During my recent stay to Disney’s Pop Century Resort, I was visiting in my own vehicle rather by my normal mode of transportation from the airport, the Magical Express. Now I have been to the Walt Disney World Resort area many, many times, but typically by way of Magical Express, so I had never really paid attention to how we even got to the resort! (I was all too familiar, though, that when standing on the bus from the Magic Kingdom to the Pop Century, you were in it for the long haul!) I had observed that when driving close to a park area, all of the resorts that were located in that park area were noted on a Disney sign.
I had wrongly thought that all of the Disney World Resorts were located in respect to a park, i.e. Animal Kingdom Lodge is located in the Animal Kingdom park area and so on. But when leaving EPCOT on this particular trip on my first day, I realized I had no GPS and that I had a memory lapse as to which area the Pop Century was located in according to Disney and their signage!
On a past stay to the Pop, my mom was the driver and we had debated that the resort was located in the EPCOT park area (my guess) or the World Wide of Sports area (my mom’s guess). I really did not believe she was right because everyone knows that Disney only associates their Resorts with park areas, right? Needless to say, my mom loves to be right, so after getting lost on that vacation and then finally finding the Pop, she asked at the front desk what area Disney categorizes the Pop Century to being located.
The look on her face was “magical” as she got the answer that the Pop Century Resort is in the Wide World of Sports area and listed on that area’s signage! Thanks mom for the tip on how to find the Pop Century Resort looking for the signs for the Wide World of Sports! I was grateful on this latest visit for this banter, as I DID remember where the Pop was located! For the rest of you, just remember to always find the Walt Disney World area that your Resort is associated with so you do not have to do any unnecessary Disney touring of their 25,000 acres!
Contributed by: Natalie H. Natalie is the Disney Driven Life’s resident resort expert.
Natalie grew up in Nashville, TN. Married with one son, she lives on a farm. As if this weren’t enough to keep her on her toes, Natalie also works around the clock due to being self-employed .
Natalie often travels to both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, giving her a vast knowledge of the Disney Resorts which she shares in her posts on The Disney Driven Life. She loves the research on the resorts and appreciates input for these articles as well.
In recent trips, Natalie has begun making a habit of meeting people while in the parks. This habit inspired her personal website, Meet the Magic, http://meetthemagic.com. This site helps her connect to others as well as hold space for Disney fans to post information about their Disney related sites. Her goal with this venture is to help people to “Meet the Magic” of their choice.
On my last visit to The World, I got *so lost* trying to get from Epcot to AKL. We always drive down, but my husband does all of the actual driving. He knows the on-property roads very well, but I am a different story:)
My biggest problem was actually deciding to follow my GPS instead of signs or my own instincts. I ended up on a toll road, next to a golf course no where near where I wanted to be because the wrong zip code was listed for AKL in Google maps! Ugh… never again! I’m gonna make sure I know where I’m going *before* I set out on the trip!