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Port Orleans French Quarter FAQ thread - Refurbished for 2011 - Now CLOSED

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I had the pleasure of staying at POFQ from 5/11 to 5/18, and my family will absolutely return to this resort in 2012.

Although we arrived prior to check in time, 1 of 2 rooms (traveling w/relatives) was ready for us. We learned via text that the other was ready on time as we were already off and running. Similarly, on our last day, we weren't scheduled for ME to the airport until 2 pm, but we were able to keep 1 room beyond check out time at no added charge. As for ME luggage transport, 1 room used it, 1 did not. The non ME bags were wheeled right up from the ME bus via bell services. The ME luggage was delivered later on that day but not to the point where we missed it. Either way was fine.

Our 'wish list' of room requests faxed a few days in advance had been granted, i.e., top floor, overlooking the pool/slide (Bldg 5 or 2), adjoining or nearby rooms, corner if available. We were in Bldg 2, rooms next door but not adjoining, on an end though not a corner with extra windows. We even had a bonus view of the river and boat dock. We were pleased. Any outside noise from the pool area or boat horns couldn't be heard once we were inside our room, which I was a bit concerned about in requesting that type of location.

The room itself was, of course, newly renovated, and mousekeeping kept it looking shiny and new all week long. We didn't think to keep our towel animals but appreciated receiving them, used one guy to hold our daily tip envelope for mousekeeping. Luckily, the beds and the pillows were very comfy to us, and the shower was strong and perfectly clean. We had plenty of space in our mini fridge for milk, water, healthy snacks and used Garden Grocer (excellent customer service) for various items. The drawers, hooks, closet area and sink shelving held our many belongings perfectly. I took advantage of the iron/ironing board myself and still can't get over how much quicker the hair dryer dried my hair than mine at home. I missed it even more after returning to work this morning.

The size of POFQ was perfect with everything just steps away. We never waited more than 5-10 minutes for a shuttle bus on either end, only sharing with POR 2x all week which was a non-issue anyway since they dropped us off first/picked us up last so no sitting through POR’s bus stops. I loved the gift shop and especially its staff. There were ample towels at the pool at the busiest time of the day as well as late at night. I was really amazed at how much time my children (DD-8 & DS-9) wanted to spend at POFQ’s pool/slide instead of the parks.

The worst I can say is that, while I wasn't thrilled with the limited POFQ food court selections, I found it to be sufficient especially since we were generally elsewhere at mealtimes. I knew this going in, so I wasn’t disappointed. We weren't at WDW for the food, but I understand that it may be a factor for some in selecting a resort. With that said, the boat ride to POR for a wider selection of food was a convenient option, and the boat ride to DTD was appealing too.

My photos don't compare to the beautiful interior/exterior shots recently posted, but I do have a couple of the POFQ Anniversary Banner which I promise to share once I settle in. Lastly, a big shout out to Andre for being the catalyst of so much information. Thanks to him (and all who participate), I was well informed and adjusted quickly to my surroundings despite it being my first trip back in as many years as POFQ is celebrating this past week.
 
I just wanted to say how excited I am about our upcoming trip!!!!!:banana:
The French Quarter is special because it was where we stayed on our first trip to the world. I've been reading this board for sometime now and wanted to say how nice and friendly everyone is here!:flower3: It's nice to be able to share with such a nice group of friends!! POFQ is such a beautiful and relaxing place. You would never know you were in the middle of Orlando because you are transported to a whole different world. Looking forward to the crusing down the Sassagoula and taking a relaxing carriage ride. The last 3 trips we have stayed deluxe because the price was right during the off season, however I would like to say that I enjoyed my stay at the french quarter every bit as much as any of the deluxe resorts. It is a very affordable option for budget minded families. We did stay at Pop Century the first night of our last trip and we enjoyed it as well. I guess we are not hard to please and just so happy and fortunate to be there!!:) With the economy the way it is we are so blessed to be able to still afford to go once a year. Now I've got to get busy!! Just 3 weeks to go!!!:cool1:
 
We're going in late June, and want to take advantage of the early morning hours. From POFQ, what time would you suggest getting on the busses to get to the parks in time? Is one hour enough time, or too much time?
 
Still here at POFQ. Just hanging at the pool with a cocktail and doing laundry. Tried to book the bounceback in october but nothing available at the POFQ so i will keep my rack rate and hope for a ap discount later. The food court is always empty so that is a very good thing. Mousekeeping is great and the buses couldn't be better. Magic kingdom was dead from 8 am until noon and then they were slammed. Hot as hades today, high was 95!!!!
 


