Pop Vs All Stars

[Brummie92]

Hi

I am new here;

Me and my girlfriend are booked to go to all star movies next September,

We are now thinking about changing to pop century.


What are people thoughts? Is it worth it for the sky liner?

[loldis]

Welcome

The two resorts are essentially identical in terms of room design and amenities now. So I think it's going to depend how much you think you'll use the Skyliner. For my money, it's not worth the extra cost as I don't spend much time in Epcot or HS, but other people love the convenience of popping up to the Boardwalk or Epcot most evenings for drinks or food.

Although one thing to keep in mind in September (and summer generally) is the Skyliner will stop running during lightning. So you may find yourself having to wait for alternate transport to start. It can also get pretty crowded in peak times due to multiple resorts all using it as primary transportation to the parks on the line.

FWIW, I was booked at Pop and switched down to All Stars once availability opened up on my dates. It was about £250 cheaper per week on my dates.

[Clarkkent]

Have stayed at Pop Century a couple of times. Enjoyed it - the theming is designed to bring back memories of your childhood, so it’s always a bit of fun. I would say there’s a couple of benefits to PC - firstly, the dedicated queuing system at PC for each of the parks always tends to work well. AS buses (from park to resort) can be a bit problematic as they serve all of the various parts of the resort rather than Music/Movies separately.
Skyliner link definitely a bonus if you’re going to be spending a lot of time at HS or Epcot, though to be fair it’s not that far by bus either.
Food court can get a little crazy sometimes, particularly at breakfast.

[loldis]

All Star buses are now dedicated for each resort, except in slow periods where they may revert to sharing.

[sky13]

My go to resort at WDW is always Pop - with the caveat that I almost always stay at Pop, and have only done a short stay at AoA and a one night stay at ASMovies (not stayed at Sports/Music).

The All Stars have either been recently refurbed or in the process of being refurbed, and the refurbed rooms look quite similar to the refurbed rooms at Pop - so the room quality should be fairly similar now between the All Stars and Pop.

I found the Skyliner absolutely amazing on my last trip in 2019. I had a room at Pop fairly close to the Skyliner station, and I loved that I could get from my room to the gates of DHS in about 15 minutes, and to the gates of Epcot in about 25 minutes, including walking time and waiting time! It was definitely far more pleasant than waiting for the bus. The downside of Skyliner is that it sometimes wasn't running early enough for EMH morning/night so I still had to take the bus to Epcot/DHS sometimes, and it does stop operating in bad weather, and there was one random breakdown of a day+ during my trip.

But even before the Skyliner, I still preferred Pop over the AS. I've generally had a fairly smooth experience with check in and left luggage at Pop, whereas my one stay at ASMovies was a total crazy experience where check in and left luggage were extremely chaotic unpleasant experiences - there did not seem to be enough CMs to deal with the number of people there! Not sure if I was just very unlucky though.

Also Pop is slightly better located compared to the AS in terms of location within WDW. Doesn't make a huge difference but it's nice to be slightly closer to places like Disney Springs.

I guess for future trips for me though it will come down to the cost differential between Pop and the All Stars - if Pop was a lot lot more expensive than the All Stars then I would potentially still go with the All Stars...

[Mazascouser]

Been to Pop and All star Sports enjoyed both. I would go with the cheaper option.

[wdw-wanderer]

From Pop Century you can also walk across the Generation Bridge and sample the Landscape of Flavours food court if you fancy a change from Pop’s Food Court.

[Brummie92]

Thank you all for the advice , we have gone for pop century for £500 more due the sky liner and be going to HS a lot;