HELP, please review PO-Riverside and All Star Movies

[ready to relax]

We are ready to meet the mouse in September, and currently reserved to stay at Port Orleans-Riverside. Making sure I have the best deal, I stumbled upon a better price at Pop, All Star Movies and All Star Music. We have stayed in the family suite at ASMu, but any reviews about the other resorts would be REALLY helpful. ALSO at ASMo, do they have evening movies at the pool like at ASMu?

 

[notafan]

Depends on how much time you will be at the resort. You get what you pay for. DW prefers the moderates because they are a little less hectic, a little larger, a little better landscaping and transportation, but my attitude is I can sleep anywhere so I prefer the budgets. I'm frugal but DW says I'm cheap. If I could I would just have the family sleep in the car at the GF!

 

[Deffenm]

Well we have stayed at POR , POP, and All Star Movies. We liked POR the best followed by POP. My kids love to swim so now that we have stayed at resorts with waterslides I don't think I will get them back to value. They also loved the boat to DTD (my kids love disney's public transportation). The theme of POR is very calming after a hectic day at the park.

POP is fun! Bright colors, big icons, and lots going on. The buses are great (except having to stand out in the sun waiting for them at the resort). At the end of the night at the parks we always see a ton of POP buses. I like the food court better at POP but we like to stay somewhere where we can have a sit down meal if we decide we don't want to leave the resort. I think POP's rooms are getting redone so they would be "fresh".

You can't go wrong in my book. Any resort is better then staying home.

You just have to remember to relax and don't stress if things are not perfect. On our last trip it took us from 9:30 to 11:45 to get back to our resort after watching Fantasmic. There was construction on the roads and it caused huge traffic jams. Luckily we had a great bus driver who played us audio messages that the bus has. Some of them were hilarious and everyone on the bus was in a good mood because of it. We were tired when we got back to our room but we could have had a bad driver who just complained the whole time instead of trying to make it fun for us.

Good luck and have fun on your trip!

 

[disney*mom*82]

POR is our favorite resort and we only stay there. Yes, it is a larger resort and more spread out, but it is very well kept, beautiful scenery, nice CMs, there are several pools, one which has a waterslide and you also have access to POFQ pool that has a fun kids slide, the food court is actually good, the boat ride to DTD is one of the things my DH cant wait to get onto as soon as we are there, there are 4 bus stops, we never have much of a problem getting on a bus, the rooms are decorated approp and IMO better than the values. We just like the feel and atmosphere of POR, it is our families favorite and we have stayed there our last 4 trips to WDW and dont have plans to change that.

 

[KELLY]

I would stick with a moderate. We booked pop as a bounce back and by the time I figured out wich mod I wanted I couldn't get one for my dates. Finally today a standard CBR room became avilable and I booked it. I just pefer the mods better. We have tried the values 2 times and to us mods are the way to go for us.

 

[VAN]

I also considered POR for our September trip. It is just my DH and myself so I just could not bring myself to pay the extra $600.

Now, if I had our two grown children with us, I would have splurged with POR. I just love the whole resort. We go over there to see Bob Jackson at the Riverroost Lounge and will take the boat to DTD and back.

We signed up for the FD bounceback so have the regular DP while staying at POP. If you are taking advantage of FD, remember that the values only give you the QS plan ... upgrading to the regular plan would be extra.

Anyway, at this stage I'd probably just stick with POR...but it will spoil you for any future trips (won't want to go back to a Value!!).

Either way, you'll be fine.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

If you have the extra money, stay at POR. We LOVE it there!! If money is tight, stay at Pop or another value. It's really up to you and what you want. Personally, I love the Mods, but if I HAD to stay at a value again, I would do it in a heart beat because we are not at the resort that much anyway.

 

[apnep]

We just did Disney and stayed at POR. DH and 3 kids. We really loved it. The property is gorgeous and all the kids loved the pools. DH and I enjoyed the walks to the dining area and the room was the perfect size. Highly recommend it!

Here's my trip report with a couple of photos..
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2492123

Ang

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

POR is the better choice, but if you enjoyed your stay at the other All Star resorts, you might like ASMovies, we didn't and will NEVER stay at another ALL Star resort again.

POR is amazing, the activities, the pool (although we didn't use it), is huge and child firnedly, you can also use the POFQ pool. The boat to DTD was wonderful, especially at the end of a busy day, it was so relaxing. It didn't seem quite as crowded at either PO resort, it had a quieter atmosphere, it feels like a whole different world.

All Stars is just bad for us, although we love Pop, but as I say, if you liked them before, that won't be an issue.

Suzanne

 

[alisha8]

I chose POR for DH's first trip with our children. He was determined not to like the trip so I wanted to try and give him no reason to dislike it. The resort was nice. We loved the big room but we only slept there. DH decided on our next visit we would save the money and stay at a value. After all, we only sleep & shower in the room! It's up to you what is important. We are happy with spending less money and staying in a value.

 

[alwaysmom]

Here's one for the other side. We've never stayed at a moderate, but will someday and my choice will be POR, the reviews are great. That said..we very much enjoy the all-stars, even over Pop. Movies is our favorite although we are trying Music on our next trip. We all have a great time there.

Only Music has the Movies under the stars.

 

[eliza61]

Unfortunately I'm not a fan of the values. That's not to say they are not nice they just don't work for my family.

1) too small. I'm a big gal and my dh is over 6 ft tall, throw in 2 big sons and I was 1 day away from committing a homicide. Some people say they only need a room to sleep in but that's not me. when I come back to the room I hate climbing over, around and under people.

2) food courts. We go in August (generally) and they are packed and loud.

Bottom line, my vacations I like to relax and even though we had a good time at the values, it was just tooo uncomfortable for me so for me a bargain is really not a bargain if you're not happy.

 

[MEM]

I would say "it depends". It depends on how young your children are, how tight your budget is, how long you are staying. Since buying into DVC I have become a terrible resort snob. I will stay at Pop on weekends to maximize my DVC points but more than that is just too much. We stayed at ASMU exactly twice - first time was fine, second time the resort felt like a dump. We won't stay there again.

Of the two POR, I prefer French Quarter although Riverside is lovely. I would go with a moderate unless your budget is so tight that staying at a moderate would mean cutting back significantly elsewhere.