Port Orleans French Quarter

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Hi All,

I wondered if any of you have stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter?

I was planning to stay at the Crowne Plaza in I Drive but this has been dropped (or have dropped ) by Virgin and many other operators.

So, it's back to the research of hotels again!! Also DW has put her "snob" nose back on which means the majority of the hotels no longer "qualify". I've also got a budget to keep to, so the Grande Floridian is out .

I also want somewhere that is in close proximity (driving) to restaurants outside of the "State of Disney" .

Is the hotel close enough to see the fireworks at EPCOT? Also, there appears to be a lot of activities available on site: cycling, boating etc. How much does Disney charge for all this? Oh! and I mustn't forget the requirements of DD who will be 13 when we plan to go.

Many thanks

 

[Sian]

I have stayed at Port Orleans twice, most recently in the French Quarter. I like the resort very much because you get the advantage of the beautiful river walk between the two parts of the resort, two food courts, one full service restaurant, fishing, cycling, two pools etc. The cycles etc are not cheap but not extortionate. If you want a variety of restaurants you can easily bus or boat to DTD where there is plenty of choice. It is also not far to Crossroads where there are some non Disney restaurants and 10 minutes drive from Bahama Breeze which I would heartily recommend. I don't think you can see any fireworks from the resort. I thoroughly recommend PO

 

[carl_w]

We stayed at POFQ last year and we're going back there this year (in less than two weeks!)

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Many thanks, Carl and Sian. It looks like we will be "targetting" POFQ for our holiday next year.

 

[mark&sue]

I would recommend Port Orleans French Quarter. You can get a bus to DTD and walk to Crossroads and have a cheap meal and drink at some of the restaurants and then get a cab back to the hotel. We did this with young children so should be no problem with a 13 year old. If you don't like walking just a get a cab over there. You will save by not eating at Disney.

Staying on site is so nice. I didn't think Grand Floridan was worth the difference in price between the two.

Let us know how you get on. Wish we were staying on site this year




Susan

 

[fizz13]

mark&sue, how long did it take you to walk from POFQ to Crossroads? I thought everything was too far apart. This will be a bonus if its doable.
Thanks,
Claire

 

[carl_w]

I think Susan was saying that she walked from DTD to Crossroads, not POFQ to Crossroads...

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Having checked the map, it doesn't look too far from DTD
DD doesn't mind a walk either
DW on the otherhand.......

 

[MazdaUK]

We stayed at CSR and drove to Crossroads very easily for restaurants and supermarket stops. We could also see the searchlights from MGM from outside our building (the ones around the sorcerers hat). One night we did see a couple of fireworks which I presume were from MK (it was quite late) but only because I happened to be walking back from El Centro with the refillable mugs and saw a couple of (presumably) big rockets - i wouldn't say you could sit out and watch them!

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Okay, having done our research we've now decided on the Port Orleans French Quarter.

For those of you who have stayed there, could you give us advice on which rooms to stay in. We usually look for the following:

Quiet, but not too far away from the amenities;
A reasonable view (not overlooking the car park) but;
Not too far from the Car Park as we will have a hire car;
Non smoking.

Many thanks

 

[carl_w]

POFQ is pretty small. All of the rooms are near the carparks and the amenities. AFAIR there aren't any that overlook the carparks -- either a river view or a view of some greenery.

PS: I have to confess, I don't actually know what/where "Crossroads" is.

 

[jockey]

We stayed at this resort last September and loved it!! The resort is small - everything is within a few minutes walking distance!! The buses were regular, the boat to DTD was great and the food court was good too!!

The resort is just recently renovated and the rooms are beautiful!! You will have a great time at this resort!!

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Many thanks for all your replies. I'm getting excited already and we don't plan to go until about this time next year.

Just waiting for the British Airways brochure to come out in 2 weeks so that we can compare prices with Virgin (we're on Virgin frequent flyer now) and then it's parting with the cash time.

 

[jockey]

Why not have a DIY holiday rather than a package - especially if you get at least one annual pass you could save a fortune!!

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Jockey,

I may have got the research incorrect into DIY holidays, but so far I have never found anything that works out cheaper than a package (when crossing the Atlantic). Its usually the airfares that put a dampner on things. Also, as this may be that last time for a number of years that I go to Florida (DD will start the "real" studying for her GCSEs) an annual pass would probably not benefit me at all.

Unless of course the DIYers can guide me otherwise.

 

[MazdaUK]

From what I understand elsewhere if you buy one AP you can save the cost on room discounts, money off on merchandise, food etc. (you only need one AP, you can just buy ordinary tickets for the rest of the party).

have you looked at flights online eg Expedia? We found we could buy BA flights cheaper than direct from BA

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

I must be unlucky. Whenever I check Expedia the flights are no less than going direct to Virgin/ BA etc. Also, a lot of the flights are not direct and the journey time is too excessive for me. The other thing I have noticed is that you can't book a long time in advance.

On prices, as an example, I am travelling to Canada in 2 months. Going direct with BMI the tickest (for 3) comes to £1,725 (I bought them in January). Expedia today are showing their cheapest as BMI and each ticket is £661 (£1,983 for 3). I went straight to the BMI site today and they are still quoting £1,725 for 3.

As I said, probably my bad luck.

 

[MazdaUK]

I booked at the end of March for early August. You can specify direct flights only (though that does reduce choices of course). Mind you, while I was comparing prices the tickets did go up £40! Why ??

 

[SimonG]

hi please check out kuoni brochure .Our holiday to pofq was £400 cheaper than thomas cook and you got a free transfer from airport if yuo wanted.

 

[vernon]

IMHO it's not really workable (timewise) to get to DTD then walk to crossroads. You need to walk from your room to the ferry/bus (say 5 mins) wait for ferry/bus (say average 15 minutes) journey to DTD (10 minutes) walk from DTD to crossroads (20-30 minutes depending on the restaurant you're going to) IMHO the quickest you're likely to make the trip is 40 minutes, more realistically you're looking at an hour+ , if you have a car it's 5 minutes.

POFQ is a very nice hotel, as has been said it's relatively compact and has good facilities, you do have to walk to the "Riverside" area of the hotel for the full service restaurant, but other than that everything is close to you. As far as fireworks are concerned, I'm sure there are parts of the hotel where it's possible to see some of the fireworks from MK and Epcot, but I wouldn't count on getting a good view, or on it being near to your room, there are a lot of trees surrounding the resort and you could find these block a lot of the potential views.

I'm sure you're going to have an excellent stay there.