One more thing, there are no purple mugs in the resort, just pink, aqua and black. Magic sells the same style mug in purple with the characters on tea cups. Also, many people at the food court are using old mugs, seen million dreams and celebration ones so far
 
Still here at POFQ. Just hanging at the pool with a cocktail and doing laundry. Tried to book the bounceback in october but nothing available at the POFQ so i will keep my rack rate and hope for a ap discount later. The food court is always empty so that is a very good thing. Mousekeeping is great and the buses couldn't be better. Magic kingdom was dead from 8 am until noon and then they were slammed. Hot as hades today, high was 95!!!!

Is Shelley working at Mardi Grogs tonight? Tell her HI from Shelly the Rock's family!!!
 
Still here at POFQ. Just hanging at the pool with a cocktail and doing laundry. Tried to book the bounceback in october but nothing available at the POFQ so i will keep my rack rate and hope for a ap discount later. The food court is always empty so that is a very good thing. Mousekeeping is great and the buses couldn't be better. Magic kingdom was dead from 8 am until noon and then they were slammed. Hot as hades today, high was 95!!!!

I'm enjoying your trip reports!

One of my favorite things to do at WDW is relax poolside with a drink while the kids swim. : )

It's nice to hear that both mousekeeping and the buses are good.
 


Looking for rooms close to bus stop. Building 4 looks to be the closest.

It really depends. The far end of Building 4 is farther from the bus stop than the end of Building 5 (the end closest to dining). But we were at the opposite end of both Buildings 5 and 6 (on the river) and it wasn't too far to the bus stop either. You'll be fine!
 
Does anyone that has been to POFQ recently or is there now know if they are showing a movie at the pool? I saw on allears that someone watched a movie on an inflatable screen over the pool while they were there.
 
Does anyone know if there are any special tricks or things I can do to make sure I have the best chance of actually getting my King Bed that I reserved for POFQ? I am worried when I hear about them being oversold.

The last time I stayed at a Holiday Inn they oversold the kings and my husband and I were stuck in a queen---he is a big guy so this is not comfortable for us. I was hoping that because Disney is so "magical" that they wouldn't be the type to oversell their King beds, but it sounds like they are anyway.

Our flight to Orlando comes in late and we won't be at the hotel until after 9pm on our check in day. Does that mean they will probably have already given out all the King beds for the day? I know they will refund me the difference if we end up in a room with 2 queen beds, but it would really disturb our whole stay since we don't comfortably fit together in a queen. I will be very disappointed to spend all this money and then have to sleep in separate beds.

I tried calling POFQ directly and asked to make a confirmation for my reservation, but they just redirected me to an automated reservation line. Is there a way I can call again and insist that we need the King Bed we reserved? Can I have them make an extra note about needing one due to size limits, or is there still a good chance our King bed will be given away to an earlier arriving guest?

Thanks for your help. I am so frustrated that I am having to worry about something like this when all the other details are taken care of.
 
Typing from my I phone so forgive the typos, waiting for soarin so I can respond to your questions. Yes they had a movie on Friday night but I don't know what it was as they were setting it up as we left for dinner.

We have a king bed booked for October so I hope they don't oversell then but the queen beds are fine. We
Checked in at noon and the rooms were oversold at that time
 
Okay so it sounds like it is almost guaranteed that we will be stuck in a queen sized bed then? Is there ANY way I can try to get our King bed despite arriving at 9pm? Can I call that morning and ask? Should I call again today and explain the situation?
I've done the online check in, but it seems like they just go by whoever gets there first. Bummer.

Honestly it is such a big issue to me that if they are not accomodating then I will be hard pressed to go back to Disney for a long time. It is very frustrating to pay extra for something more than 6 months in advance and still be bumped out of it. Disney costs SO much you would think they are more accomodating unlike your typical hotel.
 
Okay so it sounds like it is almost guaranteed that we will be stuck in a queen sized bed then? Is there ANY way I can try to get our King bed despite arriving at 9pm? Can I call that morning and ask? Should I call again today and explain the situation?
I've done the online check in, but it seems like they just go by whoever gets there first. Bummer.

Honestly it is such a big issue to me that if they are not accomodating then I will be hard pressed to go back to Disney for a long time. It is very frustrating to pay extra for something more than 6 months in advance and still be bumped out of it. Disney costs SO much you would think they are more accomodating unlike your typical hotel.

I think the issue with the King beds is the fact that Disney decided to replace the Kings that had been in some of the accessible rooms with two Queens. As such, they have reduced the overall number of King beds available. My guess is that reservations did not get updated information by the time many people had already booked their rooms. So now the resort has less King beds from the renovations but with reservations having been done with the old numbers. I feel really sorry for those front desk CMs.

