POR Extremers: Love or Hate it?

[fam4jc]

Thank you for your replys. Espesially to the two posters who were brave enough to post negative. That's what I need to hear, honest gut responses! I know our Pastor's family will be so happy to be there as a gift that put them up in a tent on the front lawn and they'de be tickled pink. It's our gift to them, and I want it to be the best we can afford.

A couple of questions for those of you who have used the trundle. Do you think that bringing one of those egg crate mattress pads would help? The DD is 6, but I want her to sleep well. What size is the trundle? A standard twin?

Thanks again.
Shellie

 

[GeekChic]

Mort: yeah, I asked and they said that they didn't have them. Maybe she meant in our particular building. I remembered them saying to me when I booked that I should have a room on the main floor as there were no elevators (which is strange cause at All star Sports they have them!). They weren't willing to work with us at all it seemed, we found the CM's there to be very apathetic. But it all turned out okay, we ended up switching resorts in the morning and had a great stay the rest of the trip divided between the WL and the CR.

Now about the trundle...it is NOT anywhere near the size of a twin bed, and the consistency is that of a 'gym mat on a shelf with sheets" as my husband puts it.

It was only about 3 inches off the floor (i didn't like that fact, but since dd didn't complain I let her sleep on it) only in the morning did she tell me that she was up all night and how relieved she was we were moving resorts.

Every time we book now she says "mom will i have to sleep on the shelf?" LOL

I have heard of adults sleeping on these but I don't know how they would do it. She was four feet at the time (she's about 4'5" now) and she was just miserable.

But since this is a gift (and what a generous gift too, I might add! What a great person you are! I'm sure the family will be thrilled with whatever you pick for them.

I would seriously though, esp. depending on the ages of the kids, consider doing 2 rooms at Pop or an All Star. Boy, do i miss the days when WDW had real roll-away cots instead of these 'trundles' that aren't even really a bed!

hope that helps! I don't mean to offend anybody who loves the resort, that's the beauty of WDW there are themes that are for every taste.

some people like the secluded feeling of the resort but i like to be close to the action...the bus...it took us forever to get to the CR when we wanted to see about switching resorts and the CM's at the desk weren't very helpful at POR. We took a long bus ride and a boat to the CR and I was like "Pleaaaaase you have to find us a room" LOL they were very helpful and we were saved if i had it to do over i would definitely have taken a cab LOL.

edited to add: Oh! I forgot! The one thing we DID love about our night at POR RS: Boatwrights!!!

by the time we got back from getting our ressies squared away at the CR, we had been rained on twice, we were exhausted and we were starving. We stumbled into boatwrights and had one of the best meals of our trip. DH and I split the pot-roast cause it was late and we didn't want to eat huge...it was phenomenal!!! would like to eat there again, and we may be cause part of my family is staying at POR RS on our upcoming trip.

I admit it, i tried to talk them into WL...no avail LOL

geek

 

[julfre]

I am in the loved it and hated it both categories. When I walked to my room, I decided that it was one of the nicest moderates and maybe my new favorite. I love all the walkways and it had very nice pools-both the main and the two quiet pools I went to were nice and different from each other. I did not have a waterview room, but it stilll had a little pond right outside my door and it was just a very nice walk to the bus, pool etc. I also liked the room. Fairly standard for a moderate, but well maintained.

WHat I absolutely hated was the bus service. The worst of any resort- mainly long waits between buses. Maybe I am just spoiled by the AKL buses which I think are greeat( always short waits), but 30 minutes between buses is not what I've come to expect. I was also at one of the last stops so sometimes the bus filled up before it got to my stop and just never came by.

That said- I am heading back in PO in a week, but going to FQ this time. Buses pick up there first so I am hoping that service is better there. I visited the resort last time and while it is different, it seems just as nice.

 

[SalandJeff]

Originally posted by blowinbubbles
This is good to know, as I've only stayed at the Poly, but have now changed my ressies to POFQ!


Sounds georgeous. . . .my kids will love the bridge!


Even more plusses for the kids. . I loved seeing all the bunnies and ducks at the Poly, and it makes me happy to know they are at POFQ, too!

Just an FYI...I think most of these references refer more to the POR area. The bridge is on that side and I don't remember seeing bunnies or ducks at POFQ, but always saw them at POR in the AB section. Just don't want you to be disappointed. POFQ is very nice also. It is smaller and not as much landscaping. As someone else said, it is very relaxing and laid back...but again, I think you feel this more on the POR side of the resort.

As far as the couple of people who had negative posts, I noticed that they felt the rooms were small. They are smaller than the rooms at the deluxe resorts, as all the moderates are. That's part of the reason they are cheaper. We've only had 3 in the room, so this was not an issue for us. And there is no excuse for any resort to not honor a request for someone who is disabled.

