POR Likes/Dislikes

[Sue M]

We love POR . IMO it has more to offer then the other mods, with a boat to DTD, Horse & Carriage rides, Cane Fishing, and really great evening entertainer, Bob Jackson!
The landscaping is beautiful making it a pleasure to stroll around and enjoy the resort. We've only stayed in Mansion Section, and I request a location near a foot bridge. We prefer using the north or east bus depots to the main depot. Less crowded and you can sit comfortably on a bench under cover from the elements to wait. 99% of the time bus service was good. No mater where we stay, there's always that one morning when you're going to one park, and 4 busses to each park except the one you want goes by!!

I have never found it an overly long walk anywhere except maybe when I was in the furthest room in Parterre Place getting to Main pool.

 

[vacantsea]

We are staying at POR in August with a family of 5 adults. I have some concerns about the murphy bed being able to accommodate our shortest adult, so we are thinking about bringing an air mattress just in case!

 

[T4K]

We are staying at POR in August with a family of 5 adults. I have some concerns about the murphy bed being able to accommodate our shortest adult, so we are thinking about bringing an air mattress just in case!

I'm 5'5" female with a medium build and would not have minded sleeping on it.

 

[sdkuhn77]

We liked POR. We stayed in the Royal Room and enjoyed everything except coming back from the parks to POR. It seemed every time we left a park that the line to go back to POR was super long. We thankfully quickly realized that the French Quarter line was dead, so we would take the bus back there and hop on the boat to POR. It gave us also a good excuse to get some beignets on the way back to our room.

We liked the quick service there and just the atmosphere of the resort. The pools were great too.

 

[tndisney5]

Thanks everyone!

We will be going relatively soon so CBR would not be an option at this point.

We like the atmosphere at POR. We stayed in a Royal Room last trip and loved it, but we really didn't get to take in all the resort had to offer. It was NYE week and busy, busy! We did take the boat to DTD and loved that.

Do the carriage rides accommodate a family of 5? or just 4? Upon check in we won't be visiting a park so we are trying to figure out how we want to spend our afternoon/evening. Thinking maybe DTD for dinner at a CS restaurant and some shopping. How torn up is DTD with renovations/construction?

 

[T4K]

Thanks everyone! We will be going relatively soon so CBR would not be an option at this point. We like the atmosphere at POR. We stayed in a Royal Room last trip and loved it, but we really didn't get to take in all the resort had to offer. It was NYE week and busy, busy! We did take the boat to DTD and loved that. Do the carriage rides accommodate a family of 5? or just 4? Upon check in we won't be visiting a park so we are trying to figure out how we want to spend our afternoon/evening. Thinking maybe DTD for dinner at a CS restaurant and some shopping. How torn up is DTD with renovations/construction?

We just went and having never been to DTD before, I thought it was fine. I really didn't have any expectations. We made dinner reservations at Raglan Road for our arrival day and asked for the main room where the dancers were. It was fun. I believe they are on the dining plan, too.

Earl of Sandwich was also quite good and probably our best meal on Disney property.

 

[Lisann]

We liked POR. We stayed in the Royal Room and enjoyed everything except coming back from the parks to POR. It seemed every time we left a park that the line to go back to POR was super long. We thankfully quickly realized that the French Quarter line was dead, so we would take the bus back there and hop on the boat to POR. It gave us also a good excuse to get some beignets on the way back to our room.

Great idea!

I love POR. It's one of the most beautiful resorts on property. I never found the walks to be of great distance, unless of course, you are on the very fringes.

I have found on occasion that taking a taxi is the best way to go when the buses are running late (I have never found the taxis to be too expensive), or drive your own car, which is what we do.

 

[Dixiemom]

Stayed at POR last summer in the mansion section. Can't recall the building number though. The walk wasn't that bad and the scenery is beautiful. The only other moderate we have stayed at is CSR and that was because my husband at the time HAD to have a fitness center. Thank goodness we had a preferred room at CSR as THAT would've been a walk!

 

[vacantsea]

I'm 5'5" female with a medium build and would not have minded sleeping on it.

Thanks! I think my mom is about 5'4 or 5'5 so maybe it will work out okay. I'm the next shortest at 5'6, but if I take the murphy bed it's going to be fun figuring out whose sleeping with my husband!

 

[RustManFan]

I have stayed at POR over a half dozen times and it is only place we make reservations in years. Always ask for building 24 as it is nice and quiet. My sister has traveled with us a number of times recently and since she won't fly we take the Auto Train. That means we have my car and we drive to park at the main building. When we return from a Park we can get an iced tea and drive back to the room. All family that has gone will walk from building 24 except my sister (she has bad knees and will probably not go again).

I have no complaints at all !

 

[CaliTex]

Our personal likes:
Beautiful resort
Nice feature pool
Lots of shade (pool area is shady too)
Updated rooms
Great food court (try the tomato bisque!)
Lots to do (boat rentals, fishing, boat to DTD, etc.)
Hot tub!!! great for your feet after a long day in the parks

Our personal dislikes:
We had bad luck with long waits for buses vs. our stays at Pop Century. Our personal experience was so bad that we probably will not stay at POR again. Others have had fantastic luck so take that for what it's worth.

We paid for a preferred room and were placed in building 27. I would refuse that bldg if I had it to do over again. You are paying the same $$ as the other preferred buildings but it's much further away. Wasn't worth the extra $$.

Agree with all of this, except our luck with the buses was about what I was expecting for a large resort. But we stayed in 27 too, and it wasn't worth paying for. Didn't care for Boatwrights, but liked the food court. Liked the gift shop. CM at front desk lied to us about location being close. Bell staff was awesome! Concierge was great. Better than WL.

On the plus side, while the walk may end up being long, it is shady. I thought it was a very nice option, especially for a family of 5.

Hope this helps! Enjoy!

 

[nkereina]

What we liked about POR:
*Boat to DTD
*Food court - best on property IMHO
*Mansions
*Overall theme in general - very quiet, serene

What we didn't like about POR:
*Housekeeping was severely lacking
*Buses were hit or miss
*Pools - main pool's theme was mediocre and the quiet pools were kind of lame compared to some other quiet pools

We've stayed at POR twice and have no qualms about going back!

 

[Hitchhiking Ghost]

One of our favorite resorts, have stayed there twice as a family of 5, once before the refurb in 2010 and again after in 2012.

One dislike post refurb is that there isn't a lot of storage space. The old tv used to be housed in a cabinet and the cabinet had drawers available for clothes, although there are 3(?) small drawers under the murphy bed. Just not a lot of space. We brought down one of those cloth collapsable sweater hangers that have like 6 bins that can hold items and just hangs from the coat rod, worked great for us.

One thing we did do on this last trip, I rented a car on Disney property. Didn't get it for day #1 or last day, but just in between days. Alamo, for about 7 days was around $400. Cheaper to rent on Disney property then airport. We were making it to theme parks in about 5 minutes (early December). That was well worth it for us.

Love YeeHaw Bob at the River Roost. Always puts on a great show.

I think most of the pros/cons have been covered. We don't pay for a preferred room, but I will fax down or have my TA put in a request for a specific building. Being offseason, we've gotten that request each time.

Good luck.

 

[SJSloan]

We, as a family of 5, stayed at POR last May and loved it!

We paid for a Garden View and were put in Building 38. I didn't mind the walk at all to the pool or the main building as it was quite serene and beautiful! And shaded, which is a plus.

We are planning a trip there again next year if we can't get a studio at VWL.

The only issue we had was one morning with a bus to AK. We waited forever and ended up driving. But 1 bus out of many didn't bother us, that morning we just happened to have an ADR to make.