Resort Thread Disney's PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE Resort

[>Ash<]

Riverside is my favoriate resort ever!

ive stayed at the Riverside on several occasions now, ive been in Magnolia Bend, Alligator Bayou and also a royal room (before the refurb sadly so it was just a nice mansion back then)

ive never had a bad experience at this resort, only positives. the food court is nice, i love the create your own pasta and the grab and go selection is pretty good.

the riveroost and yehaw bob ive spent many a enjoying hour in that bar.

the resort gift shop has a great selection of sundries and supplies for your rooms.

it has a very good arcade with a nice assortment of machines to play on.

this year im staying in FQ to see what its like over there.,

all in all i love Port Orleans vibe and plan to stay here many more times!

 

[CaperCris]

Hello! So excited for our very first trip to Disney and I managed to switch us from Pop preferred room to Port Orleans Riverside preferred room with free dining!! I have been stalking portorleans.org like a maniac for the past week, reading everything I can and looking at all of the amazing pictures! It looks like such a beautiful resort! I have to admit, the kids were a little bummed when I switched but even they now admit it looks awesome!! Can't wait to get there Sept 26!!

 

[fernfritters]

I will be arriving at POR in 7 days - 05/14, this is my question. I have printed up my letter of request for room location but cannot decide on what day to fax it on. Friday 05/08, or Monday 05/11. I do not have access to a fax machine on Saturday or Sunday.

Venomhatch recommends 5-7 days out, so I think you'd be fine doing it Friday. In fact, waiting to Monday gets you UNDER 5 days, so you'd probably be well advised to send it Friday.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/po...ench-quarter-room-request-fax-thread.3116216/

For what it's worth, on my last stay at POR last October, I faxed in my requests exactly 3 business days before check-in. I couldn't do 5 days because it fell on a Saturday, and I felt faxing any earlier would have been disadvantageous. When I arrived, I received amazing pixie dust and was upgraded from a standard room to garden view! The CMs hit it out of the ballpark and guaranteed a return stay from me (I'm going next month!).

 

[crmscotland]

2 months to go until we stay at POR for the first time, so looking forward to it. We are staying in a RR room - it was the Aladdin style carpet, Genie's lamp taps in the bathroom & fireworks headboards that did it for me, think l'm more excited than the kids, lol.

POR Riverside looks a really beautiful, relaxing resort. This thread & the POR Riverside Unofficial Guide have provided me with lots of useful information. Thankyou.

I was wondering with the construction currently going on at Downtown Disney are the car parks at POR Riverside busy with offsite/other resort guests parking at POR & taking the boat to DD? Basically as onsite guests will we have difficulty getting a parking space when we return to the resort in the evening having taken our car to the parks or to other resorts for dining?

At busy times of the year do you usually manage to get on the first boat that arrives for going to DD or are you likely to have to wait for the next one?

How is the bus situation at POR Riverside at busy times (eg July) for getting to the parks would you recommend bus or car? If staying in a RR room which would be the best bus stop to use?
TIA

 

[Sue M]

2 months to go until we stay at POR for the first time, so looking forward to it. We are staying in a RR room - it was the Aladdin style carpet, Genie's lamp taps in the bathroom & fireworks headboards that did it for me, think l'm more excited than the kids, lol.

POR Riverside looks a really beautiful, relaxing resort. This thread & the POR Riverside Unofficial Guide have provided me with lots of useful information. Thankyou.

I was wondering with the construction currently going on at Downtown Disney are the car parks at POR Riverside busy with offsite/other resort guests parking at POR & taking the boat to DD? Basically as onsite guests will we have difficulty getting a parking space when we return to the resort in the evening having taken our car to the parks or to other resorts for dining?

At busy times of the year do you usually manage to get on the first boat that arrives for going to DD or are you likely to have to wait for the next one?

How is the bus situation at POR Riverside at busy times (eg July) for getting to the parks would you recommend bus or car? If staying in a RR room which would be the best bus stop to use?

We were there in January in Oak Manor and the lots behind the building had lots of room. If there are people parking there to get to dtd, they'd prob be using the front lot to park in in front of the Main Building.

I've occas had to wait for the next boat to DTD around dinner time. Guess lots of people go for dinner there.

We always use the bus, on vacation I'd rather not rent a car and drive to the parks. I think the busses run very well at por. We use the bus stop across the parking lot behind Oak Manor and Nagnolia Terrace. But if you have a car, the only park I wouldn't drive to is MK. You have to park at TTC then take a parking lot shuttle to either the monorail or boat to MK. Por bus goes directly to MK.

 

[keahgirl8]

Yes we do.

