Disney's PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE RESORT Information & Questions

[FelisLachesis]

What building should we request if we want to be closest to POFQ? We reserved a standard room (2 adults a 4 year old and a 2 year old who will prob use a PNP). And are there elevators? If not we'd prob prefer a 1st floor so we can use the stroller. What is the likelihood of getting both a the building and floor request?

Thanks!

Buildings 14 and 15 (which are preferred rooms) and, building 16 (not a preferred building) and building 85 (Magnolia) are the rooms closest to FQ without going to the Royal rooms.

Only the mansions have elevators. The AB rooms do not. The more specific you are about your room request, the less likely they'll be able to honor it. So Karen is right, just say, first floor, as close to French Quarter as possible.

 

[andrewilley]

Sorry, another question. I notice theres quite a lot of preferred garden view rooms does this mean they would be for the people who booked garden view rather than preferred?

There are no view types associated with the Preferred Location category and you could be placed in any of the yellow-coloured rooms on my maps. This could mean a room facing out towards the parking lots (in buildings 14 or 15 only) or into the garden/bayou area. Numerically, the majority of the Preferred rooms face into the bayou area so you are more likely to get that view, but it's not guaranteed.

I want to book pool view which appears that you could get a room in basically any section. I'm OK with that, having enjoyed Magnolia and preferred AB before. However, I'm a little nervous to end up with a RR and really don't want that. Is there a way to word my request to avoid one thing?

You won't get a Royal Room if you book a regular Pool View as the RRs are sold under separate categories (such as Royal Pool View). If you book regular Pool View you could end up in several of the AB buildings (including those six rooms in #18, which is a really nice location) or the Acadian House or Magnolia Terrace mansion buildings.

Andre

 

[meghanb133]

Can someone help me..
I was booked at CSR and I called and moved our reservation to POR because of the construction. We are staying 3/17- 3/19. A very short stay. I will be in a river view room, the CM sold me on the AB room because of the Murphy bed. We also requested to be close to central locations of everything. We only have 4 in our party, myself, DH, MIL and DD9. We don't need the bed, but the CM said my daughter might enjoy it so I requested it. My mom is super picky, she doesn't travel much but expects things that are more than $100 to be the RITZ. She is severely out of touch with the cost of things.. Did I make the right choice with requesting the AB room with the Murphy bed or should I have asked for the Mansion area.. ? I have no clue as I haven't stayed there before. I just want a nice trip with no complaining. Not that it matters, but I am paying for my mother to come.. I just want everyone happy!!

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Can someone help me..
I was booked at CSR and I called and moved our reservation to POR because of the construction. We are staying 3/17- 3/19. A very short stay. I will be in a river view room, the CM sold me on the AB room because of the Murphy bed. We also requested to be close to central locations of everything. We only have 4 in our party, myself, DH, MIL and DD9. We don't need the bed, but the CM said my daughter might enjoy it so I requested it. My mom is super picky, she doesn't travel much but expects things that are more than $100 to be the RITZ. She is severely out of touch with the cost of things.. Did I make the right choice with requesting the AB room with the Murphy bed or should I have asked for the Mansion area.. ? I have no clue as I haven't stayed there before. I just want a nice trip with no complaining. Not that it matters, but I am paying for my mother to come.. I just want everyone happy!!

Unless you have 5 people, AB will be a request only, and not guaranteed. Unless you booked Royal Room, Magnolia bend can not be guaranteed, either.

In terms of amenities, all the rooms are basically identical (with the exception of the extra bed). The differences are purely aesthetic. AB is rustic themed, kind of like a log cabin. Mansions are, well, mansions. It's a question of style, not substance.

Would DD9 prefer the royal rooms or having her own bed? Sounds like DMIL would prefer the more luxurious styled décor, but DD would prefer her own bed. Maybe royal rooms would be a compromise? DD gets the princess themed rooms (if she is interested in that), and DMIL gets the mansions.

 

[andrewilley]

Can someone help me..
I was booked at CSR and I called and moved our reservation to POR because of the construction. We are staying 3/17- 3/19. A very short stay. I will be in a river view room, the CM sold me on the AB room because of the Murphy bed. We also requested to be close to central locations of everything.

You have a few conflicting interests there! Your DD will like the Alligator Bayou rooms for that extra fold-down bed, but your mom might prefer the "plusher" feel of the decor in the mansions area over the more rustic woodsy bayou theming, plus the amount of storage is better - although for two nights that's probably not a concern.

You have booked River View, which could put you in either section of the resort - remember that Alligator Bayou is only a request, the only way to guarantee that area would have been to book a Preferred Location room, which would have put you close to the main buildings too. River View isn't a bad choice though, as whichever section you end up in your room will look out towards the central Ol' Man Island area, which means relatively quick access via footbridges for the main buildings.

