Disney's POP CENTURY RESORT Information & Questions

[vikkil70]

Not sure if this has been asked before, I don't remember reading anything recently, but I could have missed it.

Are the washers/dryers coin operated, and how much is it for a load. Hoping not to have to do laundry on our trip but 10 days in August we could be changing a few times so might have to at some point and if I need to bring extra quarters I want to be prepared. Thanks for the help, I love this thread. We check into Pop 2 weeks from today!!

 

[Alice Hart]

My apologies if this isn't in the right location, but is there somewhere we can view the refurbishment schedule? We are arriving in mid October and I believe we would like to request one of those rooms if possible.

 

[Stitch83]

Not sure if this has been asked before, I don't remember reading anything recently, but I could have missed it.

Are the washers/dryers coin operated, and how much is it for a load. Hoping not to have to do laundry on our trip but 10 days in August we could be changing a few times so might have to at some point and if I need to bring extra quarters I want to be prepared. Thanks for the help, I love this thread. We check into Pop 2 weeks from today!!

The washers and dryers are now credit card operated. Apparently you can go to the front desk and get a laundry card for this but I was only just informed of that in April. Each machine is $3 a load.

Watch how you load them. We had a medium weight sweatshirt in with t-shirts and light pants and the washer kept stating it was an uneven load but we couldn't open it to fix the load. So what should have been about 1/2 hour took almost an hour just to wash, not even dry.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

I have used Touring Plans to fax my request 5 times. Each time I've received the exact room I wanted or was within 2 rooms to the left or right.

Disney seems to try to honour the TP faxes and knows how to quickly read them due to their uniformity so I'm going to stick with them again this trip.

TP may work just fine and if that is what works for you, have at it. I have a hard time paying for a service that anyone can do for free on their own. FWIW, I have been faxing room requests on my own longer than TP has offered their paid service.

 

[karly05]

My apologies if this isn't in the right location, but is there somewhere we can view the refurbishment schedule? We are arriving in mid October and I believe we would like to request one of those rooms if possible.

As far as I know, there is no publicly available refurb schedule. That is why a bunch of us hang out on the POP Century Room Renovations thread here, obsessing over every post, watching for clues to guess at what's going on.

Currently: Buildings 8 & 9 are finished and new rooms open to guests. 8 took almost exactly 3 months start to finish. 9 took maybe a week less than 3 months and just opened the last week of July.

7 closed in early June and is still under construction. Reports are that 7 needs some more extensive structural repairs, and it's hard to say how much longer before it is open. Someone had heard 8/14 as an open date, but that may not take into account the extra work/delays.

Just this past week, we heard the first reports of bldg 10 closing for renovation. If they manage to go a lot faster on that one than they have so far, it might make it by mid-October, but I think end of Oct/first of Nov is more realistic.

Mid-October will have bldgs 8, 9, and surely 7 done.

 

[bluezy]

TP may work just fine and if that is what works for you, have at it. I have a hard time paying for a service that anyone can do for free on their own. FWIW, I have been faxing room requests on my own longer than TP has offered their paid service.

Some people subscribe to TP for other reasons. The faxing service is just another benefit that comes with membership...which is quite inexpensive if you have the book, renew an existing subscription, or do a quick search for coupons. Also, not everyone has the ability to send a fax without going to Staples or somewhere similar and paying to do it. Anecdotally, I've seen a higher rate of success when using the TP fax service than from people sending their own faxes. Everyone is free to do their faxes on their own, but there's nothing wrong with someone choosing to subscribe to a website and then actually taking advantage of the benefits that membership offers.

 

[Alice Hart]

Some people subscribe to TP for other reasons. The faxing service is just another benefit that comes with membership...which is quite inexpensive if you have the book, renew an existing subscription, or do a quick search for coupons. Also, not everyone has the ability to send a fax without going to Staples or somewhere similar and paying to do it. Anecdotally, I've seen a higher rate of success when using the TP fax service than from people sending their own faxes. Everyone is free to do their faxes on their own, but there's nothing wrong with someone choosing to subscribe to a website and then actually taking advantage of the benefits that membership offers.

