Comparing Pop Century and the All Star resorts

[palavra]

This week I was able to stay at Pop Century for the first time. I have also stayed at All Star Music. When I read threads comparing the two resorts, certain things seem to always come up such as the buses are better at Pop and there are too many sports groups at the All Stars. Although I am only giving my personal opinion, I did find some of the things I've been reading to be a little off base, so I thought I would compare some of the amenities of each resort.

dedicated bus system at Pop-I much preferred the All Star bus system. When I stayed there, the buses were shared, but we did not wait as long for buses as we did with Pop. Also, we had to stand on Pop buses more often.

groups-At All Star Music, we were in the Broadway building. It was really quiet. There were a few groups, but we were not bothered by them at all. At Pop, there were several dance groups there. Once again, we were not bothered by the groups. In fact, I enjoyed coming upon one of the groups practicing for a performance during the afternoon as I was returning to my room.

lake at the Pop-We loved this feature. Having a water feature really did seem special. We loved being able to walk to Art of Animation as well.

food courts/gift shops-We enjoyed the food courts at both. I think we liked the choices at Pop a little better. I did not like having the gift shop as part of the food court area in Pop.

pools-The All Stars are about the same size in area as Pop is. That means that All Star patrons have access to 6 pools and Pop patrons have access to three. Our favorite pool was the main pool at All Star Music. The pools at Pop were fine but seemed louder than the pools at All Star.

Overall, we would gladly stay at either resort again. I agree with others who have said that they are certainly more similar than different.

 

[loves to dive]

Thanks for the comparison. I stayed at POP for two nights with a split stay a year ago just because it was a solo trip and I was going for F&G switching over to BWV and it seemed silly to pay for a deluxe for the two nights I knew I was just going to spend most of the time in the parks. After that stay, I swore I would never stay in a value again (it was my first time not staying in a deluxe). I've since done a split stay with POR and OKW and loved POR again swearing I'd never stay in a value but could do a moderate. Well, never say never right? I'm doing a split stay with one night at ASSp and 4 nights at YC for F&W in Sept/Oct. I was hesitant about AS having read bad things about it but with my AP discount could get a room for less than $80 so I figured how bad could 1 night be. Your comparison is making me feel more confident about my decision.

 

[kumimama]

Thanks for this post.

We have been to Pop a few time and decided to try all star music this year. I am a bit netvous about the bus sharing. But if the bus are more frequnt, i wouln't mind it.

 

[Disnsyncey]

Well, never say never right? I'm doing a split stay with one night at ASSp and 4 nights at YC for F&W in Sept/Oct. I was hesitant about AS having read bad things about it but with my AP discount could get a room for less than $80 so I figured how bad could 1 night be. Your comparison is making me feel more confident about my decision.

I am a POFQ gal, but the past few times, my friends and family have realized that we are at the parks all day, and we don't really need anything fancy for the room.....for F&W last year we stayed ASSp, and it was AWESOME! We had a preferred room, but the buses were great, we couldn't hear ANYBODY around us, and we are going back again September! My parents and I now stay at Pop (like last December when we did a split stay between the Four Seasons and Pop haha) but I think Pop is too big for me now! The All Stars are just right, and when I get an AP rate of less than $90 a night, I am GAME!

And through our entire 6 day stay last September at Sports, I can't remember one time that we shared with the other resorts.....(so allow for a margin of error of 1 or 2 times haha)

 

[HopperFan]

I've stayed at POP and all the All-Stars.

This week I was able to stay at Pop Century for the first time. I have also stayed at All Star Music. When I read threads comparing the two resorts, certain things seem to always come up such as the buses are better at Pop and there are too many sports groups at the All Stars. Although I am only giving my personal opinion, I did find some of the things I've been reading to be a little off base, so I thought I would compare some of the amenities of each resort.

dedicated bus system at Pop-I much preferred the All Star bus system. When I stayed there, the buses were shared, but we did not wait as long for buses as we did with Pop. Also, we had to stand on Pop buses more often. We never would make a decision based on buses other than some like CBR, where we know we will be driving. I've stayed at POP many times and never had bus issues.

groups-At All Star Music, we were in the Broadway building. It was really quiet. There were a few groups, but we were not bothered by them at all. At Pop, there were several dance groups there. Once again, we were not bothered by the groups. In fact, I enjoyed coming upon one of the groups practicing for a performance during the afternoon as I was returning to my room. Yeah, groups can be at any value, it really depends on time of year and room location. We've had really bad group experiences at both Music and POP.

lake at the Pop-We loved this feature. Having a water feature really did seem special. We loved being able to walk to Art of Animation as well. Huge perk for us as well, getting a lake with a value standard price is awesome.

food courts/gift shops-We enjoyed the food courts at both. I think we liked the choices at Pop a little better. I did not like having the gift shop as part of the food court area in Pop. I think a huge plus is walking over to Art of Animation's food court which is excellent and serves on real plates and silverware. It is better than all the other value resorts.

pools-The All Stars are about the same size in area as Pop is. The All-Stars resort is actually double the size of POP's footprint. That means that All Star patrons have access to 6 pools and Pop patrons have access to three. Our favorite pool was the main pool at All Star Music. The pools at Pop were fine but seemed louder than the pools at All Star. We find all main pools to be loud, love POP's bowling pin pool, always empty and quiet.

Overall, we would gladly stay at either resort again. I agree with others who have said that they are certainly more similar than different. There are a number of reasons we feel Music is different from the other AllStars and POP = so it is our least favorite. We prefer POP but would gladly return to Sports and Movies.

 

[Lillian Gracey]

I am a POFQ gal, but the past few times, my friends and family have realized that we are at the parks all day, and we don't really need anything fancy for the room.....for F&W last year we stayed ASSp, and it was AWESOME! We had a preferred room, but the buses were great, we couldn't hear ANYBODY around us, and we are going back again September! My parents and I now stay at Pop (like last December when we did a split stay between the Four Seasons and Pop haha) but I think Pop is too big for me now! The All Stars are just right, and when I get an AP rate of less than $90 a night, I am GAME!

And through our entire 6 day stay last September at Sports, I can't remember one time that we shared with the other resorts.....(so allow for a margin of error of 1 or 2 times haha)

During our 11 day stay at ASSp in October we shared the bus once and only once. It was really nice! We really enjoyed our stay at ASSp and would gladly stay there again. We're trying ASMu for a night before our WL stay and I'm sure that'll be just as nice.