Disney's Pop Century Resort is a Disney Value Resort hotel featuring giant icons that salute many of the 20th-century popular culture crazes—including toys, gadgets, music, movies, fads and catch phrases. The hotel is themed around different decades in American pop culture. Much like the other resorts within the value category, there are giant versions of various items built around the hotel. Disney's Pop Century Resort is located near Epcot theme park, Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park, Disney's BoardWalk Area and ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. It is a smoke-free Resort; smoking is permitted only in designated outdoor smoking locations. Accessible rooms and features are offered for Guests with disabilities.
Guest rooms are located in 10 brightly colored and whimsically decorated 4-story buildings—trimmed with huge letters representing iconic sayings from the decade they represent. Different sections of the hotel represent the 1950s, '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s.
Disney Transport buses provide scheduled service between the resort hotel and the theme parks, water parks, and Downtown Disney. The resort has laundry facilities and babysitting options available. It also has pizza delivery to guests' rooms as well as cable television. As of April 2012 refrigerators and internet access are now complimentary.
The Resort's central building is named Classic Hall, and the facility includes the Main Lobby check-in desk, the Fast Forward Arcade and the Everything Pop shop and food court. Unwind and enjoy 3 swimming pools—the main flower-shaped Hippy Dippy Pool, the smaller bowling pin-shaped Bowling Pool and the monitor-shaped Computer Pool.
With 2,880 Guest rooms, Disney's Pop Century Resort is one of the largest hotels in the United States.
Buildings / Areas
Each themed area features motel-style buildings adorned in larger than life phrases and iconography of the particular decade being represented. The resort has 2,880 rooms in ten separate buildings, three pool areas, and one central area, named "Classic Hall", that houses the front desk, gift shop, arcade and food court. The buildings are four story versions of the three story All-Star Resort buildings.
- 1950s - The 1950s area features giant sock-hoppers dancing on the sides of the buildings, possibly be-bopping to rock-and-roll tunes from the 40-foot-tall tabletop jukebox that anchors the courtyard. A bowling pin-shaped pool provides a cool dip. The canine character stars from Disney's "Lady and the Tramp" animated feature film (released to theater audiences in 1955) gaze at each other across the courtyard.
- 1960s - Tie-dyed hues and psychedelic colors are the focus of the 1960s buildings. Play-Doh Pete, the artful child that adorned Play-Doh labels in the 1960s, is featured on a giant can of the popular modeling compound. Peeking out the top of the can are several Play-Doh animal creations, including a blue elephant and a yellow giraffe. Baloo and Mowgli from Disney's "The Jungle Book" (released in 1967) are hand-in-hand across the courtyard. Giant Duncan Imperial-model yo-yos, with "strings" that measure more than one-foot in diameter, bookend each 1960s building.
- 1970s - In the 1970s courtyard, the colorful Big Wheel riding toy gets ready to roll, while a classic Mickey Mouse rotary-dial telephone calls from across the courtyard. Between the two towering icons, table soccer players stand at the ready for guests to wander amidst their imaginary game. Eight-track tapes, the popular musical medium of the decade, corner each building.
- 1980s - In the 1980s area of Disney's Pop Century Resort, the most "puzzling" toy of the decade, the Rubik's Cube, towers more than 40 feet tall on each building. (Walt Disney Imagineers designed the different cubes to represent different stages of the solution process.) Across the courtyard, one of the original Sony Walkman models, and accompanying headphone set, anchors the building. In the middle of the courtyard is a computer-shaped pool, complete with a spongy keyboard that offers guests an alphabet-filled pool deck area.
- 1990s - The 1990s area pays tribute to two personal technology marvels, the cellular telephone and the computer. A giant laptop computer is the centerpiece, while early-model cellular telephones stand at each corner.
