Okay we're at the Disney's Pop Century and we're gonna give you a hotel tour
today. This is the hotel we picked to stay at this time. We're only staying
here three nights, essentially going to the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween
Party tonight. And then we're doing like a one-day park hopper where we're gonna
do Studios and Epcot.
So here's a TV where you can sit and watch movies while
the other parent checks everybody in. There's a video game. A couple of video games.
A couple of massage chairs. And then where they can sit and color. So we're
gonna go over here. This is the registration desk. As you can see it is
huge. And they've got lots of workers. There's at least one, two, three, four, five,
workers on staff this morning. Oh, there's a sixth one.
This is a Guest Information board.
So it gives you the hours of the park, The park hours that they're operating today,
And there's some great decorations in the lobby from the different decades
that are represented at Pop Century. It shows some of the pop culture from the
past decades. I Dream of Jeannie, The Beach Boys. There's the Apollo moon
program. The first moonwalk. Of course Mickey Mouse is represented in there. Just all
kinds of cool memorabilia in these display cases. So lots to look at in the
lobby while you're waiting to get checked in. Then at the end of the lobby
there's a place where you can get your caricature done. And then right around
the corner, there is the Fast-Forward Arcade. It's actually a pretty nice
arcade. Good sized. A big Space Invaders game. Pac-Man. Kids games and adult games.
Skeeball. Just a little bit of everything. And even massage chairs, which you might
need after a hard day at the park.
And coming out of the arcade there at the
end of the lobby, and turning right, is Everything Pop, Shopping and Dining.
And you can walk through here to get to the food court. To the left at the end of
the lobby is where you go out to transportation, Disney transportation.
And there's some of the buses out there waiting to take people to the parks. That
one's going to Magic Kingdom. We'll be there later!
So first let's go check out
the gift shop. We're here at the end of October, and of course they have things
out for Christmas. Even a Christmas train.
I don't think I'd get that home in my luggage. All kinds of Disney character
toys. Lots of mugs and cups. And over here are
some snacks...healthy and otherwise. At this end of the gift
shop, there's some apparel. Star Wars toys. A lot of ears you can buy there. And
hats. There's Skyliner toys you can buy. We love the Skyliner. And so much Disney
stuff if you need more of it.
Okay, so now we're walking into the food court.
There's Gpa having another drink of soda! So here's what the ceiling looks
like. There's no ceiling tiles actually on it.
You see the exposed pipes, but then they have this cool lighting. Over here, this
over here is ice cream and specialty coffees.
There's where you fill your soda up at the refill station right over here.
Here's where you're going to go and this is breakfast of course. It's being served
until 11:00. And you can get like the Mickey shaped
waffles, sausage, bacon, turkey bacon. That's all over at this station. In every
single station, there's one, two, three, four of them, they have something
different. This one is pancakes,
all kinds of pancakes. Over here is the French toast. American
Platter with the bacon and eggs and hash browns. Over here is the omelet station.
There's the bottled water. There is alcohol over here. Fresh fruit cups, that
are over here. Little bitty yogurts, puddings, grapes.
Ice tea. And then this is the dessert section. And then all kinds of danishes.
These are doughnuts,
all kinds of blueberry muffins. Banana bread muffins. And then over here
is cereal.
That lane right there's for cash and credit card only. So you cannot
use your Dining Plan at that particular register. But that makes it go
faster. Okay we'll show you now where the dining
room is where you can actually go and eat. And then this is the dining hall.
And you just have to drop in napkin and they pick it up right behind you. They're
real good at cleaning up. And we're gonna go take a walk outside.
And this is the
front entrance to the food court. You can enter through the gift shop, but there's
also this front entrance right where it says Pop! Coming out that entrance right
here is the Hippy-Dippy Pool. And over here to the right is Petals. Petals is a
poolside bar. It's not open yet. It's about 9:00 in the morning. Here's the
Hippy-Dippy Pool. It's nice and big. There's some life jackets that are free
to use there. And it has some big flowers that shoot water out. And right over
there is also a splash pad for kids. And the pool is surrounded by blocks of
rooms. Ask for a preferred room to get you near the pool and get you near the food
court. There's tables out here where you can eat you can bring your food out from
the food court & eat outside.
And there's these handy directories all around the
property so you know where you're at right now and where you might want to go.
That even shows where the Skyliner station is here.
And there's not just one
pool, there's three!
There are some of the '50's rooms here. There's the Tramp so
of course over there is Lady. And right here is the Bowling Pin Pool. Complete
with bowling balls. As you're walking out from the food court, the Hippy-Dippy
Pool is right in front of you. Walking to the right gets you to the Bowling Pin
Pool. And then walking to the left as you come out of the main food court door, is
another pool. So we're gonna go see that one.
We went to the '50's, this is the '60's.
Now we're heading on to the 70's and the 80's. They do have the Hippy Dippy Pool
open. They did not have the Bowling Pin open, so we'll see if the other pool is
open yet this morning. Or maybe it's so quiet they only have lifeguards for this
one. There's like a Play-Doh can over hear. Then over on this side we
have Baloo the Bear and Mowgli. He is big! Look at him...he's bigger than the
building. He's really tall!
The big giant yo-yo.
There's actually a set of stairs inside there.
So this over here, Stan, I'd say
that's the 70's. Look at the disco shoes, mood rings, Bicentennial. And I was just
saying look at this giant 8-track tape. Says Bubble Gum Greats, 70's Pop, Boogie Man Records.
It says, "1976 America celebrates its Bicentennial. Barbara Walters joins ABC
News as the first woman to co-host the Network News.
What a pretty picture this
morning of Hourglass Lake. Look at those irises - they're still blooming.
And now we're coming into the 80's. I see Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head up there. There they are.
The perfect couple...made for each other. And you can unmake them...anytime you want to.
And it's cool how they have all the trivia facts about the different decades
around the resort as you walk along the paths. Some big Rubix cubes. I never got
mine solved so it looked like that. And Pac-Man. And they have little words and
phrases that were popular during those decades. Preppie. Breakdance. Awesome.
There's a Sony Sports Walkman FM with headphones.
And here is the other pool,
down here in the 80's and 90's area. There's Roger Rabbit with his worst
enemy...turpentine.
And this pool would normally just be a nice quiet pool area.
Not too busy. It's the smallest of the three pools, but nice very nice.
Honey, say for sure. For sure. Say awesome. Awesome!
And they have a lift to help handicapped
guests get in the pool.
And here is a nice big QWERTY keyboard from a computer
you can play on.
That there's a huge Big Wheel here. And right next to it is a big
foosball game.
And a giant Mickey phone. That's a big Mickey. Definitely not a
Hidden Mickey. We're gonna go ride the Skyliner now. And there's Classic Hall,
we're out in front of that. So we're gonna go straight out this way past the
Hippy Dippy Pool, and to the Generation Gap Bridge which connects you to the Art
of Animation Resort. And the Skyliner platform is about halfway across the
Generation Gap Bridge. It's the only floating Skyliner station.
Pop Century is a very cool resort. It opened in December of 2003 and it's really one of
our favorite resorts we always like to come back to. Very reasonably priced. They
have their own dedicated bus transportation just for this resort.
Whereas like the other ones, other value resorts, which are All-Star Movie, Music,
and Sports, they all have to share one bus. Or a Little Mermaid which has to
share it with all the Suites.This is my choice. Plus it's near the
gondola station. Yeah. Which is where we're going next. Yes. We love Pop Century.