Art of Animation vs. Pop Century Disney World Resort Guide 2023

Disney4me · April 6, 2023

There’s no doubt that Disney vacations are expensive, and no one wants buyer’s remorse when it comes to what can usually be the most EXPENSIVE part of your Disney trip.

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Skyliner Station

We’re approaching this chaos-agent of a decision with as much logic as possible, so we’re breaking it down into five categories, which we’ll get into below. Today we’re putting two value Skyliner resorts head to head — Art of Animation vs Pop Century Resort!

The categories we’ll be ranking these resorts on are as follows:

Common Ground
Theme/Rooms
Pools
Food
Transportation

This is going to be an extra special edition, because these resorts are very similar, and they’re right next to each other!

Common Ground

Let’s start with what’s similar about these resorts, which is a lot! Both of these resorts are around the same size, and are laid out in similar ways.

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©Disney

Both resorts are on opposite sides of Hourglass Lake — you can walk right to the other resort via a bridge over the lake! Both resorts are laid out with a main building at the front of the resort, and then the rooms are located in buildings surrounding it.

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Art of Animation Animation Hall

Fun fact: The reason these resorts are SO similar and SO close together, is because Disney’s original plan was for all of it to be ONE resort. That’s right, Pop Century, was supposed to be twice as big as it turned out to be!

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Disney’s Skyliner over Hourglass Lake

The plan was for “The Classic Years” side to cover 1950 to 1999, and “The Legendary Years” side to cover 1900 to 1949. Work commenced on BOTH sides, and they were supposed to open in 2001. But the recession and tourism slump after the Sept. 11th attacks forced a change in plans. Only “The Classic Years” side was finished and opened as Pop Century Resort. The buildings on the other side of Hourglass Lake sat empty and unfinished for YEARS, until 2010 — when Disney announced the plan for them to become the Art of Animation Resort!

The “Legendary Years” side of Pop Century sat empty and unfinished for years.

Overall, these resorts are so similar, that we’re actually going to get MORE into their similarities in our other categories!

Theme/Rooms

This is where these value resorts really differ. Why? Because the themes are TOTALLY different! Pop Century Resort is themed to the decades over the past 70 years.

Pop Century Resort

The different sections of rooms are each dedicated to the different decades.

Disney’s Pop Century Resort

The decorations all around this resort are truthfully larger than life. To some, it’s actually a little too much!

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HUGE characters!

There are some Disney characters spread out all over the park, but lots of the decorations are more themed towards the decades rather than Disney characters.

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Yes, that’s a GIANT bike

This also goes for the rooms as well. While you can spot characters throughout the room, they’re not all over.

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Pop Century Bed

The theming is also toned down a lot in the rooms, which is quite the stark contrast to the outside of the resort.

Pop Century Room

Art of Animation on the other hand also has some larger-than-life theming, but it’s ALL based around Disney animated characters.

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Art of Animation Front Desk

Animation Hall, which is where the front desk, resort store, and resort quick-service location are located, is heavily themed to the resort’s main animated films — The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, and Cars.

Animation Hall

The theming around this resort is similar to Pop Century in the way that it’s everywhere. You really can’t get away from this theming, but it feels even more like a Disney resort since it’s quite hard to get away from all the beloved Disney characters around you.

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Art of Animation – Cars section

The hotel sections of the resort are themed to those four animated films, and so are the rooms!

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Lion King Family Suite

Unlike the Pop Century Resort, these rooms are very heavily themed, so you’ll wanna make sure you’re fine with being totally surrounded by Disney for the entirety of your trip.

Even some of the showers are themed!

You’ve really gotta decide between if you want to be surrounded by Disney 24/7 at your resort, or if you want some more subtle Disney reminders while being encompassed by some huge blasts from the past.

Pools

Both of these resorts have three pools you can experience. At Pop Century Resort, those are the 1960’s Hippy Dippy Pool, the 1950’s Bowling Pool, 1990’s Computer Pool.

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Hippy Dippy Pool at Pop Century

These pools aren’t known for anything special, really. The theming blends in with the rest of the resort, and they’re not overly large pools. So if you don’t plan on spending a lot of time at the pools, this may not be a large contender for you.

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Hippy Dippy Pool Splash Pad

Meanwhile, over at Art of Animation, the pools are part of what this resort is known for! In fact, the Big Blue Pool, inspired by Finding Nemo, is actually the largest resort pool in Walt Disney World!

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Big Blue Pool at Art of Animation

The theming of this pool and splash pad is immaculate, as is the Cozy Cone Pool and Flippin’ Fins Pool. You certainly won’t forget where you’re taking your vacation!

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Cozy Cone Pool

If you’re a big pool person, or going to the pool will be important during your stay, these may be the ones you would enjoy more.

Food

Both of these resorts are home to one singular quick-service location that’s located in the main hall of each resort.

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Landscape of Flavors

Over at Art of Animation, this is Landscape of Flavors. You can find some of the classic quick-service options here like Mickey waffles, seasonal cupcakes, pizza, and more, but this location does have a few more adventurous options as well.

Inside Landscape of Flavors

For lunch and dinner, you can get options like seared salmon, shrimp and grits, tandoori chicken, pulled pork sandwiches, and more.

One of our most recent meals from Landscape of Flavors

Over at Everything Pop, the dining location at Pop Century, you can find many of the same options — burgers, pizza, Mickey waffles, etc. — and there are fewer “adventurous” options over here.

Tandoori Chicken

Both of these options aren’t known for having super delicious or quality options, but they’ll get the job done for sure!

Transportation

Coming to our last category — transportation — these resorts both have access to the Skyliner and even share a station!

Skyliner Station

The Skyliner can take you to other resorts such as Caribbean Beach Resort, and can also get you over to EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

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Flying over Caribbean Beach Resort

This is a huge draw for both of these resorts and is why they’re priced a little higher than other value resorts. If you’re not a fan of heights or the Skyliner is down, you can also take Disney buses over to any Disney park, as well as Disney Springs.

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Disney Buses

Disney buses are often a slower mode of transportation, but keep in mind, you can also order a rideshare to and from any park or Disney World location!

Art of Animation

And those are some of the key differences between Art of Animation and Pop Century! All in all, there is no right or wrong decision here, as it’s whatever you feel is best for you and your family.