The largest Value resort (but hardly new—opened in 2002) is a fair choice, with smallish (260 sq. ft.) rooms—one king bed or two queens—with cubbies instead of closets, one sink, and one mirror, and for dining, a heaving central food court with quality akin to the average mall’s. A recent renovation converted rooms’ second queen bed into a Murphy bed that doubles as a table (so unless you’re a couple, you have to choose whether to sleep or use the table).
As if to counteract such dormlike austerity, the boxy sprawl of T-shaped buildings, some of which face a pleasant lake across from the Art of Animation Resort, is festooned with outsized icons of the late-20th-century: gigantic bowling pins, yo-yos, and Rubik’s Cubes—which kids think is pretty cool. The Pop Century is preferable to the similarly priced All-Stars, where rooms are nearly the same but marginally larger, because Pop Century connects to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot via the Skyliner gondola; it shares a busy station with the Art of Animation Resort.