Disney's POP CENTURY RESORT Information & Questions

[DSNYDREAMER]

Yesterday morning (Saturday) we left our room in the 90's section at 9:30 am. We had decided ROTR was not priority as we didn't want to get in line early for the Skyliner and with an ECV uber/lyft wasn't an option. When we arrived at the Skyliner nobody was in line, literally nobody. The same was true when we got to Caribbean Beach, nobody in line. When we got to Studios there was no line at Temp check or security, we were inside the park at 9:50. Literally 20 minutes from the moment we stepped outside of the room.

We were able to get a BG for Rise (42), then got in line for Mickey's Railway. Posted wait was 90 minutes, we reached boarding area in under an hour and hot a cleaning cycle that caused a 10 minute delay. We enjoyed the rest of the day at what we felt was busy but definitely manageable crowd lines.

FWIW, this was our experience. In speaking to a few people, it sounded like Disney had been working on some things to make the morning arrival smoother. We will see if this continues.

 

[RaySharpton]

Yesterday morning (Saturday) we left our room in the 90's section at 9:30 am. We had decided ROTR was not priority as we didn't want to get in line early for the Skyliner and with an ECV uber/lyft wasn't an option. When we arrived at the Skyliner nobody was in line, literally nobody. The same was true when we got to Caribbean Beach, nobody in line. When we got to Studios there was no line at Temp check or security, we were inside the park at 9:50. Literally 20 minutes from the moment we stepped outside of the room.

We were able to get a BG for Rise (42), then got in line for Mickey's Railway. Posted wait was 90 minutes, we reached boarding area in under an hour and hot a cleaning cycle that caused a 10 minute delay. We enjoyed the rest of the day at what we felt was busy but definitely manageable crowd lines.

FWIW, this was our experience. In speaking to a few people, it sounded like Disney had been working on some things to make the morning arrival smoother. We will see if this continues.

Did you get to use the Pop buses to MK & AK?

I was curious if you arrived at the Pop bus queue with long lines beyond the queues?

 

[disneyfreak202]

Went to magic kingdom today. was nervous about the busses because of the stories I had heard. With it being our first day and with COVID bus procedures we decided to leave our room in the 50s section at 8:15am. We said if the lines were too long we would choose to Uber or Lyft to the TTC to not wait an hour plus for a bus. left the rooms a little late (about 8:20), Much to our surprise, there was about 6 groups in front of us when we arrived and a bus had just pulled up. We mad it on and the bus was leaving to Mk by 8:25. No lines when getting to the temp check or security. Walked in by 8:45 and had done all the rides we wanted by 11:45 (except 7DMT). went back to the Room for a nap about 1:00pm and the same thing was true for the bus, 6 groups in front of us, bus arrived right away, got on and back to the room. Went back to the park about 5:00, a bus was waiting there, got on and on our way. park closed and we meandered out about 8:30 and thought we would get a line going back, but nope, only 4 groups and the bus had just pulled up. So refreshing to see the buses weren’t nearly as bad as we thought. AK looked a little busier, we will be heading there tomorrow so I will try to report back.

 

[DSNYDREAMER]

Did you get to use the Pop buses to MK & AK?

I was curious if you arrived at the Pop bus queue with long lines beyond the queues?

We have used the bus for both parks but not for opening. We left the resort around an hour after park opening. There were no lines at that time. Overall we have had very positive bus experiences, have also been to Disney Springs by bus. Waits have been very reasonable, one time they were at capacity for ECV and I had to wait. But another bus came right away.

 

[Nov2020Traveler]

I know this question has come up a lot, and I apologize, but I was originally planning a trip with my 12 year old son for next month that we had to postpone to November 2021. I finally am ready to start planning it, especially now that Fall 2021 resort reservations are open. I cancelled our Nov 2020 trip several months ago and was relatively distraught (I think many of you understand the feeling), so I haven't kept up with all things WDW since then.

In now getting back into pre-planning, I see that transportation has altered things quite a bit. My original plan was to stay at POP and travel to HS and EP via Skyliner but I now read reports of MASSIVE lines and huge waits, along with recommendations for people to stay at CBR to avoid standing in two Skyliner lines, if possible.

Granted, I expect the current user experience to differ from what will be in Nov 2021, if predictions are correct regarding vaccine roll-outs, etc. I also expect that WDW will be hopefully at max efficiency for the 50th of MK, but I also know that it's currently all speculation, as no one really knows for sure.

With that being said, I guess it might be best to plan for the worst and hope for the best. If things, DO NOT change and current restrictions remain, is booking CBR the better choice?

