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

[Venomhatch]

Boo, I think they were closed when I called. Was immediately transferred to a voicemail. Wonder if they are open on Saturdays or if I'll be in suspense until Monday - eek!

Ohhh nooo, that is horrible. I hope they are for you.

 

[cassiopia419]

Can someone tell me what time the Riverside Mill closes for the night? When we arrive in two weeks, our flight doesn't land until about 8:15pm and I wanted to see what time they close. I was planning on grabbing our luggage as we are arriving later on, but I want to make sure we get something good to eat that night so we're ready to go the next morning!

I haven't been there yet personally, but AllEars is showing the bakery section is open until midnight, the grill shop is open until 11pm, pizza/pasta area until midnight, and then the carving station, specialty shop, and salads areas until 10pm.

I can't provide the link in this post since I don't have enough posts to be able to do that, but if you go to the AllEars site, you can see the menu and hours for each area in greater detail under the Port Orleans Dining Menu Section.

 

[HeatherLassell]

I haven't been there yet personally, but AllEars is showing the bakery section is open until midnight, the grill shop is open until 11pm, pizza/pasta area until midnight, and then the carving station, specialty shop, and salads areas until 10pm.

I can't provide the link in this post since I don't have enough posts to be able to do that, but if you go to the AllEars site, you can see the menu and hours for each area in greater detail under the Port Orleans Dining Menu Section.

Or just go to www.portorleans.org

 

[poconopixie]

OMG. I am unbelievably disappointed. I just read through this thread and I see that my reservation for March 4 - 10 for a Royal River View Room will not be able to be honored. Wow. Just wow.

This will be my first trip to Disney and this is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth. They are not even offering any resorts that interest me. The Poly? Bah. Beach Club? Nah. Grand Floridian? Maybe, but seems a bit stuffy and I am a "small town in the mountains" girl. I think we would feel out of place there.

I was REALLY looking forward to POR. Maybe they will offer AKL. It's the only other place I would want to stay.

 

[Venomhatch]

OMG. I am unbelievably disappointed. I just read through this thread and I see that my reservation for March 4 - 10 for a Royal River View Room will not be able to be honored. Wow. Just wow.

This will be my first trip to Disney and this is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth. They are not even offering any resorts that interest me. The Poly? Bah. Beach Club? Nah. Grand Floridian? Maybe, but seems a bit stuffy and I am a "small town in the mountains" girl. I think we would feel out of place there.

I was REALLY looking forward to POR. Maybe they will offer AKL. It's the only other place I would want to stay.

Well AKL is one offered so rest assured. But we said the same about the GF.

 

[HamTown]

OMG. I am unbelievably disappointed. I just read through this thread and I see that my reservation for March 4 - 10 for a Royal River View Room will not be able to be honored. Wow. Just wow.

This will be my first trip to Disney and this is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth. They are not even offering any resorts that interest me. The Poly? Bah. Beach Club? Nah. Grand Floridian? Maybe, but seems a bit stuffy and I am a "small town in the mountains" girl. I think we would feel out of place there.

I was REALLY looking forward to POR. Maybe they will offer AKL. It's the only other place I would want to stay.

You can still stay at POR, just not in the royal rooms. They might give you a considerable discount on the next tier category for your inconvenience if switching resorts doesn't interest you. Never hurts to ask.

 

[Sue M]

Just wondering why you do not like the mansions?

We are going to POR for the first time in Feb. I requested the mansions...mostly because of the outside. Now, that I see the pics of the refurbed rooms, I have to say, I am really liking the inside of the AB's....so cute!!!

We love the mansion section. I had a refirbed room in Aug and it was very nice. Very upscale. All the mansions are along the river path, and near to one of 2 bridges over to main buildings.

 

[nannye]

I am planning to book POR -Royal room and I was just curious is there anywhere on the resort property that you can see illuminations or fantasmic or Wishes? I highly doubt it, but I've never been so I just don't know. Thanks
Also I'm booking royal-standard room and just wondering if anyone has any room request suggestions? I believe I was told Oak manor is closer to the bus stop....
Thanks
Erin

 

[andrewilley]

I guess I'll just book preferred and change it to king preferred if

There are 'Preferred' Rooms and a separate category of 'King' Room, but no category for Preferred/King. What I don't fully undersand at present is quite what happens regarding the King Bed rooms which are located within a Preferred Building. Who gets assigned to them, the people who have booked King, or the people who have booked Preferred...?

