shuttle to all 4 parks and 2 water parks, Pop Century makes it really easy to get around the larger Walt Disney World resort without driving.
I’ve been going to Disney World regularly since I was a kid, and have been staying at Pop Century since it opened in 2003. It’s my favorite of the Disney value resorts, and I think it would be a great addition to your next vacation.
In the guide below, I’m sharing all of the pros and cons of staying at Pop Century to help you decide if this hotel fits into your family’s Walt Disney World plans.
One of the many ways that you know you’re at Pop Century resort!
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Pop Century: An Introduction
If you’re new to visiting Walt Disney World resort, you’re probably thinking that you’ll just book any hotel that’s closest to the parks.
While that might work in other theme parks, the hotel system at Walt Disney World is a little more complicated.
Before you can decide if Pop Century resort is the right one for your family trip, you need to be sure that the value resorts match what you want out of your experience.
You’ll find a full breakdown on that ranking system below, as well as learn exactly where Pop Century is within the larger, sprawling Florida property. Since it’s about the size of Manhattan, you’ll want to choose your hotel location carefully!
Fun, pop culture references outside of the entrance
Value vs. Moderate vs. Deluxe
First, let’s talk about the three major categories for Disney hotels:
Value
Moderate, and
Deluxe
The value category, which Pop Century falls into, is the least expensive tier of hotels on Disney property.
The decor at Pop Century is truly massive!
Keep in mind, though, that you’re still at Walt Disney World, and “least expensive” here is still at least 30% more expensive than a similarly sized off-property room.
Expect to pay around $150-250 per night at these hotels on average.
The value resorts are all decorated to make you feel as if you’re immersed in the specific resort’s theme, thanks to the bright, stories-tall decor.
There are 4 value resorts at Disney World: Pop Century, All-Star Music, All-Star Movies, and All-Star Sports.
Technically, Art of Animation is also a value resort, but it is so much more expensive than the others that I tend to loop it in with the moderate resorts.
For some reason, All-Star Sports is always the cheapest of these, perhaps because it’s also the least Disney theme of them.
All 4 value resorts have motel-style buildings with exterior room access from the corridors.
They all have basic amenities in the room, including an ensuite bathroom, 2 beds, refrigerator, and separate sink/closet area.
The moderate category is significantly more expensive than the value tier, with rooms in the mid-$200 to mid-$300 range on average.
The moderate resorts, which include Coronado Springs, Port Orleans, and Caribbean Beach Resort, have more subtle Disney theming.
Read my review of Coronado Springs at Walt Disney World here.
Read my review of Port Orleans at Walt Disney World here.
Instead of a 4-story tall Mickey Mouse phone like you’d find at Pop Century, the Disney theme at the moderate hotels might incorporate a Mickey silhouette in the carpet, for example.
But don’t think that these resorts are bland because of that.
Each has a strong theme centered around a geographical location: the Southwest at Coronado Springs, New Orleans at Port Orleans, and the laid back Caribbean islands at Caribbean Beach Resort.
These have more on-site dining, bigger pools, and better transportation options than the value resorts. They all still have the buses like the values, but Port Orleans and Caribbean Beach Resort both have additional ways to get around the resort (the boat to Disney Springs for Port Orleans, and the Skyliner at Caribbean Beach).
Finally, you’ll need to bring out the big bucks to stay at the deluxe category properties.
These luxury hotels include the 3 Magic Kingdom hotels, the Polynesian, the Contemporary, and the Grand Floridian, but also encompass newer options like the Animal Kingdom Lodge, the Yacht Club, the Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge, and BoardWalk Inn.
The deluxe hotels have high end touches like fine dining on-site, multiple stores and boutiques, and extravagant pool areas.
Where is Pop Century?
The theming at Pop Century is everywhere, even on the man hole covers!
Walt Disney World is massive, and there are resorts clustered around each of the 4 theme parks.
You’ll want to determine what you want to do while you’re at Disney World to help you figure out which hotel area you want to stay in.
As I mentioned above, the Magic Kingdom hotels are all clustered around the Seven Seas Lagoon, and they’re perfect if you want to focus your time at the park, or want use of the monorail.
Pop Century is close to both EPCOT and Hollywood Studios, which are located right next to one another. Staying at Pop Century means you can be to either of those parks in less than 10 minutes via the bus or your personal vehicle.
