Just back from POR - excellent!

[Miss Mickey Mania]

I stayed at POR from July 7th-18th, on a solo trip. Everything was wonderful. The room was immaculate and looked brand new. CM's were friendly, and the surroundings are beautiful.

For your information, I stayed in Alligator Bayou building 38. I had a trundle bed in the room which seemed like a real waste of a 5 person room, since ther was only me in it . This building was about a 5 minute walk from the lobby/food court, if you walk at a fairly quick pace. There are closer buildings but it was fine for me.

My requests were for a no smoking room (got it), on an upper floor (didn't get that), in a building near the lobby (wouldn't say mine was the closest but I really liked the walk, it was lovely)

I know lots of UK visitors stay offsite but if I can help anyone out with any onsite info, I'll try my best. As I was solo and with no car, I used Magical Express (no problems) and didn't go offsite at all.

I'm not writing a report but if anyone has any questions I will try my best to help out if I can.

Louise

 

[Frances999]

Welcome Home! I'm gald you had a great trip How was the Disney transportation from POR?

 

[Miss Mickey Mania]

Thanks! I just answered this question on the resort page but I'll copy my response here too for you .



Hmm the bus service wasn't too bad. I usually waited a maximum of 10 minutes for a bus, often less. They did tend to be quite busy though and I had to stand a few times, although not as often as I expected. Only once did I have a nightmare wait at the resort - 35 minutes for the MGM bus and then I gave up as the rain started.

The times to get to the parks were pretty good I thought. It actually seemed to take longest to get to DD which seemed odd. I think it was because those buses go in a reverse pattern, where they usually start at East Depot, then right round the resort, and then to FQ. This is opposite to the other buses. They also went via one of the water parks (either BB of TL I can't recall which) and that always slowed things down a lot.

The longest wait for buses was always at DD West Side, a few times I was there 25 minutes and then we were crammed in like sardines. I'd have got the boat back but I was at the wrong end of the strip and couldn't be bothered walking to the boat dock lol.

I would recommend the DD boat though when possible. Takes about 20 minutes and is very quiet and relaxing. Your boat captain will often give interesting little Disney trivia bits too.

 

[natalielongstaff]

welcome back sounds like you had a good trip.....how did you get on with magical express ??

 

[Goofyish]

Welcome back

Glad you liked POR - it's my favoutire resort

 

[Miss Mickey Mania]

welcome back sounds like you had a good trip.....how did you get on with magical express ??

DME was great for me. I somehow managed to be one of the first through immigration and customs which really saved time. Then I found a CM with the big white gloves who directed me to the ME counter. I was on a bus within 10 minutes of that. Waited about 15 minutes in the bus for other people then went to WDW. We dropped off at OKW and POFQ first.

I arrived at the airport at 3.15pm and was in my room by 4.40pm. I had no wait at check in either which helped. I'm not sure when my luggage arrived but I was out at dinner from 7pm - 8pm and it was waiting in my room when I got back.

I had luggage tags so I think that speeded up the process.

The journey back was fine too. I was picked up very early for the airport as they take into account that international check-ins are supposed to be early. As it was, I got to the BA counter and was checked in within 5 minutes due to no queue again! I had 3 hours before my flight so I went for somthing to eat.

I would use DME again but I'd hope to have luggage tags again as I'd be a worried without them.

 

[Miffy2003]

Louise - sounds like you had a great trip.

Welcome home!


Thanks for posting the info about DME as I was about to ask the very same question

How busy were the parks?

 

[FLORIDA DREAMING]

Hi Louise

Glad you had a good time in POR as we are going in October next year. Just wondering if you could give me some advice about building locations. On looking at the map, I fancy requesting either building 25 or 26 (it has to be non-smoking). Could you tell me how much of a walk it would be to get to the food court, bus stop and nearest quiet pool from there.

Thanks alot


Catherine

 

[squitty]

Welcome Home

We liked POR...we stayed in the Mansions. Very nice resort.

 

[Miss Mickey Mania]

Hi Louise

Glad you had a good time in POR as we are going in October next year. Just wondering if you could give me some advice about building locations. On looking at the map, I fancy requesting either building 25 or 26 (it has to be non-smoking). Could you tell me how much of a walk it would be to get to the food court, bus stop and nearest quiet pool from there.

Thanks alot


Catherine

Hi Catherine,
I'd say you'd be looking at a good 5 minute walk from those buildings to the food court. It's a nice walk round the river though and really doesn't seem that long. It just depends if you mind it. I didn't, in fact I enjoyed it. You'd be looking at a 2 minute walk to the West Depot bus stop, that is an educated guess. The west stop is usually the 3rd stop of 5 after POFQ and South Depot. The quiet pools are very close by all buildings, they are well located. Building 25 is the closer of the two.

I don't know how many buildings are no smoking. I think most of them are. I know mine certainly seemed to be as it wasn't an issue at all.

 

[natalielongstaff]

thanks for the info on ME

 

[FLORIDA DREAMING]

Thanks for the info Louise. I don't mind a walk to the main buildings - like yourself, I'll quite enjoy it. Just wondering though if the buses are full by the time they get to the West Depost bus stop, or if we'd be better walking to the main bus stop?? We're going in October, so it should be a quieter time of year anyway.

 

[Goofyish]

We have always stayed in building 14, which is the closest to the food court and main building.
It's also the closest to the main bus deepo. We did find on a few occations the the bus was standing room only by the time it got round to the last bus stop on the loop!

 

[edinburghlass]

We used Magical Express with no tags and found no problems. As I had no watch I'm not sure of the timings and despite several phone calls with flight times etc Disney didn't have us on their lists but nothing was a problem to the CM's manning the desks. As I had no tags on the luggage they handed me a card with luggage pictures on it and was asked to point out which ones our cases were similar to.

We were directed to the buses and from memory we were the first to be dropped off at POP, in fact I can't now remember if there were other people left on the bus!

I had packed pjs in the carry on luggage as we were arriving in the evening and in fact had gone to bed when they tried to deliver our luggage and I was too tired to even open my eyes to see what time it was and so they took it away and delivered it in the morning once I phoned to ask for it.

On the return journey POP was obviously the last pick up as we went straight to the airport. The driver had sorted the luggage into airlines and stopped first to offload United and South Western (?) and then took us round to the American Airline desk and it was straight in the appropriate door to check in.

Great system, as in fact I found all the Disney transport