Disney's PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE RESORT Information & Questions

I've also been reading the bad reviews here and on other threads. They have made me worried about my trip next month in one of the Royal rooms.

But then I remember that for every 1 bad review that people took the time to write, there's probably dozens of great reviews that people didn't take the time to write. It's always disproportionate like that. People are always more willing to spend the time reviewing if it's a bad experience vs. a good one.

Personally, I can't wait.
 
We are here now staying in a royal room. We have had no problems except we found out yesterday evening while we were at studios that we had no charging set up to our magic bands. Fortunately I had a credit card with me.Went over to the front desk last night to get it fixed. It was an IT issue that they could not fix at the front desk and they said to check back this morning. Fortunately it was working this morning and I did not have to go back to the front desk.

We have two rooms in our party. They both are in good condition but they do need a renovation in general. However, if all the royal rooms are like this, I would have no issues staying in one prior to a renovation. They still are very pretty rooms. Everything seems to be in working order and while not as fresh as a brand new refurbished rooms everything still looks good and have a little more life in them until they are renovated.

My only request was not being on a first-floor room and that’s where they originally put me. I was able to move to a different room when I was checking in to a higher floor.

The resort still looks very pretty and clean in general. There are people replacing flowers in the landscape beds this morning in the rr section. I have seen crews power washing on previous stays when there were no renovations going on so maybe they try to do that regularly.

Food court was very busy this morning and I did see a sign saying that they will be open at 2:30 AM on August 29! I was going to avoid the studios for the Star Wars opening but just seeing a sign like that seems exciting and I may go over again there before we leave.

So I think over all we are off to a good start. I understand people‘s concerns and poor experiences and that is extra disappointing when you don’t have a good experience at Disney. We do expect something greater here which is justified in my opinion. And I’ve certainly had my share of less than stellar experiences with Disney. But so far this one is off to a good start for us.
 
Thank you [U]DISRNR1000[/U] that makes me feel better about our upcoming stay at a royal room in October. Have you heard anything about if/when the royal rooms are being refurbished and also whether any of the Magnolia bend pools will be closing? I've read some conflicting reports on this.
I've been a bit worried about our trip given the comments on this thread and also worried that the pools will be mega busy given the size of the resort. I've toyed with switching to AKL - which is the only alternative even remotely within our budget (albeit still quite a lot more) but I really do like the look and location of Riverside....although I was a big aghast to see the clothes rail in the bathroom.. what's that about?!!
thanks again!
 
Anyone use amazon prime now for a food/drink delivery to riverside? anyone know the process and if we need to pickup from somewhere, how early to order etc. leaving tomorrow and was considering making a small order. Also are the resorts charging for deliveries now?
 


We stayed at POR in late July and had a wonderful time. We were in a preferred room in AB. I loved the renovated room compared to the same room category that we stayed in last summer at POR. The room felt so much more cleaner to me. Otherwise, the grounds were great. Food court is a huge bonus with our littles. And we loved both the quiet pool and main pool.
 
Anyone use amazon prime now for a food/drink delivery to riverside? anyone know the process and if we need to pickup from somewhere, how early to order etc. leaving tomorrow and was considering making a small order. Also are the resorts charging for deliveries now?
I used Amazon Prime Now at other resorts. It’s fairly simple. Make sure you put that you are shopping in zip code 32830. Pick out the items you want. Click check out. Change your delivery address to: Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort 1251 Riverside Dr, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830 Guest - (your name)
There’s a choice for 1 hour or 2 hour deliveries. 2 hour deliveries are free!
After you can choose to be notified by text. You will get a text when your delivery is on the way and then again when it is delivered. Call luggage services and ask them to bring it to your room. Unless you want to go to the front of the resort and pick it up from luggage services.
 


