Resort Thread Disney's PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE Resort

[Sue M]

And the disease is spreading... yet more intrusive vandalism on the other side of the island (by building 38), before and after:

View attachment 150636

Could they not have at least just mounted the new fugly handrails onto the existing wooden structure without requiring the scaffolding poles too? All the time, effort and craft that the designers lavished on creating a beautifully themed 'stone' and wood bridge, with the gorgeous wrought-iron lampposts and the cute horse-head bollard, and then someone comes along and thoughtlessly plonks anachronistic brown metal poles in front of it, instead of thinking of a more aesthetically pleasing, integrated solution.

I'm sorry, but Disney are better than this. Or at least they can be.

Andre

This is hideous :-(. I can't see any purpose to adding a few feet of hand rail.

 

[Sue M]

I know what you mean!

The thing that's worrying me a bit is the perimeter fencing that they are going to be installing. I really do hope that they will be putting in something beautifully themed and in keeping with the whole Ol' Man Island concept and backstory (hewn wooden posts and spliced rope fencing like the marina dockside would be perfect, or at least wooden post and rail fencing like on the bridges).

However recent experience tends to make me think they are more likely to just use cheap and tacky modern metal poles or wire mesh like they did in the parking lot a few years ago, or the island-side approach to the main bridge last year:

View attachment 149204

I know most people probably won't even notice, but IMHO good theming is all about the little details - get those right and the big picture works, but get them wrong and gradually you start to lose the concept you are trying to portray.

Andre

Ugh. So ugly. Sticks out like a sore thumb. How can they do this to POR? When I think of all the beautiful pics of the bridges people like KC Mike & others posted, makes me sad. They aren't exactly photogenic anymore. Why are they being so disrespectful to the theming? Awful.

 

[andrewilley]

One of my bosses just got back from POR & when I asked him where he stayed he said in one of the mansion rooms with the scaffolding all up & the pool closed by it.

No, he would not have been staying in one of the rooms underneath the roofing construction work, those rooms have been taken out of service while work is ongoing. However there are five 'zones' to each of the mansion buildings (a central block and four side-wings) and work is being undertaken one section at a time. They obviously can't close an entire 256-room building because work is occurring in one part of it, but of course some scaffolding/etc will still be visible. Construction is currently on the central block, which does cause a few access issues as they need to keep the central elevators open.

Also, the swimming pool by his room would not have been closed. All five quiet pools are open as normal, including the one between Magnolia Terrace and Acadian House. The pool that is closed in the separate one over on Ol' Man Island, and if that access bridge was also shut during his stay then access to the main buildings is via a much more inconvenient walk along the riverbank pathway and/or a different bridge.

However I'm entirely with you that I would have just asked to be moved to a different area if I wasn't happy - it's pointless to come home and complain about something that you didn't think was worth mentioning at the time.

Andre

 

[Casens-mom]

Good morning,

I would like some advice on room request, please.

We have booked a pool view room (due to what was available using my pin code) for April 3-9 and this will be our 1st time @ POR. We have 5 people (3 adults & 2 children ages 3 &7) one adult being my 73 year old grandmother. It is very important to me,since we will have a 3 yr old needing a stroller on park days & my grandmother, that we have a room close to the buses & the food court. What should I put in my room request to help make our trip a little easier?

note* we do plan to take things slow & enjoy the resort so we will not be visiting a park everyday

 

[dansdad]

Good morning,

I would like some advice on room request, please.

We have booked a pool view room (due to what was available using my pin code) for April 3-9 and this will be our 1st time @ POR. We have 5 people (3 adults & 2 children ages 3 &7) one adult being my 73 year old grandmother. It is very important to me,since we will have a 3 yr old needing a stroller on park days & my grandmother, that we have a room close to the buses & the food court. What should I put in my room request to help make our trip a little easier?

I would request "close to buses and food court".

 

[Ensusieasm]

Ugh. So ugly. Sticks out like a sore thumb. How can they do this to POR? When I think of all the beautiful pics of the bridges people like KC Mike & others posted, makes me sad. They aren't exactly photogenic anymore. Why are they being so disrespectful to the theming? Awful.

In a nutshell? Lawyers and insurance companies. Thank goodness at least for the brown paint.

 

[Ensusieasm]

note* we do plan to take things slow & enjoy the resort so we will not be visiting a park everyday

You have picked the perfect resort for your touring style!
You might want to make sure the feature pool renovations will be completed by your reservation dates.

 

[Kirby]

What dansdad said plus first floor or near an elevator depending on how well your grandmother can handle stairs.

 

[HopperFan]

Good morning,

I would like some advice on room request, please.

We have booked a pool view room (due to what was available using my pin code) for April 3-9 and this will be our 1st time @ POR. We have 5 people (3 adults & 2 children ages 3 &7) one adult being my 73 year old grandmother. It is very important to me,since we will have a 3 yr old needing a stroller on park days & my grandmother, that we have a room close to the buses & the food court. What should I put in my room request to help make our trip a little easier?

note* we do plan to take things slow & enjoy the resort so we will not be visiting a park everyday

What dansdad said plus first floor or near an elevator depending on how well your grandmother can handle stairs.

- Party of 5 means you will be in Alligator Bayou and there are no elevators in those buildings.
- If first floor is important then I would make that a request.
- Last I saw the online requests were only for Floors or corner room, nothing else so I would call to add specifics.
- Alligator Bayou is going to have about 1/2 of the buildings truly close to food court and most are preferred.
- We have had an AB Pool View in Bldg 16. Loved the location in proximity to all but removed enough from Food Court to avoid the noise.