It’s one of the furthest hotels away from Magic Kingdom, so you’ll have a 20-ish minute commute to and from there.
Be sure to purchase your Walt Disney World tickets head of time!
This will allow you to make dining and activity reservations before all of the other park guests. You’ll also have a better grasp on your overall trip budget.
A Detailed Look at Pop Century Resort
Unique Resort Theming
My sister, my daughter, and I with one of the many bold pieces of decor at Pop Century
Pop Century is themed around the movies, television shows, games, and events that defined each generation from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Each of the guest buildings is themed inside and out with phrases and icons from that building's decade.
We’ve stayed here multiple times over the years, so we’ve been able to see how different areas in the resort look.
On our most recent visit, we were placed in building 8, which focuses on the 1990s.
Our room had posters and decor with The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and the live action 101 Dalmations.
The decorations on the exterior of the buildings are massive and kitchsy in the best way possible.
For example in the 1990s building, we had an old school laptop that was three stories high just outside of our room.
If you want subtlety in your hotel decor, you’re not going to like Pop Century because it is bold and bright everywhere.
On-Site Food Options
The main building, Century Hall, has check-in and check-out services, a concierge desk, a gift shop, and a food court.
The food court in the main building serves waffles, pastries, omelettes, and other freshly made breakfast items.
You can also grab juice, pre-cut fruit, yogurt, cereal and milk from the coolers.
I highly, highly recommend the cherry turnover and chocolate croissant. Remember, calories don’t count at Disney World, so have 2 of each.
The lunch and dinner meals are a little less consistent than the breakfast, as you’re ordering from what is essentially a fancier (or at least more expensive) version of a mall food court.
We’ve had decent burgers, chicken sandwiches, mac and cheese, and fried rice from the Pop Century food court at various times, and they’re good enough for a quick meal after the parks when everyone is exhausted.
You can even order a full pizza to share with your family, which is one of the more cost effective options here. f
Out by the pool, there’s also a small bar. It mostly serves beer and cocktails, but you can find a few appetizer style dishes here and a burger.
NOTE: A stay at Pop Century doesn’t include breakfast, so you’ll either need to eat at Century Hall, pack breakfast items to eat in your room, or wait until you get to the parks.
If you do want to go into the parks for breakfast, I highly recommend the Winnie the Pooh character dining at the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom! It is so cute for little kids, and the breakfast buffet is fantastic.
Plan more of your Walt Disney World vacation with these helpful posts:
Cast Member Customer Service
Pop Century’s check-in area at Century Hall
In general, the cast members at all of the Walt Disney World resorts go above and beyond to make sure each guest has a wonderful time.
In all of our times staying at Pop Century, we’ve only had a couple of smaller issues, and both of them happened to occur on our most recent trip.
We did encounter some issues at check-in: I'd done online check-in, so I thought the actual check-in process would go quicker than it did.
However, it was 11 p.m. when I checked in, and the cast member who helped me didn't speak English as her first language.
Not only was I exhausted at that point, the cast member kept telling me that my reservations weren't there. I have a hyphenated last name, like Smith-Jones (which really, really confuses people for some reason).
She kept looking under Jones, and I kept telling her that my entire last name was Smith-Jones. Not Smith. Not Jones. Smith-Jones.
Because it was late and she had a language barrier, I can understand why check-in might not have been perfect with those factors.
Later that same visit, I did have one other not-so-great encounter with the Pop Century staff.
I was there specifically for media coverage, and so, for the first time ever, I had media badges instead of tickets.
I went to the concierge desk to ask if I needed to get my media badges there or at the parks, which felt like it was a semi-normal request.
However, the man at the desk talked overly fast and acted as if he didn't know what a media badge was.
I ended up giving up on that situation and asking at the guest information booth when we got to the Magic Kingdom the next day.
Room Review
Pop Century has your basic two double bed and a bathroom set-up.
It's clean, comfortable, and it comes with Mickey soap and shampoo in the bathroom.
Each room also has a mini-fridge, flat screen TV, and breakfast table with two seats.
This resort was one of the first value resorts to get a more modern upgrade, and the traditional 2 beds set up was replaced by a standard bed and murphy bed configuration.
During the day, the second bed is latched into the wall, and you can use a small, 2-person table that pops out.
At night, it’s a fairly easy process to fold away the table and pull the table out of the wall.
