Firstly, thank you to all of you for this thread and for answering my questions! It was so helpful.
We were at POR from Sept. 23-30th and had a fantastic time. Arrived at POR-Riverside. Pooring rain. The place is gorgeous, loved the resort. Check in was long. I had done the online check in previously, but they were having some trouble when we got there and could not locate our MagicBands. This seemed to take forever bc the kids were antsy and driving me a little batty. They finally decided to give us new bands which meant they didn't have our names inside, but who cares. Off we went to our room. No fridge, which I had been expecting, but was hoping for. I did get a $105 room credit, which I was pleased with. But you have to ask for it. I asked on our last evening, bc honestly, it really was inconvenient not having one. Our Royal room was gorgeous, the kids loved it. Such special touches and attention to detail. It was far out though, and it took 10 minutes to get to the main resort building/food court area and a lot longer with the kids. So this posed a problem I found. I'd ask for a room closest to one of the bridges which would make it much closer. But I'd go back to the resort for sure. The grounds were just beautiful, the main pool was amazing. We never ended up swimming in any of the quiet pools bc the kids like the water slide at the main pool.
Mousekeeping was good, no issues.
I found the food court busy at meal times but the service was good, food was great and there was a lot to choose from. The drink stations seem to get busy and I found that there were quite a few times that the drinks weren't working....the cup wasn't registering and signalling it to flow. That was annoying. But not a huge issue.
The buses were good. No real issues. My hb was annoyed bc there were a lot of stops/pick ups. This seemed to be a complaint of several people who had stayed at other resorts previously. We talked to a few different families who said that they had stayed at Pop Century and indicated that the service was better bc it was only the one resort they dealt with. The bus at POR makes several stops. I don't know any different, so I found no issue with it. The bus was always full. And when we were leaving the park, it was always the one with the most people and wait time. Honestly, it wasn't a huge deal but I heard a lot of complaining about it.
The grounds were impeccable. So beautiful. Hot tub was always full of kids which I thought was weird. But whatever. The pool was awesome. Both my hb and myself and both the kids loved it. To be honest, they would have been content to hang out there all day!
This was our first trip and we loved it. I can't wait to go back. I think I'd stay somewhere else, just to try it out.
I would have walked my fanny up to guest services and talked to a manager. Did you voice your concerns? I would have not just asked, but demanded a new room if it smelled like there could be mold. Cleanliness is not something I mess around with while on vacation!
but here's how Disney classifies that building (the map, at least, is mine though!):
banana