There are dozens of free internet fax companies and sites that you can do.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

Anecdotally, I've seen a higher rate of success when using the TP fax service than from people sending their own faxes.

Would love to see your statistics on this ! I have never used TP and I am 5 for 5 going back to 2011 (before TP began charging for this free service)

 

[ColoradoMom12]

Would love to see your statistics on this ! I have never used TP and I am 5 for 5 going back to 2011 (before TP began charging for this free service)

Anecdotal evidence is not statistics. Anecdotal evidence is collected informally and is based on individual experiences and observations. It's not very scientific, which is the point that was being made. Lots of people have had success with the TP faxes. Now, how many of those people have attempted faxing on their own? And for those who have, how many times did they try? I, personally, have not tried faxing on my own. I have tried calling Disney as well as using the requests section of online check-in. Neither of those is nearly as successful for me as TP's faxes are. In fact, I've found that calling with my requests tends to get me pretty much the exact opposite of what we had wanted. It gets me into the line for the check-in desk to see about changing rooms.

 

[bluezy]

Would love to see your statistics on this ! I have never used TP and I am 5 for 5 going back to 2011 (before TP began charging for this free service)

I didn't say I have detailed statistics (good Lord, I have much better things to do with my time)...that's why I said "anecdotally" -- it's what I've observed (which, by the way, is the definition of the word "anecdotally"). I also didn't say that no one who faxes their own requests gets what they want but everyone who uses TP gets what they want. What I *did* say was: a) Many people subscribe to TP for reasons other than using the fax service -- it's just one of several membership benefits; and b) I and many other people have had much better success with TP than doing the fax ourselves. And what's wrong with someone paying the TP subscription fee *just* to use the fax service if that's what they choose to do. It has absolutely no affect on anyone other than the person paying the fee. Frankly, I use the subscription for other things, but I wouldn't be opposed to paying a fee just for the fax service. Because that's *my* prerogative -- I can spend my money however I want to even if a stranger on the internet doesn't agree with it.

That's great that you've been successful with doing it on your own. If faxing for yourself works for you, keep doing it. For some of us, TP has been much more successful and easier than doing it ourselves. For the record, on our last 7 trips dating back to 2001, I only got our requests on the 2 trips that I used TP fax service --- which again, they don't specifically charge for that service, it's one of the benefits of membership at their website. There's a difference. The other 5 trips I faxed, called, and/or had our travel agent add our requests to the reservation and we never got them. Fortunately, each of those 5 trips I was able to get our room location changed to a room that did actually meet our requests -- which tells me that those requests/faxes were never looked at or considered. Now can you understand why I prefer to use my member benefits and let TP handle it? I don't enjoy having to stand at the front desk and go through the production of trying to have our room location changed. I'd much rather get the room I requested, do online check-in, and go straight to my room when I arrive at the resort.

I really don't care what other people do. Everyone should do what works best for them.

 

[bluezy]

Anecdotal evidence is not statistics. Anecdotal evidence is collected informally and is based on individual experiences and observations. It's not very scientific, which is the point that was being made. Lots of people have had success with the TP faxes. Now, how many of those people have attempted faxing on their own? And for those who have, how many times did they try? I, personally, have not tried faxing on my own. I have tried calling Disney as well as using the requests section of online check-in. Neither of those is nearly as successful for me as TP's faxes are. In fact, I've found that calling with my requests tends to get me pretty much the exact opposite of what we had wanted. It gets me into the line for the check-in desk to see about changing rooms.

Exactly. And it irks me to no end when my requests aren't met with my initial room assignment, yet they can give me the exact location I requested originally when I stand in that line and talk to the CM. Why couldn't they just give me that room to begin with????? My last two check-in's (using TP and online check-in) have been much smoother. I have no intention of changing that routine for our next trip. I finally found something that works for us and I'm not messin' with it.

 

[Harters2WDW]

We left empty bags of trash outside our door and when clean towels were delivered, I just left the old ones outside our room in the bag that the new ones came in. We hung up our towels to dry after showers on the "clothes line" in the shower and on the 3 hooks on the back of the bathroom door.

