Port Orleans Riverside FAQ thread --- 2012, Part One --- NOW CLOSED

[andrewilley]

Now here's the silly part, are the GARDEN VIEWS basically any room in the bulidings that aren't preferred that don't face a parking lot or pool?

You got it, yes. The idea is you could get garden, courtyard, lawns, fountains, bayou, etc - but not a parking lot view. Can be in any buildings (Alligator Bayou or mansions) except for the Preferred Locations.

Andre

 

[AussieSing]

Well we finally arrived at POR this morning at 1am!

Highlights so far is my 12 yr old DS crying when he saw the welcome to Walt Disney world sign as we were coming in on the ME and thanking us for the holiday. The second highlight was the boys receiving their first visit badges at check-in, jumping up and down. Third highlight is we got our preferred room request, refurb in Magnolia Terrace.

The rooms look great and the queen size beds (both mattress and base) are excellent to sleep on, only problem we had was the body wasn't used to sleeping horizontal instead of vertical after spending the last 35 hrs either on a plane or transiting through an airport.

Can't wait to see more of the place, just ecstatic to be here.

 

[Venomhatch]

Well we finally arrived at POR this morning at 1am!

Highlights so far is my 12 yr old DS crying when he saw the welcome to Walt Disney world sign as we were coming in on the ME and thanking us for the holiday. The second highlight was the boys receiving their first visit badges at check-in, jumping up and down. Third highlight is we got our preferred room request, refurb in Magnolia Terrace.

The rooms look great and the queen size beds (both mattress and base) are excellent to sleep on, only problem we had was the body wasn't used to sleeping horizontal instead of vertical after spending the last 35 hrs either on a plane or transiting through an airport.

Can't wait to see more of the place, just ecstatic to be here.

Glad to hear everything is going according to plan. Lol. Welcome to Disney world. I can't help to ask, who did you fly with? I am an aviation nut so I am curious. You are visiting from Australia?

 

[dkmulder]

Well we finally arrived at POR this morning at 1am!

Were you able to check into your room right away? I know everyone always says Disney will let you check in as early as you arrive if your room is ready, but this almost seems like it would be another night's stay. I'm just curious because we will be arriving very late to Orlando the night before our reservations begin and were going to get a room to just crash in for a few hours before heading over to POR early morning......but, if they let you check in, this means we can forego the extra room and just check in when we get there!

 

[Venomhatch]

Were you able to check into your room right away? I know everyone always says Disney will let you check in as early as you arrive if your room is ready, but this almost seems like it would be another night's stay. I'm just curious because we will be arriving very late to Orlando the night before our reservations begin and were going to get a room to just crash in for a few hours before heading over to POR early morning......but, if they let you check in, this means we can forego the extra room and just check in when we get there!

We flew in last year arriving there at 12:30am and not getting into the hotel til 1:15am. Then we didn't make it into the room til 1:30am. So yeah I don't think they had to wait that long.

 

[bunkkinsmom]

Hey Ya'll!

I know it's been a couple of days, I apologize about that. We got a very, well, odd job request on Thursday afternoon and had to somewhat change our plans around. We are home now and our house is a wreck! We had carpet laid and furniture delivered while we were gone and I have A LOT of work to do at the house. We also have a big corporate project beginning tomorrow, and a funeral with over 1000 people expected today. **WHEW** Talk about jumping back into the fire.

I doing a super happy dance today!

We leave for POR in 6 weeks from today...and....

DH just booked us at Disneys Old Key West for July 27th-August 3 We got an amazing deal on OKW and he just wasnt going to let it pass. We have never stayed at a a Deluxe before. I am super happy! We usually book before we leave WDW, but now we are booked before we even go there, Im so happy to have a Disney crazy husband!

YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE OKW!!!! That is where we normally stay. We stayed at POR this trip due to Free Dining. I want to thank all of the POR-folks here on the boards for being so hospitable! Hopefully it won't be our last stay at this lovely resort.

im going there april 18 to 23 and staying at por royal rooms, was wondering if we still share buses with french quarter? disney vacation agents say no.

