I booked a free dining package at Pop Century, and now just received a quote from MVT for Coronado Springs, without dining. Our Pop Package includes 6 day park hopper plus Tickets. The CSR quote includes a 7 day base pass. I estimate that all in (accounting for meals out of pocket at CSR), CSR would be between $350 to $600 more, depending on if we upgrade to the same park hopper tickets as we would have at Pop. We’ll be spending most of our time in the parks, but will take mid day breaks to rest and cool off given that we’re going in August.
Thoughts on keeping Pop reservation or making the switch? Our kids are 7 and 9.
Bus transportation is important to us, and I’ve heard good things about the Pop buses. I’m a little concerned about the size of Coronado.
The waterslide at Coronado is a big plus for that resort. Also think it would have a more relaxed feel, which would be nice for mid day breaks.
Otherwise, I’d give an ever so slight advantage to Pop for the free dining, since it includes fancy drinks, etc. that we would not otherwise get out of pocket. But there’s also added hassle with the dining plan vs the flexibility of out of pocket.
And I probably would not pay extra for the park hopper if we did Coronado. While I don’t think we’ll hop much, there are 1 or 2 days it could be useful to return for nighttime events, for example. So I guess that points to sticking with Pop as well.
We stayed at the Poly our last trip. This time we’re trying to save money to make our vacation dollars go farther (with trips elsewhere planned throughout the year).
Would appreciate any thoughts!
We love both Pop and the dining plan. Would you be going with the quick service plan or upgrading to standard? I know a lot of people worry about getting the full value out of the dining plan, but we prefer to look at it as an already paid for expense and just enjoy the food that we want. The fun, fancy drinks are definitely a nice bonus as well! 
We really liked the main pool at Pop and the quiet pools seemed nice as well. We had a couple of nice breakfasts in the foodcourt. I recommend the omelet. There are lots of good pastries as well and you can get Dole Whip!
The buses from Pop were plentiful though often crowded. We rarely waited longer than 5 minutes.
We stayed at Pop for two nights a couple of weeks ago, and I was very impressed. Overall, it seems much larger than the All Stars not refurbished. I loved all the extra outlets and places to put things. It was a great place to go back to for an afternoon rest. We moved to AKL for the rest of our stay, and there were things about Pop that we missed. (Lack of outlets for one thing). Of course, deluxe was much nicer.
I’ve never stayed at a moderate, so I can’t tell you how Coronado Springs lines up with Pop. However, Pop was a very pleasant place to be.
I love the dining plan, and love the idea of not being concerned about how I’m going to pay for my meals. The special drinks make it even better, in my book.
All that said, you’ll be happy with whatever choice you make. If it were me, I’d choose Pop.
@SirGreggLadyV I think we have a very similar outlook on our WDW trips! 
I just posted some of the same things about Pop and the dining plan.
I’ve noticed that. You often write my thoughts exactly. LOL!
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I would go with POP. I’ve stayed at the All Stars, POP, CS and AKL club level and the one I love the most is POP. Transportation is much better at POP.
Easy call for me: Pop and the dining plan.
I did this at Christmas and am doing it again in July. Refurbished rooms are great, buses are great (except for the walk to the stops at the parks). Dining plan is easy and removes the stress of worrying about the filet mignon costing so much more than the chicken. I loved buying expensive snack desserts, eating half and throwing the rest away. Or getting a bottle of water and not thinking how rip-off expensive it is.
Pop isn’t plush like the deluxes are. Historically I haven’t done afternoon rests at the resort. I’m not sure Pop is somewhere I’d be excited to go back to during the day. But a room is a room if that’s why I’m going back (comfy bed, big telly — what more do you want?) If I want to escape to a plush lounge to chill out I can go to any hotel I want — you don’t have to be staying there to hang out.
Pools are things I think I want to use but never do. It seems like too much hassle and I’m scared of sunburn. Pop’s pools are pretty basic.
I don’t really park-hop much but it’s nice to know that I can if I want.
Just came back from a free dining Christmas trip, 6 days, at POP. Up graded to the TS dining plan for 30.00 per day for one adult and one child. Did massive amounts of character dining!! Totally worth the upgrade with kids for the character dining. If you are not going to do character dining then probably not worth the upgrade. But the free dining package is always a win win in my book!!! I personally would not switch up a free dining for a non free dining for the same price or in your case at a price point more than the free dining. If you don’t use all your credits you can load up on snacks to bring home!!!
Thank you all! This is very helpful, and makes me feel comfortable about keeping my reservation at Pop.
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