I guess I'm "easy"...as long as I'm at WDW, I don't find much fault at any of the resorts...it's all good...a bad day at WDW is a thousand times better than a good day at work!

 

[disneyfreakk]

i think the main thing is how thoughtfull your family is to do something as nice as a trip to WDW. i have noticed that most of the neg responses were from ppl who have stayed in deluxe resorts before. ofcourse they prefer deluxe resorts!! lol, who wouldnt? but in your situation, yes i feel you will get more bang for your buck with POR.

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

Originally posted by GeekChic
we've already decided that we'll stay at a value over a moderate in the future if we can't afford to do deluxe. for us, moderate wasn't worth the cost increase over the value for what we got for our money.

This is what dh and I are wondering. After much deliberation we booked a king bed room at POR with the email rate. But we're just not sure if its gonna be worth it over a value (very nearly half the cost). We're staying at AKL and WL for our '05 trip and are extremely excited about those resorts and have no problem with the cost because those resorts will provide exactly what we want for that trip. Now I don't consider myself a deluxe snob, but when it came to booking this one and wanting to try something less expensive we just couldn't get excited about any of them. We choose POR mainly based on which was available with the discount rate for our dates. But now we're going back and forth over just switching to a value and saving the money for fun things at WDW. So this thread has been really interesting to me. Sounds like alot of people really love this resort. Can any of you tell what its "value" is (besides asthetics) over a value resort (how do busses, ength of time to parks, in room amenties, etc, compare)?

 

[Ever_After]

I love POR!! We stayed at Oak Manor~ loved the winding sidewalks, saw the bunnies and other creatures, close parking to room, close walk to the lobby and main pools, the most friendly CM's, ... I can go on and on I would def stay there again.

 

[epcotfan]

I would seriously though, esp. depending on the ages of the kids, consider doing 2 rooms at Pop or an All Star.

I agree. Those rooms are quite small for 5 people. With two rooms at an All Star or Pop they will have some breathing room, 2 bathrooms, and two tvs.

 

[Nolcrest]

Tink&SquirtsMom -

I 've never been in a value room so I can't comment on that. What I like in particular about POR over the values are the theme pool with slide (if you have kids), the selection of quiet pools, boat transportation to DTD, horse drawn carriage rides, catch & release fishing, hot tub (though I've never used one).

I do like the fact that there are multiple bus stops. I never ran into a mass crowd at the resort waiting for a bus. We also have our car with us and have always taken Disney transportation. I guess we've always been luckey with transportation.

I do like the food courts at the moderates but I must say I Love the food courts at the values.

Because the moderates are more spread out, they have a relaxing feel to me. Doesn't feel as "busy" to me as the values have.

 

[fam4jc]

Is it safe to put kids in their own room at a value resort? What if your request for connecting rooms insn't honored? That is my concern with the two room thing for them. It really just burns me up that a huge family resort like WDW has limited options for largish families! So if I've pulled in all your great information, these are my options:

1. Two rooms at POR AB using an uncomfortable trundle (bring some sort of padding for DD6) (apx 1300 for 5 nights)

2. Three rooms at a value, requesting two being connecting. (apx 1500 for 5 nights)

3. Two FW cabins with discount codes - I personaly don't like their pool and bus service is iffy. (apx 1625 for 5nights)

apx pricing is based on rack rates if I did the math right w/out tax.

I wonder if with a/p discounts there would be much difference in price - probably not a huge difference. It's probably more important to select a place were all of us will be happy. Good golly I need some help with this!

 

[Mortlives]

GeekChic:

How awful that they would do that to you! Under the circumstances, I can completely understand you're hating the resort and moving. Did you share your experience with POR management? That's the sort of thing one would think they'd really want to know, since that sort of behaviour can ruin a resort's reputation.

Tink&SquirtsMom:

The things that sold me on moderates are the bigger rooms, hot tubs, pool slides, more subtle theming, and with PO, the boats to DTD. Also, as we found last trip, there are times when a sit down service lounge is worth its weight in gold to weary theme park patrons. We've never stayed value or deluxe, so we have no basis for comparison, bt we've always found WDW transport to be perfectly adequate. We normally have really good service except for once every trip. I guess there has to be the exception to make the rule.

Kungaloosh!
Mort.

 

[SalandJeff]

Originally posted by fam4jc
Is it safe to put kids in their own room at a value resort? What if your request for connecting rooms insn't honored? That is my concern with the two room thing for them. It really just burns me up that a huge family resort like WDW has limited options for largish families! So if I've pulled in all your great information, these are my options:

1. Two rooms at POR AB using an uncomfortable trundle (bring some sort of padding for DD6) (apx 1300 for 5 nights)

2. Three rooms at a value, requesting two being connecting. (apx 1500 for 5 nights)

3. Two FW cabins with discount codes - I personaly don't like their pool and bus service is iffy. (apx 1625 for 5nights)

apx pricing is based on rack rates if I did the math right w/out tax.