We shared the bus a couple of times. In the evening we normally had our own bus, but during the day there were a couple of times that we were passed by at the bus stop due to full loads already.

Everything! LOL

Seriously though, if you get a chance to see what signs of the refurbishments are visible (especially around Oak Manor in the mansions section) that'd be great. That and some wi-fi connection speed tests (app at www.speedtest.net) if you happen to have a wi-fi smartphone with you.

Have a great time and enjoy POR. Look out for any 20th anniversary activites which may be happening around the resort on Thursday - if there is anything, any chance of a few pictures maybe?

Andre

Hi Andre!!! Just a quick note, DH will be uploading the furnishing pics to flickr soon and I will post as soon as he does. We don't have any OM pics. Also, the speed test in the lobby and Ol Man Island was about the same as the room. FYI, we were in 3737.

Hear you on the overwhelming research and I'm thinking I finally found a good thread with the information I've been looking for maybe. lol. We have a Garden View too, and Garden View is basically NOT a parking lot view. Possibly a fountain view. And I would think (it's been my thinking) that an upper floor vs. main floor would be quietest.

I also want to say I read somewhere that there are no Garden View rooms for Alligator Bayou. So Garden View is essentially one of the mansions.

I'm leaving in a week!!!! (2/4-2/9, 2012) Thinking my request might be:

Queen beds, Renovated room, second or third floor, Magnolia Terrace.

I was going to toss in "Or Oak Manor" but it sounds like Oak Manor is either completely closed for refurbishment or, if a section is open, it's not refurbed yet.

Hoping that helps you, OP, and hoping someone else can tell me if my thinking is misguided.

I was assigned a Garden View in AB, so for sure they are available. I didn't get that view as we chose to stay in the standard view room that we got when we checked in early.

Garden view was the lowest category I could book and we have to be in Alligator Bayou. I will let you know next week what our view was I'm more than ok with "anything that isn't a parking lot" so I'm just hoping for a refurb room. Although, after Andre told me that there is no under bed storage in the new rooms, I have decided just to make the best of it no matter what they give us. If we get a new room..Whoopie! If we get an old room, at least we have that extra suitcase storage and what the heck, we're still at Disney in a great resort!

There are 3 drawers under the murphy bed, but no under storage at all on the regular beds. Do you have a pop up clothes hamper? I wished we had brought one. That would've helped for sure. Also, I have heard others bring an over the door shoe organizer. We are used to staying at OKW and normally have more room, so it didn't occur to us to bring those things, but we will for sure next time. There were 5 of us with the youngest being 5, and we had lots of luggage. I never felt overwhelmed by it, but I did dedicate time every day to putting dirty clothes into a designated suitcase and making sure all of the 3DS were plugged in and charging!

 

[MickeyMaz]

Bunkkinsmom, thanks for your great updates. I was taking look at your live dining reviews. Very cool idea. I think we might pirate (argh!) that idea next week. We've got a new HD flip and i was trying to come up with something new to do with video.

Also, your POR videos are great as it's my first time going to POR. Not sure if you posted this earlier, but this was a nice view of the new AB room's murphy bed. Thanks

http://youtu.be/papSe9gfjgg

 

[Venomhatch]

I did walk arounds with the Nikon d5100 at POR. But I have to take the time to break them down into 15 min vids.

 

[sambisc]

We recently returned from POR. We had a garden view room in Acadia House. Room was refurbished with queen beds and was lovely. Our room was in the back of the building facing a water fountain. Quiet pool was right next door. It was a great location, short walk to North Depot and to the main buildings.

 

[AussieSing]

Were you able to check into your room right away? I know everyone always says Disney will let you check in as early as you arrive if your room is ready, but this almost seems like it would be another night's stay. I'm just curious because we will be arriving very late to Orlando the night before our reservations begin and were going to get a room to just crash in for a few hours before heading over to POR early morning......but, if they let you check in, this means we can forego the extra room and just check in when we get there!

