Resort Thread Disney's PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE Resort

[4under4]

Anyone know if the connecting room doors are metal? I'm thinking about making some welcome magnets for my family.

 

[Abbey1]

Hi, I'm for a trip March 2016. After reading about the long wait times for buses, I am wondering if it would be a better idea to rent a car to drive to the parks each day? Also, I am currently debating between Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter. Riverside appeals to me more because I really like the theming of the royal guest rooms, but I see on Tripadvisor that the French Quarter has higher rated reviews. Just wondering if anyone has stayed at both and has any insight as to why they prefer one over the other. Thanks.

 

[andrewilley]

I didn't think roll-always were allowed anymore, but I want to hear from someone who is more experienced/informed than me.

Secondly, if she requests Magnolia Bend for all of us, and we have to be in Alligator Bayou (being a family of 5), will they relocate the whole party to AB (or will they just move us)?

You are correct that they don't have any roll-away beds available for guest requests any more, parties of five need to be assigned to an AB room. They did hold back a very few roll-away beds when the switchover first happened, in case they had urgent internal room allocation issues, but I'm not sure even those are still around now.

You can put in a request of course, and how you phrase your priorities in that request would influence how they handle the situation of two differing needs within the same party. There is no guarantee you will be located together of course, although they do try their best not to split groups that have requested to be together. (And, do you want to be located next to your mother in law? )

Andre

 

[andrewilley]

Hi, I'm for a trip March 2016. After reading about the long wait times for buses, I am wondering if it would be a better idea to rent a car to drive to the parks each day? Also, I am currently debating between Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter.

Personally I prefer Riverside due to the more varied theming, more to explore, better amenities, more pools, etc. However on the other side FQ is smaller and easier for walking distances. See http://www.portorleans.org/faqs.php#Choice for more thoughts on this.

As for buses, well we always have a car available (as we take trips outside of Disney) but when we're visiting the Disney parks we will more often use the Disney buses (and always for MK visits). I mostly tend to drive for Animal Kingdom, and always drive when visiting any of the other Disney resorts for meals/etc. We've not experienced any real horror stories with the buses in 20 years of staying there, the closest to a problem being when leaving the parks straight after fireworks shows (when every other sheep is trying to do the same thing; I prefer to wait in the park a bit and let the crowds dissipate). http://www.portorleans.org/buses.php.

Andre

 

[Abbey1]

Thanks for all the info! Those links answered a lot of my questions. I'm definitely leaning toward Riverside, it seems to have a little more charm and amenities.

 

[Nermel9]

Hi everyone,

I'll be staying at POR in a few weeks, in a standard view room, not a royal room or anything fancy like that. We're doing a split stay, spending the first half of our trip at the Wilderness Lodge, then moving over to POR. I did online check in for the WL, and chose the highest floor as my room request. I then went to check in online for POR and it gave me the same options for room requests that the WL had, and it had highest floor already checked off...and it wouldn't let me uncheck it. Is it supposed to be exactly the same as the WL options, or is my account messed up? I mean, the WL has what, 6 floors, and you could request any floor, and POR has 3 at the most? I wanted to request the mansions section but that's not on there as an option, should I just call?

Thanks in advance!

 

[MomForFrozenAddicts]

I just realized I posted this before in the FQ thread by accident.

Does anybody have recent allergy experiences with the POR food court? I ask because I did contact special diets and they sent me the standard website for my son's allergens and most resorts have dozens of items. POR has exactly burger and hot dog buns. No tenders, no pancake mix, no cake mixes, no noodles, no grab and go type items. If you look at the egg/dairy/peanut list POR is not even on the list because they ordered NOTHING. Basically if any of their meats or veggies have been prepared with anything they are likely to be unsafe, so he could easily be left with no options. So I have now emailed them twice with the specific question of whether they normally stock any of the items that are standard at other disney resorts and they answer about how the list is just the last order but they did not directly address the question. I know they don't want to be responsible, but a heads up about whether I need to take action is all I am asking for. I'm a little worried I am going to show up with my son to find out we need to travel away from our resort to get breakfast every day. There are zero in park counter services that can give him a breakfast he is not allergic to so I don't want to have to get up every morning and resort hop to eat or throw in a last minute breakfast ADR for every single day of our trip. He is allergic to wheat, soy, egg, dairy, peanut, some treenuts, shellfish, sesame and buckwheat- which really takes a lot of the standard options off the table if any of it is pre-made and means the substitute items often are his only breakfast items.

My younger daughter has similar allergies, everything but buckwheat. When we were at POR last summer, I gave her cereal for breakfast. Breakfast is pretty insane at all
Disney resorts, so I never bother to ask for a chef. For lunch, we ordered pasta from the station. The chef was great in handling her food. Even the cookware was clean separately. We waited an extra 10 mins or so, but well worth.

 

[mh1973]

We have a garden view reserved for next Thursday,,which building should we request to be close to everything?

 

[Gorechick]

We have a garden view reserved for next Thursday,,which building should we request to be close to everything?

What is the preference- Mansions or Alligator Bayou?

 

[mh1973]

What is the preference- Mansions or Alligator Bayou?

I don't know...AB rooms have the log beds right? Which building is best in each?

 

[Gorechick]

I'm more familiar with the mansions. If you are not in a Royal Room, then Magnolia Terrace would probably be closest to the bridge that connects to the main resort buildings.

 

[dansdad]

I don't know...AB rooms have the log beds right? Which building is best in each?

That's a tough one to answer for somebody else. Almost like asking which is the best flavor of Ice Cream?

 

[andrewilley]

We have a garden view reserved for next Thursday,,which building should we request to be close to everything?

Depends on what you mean by "everything" I guess. If you narrow it down a bit (e.g. close to food court, swimming pool, bus stop, ferry dock, etc) then that's what would be best for you to put in your request - i.e. not a building number per se, but a request for what you want from your room.

Andre

 

[mistysue]

My younger daughter has similar allergies, everything but buckwheat. When we were at POR last summer, I gave her cereal for breakfast. Breakfast is pretty insane at all
Disney resorts, so I never bother to ask for a chef. For lunch, we ordered pasta from the station. The chef was great in handling her food. Even the cookware was clean separately. We waited an extra 10 mins or so, but well worth.

Thank you, it's always reassuring to read somebody have a good experience. We've "solved" breakfast in the past by having my husband or I go order for DS while the other trails a few minutes behind with the kids. Then by the time we all order and sit down the special order is ready too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this works for us this year too. (mostly concerned the kids will be crazy some mornings)

 

[andrewilley]

(mostly concerned the kids will be crazy some mornings)

Only some mornings?

Andre

 

[disneyjr77]

We booked a preferred room and are requesting building 14. Is that a good building? How's the walk to the main pool and the food court? Is there a better preferred building to request?

 

[dansdad]

We booked a preferred room and are requesting building 14. Is that a good building? How's the walk to the main pool and the food court? Is there a better preferred building to request?

Building 14 is just about as close as you can get to the food court and main pool. As far as a better building, that depends on what you consider best. That's hard to answer for someone else.

 

[disneyjr77]

Building 14 is just about as close as you can get to the food court and main pool. As far as a better building, that depends on what you consider best. That's hard to answer for someone else.

Yay! I'll stick with building 14...for me best is the closest to the main pool and food court

 

[mh1973]

Is 14 preferred? I got a Garden view, not preferred

 

[EpcotBill]

Is 14 preferred? I got a Garden view, not preferred

Yes.