I travel a lot for my job and unless I am staying at a place longer than 3 nights, I will very rarely have any services done to my room. I'd prefer that my room stay shut while I was gone.

We did online checkin for next week. Will we still be able to opt out of cleaning? It's a short stay!

 

[CounselorX]

Anecdotal evidence is not statistics. Anecdotal evidence is collected informally and is based on individual experiences and observations. It's not very scientific, which is the point that was being made. Lots of people have had success with the TP faxes. Now, how many of those people have attempted faxing on their own? And for those who have, how many times did they try? I, personally, have not tried faxing on my own. I have tried calling Disney as well as using the requests section of online check-in. Neither of those is nearly as successful for me as TP's faxes are. In fact, I've found that calling with my requests tends to get me pretty much the exact opposite of what we had wanted. It gets me into the line for the check-in desk to see about changing rooms.

I've gotten my requests honored 5 out of 5 times using online check-in. However, this next trip I will have a more specific request so I will fax a request. There is no reason a TP fax would be more successful than any other fax unless the person doesn't include necessary information such as their reservation number, date of stay, full name, etc, etc. Or they include paragraphs of text that no one wants to read. lol

 

[REEREEG]

By any chance does anyone remember if they sell bowls at the everything Pop store? We are bringing cereal and I was thinking it would be fun to buy Pop bowls...

 

[mbrittb00]

As far as I know, there is no publicly available refurb schedule. That is why a bunch of us hang out on the POP Century Room Renovations thread here, obsessing over every post, watching for clues to guess at what's going on.

Currently: Buildings 8 & 9 are finished and new rooms open to guests. 8 took almost exactly 3 months start to finish. 9 took maybe a week less than 3 months and just opened the last week of July.

.

My notes, show building 9 having closed on May 5th and opening on July 4th. Thats only 51 days. Did I get the close date wrong?

 

[gappedout]

Very curious what specific instructions you are given as to where to take your trash, recycles and wet towels.

Not sure if this was answered or not (just got back on Saturday and catching up on the thread). I simply called Housekeeping from our room to ask for more towels, toilet paper, trash bags etc as needed. We emptied trash several times in the bigger trash cans by the elevators/ice machines when they got full. Housekeeping had left a giant size trash bag and I put all of our towels in it and left it outside the door one morning on our way out and it was gone when we returned. I only did that once. The rest of the trip I just made a folded pile of our towels and left in room.

 

[gappedout]

I would be interested in this as well. I have an 11 night stay in September and might consider only having one day of housekeeping mid-trip. I do like the sheets changed at least once a week, even at home, so I wouldn't want to go the full 11 nights without a refresh. I wonder if they are having issues getting and retaining housekeepers? I imagine it's not a job most people are willing to work - probably more often it's a case of necessity and as soon as they can find something else, they're gone. It's certainly a hard job and not one I would be willing to take myself.

In regards to the sheets, one day we came back to fresh towels and clean sheets left on our bed without us calling to ask for them. But I am sure they would have provided if we had called and asked for new ones. Just thought it was odd that they were randomly in our room one day.

 

[gappedout]

Arriving this Thursday, has anyone that is there now seen any of the "Minnie Vans" on site?

We just got back on Saturday after a two week stay and I only say one Minnie van during my entire stay. I saw it at Magic Kingdom by the bus stops.

 

[gappedout]

Are you able to get clean sheets if you opt out of housekeeping?

I am sure you could request them (we requested towels, toilet paper and trash bags several times but never sheets). However, we randomly came back one day to clean sheets stacked on the bed midway through our stay without having requested them.

 

[gappedout]

Does it seem that most people on this board that have requested a refurbished room has gotten one? My wife and I are planning an anniversary trip in mid November and Pop still has a good deal going, but my 6'2" self needs a queen bed.

I requested a refurbished room via the phone, had the 90's as my only request for online check-in and used Touring Plans to request a room in the 90's. I got a refurbished room (but not the one I requested on touring plans but close to it).