It's The Port Orleans FAQ Thread!!!

[Neoshoegal]

Are there any buildings that one wouldn't recommend? We'll be staying at this resort in May/June for 2 weeks. It's just the 2 of us, we have no kids and chose a standard room. We're not bothered about the busses as we'll have a car anyway. We like the look of both the mansions and the AB side, so would be happy to stay at either. However, if there are any buildings which most people would suggest to avoid, please do let me know!

 

[Mililani Mom]

subscribing

 

[handicap18]

We've been back a week now. We stayed from 11/26 to 12/3. Aligator Bayou Building 26 in rooms 2603 & 2604. They are connecting rooms and 2604 is a corner room. It was a medium walk to the food court and a shorter walk to the West Depot (once we figured out which path was the shortest). We really enjoyed staying there and would stay there again.

Food in the food court was decent. We were surprised how good the food at Boatwrights was (especially the prime rib!!) Our server gave DW cookies for desert because we couldn't get one for DS on the kids menu and she came back with 4 HUGE chocolate chip cookies.

Walking around the grounds was real nice. The boat ride to DTD was very cool. DS got himself a co-captain button for helping out the captain with the line (aka for landlubbers,,, rope).

It was a short bus ride to EPCOT & MGM even with stopping 2 more times at the North and East depots. MK was only a bit longer. Coming home from MK we went straight to Riverside. French Quarter had a seperate bus.

We had a room with a trundle bed, but didn't use it as DD was just a bit to small for it and instead got 2 cribs. Even with 2 cribs and 2 strollers in the room we had enough room to move around. When we stayed at AS Movies 2 years ago with 1 crib and 1 stroller we had very little room.

The cheerleaders started showing up on Fri, but it was Sat when they were real noticiable. Sun morning walking back to our room there were 2 of the cheerleader group leaders (it was obvious with their shirts) outside their room smoking a butt (in a non smoking area) and drinking a Corona (they barely looked to be 21 and I'm sure were setting a great example for the other girls. BTW, this was at 10:15am). Other than that and the chaos in the food court we didn't have any other issues with cheerleaders or football players for that matter around the parks.

All in all it was a great trip (outside of me having my camera fall about 2 feet onto the lobby floor and later in the week having that same lens fall apart on me). We were very sorry to have left, especially after having great weather all week and coming home to 20ºF weather and snow on the ground.

If anyone has questions that I can answer I certainly will.

Here are a few highlight pics. Still working on downloading more.

Tree in the lobby:

Decor in the gift shop:

Playground, kids liked playing there, but it is pretty open and that made it easy for our 2 youngest (ages 3 and 15 months) to each run indifferent directions. Very challenging when your there alone. :

 

[Rushdude]

We just returned from the POR on December 5. We really liked this resort and thought it was really beautiful.

We took the boat to Downtown Disney twice and had a nice enjoyable trip each time. The boat wasn't crowded and we never had to wait more then about 5 minutes for the boat.

We used the Disney bus system to go to the parks and never had to wait very long for a bus. We also noticed that there was multiple buses running and at times 2 buses were arriving at the bus stop at the same time for the same park. The busses were never crowded and we never had to stand.

The resort was clean and the cast members were very accomodating. The resort was decorated very nice for the holidays. We stayed in the Oak Manor building at was just a few steps away from the quiet pool and a short walk to the main pool and main building. We did alot of walking and had expected this. We would definetly stay at this resort again.

The only problem that we experienced and it really was not that bad, but next time we will avoid the Pop Warner event. We had a lot of the cheerleaders staying at our resort and some of them were very loud and disrespectful. Running through the lobby bumping into people. Screaming and being loud around the rooms. We even witnessed the parents sitting out by the quiet pool having a nice little party, while the girls ran rampant around the rooms, music blaring and just being wild and unsupervised. So next time we will go AFTER they leave.

All in all the resort was great and we had a wonderful time.

 

[Mrs. Bee]

In the unofficial guide...I was looking at the chart for travel times between POR and each theme park. It gives the average time and well as the worst case scenerio time. It says that the worst case scenerio is basically if you get to the stop just as a bus is pulling away and have to wait for another one.

I was wondering how accurate you guys have found this info.
Average time (worst case scenerio time) from POR to each park.

Magic Kingdom - 29 (39)
EPCOT - 30 (40)
MGM - 31 (41)
Animal Kingdom - 38 (50)

From your experiences...do those sound right?

 

[Dragonfly0521]

In the unofficial guide...I was looking at the chart for travel times between POR and each theme park. It gives the average time and well as the worst case scenerio time. It says that the worst case scenerio is basically if you get to the stop just as a bus is pulling away and have to wait for another one.

I was wondering how accurate you guys have found this info.
Average time (worst case scenerio time) from POR to each park.

Magic Kingdom - 29 (39)
EPCOT - 30 (40)
MGM - 31 (41)
Animal Kingdom - 38 (50)

From your experiences...do those sound right?

Those times, esp. Epcot seem pretty long... I think MK was about right, but I know Epcot was really fast from POR and MGM/Animal Kingdom were about 15-20 minutes. The only really bad days I have experienced travel delays was Marathon weekend when it was really hard to get to MK because of the runners routs. And that trip maybe took 40 minutes. But my memory may be cloaked in the Disney High Haze too

But I never found the bus rides to be too long.

Have fun... The Countdown is ON!!!!

 

[Mrs. Bee]

Thanks. I was hoping those would seem long...especially EPCOT because I noticed how close it is to the resort.