Andre

 

[andrewilley]

KCMike's pic at the top of this page reminds me...
Tell me a bit about the carriage rides at POR. Would it be enjoyable for a family of four (parents + 2 teens)? Where does the carriage go on its trip? Do you make a ressie in advance or just show up and hire the carriage? Is it evenings only, or are rides available in the afternoon?

I've got the full details on the recreation page at po.org, but basically the carriages operate in the evenings from around 5.30-6pm to 9pm, normally with a 30-min break in the middle.

You don't HAVE to pre-book, but there is obviously very limited capacity and many people do pre-book, which which does limit the number of walk-up options available. You don't need to book 180 days out though, you'll probably be fine booking once you get to the resort.

The route is normally from the POR marina along the riverbank path to POFQ, a quick loop round at POFQ and then back to POR. It's a nice gentle 25 minute ride.

Andre

 

[andrewilley]

Can someone tell me what time the Riverside Mill closes for the night? When we arrive in two weeks, our flight doesn't land until about 8:15pm and I wanted to see what time they close.

You'll be fine. The food court is open until midnight, although some of the hot-food serving counters do start closing at 10pm/11pm. After 11pm, you'll still be able to get pizza, fresh bakery goods, drinks and all the grab'n'go items though. For more details on the specific serving hours, menus, etc. you can check out my Riverside Mill page.

Andre

 

[andrewilley]

I'd just like to clear up some misunderstandings that have been running rampant around here (albeit from a minority of posters) over the last few days:

1) The Port Orleans Riverside external phone number (1-407-934-6000) and also the in-room telephones at the resort DO NOT normally connect you to a cast member located physically within the Port Orleans buildings. They connect to you one of several off-site call centers where guest calls are answered on behalf all of the various WDW resort hotels. [Yes, I do know the addresses of the call centers, and no I won't be posting them here] The call centers have access to the same computer systems that the front-desk staff use and they can pass messages on, but the cast members at the call centers do not have any immediate visibility of what's actually going on around the resort.

2) The call center staff can transfer your call to someone located within the resort if they decide that the enquiry requires that, but they normally will try to handle most calls themselves; the whole point of having a call center is to avoid clogging up resort staff with general calls.

3) Of course all the senior staff at the resort have their own direct office telephones (and email addresses come to that). Again, yes I do know some of these numbers and email addresses, and NO I'm not going to post them here or abuse the fact that they have very kindly let me have their personal contact details.

4) (hmm, part of 3 really) There's nothing wrong with saying that a supervisor called Jennifer at the front desk was really helpful (I'm sure Jennifer would love to read that in fact) but it's quite a different thing to then openly publish her full name or her direct contact details on the internet - unless she expressly asked for that to happen, of course.


OK, and relax... let's move on... I might as well answer it now: As of the start of 2012, Port Orleans Riverside's buildings 14, 36, 37, 38, Acadian House and Magnolia Terrace are the only ones that have so far been refurbished and have queen beds. Feel free to cut'n'paste as needed.

Andre

 

[pmaurer74]

OMG. I am unbelievably disappointed. I just read through this thread and I see that my reservation for March 4 - 10 for a Royal River View Room will not be able to be honored. Wow. Just wow.

This will be my first trip to Disney and this is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth. They are not even offering any resorts that interest me. The Poly? Bah. Beach Club? Nah. Grand Floridian? Maybe, but seems a bit stuffy and I am a "small town in the mountains" girl. I think we would feel out of place there.

I was REALLY looking forward to POR. Maybe they will offer AKL. It's the only other place I would want to stay.

We all felt the same way at first then got excited about the upgrades. So far people have been asked what resort they want to stay in. Poly has been the one most popular but we have seen BC and AK so far as well. The only resort mentioned so far that was not available was the CR. If you want AKL. I would ask for it!