I wonder if with a/p discounts there would be much difference in price - probably not a huge difference. It's probably more important to select a place were all of us will be happy. Good golly I need some help with this!

FAM4JC
I'm not sure how many in your party, but if you are starting to look at multiple rooms, you might want to consider looking into renting points from a DVC member. You could rent a 2-bdrm. Check over on the DVC Rent Trade board and you can research people who have done this as well as how the cost would compare. Then you would also have a kitchen...could save you money on at least breakfasts. Just a thought.

 

[fam4jc]

Salandjeff, Our party is nine people. One too many for the two bedroom. I went so far as to email some people with pts for rent (can't beat the price) and nope, can't do it. I would have to rent a grand villa, and I just can't do that unless we wait another six months.

 

[GeekChic]

Mort, you are a sweetie, your replies to my posts have been so kind! I don't think that I ever wrote to POR about what happened...I know it's a great resort for a lot of people and I was so happy with the rest of the trip that I just let it go. Likely I should have told them though...

Originally posted by fam4jc
Is it safe to put kids in their own room at a value resort? What if your request for connecting rooms insn't honored? That is my concern with the two room thing for them. It really just burns me up that a huge family resort like WDW has limited options for largish families! So if I've pulled in all your great information, these are my options:

1. Two rooms at POR AB using an uncomfortable trundle (bring some sort of padding for DD6) (apx 1300 for 5 nights)

2. Three rooms at a value, requesting two being connecting. (apx 1500 for 5 nights)

3. Two FW cabins with discount codes - I personaly don't like their pool and bus service is iffy. (apx 1625 for 5nights)

apx pricing is based on rack rates if I did the math right w/out tax.

I wonder if with a/p discounts there would be much difference in price - probably not a huge difference. It's probably more important to select a place were all of us will be happy. Good golly I need some help with this!

A question for you: Did you count the extra adult charge per room if there are more than 2 adults? Just checking because they do add those on to the room charges (pre-tax) so that is something that you want to figure in as well. I have heard it varies with resort classes but as far as I've ever been told it's 25 per night per extra adult in the room for all the resorts I've dealt with (including POR. They may have changed that though, ask when you call!)

I would NOT put children alone in a non-connecting room. I have heard that they will only give connecting room guarantees to families with children: so hopefully you would be able to get them if you book far enough in advance. Make sure they know that all minor children will be staying in the second room of the three and that it MUST be connecting.

With nine people, I think that you may be more comfortable with a third room to have the extra bath and shower. I think five people in one of the POR rooms would start to feel pretty crowded by about day 3 LOL.

Keep asking those questions, hopefully the input you get here in addition to talking to disney reservations folks will help to make the planning less overwhelming!

hugs
geek

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

Thanks Mort and Nolcrest,

I appreciate your answers. I do think we would like the subtle theming and more spread out feel more for this trip. I showed this thread and specifically your responses to dh and now he is very sold on POR. So it looks like our ressies are staying as is. Hopefully we will have an awesome "loved POR" thread coming late Sept.

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by fam4jc
Salandjeff, Our party is nine people. One too many for the two bedroom. I went so far as to email some people with pts for rent (can't beat the price) and nope, can't do it. I would have to rent a grand villa, and I just can't do that unless we wait another six months.

I think with 5 in a room you would be a bit cramped in the room.....have you considered staying off property and just renting a house?? We rented a 3 bedroom house (king in one room, 2 doubles in the 2nd room and 2 twins in the third room plus a pull out couch in the living room but they also rent 4 and 5 bdroom houses) a in ground pool right offthe living room, washer and dryer, dishwasher, TV's in every bedroom for 99.00 a night and it was 5 minutes to Magic Kingdom. When my daughter was small and still drinking milk in bottles the house was great, nice to be able to have her sleeping and go and relax in the pool and hot tub (I forgot to mention the houses can also come with private hot tubs!!)

 

[tinkgrl]

Hi,

Love POR, it's so peaceful!!! Been there twice!! Have a great time!

Allison

 

[blowinbubbles]

Originally posted by tinkgrl
Hi,

Love POR, it's so peaceful!!! Been there twice!! Have a great time!

Allison

LOL, well if you are there from 9/29 through 10/3, don't expect peaceful, coz *my* kids will be there!

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Just wanted to let you know that it is possible to request a Mansions Room with a rollaway bed, even though they don't really advertise it.

 

[janie91]

How does the price compare to AB with trundle? Which section is best location?