 

[handicap18]

In the unofficial guide...I was looking at the chart for travel times between POR and each theme park. It gives the average time and well as the worst case scenerio time. It says that the worst case scenerio is basically if you get to the stop just as a bus is pulling away and have to wait for another one.

I was wondering how accurate you guys have found this info.
Average time (worst case scenerio time) from POR to each park.

Magic Kingdom - 29 (39)
EPCOT - 30 (40)
MGM - 31 (41)
Animal Kingdom - 38 (50)

From your experiences...do those sound right?

I would say those are all high. Epcot and MGM from the West Depot (2nd stop) were about 20 minutes, maybe less. MK was about 20 minutes. AK was closer to 30 minutes. I told myself that I should time the distances, but never got around to it. I just remember that the ride to MK, MGM and EPCOT were short, especially compared to when we stayed at AS Movies the previous 3 trips. Overall I was very happy with our bus transportation for our entire week. Both going to and coming from the parks. We stayed from 11/26-12/3.

 

[sassyat30]

I'm sure this has been asked previously (but I don't want to go back through 104 pages! ) but do the POR rooms have microwaves/coffee makers? I know they have fridges, but DH and I were just discussing this morning whether there was a microwave or not?

Thanks!!

 

[BarleyJack]

I'm sure this has been asked previously (but I don't want to go back through 104 pages! ) but do the POR rooms have microwaves/coffee makers? I know they have fridges, but DH and I were just discussing this morning whether there was a microwave or not?

Thanks!!

We were interested in the same thing. I dont think they have microwaves, but I think there are coffee makers. My questions are:

What size coffee maker is there?
What kind of coffee does it take (ie. coffee pods or coffee and filters)?
If it takes filters, what kind of filters does it take?

We've been told that the coffee in the rooms is not that good and that it can be difficult to obtain.

Thanks.

 

[SGMCO]

I'm sure this has been asked previously (but I don't want to go back through 104 pages! ) but do the POR rooms have microwaves/coffee makers? I know they have fridges, but DH and I were just discussing this morning whether there was a microwave or not?

Thanks!!

The rooms do not have microwaves but guest can use a microwave which is
located in the Riverside Mill CS restaurant. There is a 4 Cup Coffee pot in each room.

 

[SGMCO]

We were interested in the same thing. I dont think they have microwaves, but I think there are coffee makers. My questions are:

What size coffee maker is there?
What kind of coffee does it take (ie. coffee pods or coffee and filters)?
If it takes filters, what kind of filters does it take?

We've been told that the coffee in the rooms is not that good and that it can be difficult to obtain.

Thanks.

The coffee pots were the 4 cup size.
They provide the prepacked round stuffed filter type coffee (I had to use 2 of the packs to make the coffee stronger-but still didn't taste very good).
I brought my own 4 cup filters with me this trip and my own pre-ground
french roast coffee. Ended up not bothering to make coffee in the morning and walked down to Riverside Mill and fill with the coffee there (added plenty of cream to make it taste good). I have read someone else suggest adding a
small amount of Hot Chocolate to your coffee as a creamer (I'm going to try that next time).

 

[Mrs. Bee]

So I know there are refillable mugs you can buy at the resort. With that mug, I can fill up with a beverage for free as many times as I want on my stay, correct? Can you fill it with anything...including hot beverages like coffee and hot chocolate?

I can only use it at the resort, right? Not in the parks?

 

[sassyat30]

The rooms do not have microwaves but guest can use a microwave which is
located in the Riverside Mill CS restaurant. There is a 4 Cup Coffee pot in each room.

Thanks!

 

[sassyat30]

So I know there are refillable mugs you can buy at the resort. With that mug, I can fill up with a beverage for free as many times as I want on my stay, correct? Can you fill it with anything...including hot beverages like coffee and hot chocolate?
I can only use it at the resort, right? Not in the parks?

Hmmm, I would be interested in knowing this, also.

But, I do know that the mugs can only be used at the resorts...at least, that's my understanding.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[Pixiedust34]

So I know there are refillable mugs you can buy at the resort. With that mug, I can fill up with a beverage for free as many times as I want on my stay, correct? Can you fill it with anything...including hot beverages like coffee and hot chocolate?

I can only use it at the resort, right? Not in the parks?

The mugs are good at the resort only. You can get soft drinks, Minute Maid Lemonade, Hi-C, coffee (Nescafe brand), tea, or hot chocolate. There is no milk for refillable mugs.

 

[TEminnie]

How much are the mugs?

 

[handicap18]

So I know there are refillable mugs you can buy at the resort. With that mug, I can fill up with a beverage for free as many times as I want on my stay, correct? Can you fill it with anything...including hot beverages like coffee and hot chocolate?

I can only use it at the resort, right? Not in the parks?

You can use them for any beverage at the beverage station at your hotel. There are 4 soda fountain's with Coke products, coffee, hot chocolate, tea. You could if you wanted make ice coffee or ice tea, but the mugs themselves might not be big enough, but thats up to personal preference.

I think the mugs were around $12. I don't recall exactly because when I got mine I bought some other stuff too.

You can bring your mug to a park, but can't refill it anywhere but at the water bubblers without paying.

I believe the beverage station closes down at 11pm at night and opens when the food court opens which I think was 6am.

 

[TEminnie]

Thx! Ok==so how far would it be to walk from the AB section to the nearest coffee/hot cocoa place?

 

[DisneyJo]

TE you can only fill the mugs at the food court so it really depends where abouts in AB you are, have you looked up a map? If not just google

Remember you can just send the kids to refill the mugs