My recommendations are based on the personal suggestions of the Room Inventory Manager who heads up the room assignment team at Port Orleans, but please feel free to use whatever timescale you like. As I've often pointed out, this isn't an exact science, and they don't have dragons poised to incinerate any faxes which arrive outside of a tightly-regulated timeframe prescribed by us nerds on the internet.

Speaking of which, has anyone heard anything from Venomhatch lately? His last post was on 17 Feb, and he hasn't even been online on the DIS for two months now. I know he was staying at POR last month (4 April), and I thought we might have heard from him about his visit, hope he's okay.

Andre

I haven't seen him around either! I hope he is okay, too.

 

[crmscotland]

We were there in January in Oak Manor and the lots behind the building had lots of room. If there are people parking there to get to dtd, they'd prob be using the front lot to park in in front of the Main Building.

I've occas had to wait for the next boat to DTD around dinner time. Guess lots of people go for dinner there.

We always use the bus, on vacation I'd rather not rent a car and drive to the parks. I think the busses run very well at por. We use the bus stop across the parking lot behind Oak Manor and Nagnolia Terrace. But if you have a car, the only park I wouldn't drive to is MK. You have to park at TTC then take a parking lot shuttle to either the monorail or boat to MK. Por bus goes directly to MK.

Sue, thanks for your reply, it was really helpful. We are onsite at POR for 6 nights/7 days as part of our 3 week vacation in Florida, during which we will spend some days over at St Pete Beach on the Gulf Coast & are staying in an offsite villa after POR, so we will have a hire car for the whole 3 weeks. We hope to take the bus to the parks as much as possible - definitely for MK, but hopefully the car will be useful for getting to early breakfast ADRs at resorts - we have 2 of those booked.
Thanks again. :

 

[Sue M]

Sue, thanks for your reply, it was really helpful. We are onsite at POR for 6 nights/7 days as part of our 3 week vacation in Florida, during which we will spend some days over at St Pete Beach on the Gulf Coast & are staying in an offsite villa after POR, so we will have a hire car for the whole 3 weeks. We hope to take the bus to the parks as much as possible - definitely for MK, but hopefully the car will be useful for getting to early breakfast ADRs at resorts - we have 2 of those booked.
Thanks again. :

Love St Pete Beach! Haven't been there in awhile. We've stayed at Sirata Beach Resort. Pick up some pool noodles for floating around the Gulf!!

 

[crmscotland]

Love St Pete Beach! Haven't been there in awhile. We've stayed at Sirata Beach Resort. Pick up some pool noodles for floating around the Gulf!!

It's a small world after all, lol - the Sirata is where we are staying, we also stayed there during our last trip to the U.S. in 2010, really liked it. This time our suite has a Gulf view. Love the sunsets.

 

[andrewilley]

I was wondering with the construction currently going on at Downtown Disney are the car parks at POR Riverside busy with offsite/other resort guests parking at POR & taking the boat to DD? Basically as onsite guests will we have difficulty getting a parking space when we return to the resort in the evening having taken our car to the parks or to other resorts for dining?

At busy times of the year do you usually manage to get on the first boat that arrives for going to DD or are you likely to have to wait for the next one?

How is the bus situation at POR Riverside at busy times (eg July) for getting to the parks would you recommend bus or car? If staying in a RR room which would be the best bus stop to use?

Yes, I do think some people are using the Sassagoula resorts for DTD parking, but POR has ample parking and there is never an issue with congestion there. I have never seen the parking lots anywhere near full. If it ever got to that point, Disney would start getting much stricter in checking for resort IDs, so don't let it worry you.

You may find that as you get to mid-afternoon the ferry queues can get a bit longer, but the boats run every 10 minutes after 4pm so the line moves fairly quickly. It's perhaps not all that uncommon to miss out on the first boat that comes, but pretty rare to be unable to catch two in a row.

For bus route info, see www.portorleans.org/buses.php.

Andre

 

[crmscotland]

Are there wait time screens at any of the POR Riverside bus stops?
TIA

 

[cluno]

When we were there in April the screens were at the South Depot only.

(Edited for clarity)

 

[Jen1103]

When we were there last June, there were wait time screens at both of the south depot stops.

 

[Goofy1717]

What is the best building to stay in for catching busses? I guess what i am asking is where do the busses stop first to ensure a seat?

 

[916chipndale]

We have a River View room booked right now, since there were no more garden view rooms available with the summer discount. Looks like most of the river view rooms are in Magnolia Bend. We would rather have an Alligator Bayou room and it looks like Building 38 is the only building with river view rooms. I also noticed that Building 27 has river view rooms but it is a preferred building. So I am guessing that to get building 27 you would have to book preferred right? Just wondering cause when I looked at the floor plan on the portorleans website it listed most of the rooms as preferred, but the rooms looking towards the river as river view. Sorry if the wording is confusing. Basically what I am asking is, if you book river view is it possible to get building 27?

