Disney's Pop Century Resort
Disney's Pop Century Resort is a value resort hotel at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida. Opened on December 14, 2003, it is themed to American popular culture of the second half of the twentieth century, with each of its ten buildings representing a decade from the 1950s to the 1990s. It has 2,880 rooms, and faces Disney's Art of Animation Resort across Hourglass Lake.
History
Pop Century was conceived as a much larger development of 5,760 rooms in two halves. The Classic Years would cover the 1950s to the 1990s, and the Legendary Years, across the lake, the 1900s to the 1940s. Construction of both halves began in 1999, and the resort was expected to open in 2001. The fall in tourism after the September 11 attacks halted the project: the Classic Years buildings were largely complete but stood empty, and work on the Legendary Years stopped with its lobby building and several room buildings unfinished.
Disney eventually completed only the Classic Years, which opened on December 14, 2003, as the fourth of Walt Disney World's value resorts, after the three All-Star resorts of the 1990s. The abandoned Legendary Years site remained visible across Hourglass Lake for most of a decade — the bridge built to connect the two halves, named the Generation Gap Bridge, led to an unfinished resort — until Disney announced in May 2010 that the site would be finished as a separate hotel, Disney's Art of Animation Resort, which opened in 2012.
Theme and layout
Each decade area is marked by oversized reproductions of the objects and phrases of its period. The 1950s buildings are fronted by giant bowling pins and a jukebox; the 1960s by a Big Wheel tricycle and Play-Doh tub; the 1970s by an eight-track tape and a Mickey Mouse telephone; the 1980s by a Rubik's Cube and Pac-Man motifs; and the 1990s by a laptop computer and mobile phones. Stairwells are enclosed in equally large props, catchphrases of each decade are worked into the building facades, and a path around Hourglass Lake carries a series of signs recording events and fashions year by year through the century.
The buildings follow the standard value-resort pattern of four-storey blocks with exterior walkways, arranged around courtyards. The central building, Classic Hall, contains the check-in lobby — its walls lined with shadow boxes of memorabilia from each decade — the Everything POP food court and shop, and an arcade.
Between 2017 and 2019 every room was refurbished. The refitted rooms replaced carpet with hard flooring and introduced a queen bed alongside a second queen-sized bed that folds down from the wall and serves as a table when raised, a layout that has since become the standard for Walt Disney World value rooms.
Recreation
The resort has three pools. The Hippy Dippy Pool, in the 1960s area, is flower-shaped and is the centre of daytime activities; the other two, shaped as a bowling pin in the 1950s area and as a computer in the 1990s area, are quieter. A children's splash area, jogging path around the lake and playgrounds complete the facilities.
Transportation
Since September 29, 2019, Pop Century has been served by the Disney Skyliner gondola system, sharing a station with the Art of Animation Resort on Hourglass Lake. The Skyliner connects the two hotels with Disney's Hollywood Studios and EPCOT, via a transfer at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. Buses serve the Magic Kingdom, Disney's Animal Kingdom, the water parks and Disney Springs; bus services to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios were withdrawn once the Skyliner opened, except when the gondola is closed by weather.