The short answer: Stay at Pop Century. You'll spend less per night, get a room that's been more recently refurbished, and have better access to the amenities you'll actually use. Art of Animation has stunning theming, and you should absolutely walk through it — but the case for paying more to sleep there is harder to make than it looks.

Here's the full breakdown.

Pop Century and Art of Animation sit directly across Hourglass Lake from each other, connected by a pedestrian bridge. Both are on the Disney Skyliner gondola system, giving you a covered ride to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios without touching a bus. Both have a food court, a main pool, a merchandise shop, and an arcade. Both fall under Disney's "value resort" category and give you the same on-property perks: Early Theme Park Entry (arriving 30 minutes before the official park open), and the ability to book Lightning Lane reservations seven days in advance rather than the three days you get as an off-property guest.

In layout, they're practically mirror images. The main lobby building anchors the front of each resort, with wings of rooms branching off behind it, each section themed differently. At Pop Century, the sections run through the decades: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. At Art of Animation, the sections are themed to Disney films: The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, Cars, and The Lion King.

So far, so similar. Then you look at the prices.

In 2026, a standard room at Pop Century starts around $213 per night at the rack rate. A standard room at Art of Animation — which means a Little Mermaid room, the only non-suite option at that resort — starts around $251 per night. That's roughly $38 more per night at baseline.

On a four-night trip, that gap is over $150. On a week-long trip, you're looking at more than $260 in additional hotel costs before you've bought a single park ticket or paid for one churro. (Current churro price: about $7. Just so you know where you stand.)

That price gap used to be closer to $20 or $30 a night when Art of Animation first opened. It has steadily widened since. The Little Mermaid rooms are also routinely excluded from Disney's periodic discount offers — the same deals that regularly knock 20 to 30 percent off other value resort rooms. When those discounts are running, the effective gap between the two resorts gets even wider.

This is where it gets interesting, because the honest answer is: not much.

The Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation are standard hotel rooms, not suites. They're roughly 277 square feet, which is actually a little larger than Pop Century's 260 square feet — but we're talking about 17 square feet. That's about the size of a bathroom mat. You're not going to feel that difference at 9 pm when you're trying to get two tired kids into bed.

The Pop Century rooms have been refurbished more recently than the Little Mermaid rooms and have a cleaner, more functional layout: one queen bed and one queen-size Murphy bed that folds up into a table during the day, which opens up the room considerably. The Little Mermaid rooms have two traditional queen beds with no Murphy option, which sounds like a win — two real beds instead of one real bed and one fold-down — but in practice means the room is always at full capacity arrangement and feels more cramped when everyone's awake and moving around.

The Little Mermaid theming is over the top in a way that kids who love that specific movie will absolutely adore. Ariel is everywhere: on the shower curtain, on the walls, woven into every surface. If you have a kid who watches The Little Mermaid on a loop, this could genuinely matter to them. If you have a kid who's more into, say, literally anything else, the room is just a small, colorful hotel room with a nautical theme.

Pop Century rooms, post-refurbishment, are simple and clean. The theming is subtle — more retro-modern than "I'm inside the movie." Some people find that refreshing. Some find it a little soulless. I'm in the first camp: after a full day in the parks, I mostly want a clean room with a working shower, functioning air conditioning, and a bed that doesn't require engineering knowledge to assemble. Pop Century delivers on all three.

Here's the detail that doesn't get enough attention: the Little Mermaid section is the farthest point in the resort from everything you need.

Animation Hall — the main building with the food court, the lobby, and the bus stop — is at the front of Art of Animation. The Little Mermaid section is at the back. Getting from your room to breakfast means walking past the Finding Nemo section, past the Cars section, all the way to the front. The Skyliner station is closer to the middle of the resort, so depending on your exact building, you're looking at a five-to-ten-minute walk just to catch the gondola.

I've done the post-Magic Kingdom bus ride where you get back to your resort at 10:30 pm with kids who have stopped communicating in full sentences. The last thing you want at that point is a ten-minute schlep across a resort in Florida heat, even at night. At Pop Century, a preferred room puts you a few minutes from the bus stop, the food court, and the main pool. The geometry just works better.

At Art of Animation, the suites in the Cars, Lion King, and Finding Nemo sections are closer to Animation Hall than the Little Mermaid rooms are. If you're booking a suite, the location equation changes. But if you're comparing standard rooms — which is what this post is about — Pop Century wins on location without argument.

If you have a family of five or six and you're genuinely considering the family suites — which sleep up to six guests, have two bathrooms, three sleeping areas, and a small kitchenette — then Art of Animation becomes a real conversation.

Those suites start around $519 per night at rack rate in 2026, which makes them not budget accommodations by any measure. But if you're comparing them against booking two separate standard rooms anywhere on the property, or against a Disney Moderate resort, they can occasionally pencil out for a large family. The space is genuinely useful: two bathrooms on a Disney trip is not a luxury, it's a quality-of-life upgrade that becomes immediately obvious at 7 am when everyone needs to be somewhere.

The Cars and Lion King suites also have better locations within the resort than the Little Mermaid rooms — they sit closer to Animation Hall. If the suite pricing works for your family size and budget, Art of Animation is legitimately excellent. The theming in those sections is some of the best at any Disney resort at any price point.

But if you have four people or fewer and you're comparing standard rooms? Pop Century.

This is the part I want to make sure doesn't get lost: the two resorts are connected by a pedestrian bridge over Hourglass Lake. The walk takes about five minutes. It is free. Anyone can do it.

Art of Animation has some of the most impressive resort theming at Walt Disney World. The larger-than-life character sculptures, the immersive environments in the Nemo, Cars, and Lion King sections, the general feeling of being inside a movie — it's genuinely fun. Pop Century's oversized Pop Art icons (giant yo-yos, Play-Doh cans, eight-track tapes) are charming in a different way, but they don't have the same character depth.

Art of Animation also has a better food court. Landscape of Flavors has more variety and more interesting options than Pop Century's Everything POP, with pasta, Mongolian bowls, and better dessert options. If you stay at Pop Century and want to eat at Art of Animation's food court, you walk across the bridge. Nobody stops you.

So you get to stay at the more affordable resort, use the better food court, and walk through one of the most beautifully themed resorts on property whenever you feel like it. The Skyliner gondola connects both resorts to the same stations. You get all the benefits of the location and the transportation, and you pay $38 less per night for the privilege.

Stay at Pop Century. Book a preferred room if the budget allows — it puts you close to Classic Hall and the Hippy Dippy Pool, and the shorter walk at the end of a long park day is worth more than you think. Walk across the bridge to Art of Animation whenever you want the photo ops or a better food court meal.

If you have five or six people and you need the suite space, Art of Animation's family suites are worth a serious look — just know you're not in "value resort" price territory anymore, and compare them accordingly.

Either way, you'll be on the Skyliner, on Disney property, with a short gondola ride to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. That's a genuinely good situation to be in. The difference between these two resorts is real, but it's not the difference between a good trip and a bad one. It's the difference between spending more money at the hotel and spending that money on things that actually happen inside the parks.

Rates and resort details in this post reflect research conducted in spring 2026. Disney resort pricing changes frequently based on season, demand, and promotional availability. Always verify current rates directly through Disney's website or a Disney-authorized travel agent before booking.