 

[scrappinginontario]

I know this question has come up a lot, and I apologize, but I was originally planning a trip with my 12 year old son for next month that we had to postpone to November 2021. I finally am ready to start planning it, especially now that Fall 2021 resort reservations are open. I cancelled our Nov 2020 trip several months ago and was relatively distraught (I think many of you understand the feeling), so I haven't kept up with all things WDW since then.

In now getting back into pre-planning, I see that transportation has altered things quite a bit. My original plan was to stay at POP and travel to HS and EP via Skyliner but I now read reports of MASSIVE lines and huge waits, along with recommendations for people to stay at CBR to avoid standing in two Skyliner lines, if possible.

Granted, I expect the current user experience to differ from what will be in Nov 2021, if predictions are correct regarding vaccine roll-outs, etc. I also expect that WDW will be hopefully at max efficiency for the 50th of MK, but I also know that it's currently all speculation, as no one really knows for sure.

With that being said, I guess it might be best to plan for the worst and hope for the best. If things, DO NOT change and current restrictions remain, is booking CBR the better choice?

Bottom line is this is totally your decision but Nov 2021 is 13 months away. We don't know what's going to happen 13 days from now let alone 13 months away!

Personally I am choosing Pop for many reasons. We love it but also, it falls in our budget better. How much extra will it cost you to stay at CBR for possibly 1 or 2 mornings of a bit of an extra wait if you want to be in line for the Skyliner early? Also, CBR includes a bus loop for many room locations. This would mean you'd still need to wait twice. Once for the bus and a second time for the Skyliner.

Truly a decision only you can make but those were some of the first thoughts that crossed my mind.

 

[Nov2020Traveler]

Bottom line is this is totally your decision but Nov 2021 is 13 months away. We don't know what's going to happen 13 days from now let alone 13 months away!

I completely understand this.

I guess my question was more to do with the sense of if things DON'T improve and the current restrictions remain, is the ability to only need to do one SL line versus two worth it? Not, what will things look like in Nov 2021. My apologizes if that wasn't clear. Thank you for your response, though.

After giving it some more thought, I think I'll just stick with POP unless things drastically change. As Ontario said, do I want to pay hundreds to dollars extra for the possibility of a little bit shorter wait? That's a clear no for me.

 

[Bruggok]

(Redacted) If things, DO NOT change and current restrictions remain, is booking CBR the better choice?

If you aren’t particularly in love with CBR, I suggest POP and once per HS day Uber/Lyft to ropedrop.

For me, losing airline to room luggage delivery, RAC, dining plan, Fastpass, and extra magic hours plus abbreviated TS dining menu choices have turned my price/experience optimization calculation into POP w/Uber/Lyft vs. DVC rental/offsite w/ car rental.

 

[IluvMGM]

What time does the skyliner start running in the mornings? We have an 8:45 breakfast reservation at the Riviera Resort. Will it be running by then? How early will we need to get in line?

It doesn't start until around 8:50 to CBR and to be one of the first, get there between 7-7:30. I am not sure what time it starts running to Riviera, though.

 

[finleyd]

Has anyone had any luck changing their park days, I'm scheduled on a Wednesday for Animal Kingdom but want to go to DHS, I keep checking the park availability calendar but no luck.

 

[imjen]

Thanks to all who have given reports on transportation and how things are going for you. We just changed our CSR reservation for next week to Pop because we didn't feel it was worth the extra cost when there's no QS dining open and people have reported difficulty in getting in to the two main restaurants for dinner.

We liked our stay at POP 2 years ago. Are things still the same with separate bus lines for each park? How are the waits this week in the morning before park opening for buses and skyliner? How early do you need to mobile order at Everything Pop to get dinner during the busier time, like around 6pm?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thanks to all who have given reports on transportation and how things are going for you. We just changed our CSR reservation for next week to Pop because we didn't feel it was worth the extra cost when there's no QS dining open and people have reported difficulty in getting in to the two main restaurants for dinner.

We liked our stay at POP 2 years ago. Are things still the same with separate bus lines for each park? How are the waits this week in the morning before park opening for buses and skyliner? How early do you need to mobile order at Everything Pop to get dinner during the busier time, like around 6pm?

I can help with the transportation question but will let others who have been there recently chime in about mobile ordering.

Pop has separate bus lines for MK and AK. If you want to be there when the parks open (often 45 mins before official opening time) I'm seeing it recommended that you arrive at the bus stop 1.5 to 1.75 hours before official park opening time.