 

[andrewilley]

When we were there last June, there were wait time screens at both of the south depot stops.

When I was there in August there was only one TV screen at the South Depot, located at the end of the 'A' covered waiting area (the one nearest the main building).

What is the best building to stay in for catching busses? I guess what i am asking is where do the busses stop first to ensure a seat?

There is no simple answer to that. There are four stops around Riverside, and the bus routes vary by park (and sometimes they will also pick up from French Quarter first). Generally speaking, the South Depot is usually the first pickup for most services except the Magic Kingdom (where it is the last) but even that can vary. See www.portorleans.org/buses.php for lots more discussion on the subject.

I also noticed that Building 27 has river view rooms but it is a preferred building. So I am guessing that to get building 27 you would have to book preferred right? Just wondering cause when I looked at the floor plan on the portorleans website it listed most of the rooms as preferred, but the rooms looking towards the river as river view?

The river view rooms in buildings 14 and 27 come under the River View category, you do not need to book Preferred to get them (in fact, if you book Preferred you won't get them unless you get upgraded). Thus there are actually a lot more River View rooms in the Alligator Bayou section than there are in the mansions (45 AB vs. 27 mansions).

Andre

 

[916chipndale]

The river view rooms in buildings 14 and 27 come under the River View category, you do not need to book Preferred to get them (in fact, if you book Preferred you won't get them unless you get upgraded). Thus there are actually a lot more River View rooms in the Alligator Bayou section than there are in the mansions (45 AB vs. 27 mansions).

Andre

Thanks for the answer! My original thought was that the river view rooms would override the preferred rooms but just wasnt that sure.

 

[Tod&CopperFan]

Woohoo!! I am sooo excited!! I was just able to switch our Sept stay from pool view room at POP with free dining to POR garden view room with free dining!!! I've sooo wanted to try POR and looks like now we get to. I'm so happy to be joining this thread.

 

[schoolinmy3]

We have stayed in the regular rooms in the mansion section a few times and love it. Last January we tried RR and loved those too. Super cute. I've satisfied my curiosity, lol, so next visit I'll prob go back to regular room.
I did enjoy the RR, but if it's going to make it tight on your budget, I'd suggest booking a garden view in the mansion section. ️POR is a magical resort, so beautiful and peaceful. And it has extra things like a boat to dtd, evening entertainment, and horse & carriage rides. I've never taken a carriage ride but it adds to the resort ambience and I love seeing them go by.

I wanted to thank everyone who has posted observations on this thread! We are looking forward to our first POR stay at Disney. Since we're meeting up with friends of ours who have a room in the FQ we wanted to be able to walk easily to the sister resort in the mornings to start our Disney days together. Then last night we decided the RR would be just the ticket! Since the Royal Rooms are in the buildings with the closest location to the walkway over to French Quarter I think the room will work just fine! It will be my daughter and myself in the room (she will be 16) and we are thrilled to be vacationing together at Disney again. She's an early high school graduate and life has been so hectic with two dance recitals this month, finals at the community college, her volunteer work, and my work schedule that come September we'll be ready to take a well deserved vacation!

 

[schoolinmy3]

As you may have noticed, Disney has today released their Free Disney Dining Plan offer to encourage bookings for the slower Autumn/Fall season, valid for visits commencing on selected dates between 28 August 2015 and 21 December 2015. However, once again, the deals available for guests planning to stay at Port Orleans are very limited.

Port Orleans French Quarter has been completely excluded from the offer again this year, while Riverside has a few rooms available for the first month only, from 28 August to 2 October. I'm guessing that those will probably sell out fairly quickly though, so get your bookings in quickly if you don't want to miss out. Note: you will need to book a non-discounted stay of at least three nights, with a minimum of two days worth of park tickets, in order to receive the standard Dining Plan for everyone in your party for the entire length of your stay.

It's well worth checking to see what other deals are available on the dates you plan to travel, as unless you are a group of 3+ people staying in one room, and are big eaters in the first place, it can sometimes work out cheaper to get a better room-only discount and then pay for food as you go. 'Free' dining isn't always quite the deal it first seems once you crunch the numbers.

Andre

My friends were trying to book Riverside for us when the Free Dining was announced and couldn't get through on the phones (they will be in French Quarter). Then when they did they only could get us into CBR. However, over the weekend they tried again and this time we were successful! Although it is just my daughter and I we love the Free Dining and prefer either the Free Dining when available or adding the Dining Plan rather than paying as we go. When it comes to Disney I prefer not to crunch the numbers LOL.