when booking our trip we booked a rental car too. We were told to let them know at the desk of our hotel when we got there so we could get our car which was "on property". We also tried the "magical express" to avoid having to get our luggage at baggage claim and have it "magically" appear in our room. So we check in, and were traveling with other family so we had booked 3 rooms next to eachother. They checked us in on complete opposite sides of the hotel, when we pointed this out (still being patient) they had to re do our reservation then putting us Waaaaaaaay on the other side of the resort. Something went wrong and the person at the desk had to re-do our room check in 3 times. I begged her to get a manager, finally she did and we were settled. BUT then we asked about our car. Well, we have to take a bus to the Disney car rental place which is near the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. "on property"...yeah, Disney property just not hotel property. And we came from Massachusetts and due to cold weather wore warm clothes which are not good for walking around orlando. But could we change into florida clothes and just head out? NOPE! our luggage was somewhere magically hidden on the magical express. It doesn't come over on the same bus as you. It comes later. When is later? nobody can tell you. So our entire first day was spent calling to request a bus, waiting for the bus, taking the bus to our car which was right next to the magic kingdom but not being able to go in. then driving back to the hotel to wait and wait and wait some more for our magical luggage arriaval. While we sat in our room with a ripped comforter that was never changed for our entire 1 week stay and showering in a shower that as the tile got wet the black mold spots in the grout became more and more apparent. Also the 'computer pool" is just a big square, no slide; no mickey, no fun. If you want a value resort stay at all star movies. There are fun statues to climb on, take pictures of your kids with and a fun pool with sorcerer mickey. Much more visually appealing and fun.

We stayed 8 nights at Pop Century from Aug. 26-Sept. 3 on the free dining plan, booked through our AAA travel agent.

It was our second stay at Pop Century and we enjoyed it again.

We requested a 1st floor room in the 50's section and were assigned a 4th floor room in the 80's section! When I mentioned we didn't get our request to the cm who checked us in, she said there was no request noted on our reservation, so that is an issue to take up with my travel agent and I can't blame Pop for that.

We kept the room though, even thought they offered to move us the next day (we wanted to unpack and not have to move the next day because we planned to be at Epcot all day). The room turned out to be great! We were right by the elevators and very close to the computer pool, which was hardly ever crowded!

We enjoyed the food court, although you do need to get a table and send others in your party to get food as tables are hard to come by and the lines for paying were almost always quite long! We usually took a divide and conquer approach as we had 4 of us in our party. We had 1 save the table, 2 go in the food lines (you have to use different lines for various food items) and 1 person get drink refills, napkins, ketchup, etc. and then save a spot in line at the cashier. This worked well.

We bought the refillable mugs and really loved the frozen coke and blueberry frozen drinks. With the Aug. heat, those were really enjoyable!!

We had a rental car as we dislike Disney transportation, so I can't comment on that, but I did see many long lines at buses and many people standing on the rides home (why we dislike Disney transportation).

We have stayed off-site in Orlando at the Nickelodeon Suites (twice) and the Country Inn & Suites in LBV. We have also stayed at Carribean Beach and Wildnerness Lodge at Disney.

Wilderness Lodge is still by far my favorite of all Orlando hotels, but this trip we were on a tighter budget as we will travel to Orlando 4 times this year!!

For budget-conscience travelers, I highly recommend Pop Century.

Just a tip though, we always bring our own fitted and regular sheets and pillow-cases to all hotels. My biggest pet peeve is when hotels do not use fitted sheets on the bed and you wind up sleeping directly on the mattress half the night. We did this again here and I was glad as the beds do not have fitted sheets on them. It made for a much more comfortable night's sleep.

Another tip, around 10 or 11am (it seemed it ws 10am on weekdays and 11am on weekends), they have a "pool opening" ceremony where they pick 1 or a few little girls and dress them as flower children and have them wave some fake flowers to turn on the flower showers at the main Hippy Dippy pool. They also let the kids keep the stuff they give them and give them a certificate for this. It was cute and my girls wished they had been picked.

While I generally prefer Marriotts to Holiday Inns, Disney is no place to "splurge" on hotel accomodations. Indeed, I'd wager that your kids would PREFER you book the reasonably-priced Pop Century over some massively overpriced "moderate" or "deluxe" Disney resort. Why? Because the Pop Century is more fun. My kids loved the giant yo-yos, big wheel and rubik's cubes -- completely different from what they see at other hotels. Sure, Disney simply took standard motel rooms (and there's nothing particularly interesting about the rooms themselves) and jazzed them up with over-the-top landscaping, but so what? The rooms are more than comfortable enough, and chances are you're not going to be spending all that much time at your hotel in Disney World anyway. And when you do, there's more than enough to look at and keep you busy at Pop Century.

We stayed on the "free Disney Dining plan," and if they ever offer this promo again, jump on it. You can eat for free anywhere in Disney World (including the resorts that cost 3 times the price), and it makes the $79 room rate the best travel value in America. It pays to read the unofficial Disney sites (mousesavers, allearsnet, DIS discussion) for the latest tips and tricks. Our favorite Disney restaurants were Wolfgang Pucks, Sci-Fi, 50's Primetime and Ohana's. The tab for our free dinners easily exceeded the room rate.

There are a few negatives about the hotel that you should know about, although they should not impact your decision on where to stay. Check-in is a pain (think Las Vegas lines), but you never need to return to the front desk. The food in the on-site cafeteria/food court isn't particularly good or interesting, so eat there only when necessity dictates. Try to request an upper floor room away from the pools -- which are open until midnight and can be noisy if you're trying to sleep. Buses seem to depart frequently from the hotel to the theme parks, but we were afraid to try them -- with hotel guests getting free parking everywhere in Disney, I'm certain that you will save considerable time driving yourself around. Everything within the park is within a 10 minute drive of Pop Century (often closer), so don't bother picking another resort for convenience reasons.

Bottom line: let others waste their money elsewhere, stay at Pop Century and get your money's worth!

We really wanted to stay on Disney grounds and this seemed to be a reasonable way to go. If you have children and are not concerned with a lot of amenities than POP CENTURY is the way to go. The rooms were clean and affordable; nothing fancy. But I guess this is to be expected with the reasonable price.

We did rent a car and I was so glad that we did. Parking in all Disney parks is free while staying on the Disney grounds. My family likes to have the option of coming and going as we please and not relying on the busses and transportation systems to get us around. I think that this is a personal preference though. POP was also conveniently located. We were only minutes away from all parks except Magic Kingdom.

Some cons were that the food court was crowded at meal times. Perhaps a second location would be a smart idea considering the large number of rooms at the hotel. The beds were of lesser quality. I had a killer neck and back ache after first nights stay but eased up by the third night. Also, there is an in room safe with key. We locked our money and valubles in it on the first night with no problems. Also, new at Disney was being able to print boarding passes for our next days flight. This can be done at your hotel or at any of the theme parks at guest services. This was a real time saver with our early morning flight.