I'm an AP holder and would love to try the bands! Does POR now have the door locks where you just tap it with the card?
The other question I had has to do with me flipping through the Unofficial Guide to WDW last night. It said that the river view rooms in PP look at the river, but also the parking lot on the other side. Is this an exaggeration? Are there at least some trees/vegetation between the river and the parking lot?
Yes, the door locks are all RFID now. I don't know whether AP-issued magicbands will be usable at POR before the overall system is launched there for regular guests, which is estimated for late Spring at the moment. It depends on whether the necessary equipment is set up yet.
The UG just means that one side of the building faces the river while the other side faces the parking lot - but they are large buildings, so there's quite a bit of land in between (check out Google Earth images to get an idea of the scale).
Although, I'll totally be suckered into that group if the basic color they automatically send you is 'ugly.'
If you pre-register via the My Disney Experience website then you can choose from a range of colours which will each be personalised with your names and delivered to the resort the night before you arrive (in the future, they will even be able to be posted out to US guests in advance). If you just turn up and need to get a band encoded while you wait, I think you'll get a generic grey one - second class citizen marker or what?
Hi y'all. We're staying in a Royal Room River view in April. Is there a building we should request that is closer to the food court/main building? Thanks!
Generally
most of the closest rooms are in Oak Manor, however the very best ones are in the northern wing of Parterre Place. I suggest just requesting a room close to the main building rather than requesting either building specifically, as then they can check both options for you. If you do want to request a building, go for Oak (which is also closer for the main swimming pool). The best category to book for easy access would be Royal Room Pool View by the way, as all of those rooms are very close to the bridge over to the main building.
I keep reading that now that there are murphy beds in the AB rooms they have significantly less storage space than Magnolia rooms, but...
Seems to me the only real extra storage space Magnolia provides is the luggage stool. Am I correct assuming this?
Pretty much, yes. The drawers in AB are slightly smaller and less easy to access when the fold-down bed is in use though. Also you lose the table-top surface from the top of the missing dresser, and also the luggage seat (and the space underneath it). However there is a little bit of extra shelf space next to the fridge, and on top of the banquette bench seat.
Overall the consensus is that there is less usable storage space in the AB rooms than there is in the mansions, which can become an issue when five people are in the room. However it's not a major issue.
At CSR we were able to refill our resort mug at the pool bar. Can we do this at the POR pool bar?
No, sorry, just the food courts (you can use POR and POFQ though).
Someone posted that if you are in Parterre to get to FQ you have to walk up to a bridge, cross it and walk down the opposite side, basically repeating your steps but on the other side. But looking at the jogging/walking trail and the Google satellite it looks like there is a bridge right under the roadway at the end of what looks like the Riverside property. True?
You can cross the river by either bridge. If you are in Oak Manor or the northern wing of Parterre Place, it's probably easier to use the first footbridge you come to. If you are further along the river towards POFQ, just walk along to the road bridge and cross over there (there's a separate footpath provided, it's quite safe).
Andre
. The crowds often overflowed the stops and backed up on to the walkways. I can only compare this situation to the stops at CSR, which I felt were much less crowed, mostly attributed to it being a convention resort.
We've had similar issues at many Disney resorts, so it's not a deal breaker, but it does put a damper on things sometimes. I remember having the same 'bench' issue a PP wrote about when we stayed at the Dolphin. People would get there early and sit on the benches, then people would walk up 10 minutes later as a bus was pulling up and they'd push up and get on the bus even though there were people there before them. It became pretty frustrating (especially because it was the last stop and most of the busses that came were mostly full!)
