There are 25 resorts on Disney World property- which is an impressive number if you consider the limited space that DisneyLand has to offer in comparison.
And it’s great, because there really is a resort to fit everyone’s unique tastes and styles.
Which is why Im sad to say I won’t be back to Pop anytime soon (or likely ever).
Why?
Because there’s 24 other resorts to stay at, and I have given Pop several tries to get things right, and every time they’ve fallen short.
First things First
I’ve worked in customer service, I’ve worked as an insurance salesman, a banker, several fast food and grocery stores. I get it- people have bad days, things malfunction and not everything goes according to plan.
But there’s a reason I shop at Publix instead of shopping at Walmart, and there’s a reason I order more things from Target online than I do Amazon.
And that reason is customer service.
So when I stay at Disney, I hope that I’m staying for better customer service over the other people 5 minutes outside of the resort.
But that’s not really what happened
The first time we had a snafuu with Pop was several years ago. I honestly can’t even remember it- it was well before I started reviewing Disney and I just remembered not to book here.
A family member was raving about the remodel at Pop and how much more she enjoyed it, so to be close to them we grabbed a last minute room at Pop.
We figured, what can it hurt? Things change, people have bad days- it’s just life. Disney has great customer service so nothing will go wrong.
Instead, it took almost an hour to check in because the app checked me in without a room number, customer support couldn’t help me after speaking with several people and there was an abnormally long line at the check in counter.
I was miffed. I had to wake my kids up. I had to spend almost an hour getting a room when I live 45 minutes away (and that makes ZERO sense, I could have been home by the time I finally got checked in after being at Magic Kingdom all day)
But things happened, the manager apologized and they moved me to a room closer to the entrance. It was directly by the pool though- but I didnt want to complain even though I had explained to her about my kids needing to sleep, so I just turned on the noise maker and took it at face value.
So we tried again
The next time was slightly more eventful, this was about 5 weeks after the original incident. We checked in on the app- all clear. We walk the 2000 miles to our room (kinda kidding- its building 8 and the far side, great for parking!) for our room key not to work. I called the customer service line and they sent someone out.
Except, after extensive and exhausting trouble shooting that lasted 30 minutes, the door would not open by app- only magic band (which I never planned to carry because it’s just too hot for them).
Thankfully we had the magic bands- and they worked- but it was really inconvenient that the app wouldn’t work on our phone.
She says sorry, maybe they’ll work later or I can send maintenance to change the battery. I felt like having a maintenance worker was overly intrusive, and there was NO guarantee it was actually the battery, I didn’t want them to change it and it still not work, so I declined.
It’s 7 pm, kids are tired- let’s just not worry about it.
But…
I wasn’t really satisfied with the way things were handled, so I reached out to the site on the paper that comes in every room.
I’m a big believer that people can’t make things right if they don’t know about it- and wether it was the app or the door- something was wrong with the system. Disney needs to know about it- they need a record- and I wanted to touch bases with them because this was now 2 times too many for things to take this long.
I did not receive a phone call.
I did not receive an email.
Instead, they choose to KNOCK ON MY DOOR AT 10:30 at night to give me a keycard.
But I never asked for a keycard. I emailed them to express my frustration in how the situation was handled. I think that at best we could have gotten a new room, at worst we could have gotten a few fastpasses or even better- they could have said that they will have someone investigate why the app is SO faulty at Pop.
Thankfully, my husband opened the door while I tried to keep the baby asleep, because I did not have very kind words to say.
In fact, I still don’t have very kind words to say about Pop.
It’s cute if you like retro theming, the rooms are better now that they have no carpet, and the price point works someone trying to just have a place to sleep.
Except it was hard for us to even get to sleep with how the check in and ‘resolution’ went.
I’m not sure where the break down in customer service is- but I have never experienced this at the other resorts or even other hotels.
The Bottom Line
There’s too many other Disney resorts for me to fuss with Pop. Even if I didn’t want to upgrade- there are very similar resorts with similar price points minutes outside of Disney property.