Florida Surprise: Disney Springs + Pop Century Resort

As you read in my previous post, after a great few days on the Florida coast, we were off to Disney World! Elia, my mom, and I set off to Orlando with my Aunt Linda just behind us. We arrived in the late afternoon and headed straight to Disney Springs for our first taste of Disney Magic.

We ate outside at The Edison, a great start to our Disney experience. It wasn't busy and we got a table overlooking the lagoon. We watched car boats go by as we enjoyed a late lunch and I indulged in a colorful cocktail.

I was really looking forward to checking out the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM so Elia and I made a beeline towards it after lunch. She was so excited to pick out her cupcake and watch it come out. It's a fun and unique concept and next time we're in Disney Springs, we'll definitely repeat the experience.

After wandering around Disney Springs a bit more we went to our hotel to check in. We stayed at Disney's Pop Century Resort. Pop Century is one of Disney's value resorts and I was really impressed. When we were there, most of the rooms at the hotel had recently undergone renovation. We stayed in one of those refurbished rooms and they felt so new and fresh. Elia loved that she got to sleep in a Murphy bed and the Disney themed room decor.

On top of the lovely room, the theming at the hotel was over the top. Elia definitely could have been convinced that our hotel actually was Disney World. I kid you not, we could have just stayed there for the next two days and she'd have been none the wiser. There were huge one- and two-story tall figurines from Disney movies and different large scale versions of popular toys such as a Rubik's cube, a gigantic foosball table, and Mr. Potato Heads throughout the property. I didn't take very many photos but you can click here to see photos of the grounds.

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon getting settled in, exploring the hotel and swimming. After we were sufficiently tuckered out, we ordered a pizza to our room, and got ready for bed. Another great feature of staying at Disney resorts is that they start playing a bedtime story on the TV a few times every hour in the evening. The story features Duffy, a bear that Minnie makes for Mickey, and Elia just loved watching the story from her Murphy bed as she drifted off to sleep. Even without experiencing the parks on our first Disney day we were off to a great start and ready for a good night's sleep so we could wake up bright and early to squeeze as much fun as possible out of our day at the Magic Kingdom.

Next Up: We visit the Magic Kingdom.

P.S. You can watch video of Elia getting her cupcake from the Sprinkles ATM on the Facebook page. Click here to "Like" the page and watch!