Andre

 

[DJFan88]

You won't get a Royal Room if you book a regular Pool View as the RRs are sold under separate categories (such as Royal Pool View). If you book regular Pool View you could end up in several of the AB buildings (including those six rooms in #18, which is a really nice location) or the Acadian House or Magnolia Terrace mansion buildings.

Andre

Thanks! Then I will book a regular Pool View and then I will request Building #18. If I get it, hooray! If I don't, no sweat, as it's not a big deal to us!

 

[Chavaleh]

Just back from a short three night stay at Port Orleans Riverside. The grounds were gorgeous. The staff was kind, we had a particularly good experience with a Bell Services chap named Drew who saved us from a long midnight walk to our room with luggage after having been up since 4am and in the MK all evening with his cart. Negatives were that the bus situation was awful. Really bad. I think out of 8 or so bus trips we maybe had a seat twice. Waits were fairly long and it was very crowded. The rooms are in desperate need of a refurb or at the very least a serious cleaning and some attention. There was a sagging liner on the bottom of the ottoman thingie, light bulbs out, grime in the corners of the bathroom, large obvious stains on the divider curtain, a thick layer of dust/dirt on the baseboards and many many tiny gnats dead on the bathroom ceiling for some reason. I didn't want to use up time on our short trip complaining about it but took pictures and will send an email to Disney. We did have to call and have a technician come out to look at the ac unit which was supplying heat and apparently had a dead battery in the thermostat. That was fixed very quickly. I doubt we'd stay there again until it's had a refurb though I'd still like to try French Quarter.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Just back from a short three night stay at Port Orleans Riverside. The grounds were gorgeous. The staff was kind, we had a particularly good experience with a Bell Services chap named Drew who saved us from a long midnight walk to our room with luggage after having been up since 4am and in the MK all evening with his cart. Negatives were that the bus situation was awful. Really bad. I think out of 8 or so bus trips we maybe had a seat twice. Waits were fairly long and it was very crowded. The rooms are in desperate need of a refurb or at the very least a serious cleaning and some attention. There was a sagging liner on the bottom of the ottoman thingie, light bulbs out, grime in the corners of the bathroom, large obvious stains on the divider curtain, a thick layer of dust/dirt on the baseboards and many many tiny gnats dead on the bathroom ceiling for some reason. I didn't want to use up time on our short trip complaining about it but took pictures and will send an email to Disney. We did have to call and have a technician come out to look at the ac unit which was supplying heat and apparently had a dead battery in the thermostat. That was fixed very quickly. I doubt we'd stay there again until it's had a refurb though I'd still like to try French Quarter.

Oh no! You're scaring me. We are going in the summer. Alligator Bayou.

 

[Minniekins]

My DD26 and I are considering staying at POR in the royal rooms for a 4 night weekend in Nov over veterans day. I'll have an ecv. Do they have elevators so we can stay either floor for the royal rooms? We were thinking the river view rooms might be cool for a good view but not sure that's necessary. We like the idea of the boat to DS and wonder how well this works from there. We really liked the OKW boats to DS last year and is another reason I'm thinking POR royal rooms might be fun. Also wondering where the bus stop would be for the royal rooms and how well that works, I thought I saw one on a map that's closer to the river. Not quite sure if we should request an area for our royal room or not. Also would love any thoughts on if the royal rooms are popular and get good Idk, word of mouth maybe? TIA for any help!

 

[andrewilley]

Oh no! You're scaring me. We are going in the summer. Alligator Bayou.

As soon as anyone has a one-off bad experience it's easy to get worried, and the internet tends to melt down and decide the sky is falling. Seriously, don't let it worry you too much when one person has a problem - but it does remind us that in a resort the size of Port Orleans, sometimes things can slip through the cracks. Personally if so much was obviously wrong from the outset I think I would have asked to be moved to a different room, but the OP was short on time so decided it was acceptable for a few days. I'm glad they are reporting it though, as otherwise any problems won't get fixed. It's far better to report issues while you are there though, but I do understand that they didn't want to waste any of their Disney time on the matter. Suffice to say that their experience is not the norm.

I'll have an ecv. Do they have elevators so we can stay either floor for the royal rooms?

Yes they do, but the elevators are located in the middle sections of the buildings (which are set some way back from the river) so all of River View Royal Rooms, except for a few central third-floor ones, are a bit of a trek from the elevators to the actual room. I would definitely contact the special needs department in advance and get them to put in a request for one of the centrally located River View rooms near the elevators.

The ferry boats are fully accessible, and guests can remain seated in ECVs for the trip.

There is a bus stop (East) not far from Oak Manor, but from Parterre Place it would probably be easier to use the footbridge over to the main buildings and the South Depot.