We had booked the room from the Saturday 28th as we were supposed to the arrive at about 11.30pm on the Saturday but had airline delays. We wouldn't be able to book from the Sunday 29th as we are sleeping there that night, this is standard practice fo hotels. So it couldn't be classed as a super early checkin it was a very late checkin and the CM on the checkin was so great.

 

[AussieSing]

Glad to hear everything is going according to plan. Lol. Welcome to Disney world. I can't help to ask, who did you fly with? I am an aviation nut so I am curious. You are visiting from Australia?

We are Aussies but live in Singapore because of our jobs, we flew Emirates to the USA (Sin-Dubai-Houton) then Continential to Orlando. We could of gone the other way west-east (Sin-NY) but the cost is 50% more per person for a shorter duration (5 hrs) and when there is 4 of your travelling you just can't justify the cost.

 

[Princess_Belle]

I have a question about preferred rooms. We are a party of 3 me, my DH and our 2 yr old DS. If you book a preferred room you could you wind up with any room view in the preferred buildings? Standard view, garden view, water view, river view, or even a King room in our case? I really don't want to look out at a parking lot and we would rather have 2 beds as our son will not sleep in a pack and play because he's WAY to big for one. I requested building 14 ground floor since I'm pregnant and want to minimize walking at the resort.

So my question is can preferred rooms have any view or be any size beds?

 

[Missytara]

I have a question about preferred rooms. We are a party of 3 me, my DH and our 2 yr old DS. If you book a preferred room you could you wind up with any room view in the preferred buildings? Standard view, garden view, water view, river view, or even a King room in our case? I really don't want to look out at a parking lot and we would rather have 2 beds as our son will not sleep in a pack and play because he's WAY to big for one. I requested building 14 ground floor since I'm pregnant and want to minimize walking at the resort.

So my question is can preferred rooms have any view or be any size beds?

Just tell them you request two queen beds in lieu of a king bed room. There are not nearly as many king bed rooms, and many of them are also the handicapped accessible rooms, so most likely your request will definately be fulfilled.

Since you have three requests, no king bed, building 14 and no parking lot view, you will need to list them in order of importance to you and they will try to fulfill as many as they can.

I would also suggest NOT doing online check-in, because the CM will assign the first available room, since you indicate a time of arrival, and not necessarily what you are looking for.

 

[DisneyDreamerMom]

It's official - I just booked our POR trip. It's our first stay at somewhere other than a value but, probably, our last trip to Disney for a while. I'm excited and sad all at the same time!

 

[THERESA522]

We're leaving in 27 days for our 1st stay @ POR! All of the info here & on Andre's site has helped so much. Thanks for all of the great information. I can't wait to get there!

 

[hunmcbunny]

oh how I wish the days would just fly by! Its been cold and dreary and I see the weather in Orlando being so nice that I wish we were there NOW!

 

[kristie73]

oh how I wish the days would just fly by! Its been cold and dreary and I see the weather in Orlando being so nice that I wish we were there NOW!

I agree! But I also enjoy this planning and build up. I'll be sad when I'm back home after the trip and I have nothing to look forward to.

 

[Venomhatch]

oh how I wish the days would just fly by! Its been cold and dreary and I see the weather in Orlando being so nice that I wish we were there NOW!

I know... We are sitting here trying on warmer clothes and buying supplies.

 

[hunmcbunny]

I agree! But I also enjoy this planning and build up. I'll be sad when I'm back home after the trip and I have nothing to look forward to.

hey my name is Kristie too. I keep researching all things disney related to the point where I'm kinda "microplanning" lol

 

[Venomhatch]

hey my name is Kristie too. I keep researching all things disney related to the point where I'm kinda "microplanning" lol

We micro plan the day the suitcases come out.