Just returned from a wonderful mother/daughter 9-night trip yesterday afternoon and am already missing POR so much. We checked in POR Royal river view room on Good Friday. I used Touring Plans to fax a request of a 1st or 2nd floor room as I wanted to be as close to the river as possible (as 3rd floor rooms are set further back). We did online check-in and received our room number (which was 9731) via text around 3:30. We hopped off the Magical Express at Saratoga Springs around 2:30 to grab a bite to eat for lunch and then headed to Animal Kingdom from there. That was the worst bus wait the entire trip. I am not exaggerating when I say that we waited 45-50 minutes for the Animal Kingdom bus to show up at the Springs stop. The ETA on the board kept going up 1-2 minutes every time we looked at it. I told my daughter that we got our one 'not so great' bus trip out of the way so the rest of the trip would be smooth sailing transportation wise.
We rode Everest and Kilimanjaro Safari with our FPs and had dinner at Yak & Yeti followed by Rivers of Light FP for the 9:30 show. We left straight away after the show and headed to the bus stop where we didn't wait more than 5 minutes for a bus to show up.
We got to our room for the first time, and found our luggage waiting for us to get unpacked. We also decorated our window for Easter. Our room was in a brilliant location, 2nd floor of Parterre Place (corner near the quiet pool), but just a few steps from the foot bridge so we caught the buses at the South Depot.
My daughter and I laughed at our bus 'mojo' for this trip. Whilst walking across the bridge to catch a bus for our desired park each morning, we would see it pulling into Riverside and then we'd sprint to the bus stop to make sure we got on. Also, the bus was empty each morning when it arrived at the South Depot and it would leave straight for the park after picking everyone up at the South Depot.
On Easter we went to Magic Kingdom and got on a bus around 6:30 AM and arrived at the park around 6:47. I didn't know what to expect as it was our first time visiting MK on a holiday so wanted to get there early. We were let in the park at 7:00 and we took some Photopass pictures on Main Street then headed to Fantasyland and rode Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh and Small World with no wait. At 8:00 we headed to the queue to meet Mr. & Mrs. Easter Bunny who were supposed to appear at 9:00. Not knowing what to expect, again I chose on the side of caution and got there early - we were the first in the queue. So we chatted with the people behind us and the time passed quickly. We had a 10:20 breakfast at Crystal Palace and afterward headed to use our FP for BTMMR. The 12:10? Easter Parade was scheduled to arrive soon so we stopped in Frontierland to watch it before heading over to BTMMR. I thought the parade was super cute (although short) and am so glad we got to see it. We had reservations for Tiana's Riverboat Party for the 3:00 parade so I knew I'd see it from that vantage point as well, but it was good to see the parade close up. After the Riverboat Party (which was fun by the way), we headed to French Quarter to be there for the special character greeting. We weren't disappointed when Mickey and Minnie showed up in their Easter best. It was unique to experience the characters at French Quarter!
We then headed to EPCOT for a late dinner at Chefs de France and then called it a day. Spending Easter at Disney World was a highlight for sure!
Another highlight of the trip for us was the Marceline to Magic Kingdom tour we took on Thursday morning. I highly recommend the tour and now can't wait to do the Keys to the Kingdom tour as well once my daughter turns 16 (not that I'm rushing time - she's already growing up so fast!)
In addition to sampling food at the Flower and Garden booths, we were able to experience the following restaurants/quick service during our trip:
- Artist Palette (Saratoga Springs)
- Yak & Yeti
- Be Our Guest (breakfast & lunch)
- Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian
- Crystal Palace
- Chefs de France
- California Grill (for Wishes)
- Tutto Italia
- Earl of Sandwich
- Amorette's Patisserie
- Riverside Mill (breakfast & supper)
- Skipper Canteen
- Via Napoli
- Sassagoula Floatworks (for beignets)
- Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno
Since I have totally digressed from the topic of this thread, which is POR - I will get back on track and say that we very much enjoyed our time there once again. Our room was beautiful and in great shape, beds were comfortable and housekeeping exceptional. We saw Bob 3 of the 4 times he was playing during our stay (he was on holiday for a portion of the week). We participated in 2 of the Movies Under the Stars which are always fun to take some time to relax and watch. We walked miles around the river over the course of our stay as it is our nightly tradition to get some quality mom/daughter time talking about things as we stroll along.
We enjoyed the turkey and veggies at Riverside Mill for dinner 3 nights and some magic cookie bars, apple blossoms and beignets might have also been consumed.
(another reason for the walks around the river!)
As I mentioned before, we had good bus luck on this trip, as it was the case for us that a bus was arriving as we were walking toward the bus depot. I will say it was the best transportation we've experienced at a resort so far. I know it's luck of the draw, and can happen the other way around - but we were fortunate.
I was worried at the onset of the trip that the crowds would be horrible, but I didn't really see much difference in crowds for Easter than when we go in summer. The cast members at POR were friendly and so nice as always.
We have another trip planned to POR or POFQ (still deciding, but can't go wrong with either one) for the beginning of June, otherwise I'd be even more depressed about our reentry into the 'real' world and getting up for work this morning. Until then, I'll drink out of my POR coffee mug each morning and relive the lovely memories of our recent trip to Riverside.