Access to DHS and Epcot is only via Skyliner at this time. If you want to try for a Boarding Group for Rise of the Resistance at DHS, the line often begins as early as 7am and the Skyliner normally starts running around 8:50am. If you are not trying for a BG, you can arrive much closer to park opening time as the Skyliner line moves quite quickly. There appear to be 2 different things that happen at CBR. Sometimes they load the DHS Skyliner 1 Pop, 1 CBR, 1 Pop, 1 CBR, etc and at other times when guests from Pop disembark at CBR they are asked to join the end of the line of people boarding at CBR. Some have reported that there is also the option to take a bus to DHS from CBR and have had success taking that also. Lots of options but unfortunately not a lot of consistency as to what happens each day.

Access to Epcot appears to be easiest as the majority of guests hoping to get to DHS for rope drop have already left so arriving at the Skyliner approx 1 hour before park opening at Epcot should be sufficient.

One thing to note is that all of the parks are beginning some attraction operations as much as 45 mins before official park opening time although this is also inconsistent. One person noted last week that at DHS the rides did not begin operating until almost 10am and just 2 days later people had completed 2 or 3 rides prior to 10am. Each day at each park can be different from the day before and the day after right now.

 

[disneyfreak202]

Didn’t get to report yesterday on animal kingdom. But I can report on it now and Epcot skyliner (we are checking out to head to BCV today so can’t report much after this). Animal kingdom line for the bus about 8:25 yesterday went to the exit of the store. Thought it would take forever because it looked so long. They had bus after bus after bus that we were on a bus and to AK by 8:50. Security was longer than the day before at MK but still in and taking photos of the entrance by 9:00. We went straight to KS and skipped pandora until after lunch and that was the best decision. Morning wait times were 45 for Navi and 70 for FOP. About 12:15 it was 35 for both. Left AK about 3:00 for the day as we were done and tired and wanted to relax before dinner at Ale and Compass. Busses took a little longer than the day before. Overall bus transportation was nothing like I had read and expected, it was way better.

Epcot today. Got in line for the skyliner about 10:05am, waited a few cars. Got to CBR and the line was down the ramp and wrapping into the street for Epcot. We are still in line for it and about to come up to the ramp. Not super impressed and this is the one time (besides when we passed the resort to dinner a few times) that I wish I had made the upgrade for CBR. It was only an extra $150 for us for the 3 nights and I do regret it now while in line for skyliner

 

[Justrose]

Will instacart leave my groceries at Bell Services? If I order milk and yogurt, will BS refrigerate them?

 

[akayek31]

So I read on another post that Pop has a Covid cut-down menu at the food court, I have to get use out of my Tables in Wonderland card somehow. What have they taken off? I have allears.net menus up. Are these accurate? I also saw on this post about no buses to DHS and Epcot. I am deathly afraid of heights and will be in an ECV. How does Pop accommodate this?

 

[scrappinginontario]

So I read on another post that Pop has a Covid cut-down menu at the food court, I have to get use out of my Tables in Wonderland card somehow. What have they taken off? I have allears.net menus up. Are these accurate? I also saw on this post about no buses to DHS and Epcot. I am deathly afraid of heights and will be in an ECV. How does Pop accommodate this?

This is the link to the most current menu at Pop: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/dining/pop-century-resort/everything-pop-dining/menus/

Locating the menus on the Disney website it your most accurate source of information. You can find these by going to Disney.com > Walt Disney World > Things to Do > All Dining > (find the restaurant of your choice and click the link) > View Menu. This will give you the most current menu options being offered at each location.

Unfortunately right now the only Disney transportation to DHS and Epcot is via the Skyliner. If it is not possible for you to take this transportation you would need to arrange and pay for private transportation to these parks.

 

[WEDWDW]

I also saw on this post about no buses to DHS and Epcot. I am deathly afraid of heights and will be in an ECV. How does Pop accommodate this?

To my knowledge they don't.

Probably your best route would be Bus to DAK and then Bus from DAK to DHS or Epcot.

 

[akayek31]

Double post

 

[akayek31]

To my knowledge they don't.

Probably your best route would be Bus to DAK and then Bus from DAK to DHS or Epcot.

Thanks. I will try that. It's a good thing I am not going for the Star Wars Ride.

 

[scrappinginontario]

To my knowledge they don't.

Probably your best route would be Bus to DAK and then Bus from DAK to DHS or Epcot.

That's a great option I hadn't thought about! Glad we have DISBoards so we can all share our knowledge!