Thank you [U]DISRNR1000[/U] that makes me feel better about our upcoming stay at a royal room in October. Have you heard anything about if/when the royal rooms are being refurbished and also whether any of the Magnolia bend pools will be closing? ...although I was a big aghast to see the clothes rail in the bathroom.. what's that about?!!
thanks again!
If the room layout at POR is the same as POFQ, the clothing rail is in the area where the sinks are located. The toilet and shower are in an area adjoining that has a door.
The only clothing line there is a retractable one to hang wet swimsuits, etc. on over the tub. The Royal rooms are going to be renovated , the site www.portorleans.org , has info on the renovation schedule.
 
I have a quick question about requesting a deep clean for allergies. Do we just need to call the reservation number to request this, or should we call a different number/also send a fax? TIA!
 
I sent a room request via TouringPlans.com for our upcoming trip (late September) in late August. We are staying in a regular garden view room, and I asked for Magnolia Terrace, a north-facing room. This was before I knew that the building is now under renovation. I know the south part of the building is currently closed and don't know if they'd start the part of the building I requested before we got there. We've never been to POR so I don't know how big the building is, how far along they are with the renovations in that building, etc.

For those who know more than I do about the current renovations & requesting rooms, in general, do you think I need to send another request for a different building? Is that even possible via TouringPlans once you've submitted one through them? I'm thinking that even if the part of the Magnolia Terrace that I requested is closed, they'd still put us in a mansion room since we requested one. Might just have to be Acadian House.
 
I sent a room request via TouringPlans.com for our upcoming trip (late September) in late August. We are staying in a regular garden view room, and I asked for Magnolia Terrace, a north-facing room. This was before I knew that the building is now under renovation. I know the south part of the building is currently closed and don't know if they'd start the part of the building I requested before we got there. We've never been to POR so I don't know how big the building is, how far along they are with the renovations in that building, etc.

For those who know more than I do about the current renovations & requesting rooms, in general, do you think I need to send another request for a different building? Is that even possible via TouringPlans once you've submitted one through them? I'm thinking that even if the part of the Magnolia Terrace that I requested is closed, they'd still put us in a mansion room since we requested one. Might just have to be Acadian House.
I also use TP to request rooms - my request went this morning! Yay!

In my experience, they don't really give you an exact match. They will likely just take the characteristics that you requested (floor, etc) and try to give you something similar. I haven't seen a way to resend the request so you'll probably have to see what you get and try to change it if it's not satisfactory to you.
 
I also use TP to request rooms - my request went this morning! Yay!

In my experience, they don't really give you an exact match. They will likely just take the characteristics that you requested (floor, etc) and try to give you something similar. I haven't seen a way to resend the request so you'll probably have to see what you get and try to change it if it's not satisfactory to you.
We checked in yesterday, and both called in our request and faxed it in. (following the guide).

We got none of our requests...

We asked to be on the 2nd floor, without and adjoining room. We got in one of the mansions, on the ground floor, beside the elevator, with an adjoining room.

Thankfully we were able to go to the front desk and they accommodated our request. We are actually now in one of the preferred locations next to the main building!
 
I sent a room request via TouringPlans.com for our upcoming trip (late September) in late August. We are staying in a regular garden view room, and I asked for Magnolia Terrace, a north-facing room. This was before I knew that the building is now under renovation. I know the south part of the building is currently closed and don't know if they'd start the part of the building I requested before we got there. We've never been to POR so I don't know how big the building is, how far along they are with the renovations in that building, etc.

For those who know more than I do about the current renovations & requesting rooms, in general, do you think I need to send another request for a different building? Is that even possible via TouringPlans once you've submitted one through them? I'm thinking that even if the part of the Magnolia Terrace that I requested is closed, they'd still put us in a mansion room since we requested one. Might just have to be Acadian House.

Garden View rooms can be located in any of the buildings EXCEPT for Preferred Locations. From 2019, this category will probably only be offered for parties of up to four guests (aged 3+) and for Riverside it will most likely get you a room in one of the mansion buildings (80 or 85) although that is not absolutely guaranteed. I'd call Disney and ask to add a room request to my reservation. Such as lower or ground floor, corner room, near elevator, near transportation, near main building, etc. If you want to stay in the mansion buildings with a renovated room, request mansion buildings 80 or 85 with a renovated room. Disney tries to accommodate you, but will tell you they are just "requests".

