Disney’s Art of Animation is set to open at the end of May and with the close proximity to guest favorite Disney’s Pop Century, let’s take a look and see how the two of them will compare!
Location
Disney’s Pop Century Resort and Art of Animation are situated right next to each other. You’ll be able to cross Hourglass Lake on the Generation Gap Bridge to visit the other resort! Both are closest to Ecpot and Hollywood Studios parks. Pop Century has views of Epcot’s Illuminations and we bet Art of Animation will also!
Generation Gap Bridge
Size
Pop Century is one of the largest resorts in America, featuring 2,880 rooms. It’s also the largest of any of the Walt Disney World resorts. Art of Animation will feature 1,120 family suites and 864 standard rooms for a total of 1,984 rooms.
Guest Rooms
Pop Century features standard rooms that are 260 sq. feet and feature bright and colorful decor. Disney’s Art of Animation will also feature standard rooms in their Little Mermaid section and we suspect they will be very similar to other value resort standard rooms.
At Pop Century, each building is themed after a different decade from the 1950’s to the 1990’s.
Art of Animation will also have 1,120 family suites that will sleep up to 6 people. Each suite will have two bathrooms, a master bedroom and 3 separate sleeping areas. The suites will also have a kitchenette with a sink ,microwave and a slightly large fridge that you normally get at values.
At the Art of Animation Resort, each building is based on a favorite Disney/Pixar movie like Cars, The Lion King, Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid! Check out pictures of the Art of Animation rooms!
Dining
Pop Century has the Everything Pop Food Court, which features the famous Pop Waffles and the Tie-Dye Cheesecake! There is also Peace of Pizza for pizza delivery to your room and Petals Pool Bar near the Hippy Dippy Pool.
Art of Animation will feature the Landscape of Flavor Food Court, where the focus will be “make your own”. Like Pop Century there will be 5 different “shops” to choose from. You’ll be able to make your own salad, choose from delicious items like a Surf and Turf burger with crab cake and fried popcorn shrimp or a Buffalo-style turkey sandwich with arugula and a blue cheese-Buffalo sauce-mayo spread, served with house-made potato chips. Make sure to head over to Disney Food Blog to see even more options that will be offered at the new food court. There will also be pizza delivery and The Drop Off Pool Bar at the large Finding Nemo pool.
Landscape of Flavor Food Court
Pools
Pop Century has three huge pools to enjoy – the main Hippy Dippy Pool, the Bowling Pin Pool and the Computer Pool.
Hippy Dippy Pool
The Big Blue Pool at Art of Animation will be Disney’s largest pool at 11,859 sq. feet! There will also be the Cozy Cone Pool in the Cars area and the Flippin’ Fins Pool in The Little Mermaid area.
Each resort also features an interactive water area for little ones and a playground!
Transportation
Pop Century offers complimentary bus transportation like all of the other resorts at Walt Disney World. There is only one bus stop which is in front of Classic Hall. We don’t have too much information on transportation at Art of Animation, but Disney’s Moms Panel has stated official word is they will not share buses!
We’ll be sure to update more as we learn about the Art of Animation Resort! For all you Pop Century fans, will you consider trying out Art of Animation?
This post is part of the Disney Blog Carnival. Head over there to see more great Disney-related posts and articles.
I really enjoyed Pop Century when I stayed. I enjoyed the food court, pool, bus service was good, house keeping was excellent.I would stay again.
I have seen AOA and it is so pretty. I have never stayed and just walked thru. My family would love the big blue pool, sections of the Cars, Lion King, Little Mermaid and all the theming. But when I suggested to my family we stay at AOA in the Little Mermaid section next summer (2013)They did not want to stay because of the walk being about 8 minutes to the food court. I don’t think a walk to the bus bothered them as much as an 8 min walk to the big pool, food court and game room, just in general, every time they wanted to go to that center area of the resort.
In the past we like to be near enough to the food court to just hop over and use your resort cup and get your drink or go the game room, swim in the bigger pool, shop. I don’t think we would like the food court as well as Pop Century either. Some of the choices just don’t appeal to us and I don’t particular want to stand in line behind everyone while they are trying to decide how they want the cooks to fix their dish! I can only imagine how long that takes for undecided people like ourselves! LOL!
If we ever change our minds and stay I would keep drinks, and snacks in my room and use Pop Century Food court or go out to eat. If we stayed we would probably want to stay in the suites of Little Nemo or Cars. But the price is more than two rooms at Pop and we would only have one bed up (2 we would have to make) in the suites as compared to 4 beds at Pop that I wouldn’t have to fool with making. The part I hate about camping is making the beds. The part I like about staying in a resort is not making those beds! They definetly should have done some research with people on that!
I can’t imagine sleeping on the table that food is spilled on. I can just imagine the spilled drinks! In our camper I have to make sure all the food is cleaned up off the table and floor. I wonder if guest will do that! I wonder how long it will take for that bed area to be a bug or ant problem! LOL
In the suites we would have a microwave (we would enjoy), 1 fridge with small freezer(be nice to freeze your water for the parks). But… in the two rooms at Pop I would have 2 fridge and in both we would have two baths in each.
So I don’t know at this time if or when we will stay at AOA. For the price of the resort I would want everything to be easy & enjoyable, like at Pop Century, and I can’t see that it would be at this time! Maybe if I stayed once I would change my mind but…. I also see at least $500 I could use else where on vacation! LOL! Is the theming worth it? I don’t know?