We absolutely love WL, but stayed at POR last September to save some money. Our opinion is that both are excellent resorts, and about the same "value" since we feel you did get some nice perks for the extra money at WL. Having Free Dining to help offset the additional cost would tip the scales in favor of WL in our opinion. We love WL's great location on Bay lake and the fact it has boats to MK and to the Contemporary and Fort Wilderness. While POR looks to be closer to Epcot and HS, we didn't find much difference in transportation time on the bus to get to those parks vs WL, and we did notice that MK is quite a bit quicker to get to, and we appreciate having both the boat and bus options to get to MK. POR does have some advantages, including the boat to DTD which makes the trip there a lot nicer and quicker than from WL, and we do find POR to have the best quick service food court on property. We actually have visited the resort to eat there during each of our other stays when we were staying at WL. Both resorts do have a similar quiet rural feel, especially in the AB section of POR. The outside hallways and separate buildings of POR are a disadvantage though, especially in inclement weather. We do particularly enjoy that WL is all under one roof. Finally regarding the construction, the project will just be getting started, so while you may see fencing going up outside the resort, my guess is this November the bulk of the resort will be unaffected. The main pool was just refurbished last year, and most of the construction seems to be expanding the resort into areas that are currently wooded surrounding the resort.
Either way you can't go wrong and should have a wonderful trip. Happy planning!