 

[Limes96]

We had a pool view room for 5 in January. We requested building 18 or nearby, first floor, and that is what we received. Relatively speaking, it is about as close to the food court as you can get with a pool view room. Of course, January is a slow season, especially considering the main pool was in refurb, so ymmv.

ETA: make sure to add the medical reason in your request. I think that helps! We had one too as my mother is diabetic and recently had foot surgery.

 

[UpstateMick]

Hello.

We have a River View room reserved for April 20th through 30th, so we make our room requests next Friday...60 days out. My daughter wants to stay in Alligator Bayou (there are three of us) and I plan on requesting an Alligator Bayou room, but since we have already paid for a river room reserved view, do I have to note that on my room request, or is that an automatic since we already have it as part of our original paid reservation? Thanks for any help.

 

[dwight16]

What is the best way to get to SSR for a 9am spa treatment I figured a boat to springs then walk but they don't start running until 10am. Please help!!!!

 

[andrewilley]

We have a River View room reserved for April 20th through 30th, so we make our room requests next Friday...60 days out. My daughter wants to stay in Alligator Bayou (there are three of us) and I plan on requesting an Alligator Bayou room, but since we have already paid for a river room reserved view, do I have to note that on my room request, or is that an automatic since we already have it as part of our original paid reservation? Thanks for any help.

You can make requests as early as you like (by phone), there's no need to wait for 60 days. At 60 days though you can do online checkin, which does give you a couple of tickboxes for requests, but nothing especially useful (basically just requests for specific floors or a corner room). You are correct that you don't need to request River View if that's what you've already paid for, so just request Alligator Bayou. All of the AB River View rooms are in pretty good locations, but it wouldn't hurt to ask for "an Alligator Bayou room, and fairly close to the main buildings if possible". See www.portorleans.org/room-requests.php for more info on making requests if you want to follow it up with a fax 3-5 days out.

What is the best way to get to SSR for a 9am spa treatment I figured a boat to springs then walk but they don't start running until 10am. Please help!!!!

You could try getting an early bus to Disney Springs and then walk back to SSR (it's a relatively short walk from where the buses drop off, about 10 mins) but to be honest the $10 or so that a taxi would cost you would make things a whole lot easier and more relaxing all round, and that's nothing against the cost of a Disney spa treatment.

Andre

 

[mom4fun]

My family of 3 have riverside booked in a royal room. My daughter and her husband said they possibly would like to came with us but our room only holds 4. There is no 5 person rooms left online. Has anyone had any luck calling and there being availability? Do people ever cancel right before 30 days?

 

[andrewilley]

My family of 3 have riverside booked in a royal room. My daughter and her husband said they possibly would like to came with us but our room only holds 4. There is no 5 person rooms left online. Has anyone had any luck calling and there being availability? Do people ever cancel right before 30 days?

There are no Royal Rooms that sleep five, only the regular (Alligator Bayou section) rooms have the extra fold-down bed. So you'd need to change your booking type if you want to have five in the room.

Andre

 

[Simply Sue]

We will be heading to POR next Saturday for the week. Can't wait. We've booked a king room. I requested to be located as close to the lobby as possible. I have had a hard time finding info on king rooms and how they are allocated. Thing is, while we'd really like the king room we would be OK with a twin queen room if it meant be located closer to the main buildings as opposed to way across the property. On the other hand we're willing to pay to upgrade if that's possible for a king room to assure not being placed far away. Are there different levels within the king room category or are they all treated the same?

I'm putting together my request to fax to them and would appreciate any help or recommendations. Thanks!

 

[Wood Nymph]

We will be heading to POR next Saturday for the week. Can't wait. We've booked a king room. I requested to be located as close to the lobby as possible. I have had a hard time finding info on king rooms and how they are allocated. Thing is, while we'd really like the king room we would be OK with a twin queen room if it meant be located closer to the main buildings as opposed to way across the property. On the other hand we're willing to pay to upgrade if that's possible for a king room to assure not being placed far away. Are there different levels within the king room category or are they all treated the same?

I'm putting together my request to fax to them and would appreciate any help or recommendations. Thanks!

We stayed in a king room last August and really liked it. We requested Alligator Bayou, a corner room and close to the lobby. We got our first two choices but not close the lobby. We got building 25, which wasn't too bad at all.

If you go to this website you can click on each of the buildings in the map and it will show you where the king rooms are located.

http://www.portorleans.org/riverside-info.php

You'll see that the king rooms are scattered throughout the resort, except for Royal rooms. It seems like there are a lot of corner king rooms, which is nice.

The only way to assure that you are close to the lobby is to choose a preferred room.

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

Oh no! They have went too far this time!!!

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

We stayed in a king room last August and really liked it. We requested Alligator Bayou, a corner room and close to lobby. We got our first two choices but not close the lobby. We got building 25, which wasn't too bad at all.

If you go to this website you can click on each of the buildings in the map and it will show you where the king rooms are located.

http://www.portorleans.org/riverside-info.php

You'll see that the king rooms are scattered throughout the resort, except for Royal rooms. It seems like there are a lot of corner king rooms, which is nice.

The only way to assure that you are close to the lobby is to choose a preferred room.

Yeah see that's what makes me nervous about putting several requests. I put in close to the main building and first floor but I was thinking taking out the first floor part. I'd rather be close and on the second floor. Just wondering, how high is the flights of stairs in the AB buildings? Is it about the same hight as the floors in the values?

 

[Marlyn]

Another room request question here:

We are booked in a preffered room. My TA put request for building 14 on initial reservation. When I do online check in I can choose top floor and corner room right? How many corner rooms are there? Will I possibly end up on ground floor if I put corner room? I would give up corner for top floor...but would be lovely to have both.