I just seen the panoramic view of Magnolia Trace's refurbished room on https://www.portorleans.org/rehab.php WOW it looks nice and clean.
 
Working on a packing list...we're used to all the goodies provided in an Art of Animation room such as paper plates, cups, bowls, cutlery, and paper towels. Are we able to get these (maybe not the paper towels) on a complimentary basis at POR at, for example, the food court? We're flying not driving so we have space/weight limits to consider.
 
No idea why, we have had a wonderful almost 3-week stay. There is some room refurb going on in the next building to ours (we face towards it) but nothing that's intrusive or bothering.

Andre
This is good to hear. We just booked our first POR trip in years. It used to be one of our favorites and I was excited to go back. These reviews are making me nervous- but I remember from years ago, you being very honest when things weren’t great. I wasn’t aware they were doing a refurb here. Do you know when it will be complete? We aren’t going to be there until September next year. Is there a link or post that shows what the new rooms look like?
 
This is good to hear. We just booked our first POR trip in years. It used to be one of our favorites and I was excited to go back. These reviews are making me nervous- but I remember from years ago, you being very honest when things weren’t great. I wasn’t aware they were doing a refurb here. Do you know when it will be complete? We aren’t going to be there until September next year. Is there a link or post that shows what the new rooms look like?

Check this link for information on the the buildings that have been refurbished already & what building is being worked on at the moment. There is also a panoramic view of one of the Magnolia Trace’s refurbished rooms here too:
https://www.portorleans.org/rehab.php
Tom Bricker did a post with pics from one of the Alligator Bayou rooms that were refurbished. You can check it out here:
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/new-rooms-port-orleans-riverside/
 
Do you know when it will be complete? We aren’t going to be there until September next year.

They will be done with all of the regular rooms by the start of October 2019, but there will be a short delay before they move on to the Royal Room section - however even that should be complete long before Sept 2020.

You do need to be aware that in a resort the size of Port Orleans, there will always be something going on somewhere though, from groundskeeping/landscaping/gardening to minor repainting, decking work, leaf/gutter clearing, etc to occasional bigger (planned) projects. Keeping the place looking as perfect as it does requires year-round attention. For example while we were there in August, landscaping staff completely removed the main Oak Manor lawn and replaced it with new fresh turf; it only took them about eight hours in all, they don't hang about!

13 Aug, 9am:
433533
433534

Same day, 4:30pm:
433535

Andre
 
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I currently have a royal room reservation for Nov. I see refurb is expected to start there in Nov, but shows as delayed on portorleans site. If it does start when we are there, what kind of noise could be expected? Is it constant during the day? Or, will it be negligible since it would be contained to a building we aren’t staying in? We are generally relaxing in the room in early afternoons. Sorry if this has been covered before.
 
They will be done with all of the regular rooms by the start of October 2019, but there will be a short delay before they move on to the Royal Room section - however even that should be complete long before Sept 2020.

You do need to be aware that in a resort the size of Port Orleans, there will always be something going on somewhere though, from groundskeeping/landscaping/gardening to minor repainting, decking work, leaf/gutter clearing, etc to occasional bigger (planned) projects. Keeping the place looking as perfect as it does requires year-round attention. For example while we were there in August, landscaping staff completely removed the main Oak Manor lawn and replaced it with new fresh turf; it only took them about eight hours in all, they don't hang about!

13 Aug, 9am:
View attachment 433533
View attachment 433534

Same day, 4:30pm:
View attachment 433535

Andre
Thanks so much for the info. Construction doesn’t bother us- I was just hearing that if you got an old room, they arent I need the greatest condition. We just stayed 9 nights at AKL in Jambo house and got a brand new room and heard pounding, drilling, smelled painting on our balcony during the day, etc. because they were working above us on rooms. Didn’t bother me at all.
 

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