Our First Trip Trying a Moderate (POR)

[mirlow]

We are a family of five and we are going to give POR a try I'm excited to try something new, but I'm still not sure about a couple of things. I'm worried about the transportation. We have a 8:50 PS for CRT on a Saturday that we need to get to. I have also heard how the buses fill up? We won't be having a car on this trip.
The only requests that I made were non-smoking, garden view, corner room. I didn't want to request a certain bldg. I thought we would see where the luck of the draw put us. I the resort really big? I visited CSR and that seemed really spread out to me.
I'm also wondering about the price. The total comes to $110 a night and for $50 more a night we can stay at the Dolphin. I'm trying to save some money because we are spending quite a bit staying at the deluxes afterwords for our total of 13 nights. I'm not sure if it's worth the savings? I don't really like the feel of the Dolphin it would be more for location. I do think I would like the atmosphere at POR (I'm all about theming) and I'm excited to try the activities at POR. How far can you bike or canoe? What time do the boats to DTD start running?
Are the food courts different at POR and POFQ? Wondering if it's worth it to give both a try? We're more than likely going to be swimming over at POFQ to give it a try. How big are the pools? Does one get busier than the other?
Any other advice would be great.
TIA

 

[msteddom]

Hi Mirlow,
I loved my stay at POR, so lets see if I can answer some of your questions.

1. I stayed in the Mansion section and it didn't seem too spread out to me at all. The only time I really thought the place was big was when I walked around the whole resort, just to check it out. If you do get a room location that is farther away, just relax and enjoy the beautiful walk!

2. I've never stayed at the Dolphin, but I say keep your reservation at POR, it is a different expereince than any of the other resorts, and think of what you can do with $50 a night! That's a lot of Mickey Bars!

3. I really can't tell you about transportation, because I had a car when I was there, but I do know that is about as efficient as humanly possible. Just make sure you give yourself an hour to get to the MK and I think you will be fine!

4. I know the boats run on the hour throuought the day and then start running every 15 mins. in the evening, I want to say around 4 PM.

5. Both the POR and POFQ pools are lovely. While I haven't spent any time at either pool I have seen both of them. It looked like there was much more action at the POR pool, I think younger children would enjoy the FQ pool.

6. I much prefered the Food court at POR over POFQ. It is larger, better laid out and had better selections. I walked up to POR twice from FQ while I was staying there to visit the food court.

7. I don't know how far down the river you can bike/boat. I would definitly save the boating for 7 Seas Lagoon though. You have so much more space there!

I think I covered all of your questions. I'm happy to try and answer any others you might have!


Melissa

 

[tassie42]

hi!, we stayed at POR in April in the alligator bayou we also had reservations early, but at Crystal Palace I think it was 8:15 the buses were running early just make sure to allow almost an hour. cause sometimes you have to wait for a bus to arrive.(I don't think we ever waited more than 10 or 15 minutes)

THe resort is big but there are a lot of bus stops. we were far from the restaurant and snack bar though (about a 10 minute walk)

The old man island pool is fun it has slides ex.. there are a lot of quiet pools (we were right next to one) our kids enjoyed both.

The grounds are beautiful! we were dissapointed we wanted the Mansion section but felt very cozy where we were.

have fun!

 

[ajksmom]

Hi Mirlow,
I just returned from my first stay at POR. We also were a family of 5 so we choose this resort to accommodate our family size.
I also had concerns about the bus transportation-I had heard it was very crowded and sometimes the bus was full and you needed to wait.That wasn't what we experienced. We stayed near the west depot building 24 and we were always the 1st or 2nd stop. We always were able to fit everyone onto the bus that was waiting at all stops. The only time there was too big of a crowd was leaving MK after wishes but everytime a bus filled it seemed as though there was an empty one behind it. Buses there start running at 7:30 am so you should be able to make your PS.
Boats to POFQ start running at 9am-3:50pm every 15 minutes. Boats leave from POFQ to DTD at 9:40am to 3:50pm every 40 minutes. From 3:50pm to 11:00pm boats leave the resort every 15 minutes headed to DTD with a stop at FQ.
The boats you can rent (suntracker family pontoon,canopy,sea raycer and kayaks) I believe can be taken all the way to DTD. I didn't personally rent a boat but overheard someone complaining about where they could travel and the CM explained to them that the waterways from the resort and DTD were able to be used. We also passed many smaller watercraft while on the boat to DTD so I assume it is permissible. I don't know how far you can bike.
As for the resort itself it is very landscaped and quite large. I would personally if staying there again request a building closer to the food court area. We ate breakfast in the room but wanted to try the food court for dinner, however those famous FL thunderstorms were brewing and I didn't want to have the 10-15 minute walk back to our room in the rain. So we ordered pizza delivery to the room that night.
The pools are pretty large but every time we walked by they were too crowded. We chose to swim in the quiet pool by our building.
I hope I have helped. If you have any other questions feel free to PM me.
Kristy