Pop Century & The Skyliner

Hello and welcome to the start of my November Walt Disney World and Disney Dream trip recaps! Although I've already shared my thoughts on the Wine & Dine Half Marathon races and the Christmas Party, these recaps will be from the trip itself.

For starters, we had a large group of people traveling with us and we decided to stay at Pop Century. I'd never stayed at a refurbished room there and most of our party had never stayed at Pop at all, so it was a no brainer.

High Points of Pop:

• The refurbished rooms are fabulous, for real - they seriously make it feel like you aren't staying at a value resort.
• The Skyliner is SO cool (more on that in a bit)
• This resort has the greatest theming! 
• The food court has plenty of offerings
• They were very much into the runDisney thing - see backdrop above! How cute, right?!

Low Points of Pop:

• SO. Many. People. (it's a huge resort, though...what can you expect?)
• Lines, lines everywhere! We stood in lines for check in (because something wasn't working right on one of our group's apps), we stood in a ridiculous line to check our bags....did I mention so many people? All of this was on the first day and once we made it through those hiccups, we were good to go.
• That's it! We seriously enjoyed Pop!

We were placed in the 50's building which granted us perfect access to the Skyliner!

These rooms are beautiful and feel so clean!

I loved the bed/table combo (also known as a murphy bed) as well as the plank, no carpet flooring.

Even Pluto wasn't forgotten about!

The bathrooms received a makeover, too.

I loved the extra storage. It was so convenient!

One downside to the refurbished rooms for me would be the lack of a bathtub, because my toddler still likes to take baths. He didn't mind the shower, though.

I still giggle about these...

A welcome letter and Mickey card were waiting for us on our bed when we arrived.

From our doorway, you could see the pool. The 50's section was really cute and if we stayed at Pop again, I would totally request it next time.

The walk to the skyliner was a super short one, just around the back of the 50's building. SO convenient!

It makes a beautiful visual, too.

Seriously, when are they going to add on to the skyliner and place it at other resorts? :)

What started out as a quick ride to Epcot turned into Brayden's new fascination and definitely his favorite "Disney ride". He seriously talks about the skyliner all the time. Point of View videos, anyone? Y'all feel me on this?

On the morning of our cruise, Brayden mentioned the skyliner at least 10 times, so we decided to hop a quick ride from Pop over to the "main hub" at Caribbean Beach. I knew there was a Joffrey's there with a specialty coffee, so I figured it was a win win for all of us! We had plenty of time to kill, so why not?

He. Was. So. Excited!

That face, though...priceless!!

The specialty drink offering is the Toffee Flight. It's sea salt caramel toffee with dark chocolate and toffee crumbles and it's VERY good!

Jason ordered iced...

...and I ordered mine hot.

Both were very good, but I felt as if the flavor was stronger in the hot beverage.

Also, they sold giant blue donuts there and this child got his eye on it...

Giant blue donut for the win! When in Disney, right?

I randomly caught this cast member making sidewalk art!

I don't even have that much talent with a pencil much less water!

Overall, I loved our stay at Pop Century and would seriously do it all again if given the chance. As I mentioned before, the food court had good offerings, the shop was a decent size, the refurbished rooms look amazing, and the skyliner was so very convenient!

What are your thoughts on Pop? Have you stayed in a refurbished room?

runDisney Kids Races 2019

During the Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend, Brayden participated in his second 100m dash as part of the Kids Races.

Although we had a lot of fun, this experience was quite different from our last 100m dash (from January of 2018). I have a very cautious kid who likes to see things before he's convinced that it's ok. Although I felt as if I prepared him well for this race experience by watching the video recap from 2018, he got a little confused as to what was going on mid-dash...but more on that later.

The runDisney Kids Races are held at the Track & Field Complex at ESPN's Wide World of Sports.  The races follow a schedule and you'll see the various race times noted in your event guide. Also, the races almost always begin with the 100m dash and go from there.

We picked up his bib the day before when we visited the Expo for our Wine & Dine races. He was super sleepy when we visited the Expo and not in the mood for pictures!

We arrived at the Track & Field complex a few minutes early and headed straight for the "corral" area. I loved that they had cups of water available for the kids to drink while waiting!

A perk to arriving early and hanging out near the corral area is the crowd. You definitely get an early jump on getting in line and being one of the first ones to finish the race.

This is the crowd that was in front of us (maybe 2 waves of runners)...

...and this is the crowd that was lined up behind us...

Also, please note that there are activities going on this entire time for kids to play so you don't HAVE to stand in this line. One thing that Carissa (the announcer) kept encouraging parents to do was go play with their kids, then return once the line died down a bit. I believe there's at least an hour time frame for the 100m dash and it does go fairly quickly.

Now, here is where I made my mistake. Because we had friends waiting on us at one of the parks, we knew we were a little strapped for time and wanted to get in and out fairly quickly. We were stationed in line where we were not able to watch any of the runners/kids from waves ahead of us and that's what I should have done differently. Oh well, I know better now for next time!

We lined up on the yellow line and before we knew it, it was time to run!

Brayden did GREAT running at the start, but midway down the track, he got a little scared and maybe a little confused as to what was going on and he wanted to hold my hand the remainder of the way. (Not a problem with me, I'm just sharing our race experience.) Once I pointed Mickey out to him though, he let go of my hand and ran right over to him for a high five!

Priceless and definitely the highlight of the race!

Next time, I'm going to let him actually watch other kids running down the track before we line up for his race. Don't get me wrong, he did not have a bad experience at all, he wasn't screaming or crying, etc...I just think a little preparation ahead of time will help him better understand what's going on and prevent any scared feelings or confusion on his part.

So, if you have a cautious kid like mine, that's my tip - let them actually see what's going on before they get on the track to run for themselves.

After the finish line, kids are handed their medals as well as a banana and other goodies!

Brayden LOVED wearing his medal the rest of the day!

After the race, we didn't hang out long and said goodbye to another 100m dash!

For Princess, I'm going to take my own advice with the line up on the day of the race and see if it makes a difference in our running experience! I'll keep y'all posted...

Have your kids ever participated in a runDisney Kids Race event? If so, which one? What were your thoughts?