I’ve stayed at Pop Century both before and after this renovation, and I do like that the murphy bed allows for so much more room during non-sleeping hours.
The constant moving around of bed/table/chairs is probably the last thing I want to do after a long day in the parks, but it’s really not that difficult.
The rooms all open out onto a shared corridor, which doubles as a balcony into the side courtyards or main thoroughfare between the pools and the main hall.
There are elevators in each of the buildings, so you won’t be stuck hauling your luggage up 2-4 flights of stairs if you’re placed on an upper floor.
Standard vs. Preferred Room
One thing you’ll have to select during the room purchasing process is if you want a standard or preferred room.
The preferred room is typically $10-20 more a night, and you’ll probably wonder if the extra cost is worth it.
My answer? Maybe.
The standard rooms are the ones at the back of the resort and furthest away from Century Hall.
This can make for a bit of a trek to get to the breakfast area and the bus stops. On a vacation where it isn’t unusual to walk 20,000 steps in a day, you might not want any extra walking at the resort.
If you know you’re going to be running to the food court and bus rank multiple times a day, the preferred rooms are worth it.
Otherwise, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal to walk a little further, but I also also very cheap and can use the difference in room price to buy another souvenir!
Resort Amenities
Pools
Pop Century has three pools: the main Hippy Dippy pool and two other smaller ones.
During the summer, the pools are open late (until around 10 or 11 p.m.).
During the winter, the hours are reduced and typically close around 9 PM because not many people want to swim after the sun goes down.
The pools are heated, so anyone willing to brave the cooler winter weather can enjoy a dip year-round!
Pop Century Gift Shop
My sister gets ready to head into the store to find the perfect souvenir
Century Hall also has its own gift shop, Everything Pop, so you can pick up a shirt, baseball hat, candy, or toys as a souvenir without having to go to the parks or Downtown Disney.
There are resort-specific items here if you want to commemorate your stay, as well as more general Walt Disney World merchandise.
If you know your child wants a pair of Mickey ears or something else to wear to the parks, it’s good to stop by here first.
There are fewer crowds here, so you won’t be as rushed. The selection is smaller, but it’s a good option for the basic Minnie and Minnie ears, hats, and shirts.
Shuttle Bus Service to the Parks
The bus pick-up/drop-off area at Pop Century
Pop Century Resort has its own bus and doesn’t share a pick-up or drop-off point with any other resort.
I love this feature, and it’s the reason why I’ll often pay the extra $20-30 a night over the All-Star Resorts.
All three of the All-Star resorts, which are similar in layout, food options, and room style, share a single bus route. This means you can wait a very long time at peak times at the bus stop, both at the resort and then when you’re heading out of the parks at the end of the day.
I won't lie: the bus is a huge reason why I love staying here and not at the All-Star resorts.
Nearby Skyliner Access
The Skyliner is a fun, colorful addition to the Walt Disney World transportation options, and each car allows you to zoom smoothly along pre-set routes that soar over parts of the Disney property.
While it isn’t explicitly advertised as a Skyliner resort, Pop Century is one, for all intents and purposes.
Technically, the Art of Animation resort next door has the Skyliner.
But, the resorts are so close together that they might as well be the same place. ( Art of Animation originally was an expansion of Pop Century, though the design and focus changed dramatically before it opened to the public.)
You can walk along the well manicured paths from Pop Century to Art of Animation to access the Skyliner, which will then connect you to EPCOT’s back entrance near the Boardwalk, the Riviera resort, Caribbean Beach Resort, and Hollywood Studios.
This is one of the reasons why Pop Century is consistently more expensive than the other value resorts.
Final Thoughts on Pop Century Resort
Embracing the ‘70s at Pop Century
Overall, it's a great place to stay on Disney property if you're looking for something reasonably priced and close to all of the Disney fun.
We’ve stayed all over the Disney World property, and I don’t think there is a perfect hotel as you’re always sacrificing something—more money, more time on the buses, fewer amenities—depending on which you pick.
That being said, Pop Century offers up a solidly magical experience that makes the mark-up over off-property hotels worth it.
Having the easy access to the Skyliner over at Art of Animation is another way that this resort punches above its weight.
Whether you’re going to Disney World for the first time with your toddler or meeting a group of friends for a reunion, Pop Century makes for an enjoyable stay that won’t let you take yourself too seriously.