You can not call the resort directly as there is no public number to use. The number given as the "resort" number is actually a call center. There they will answer the phone as the resort based off of what line it comes in on. This allows the resort CMs the ability to focus on their jobs and the guests checking in instead of spending most of their day on their phone.

When you check in, make sure to mention you really need a King bed. If there are none available, you could ask if you could be moved the next day. If they can not do that due to bookings you can ask for a refund of the booking difference or ask about being moved to an equivalent room at another resort (aka King at another mod). Just be polite and patient while they work with you as I am sure the front desk CMs are just as frustrated about the situation as you are. They want their guests to be happy and something that is out of their hands is now causing issues.
 
Okay so it sounds like it is almost guaranteed that we will be stuck in a queen sized bed then? Is there ANY way I can try to get our King bed despite arriving at 9pm? Can I call that morning and ask? Should I call again today and explain the situation?
I've done the online check in, but it seems like they just go by whoever gets there first. Bummer.

Honestly it is such a big issue to me that if they are not accomodating then I will be hard pressed to go back to Disney for a long time. It is very frustrating to pay extra for something more than 6 months in advance and still be bumped out of it. Disney costs SO much you would think they are more accomodating unlike your typical hotel.

Not being mean, but if you already are going to be "hard pressed to go back to Disney" because of something that hasn't even happened yet, then maybe you are going into this trip with the wrong attitude to begin with ;)
 
Thanks for the info on room location in building 4 from everyone. Sounds like no matter where we are it will be a relatively short walk. Just trying to make it as short as possible. We really have no preference on what view we have so building 4 will be fine with us. When we stayed at POR we never looked out the window.:thumbsup2

Does anyone know if they put Christmas decorations in the rooms??:confused3 My guess is no, but figured I ask anyway.
 
Our flight to Orlando comes in late and we won't be at the hotel until after 9pm on our check in day. Does that mean they will probably have already given out all the King beds for the day? I know they will refund me the difference if we end up in a room with 2 queen beds, but it would really disturb our whole stay since we don't comfortably fit together in a queen. I will be very disappointed to spend all this money and then have to sleep .

I think your best bet is to do online check in and list an earlier arrival time. WDW just has a tiny tiny percentage of king beds and even if you were willing to switch resorts I doubt they could find you one at that late hour. We reserved a king at AKL a few years ago and paid extra. We didn't get the king or a refund since our room was discounted. It was just a regular promotion like anyone gets. Honestly they were not even that apologetic and basically said it happened constantly.
 
We checked in at noon and the rooms were oversold at that time

Why not have a word with a supervisor at the front desk while you are there this time? Ask them if overselling King Bed rooms is common or if, as we suspect, it's due to the changes in the amount of each room type not being known at the time that older existing bookings were made.

Actually, could you maybe ask them directly how many King rooms vs. Accessible vs. two-queen rooms they now have? (it used to be 62 King rooms for example). I'll add that info to the website if they let you know.

Andre
 
Does anyone that has been to POFQ recently or is there now know if they are showing a movie at the pool? I saw on allears that someone watched a movie on an inflatable screen over the pool while they were there.

It's something fairly new I think. They did it during special events like Halloween in the past, but seem to be making it a more regular event now.

Currently it's Wed, Fri and Sat I believe, with this week's offerings being Bolt (Wed 25), Mulan (Fri 27) and Meet the Robinsons (Sat 28).

Not sure if it's just a trial or will continue.

Andre
 
Our family group will be in three rooms for our stay in July. Since our transportation to the airport doesn't leave the resort til 3:45 p.m. it would be really convenient to have a late check-out for one of our rooms, so that we all can change from pool or park clothing to our travel attire instead. Do I request this from the front desk during the check-in process, or is it arranged some other way? And is there a fee or upcharge applied?
Thanks!
 
Our family group will be in three rooms for our stay in July. Since our transportation to the airport doesn't leave the resort til 3:45 p.m. it would be really convenient to have a late check-out for one of our rooms, so that we all can change from pool or park clothing to our travel attire instead. Do I request this from the front desk during the check-in process, or is it arranged some other way? And is there a fee or upcharge applied?
Thanks!

I called housekeeping to see if we could get a late checkout the night before our checkout day. The front desk told me to call them (I had asked at the front desk.)

We were told no because the resort was full and they needed to get the room cleaned fast for the next person. This was in June 2009.

Isn't there a place near the pool where you could shower and change if you get a no about late checkout? I'm thinking there was one but I could be mixing it up with other resorts. You'd need to bring a blow dryer since they don't have one in those areas.
 
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