TV Station Changes?

Last week my Dad and I stayed at Pop Century. Prior to that my most recent time in a Disney resort was Coronado Springs in either July or August. Prior to this visit to Pop, I hadn't stayed in a value resort since around '04 or '05.

Anyway, my Dad and I were very disappointed with the selection of tv stations we had at Pop. I know Disney has never had the best tv stations, but we've always been able to find something to watch when we were in our room.

No lie, on our trip at Pop last week we only got about 8 to 10 stations, and of these only 4 were in English. We literally got some sort of soap-type station, Stacy with the Must Do's, a national news channel (which was not CNN), and the Disney Channel; that was all that was in English. Everything else was in Spanish, with the exception of one channel in Chinese/Japanese. We didn't get any ESPN, no Weather Channel, no Disney information channel showing park times, no ABC, or anything like we have in the past.

Throughout the trip we tried setting the tv several times but couldn't figure out how to get more stations like we'd had in the past, and nothing really looked wrong with the tv settings. We never called front desk, but we probably should have.

Does anyone know if Disney has cut down on their tv stations to this sort of programming at all the resorts, or even just the value resorts? Or did we have some sort of defective tv?

Strange. We dont spend much time watching TV while in WDW, but it seems there was always the "basic cable" channels available.

Think about it. The better the TV offerings, the more likely you'll be spending time in your room watching your favorite shows. If the TV channels are awful, then you will be out spending money.

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Originally Posted by supernova

Think about it. The better the TV offerings, the more likely you'll be spending time in your room watching your favorite shows. If the TV channels are awful, then you will be out spending money.

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That's very true and I can see the point. But I knew the channels we'd gotten in the past and what we got at Pop was a lot less. I can see not having the best channels, but I do think at least the basic cable stations should be there if you decide to take a pool/resort day or if someone isn't feeling well or something.

I remember when I went last year that the picking were pretty slim. We watched the local channels in the morning to figure out what the weather would be like and after that our TV stayed on Stacy the whole time.
I'm sure they would prefer you get your ESPN fix at the Wide World Of Sports complex.

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Originally Posted by StewbotTalborg

I'm sure they would prefer you get your ESPN fix at the Wide World Of Sports complex.

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Even easier, you could just go to the ESPN Zone at the Boardwalk.

However, I've never heard of this. I've never stayed at a value, but when I was at the Contemporary last November we had a pretty full TV lineup. All I really needed was ESPN, though; even on other vacations, all I need is SportsCenter when I wake up, and SportsCenter when I go to sleep.

This is the TV channel lineup for WDW resorts. Doesn't specify anything specific, so I would assume that it SHOULD apply to all of them.
Disney Resort Cable Television Stations

On our trip a few weeks ago we had a TON of channels in our room at POR however what was noticeably missing was the in-room access to the station that plays the old cartoons (i.e. Steamboat Willie, etc.) over and over. They still had them playing in the lobby etc. but we could no longer get them in-room. That was a HUGE disappointment to our son who religiously watched them over and over on every previous trip while the adults were getting ready to go or whatever. He actually cried when we couldn't find them.

A classic cartoon channel has been missing from a lot of TVs. I'm not sure whether they have been actively removing it, or forgotten about it. The same cable feeds the lobbies, so its there - but the TVs aren't programmed to get it.

They also appear to lock out the TVs from accepting configuration changes from the in-room remotes, which I know some places do. So if a TV somehow loses channels, you need to have maintenance come with a proper remote to fix it. This past weekend, I had a TV with the aspect ratio set wrong (it stretching standard def channels). I could get the settings menu to come up, but I couldn't navigate it as the up/down/left/right buttons were hardcoded to channel/volume. It generally prevents people from screwing up the TVs, but it also prevents those of us who know what they are doing from fixing them when they are already screwed up...