Pop Century Resort

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: From the 50’s through the 90’s, our culture had seen some major changes in pop culture. The fads of these decades come back to life at Walt Disney World’s Pop Century Resort. In typical Disney style, they are brought back larger then life, in some cases more then 30 feet tall.

The newest of the value class of Disney resorts, Pop Century opened in 2003. Like the other value class hotels, Pop Century is themed with oversized icons. The theme here is pop icons from 1950-1990. Each section of the hotel features color, phrases and items from the era on a very large scale. The hotel is divided into four periods:

• 1950’s: themed with large bowling pins, juke boxes, characters from Lady and the Tramp and a bowling pin pool.
• 1960’s: psychedelic colors with large yo-yo’s, play-doh container, characters from the Jungle Book and a flower shaped hippy pool.
• 1970’s: large eight track tapes, Mickey Mouse rotary phone, larger then life foosball game dominate this area of the resort.
• 1980/90’s: the 80’s buildings have Rubik’s cubes and walkman’s while the 90’s building features cell phones and a computer pool.

The resort contains 10 four story buildings for a total of 2,880 rooms. The rooms are 260 square feet each and contain the basic necessities.

In addition to the three swimming pools, there is also a playground and arcade to keep the kids busy.

Classic Hall features many of the main services of the resort. Here you will find guest services, the arcade, the gift shop and the food court. This is also the gateway to the Disney transportation system that will take you to all the parks and attractions within the Walt Disney World Resort.

While being in the value class of the resort hotels, the Pop Century includes the same resort guest amenities as the other resort hotels. These include transportation to the theme parks, water parks and Downtown Disney, complimentary package delivery and the most important, Extra Magic Hours. With Extra Magic Hours, one theme park each day either opens an hour early or stays open up to three hours later for resort guests.

Across the lake for the Classic Years section of Pop Century, Disney had begun construction of an expansion to the hotel. The original plan was called the Legendary Years and was to mirror the layout of the current hotel but themed from 1900 to 1940. But because of the drop in tourism, the project has been put on hold. It would later be announced in 2010 that the Legendary Years project was scrapped and replaced with a new resort theme called Disney’s Art of Animation and feature themes from the popular Disney Pixar films. The Art of Animation is projected to open in 2012.

Click on the photo above to visit my Pop Century photo gallery.

Updated November 4, 2010