Dining
Everything Pop Shopping and Dining - At Everything Pop Shopping and Dining, stroll through shops in search of mementoes and Disney merchandise. Take a break and grab a quick bite at the food court. Find favorite foods like waffles, pasta, flatbread and salads at one of these 7 quick-service food outlets:
- Grab-N-Go Market - Rise early for pastries straight from the oven. Later in the day, stop by for fresh fruit and ice cream novelties.
- Pizza and Pasta Shop - Breakfast selections, pizza and fresh sandwiches round out the menu at this Italian-style food shop.
- Peace of Pizza Delivery - Order oven-fresh pizza, sides and desserts nightly from 4:00 pm to 12:00 midnight.
- Healthy Choices - Select fresh fruit, vegetables and salads, or make a request to address your special-needs diet.
- Sandwich and Salad Shop - Try POP waffles with fruit topping for breakfast. Later, savor soup, salads and flat breads.
- Grill Shop - Start your day with fluffy French toast. Return for Angus burgers and golden chicken nuggets.
- Ethnic Shop - The breakfast platters and wraps are hearty. Mom's Night Out dinner has selections that rotate daily.
Touring Tips
- Disney's Pop Century Resort is located near Epcot theme park, Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park, Disney's BoardWalk Area and ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
- It is one of five hotels that make up the "value resort" group at the complex, along with the All-Star Sports Resort, the All-Star Movies Resort, the All-Star Music Resort, and the Art of Animation Resort.
- Located at the Main Lobby in the Classic Hall building, the concierge can help you purchase Disney Theme Park and Disney Water Park tickets, make dining reservations and secure show seats.
- Disney's Pop Century Resort offers several childcare services to keep your children having fun—even when you can't be there.
- Visit the Everything Pop shop inside the Classic Hall building to browse Disney merchandise and vacation necessities.
- This Resort includes an accessible path of travel from arrival to the lobby area, as well as to accessible Guest rooms; restaurants; merchandise locations; pools; and exercise and laundry facilities.
- Disney's Pop Century Resort has 3 swimming pools—the main flower-shaped Hippy Dippy Pool in the '60s section, the smaller bowling pin-shaped Bowling Pool in the '50s section and the monitor-shaped Computer Pool in the '90s section.
- Visit Everything Pop shop inside the Classic Hall building to browse Disney merchandise and vacation necessities. You can even grab a bite to eat—the shop shares space with the Everything Pop Food Court.
History
The resort was originally planned to open in 2001, though the opening was eventually delayed to March 2002. It was delayed once more before accepting reservations on April 22, 2003, and opening on December 13, 2003.
In the Classic Years section of the resort, each area is themed with a specific decade and giant items related to that decade. This was originally one of two planned construction phases for the resort, but has become the only completed area of the resort due to a scaling-back of the project. The original plans for the resort included a second phase of units themed to the Legendary Years, which would have included 1900–1940s themed areas. These rooms would have resided across a lake from the Classic Years section, and would be connected by the 'Generation Gap' bridge to that section. Construction for both phases were started at the same time, but after the September 11 attacks, Disney scaled back the hotel due to the reduction in tourism.
The Classic Years section opened in 2003, while the Legendary Years lobby building, to be called "Legendary Hall", and a few of its buildings were left uncompleted. Initially, the completed resort was to have an additional 2,880 rooms on the Legendary side, configured identically to the Classic side. The parking lot for the expansion was completed during the earlier phase of construction, and occasionally was used as overflow parking for the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
On May 12, 2010, Disney Parks announced plans to complete the remaining section of the resort as a separate value-priced resort known as Disney's Art of Animation Resort. It will be based on four of Disney and Pixar's most popular films: The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Finding Nemo and Cars. However, to distinguish it from Pop Century, the hotel will have 1,120 suites, designed for up to six people. The remaining 864 rooms will be a standard value-resort size. The addition of suites was based on positive guest responses after a number of hotel rooms at Disney's All-Star Music Resort were combined to form larger accommodations. Construction resumed in the summer of 2010, and the resort opened in May 2012.