Andre

 

[mn51]

Oh no! You're scaring me. We are going in the summer. Alligator Bayou.

We returned in mid February and found our room to be very clean with nothing worn that we could see. We were in a Royal Room, which is the Mansion section. We had overall good luck with the buses, but the resort was crowded so we did not get a seat every time. Riverside is our favorite resort and is simply beautiful. Enjoy and have a great trip.

 

[Chavaleh]

Oh no! You're scaring me. We are going in the summer. Alligator Bayou.

You really shouldn't worry too much about it. Plenty of people have wonderful experiences there and you can get a 'bad room' anywhere. Had we been staying any longer I would have asked to be moved and pointed out the issues. We were in one of the mansion rooms. The resort is beautiful, we've just been fortunate to stay in other WDW resorts when they were brand new or had just been refurbed so I think this one suffered by comparison. I've learned not to prejudge anything at WDW too harshly based the occasional off or bad experience post. It's when a place starts to have consistent issues that you should be concerned and that certainly doesn't seem to be a problem here.

 

[andrewilley]

We had overall good luck with the buses.

Same here - in fact I now time and log every bus journey we take, including waiting times and number of stops. I know, I'm just a sad bunny.

The stated aim is for a bus to depart from the resort for each park within a maximum of 20 minutes wait, and normally I find they are more frequent than that. I agree it is not uncommon to be unable to get a seat though, especially at busier times and when returning to the resort at park closing, but I'm just happy to get where I'm going so that doesn't really bother me much.

Andre

 

[macadoo]

Do they still do the same create your own pasta at POR? Notice its not on the WDW menu any more but it is still on Andres site? Hoping its an error on the official wdw menu.

 

[Chavaleh]

Do they still do the same create your own pasta at POR? Notice its not on the WDW menu any more but it is still on Andres site? Hoping its an error on the official wdw menu.

I'm not going to say I'm 100% certain but I believe it was still there.

 

[andrewilley]

I'm not going to say I'm 100% certain but I believe it was still there.

Yes it is still there, the WDW website mislaid the info during the last food court menu update about six months ago.

Andre

 

[macadoo]

Yes it is still there, the WDW site mislaid it during the last menu update about size months ago.

Andre

That's a relief, thank you.

 

[SwanVT2]

Have the POR RR been more recently refurbished than the mansion rooms? I have seen more issues online with people in AB or Mansions, but not with the RR. Also, the beds sounds more comfortable at RRs.

 

[keahgirl8]

As soon as anyone has a one-off bad experience it's easy to get worried, and the internet tends to melt down and decide the sky is falling. Seriously, don't let it worry you too much when one person has a problem - but it does remind us that in a resort the size of Port Orleans, sometimes things can slip through the cracks. Personally if so much was obviously wrong from the outset I think I would have asked to be moved to a different room, but the OP was short on time so decided it was acceptable for a few days. I'm glad they are reporting it though, as otherwise any problems won't get fixed. It's far better to report issues while you are there though, but I do understand that they didn't want to waste any of their Disney time on the matter. Suffice to say that their experience is not the norm.

Andre

We returned in mid February and found our room to be very clean with nothing worn that we could see. We were in a Royal Room, which is the Mansion section. We had overall good luck with the buses, but the resort was crowded so we did not get a seat every time. Riverside is our favorite resort and is simply beautiful. Enjoy and have a great trip.

You really shouldn't worry too much about it. Plenty of people have wonderful experiences there and you can get a 'bad room' anywhere. Had we been staying any longer I would have asked to be moved and pointed out the issues. We were in one of the mansion rooms. The resort is beautiful, we've just been fortunate to stay in other WDW resorts when they were brand new or had just been refurbed so I think this one suffered by comparison. I've learned not to prejudge anything at WDW too harshly based the occasional off or bad experience post. It's when a place starts to have consistent issues that you should be concerned and that certainly doesn't seem to be a problem here.

Agree with all of the above. I just got back and had no issues at all. I had a great trip and I loved my room.

Do they still do the same create your own pasta at POR? Notice its not on the WDW menu any more but it is still on Andres site? Hoping its an error on the official wdw menu.

I was there last week, and it was still there!

 

[SwanVT2]

We returned in mid February and found our room to be very clean with nothing worn that we could see. We were in a Royal Room, which is the Mansion section. We had overall good luck with the buses, but the resort was crowded so we did not get a seat every time. Riverside is our favorite resort and is simply beautiful. Enjoy and have a great trip.

How are the beds? We are considering staying here next Feb. but have been spoiled renting points at BWV and BCV. However, I think my DD, who will be 5, would love the RR experience. Us adults want to be comfortable though. BWV had such comfy beds!