To the PP that got AKL... what room category did you get? Did you get a savanah view or standard?

Just to be warned many of us with March dates have been waiting since Wed. morning and it may take a few more days before they get to us. I really hope they are calling over the weekend as the suspense is killing me!

 

[pmaurer74]

Congrats! Is that the deluxe you requested or is that what they offered? Just wondering if they've moved on/filled the slots they had to work with from Poly and BC since that's what many were offered.

I'm still not convinced we're going to get offered an upgrade since we are coming in March 8th for a royal room and they are projecting the ready date of them now as March 9th, but still jumping every time the phone rings

I would think that since the dates cover 3 weeks there would be slots at the resorts that cover all 3 weeks and not just Poly for the first week, BC the second week. It sounds like so far what people have requested they have been granted but we are working with a very small number of people. I am worried that the first week of March will be harder to work with due to spring break starting and there being less availability but we'll see.

I jump every time the phone rings as well.

 

[edk35]

Here now...thought we were getting rooms with queens according to garden view description...it said queen rooms in the description. Ours are doubles. I am disappointed because if they were not completely done with refurbishment they should not put that in their description. Every other category has doubles listed. Other than that it is a nice relaxing resort. We stayed here in 92 when it was Dixie Landings. We are in 9424 and 9423 right by a pool.

 

[Venomhatch]

I'd just like to clear up some misunderstandings that have been running rampant around here (albeit from a minority of posters) over the last few days:

1) The Port Orleans Riverside external phone number (1-407-934-6000) and also the in-room telephones at the resort DO NOT normally connect you to a cast member located physically within the Port Orleans buildings. They connect to you one of several off-site call centers where guest calls are answered on behalf all of the various WDW resort hotels. [Yes, I do know the addresses of the call centers, and no I won't be posting them here] The call centers have access to the same computer systems that the front-desk staff use and they can pass messages on, but the cast members at the call centers do not have any immediate visibility of what's actually going on around the resort.

2) The call center staff can transfer your call to someone located within the resort if they decide that the enquiry requires that, but they normally will try to handle most calls themselves; the whole point of having a call center is to avoid clogging up resort staff with general calls.

3) Of course all the senior staff at the resort have their own direct office telephones (and email addresses come to that). Again, yes I do know some of these numbers and email addresses, and NO I'm not going to post them here or abuse the fact that they have very kindly let me have their personal contact details.

4) (hmm, part of 3 really) There's nothing wrong with saying that a supervisor called Jennifer at the front desk was really helpful (I'm sure Jennifer would love to read that in fact) but it's quite a different thing to then openly publish her full name or her direct contact details on the internet - unless she expressly asked for that to happen, of course.


OK, and relax... let's move on... I might as well answer it now: As of the start of 2012, Port Orleans Riverside's buildings 14, 36, 37, 38, Acadian House and Magnolia Terrace are the only ones that have so far been refurbished and have queen beds. Feel free to cut'n'paste as needed.

Andre

Thank you for posting this. Proof you can get members at the resort. If you try hard enough.

 

[mmlooney]

We all felt the same way at first then got excited about the upgrades. So far people have been asked what resort they want to stay in. Poly has been the one most popular but we have seen BC and AK so far as well. The only resort mentioned so far that was not available was the CR. If you want AKL. I would ask for it!

To the PP that got AKL... what room category did you get? Did you get a savanah view or standard?

Just to be warned many of us with March dates have been waiting since Wed. morning and it may take a few more days before they get to us. I really hope they are calling over the weekend as the suspense is killing me!

I was given Arusha view with bunkbeds for my upgrade

 

[andrewilley]

Proof you can get members at the resort. If you try hard enough.

No, you really can't. Not unless you have been given a direct number. Otherwise you need to ask someone at the call center if they would transfer you - and it is at their discretion.

Andre

 

[andrewilley]

Here now...thought we were getting rooms with queens according to garden view description...it said queen rooms in the description. Ours are doubles.

Darn. As I've said a number of times over the past few months I was rather afraid this was going to happen but we had to wait until 1st January to be sure.

It does seem that the online booking website description referring specifically to Queen Beds in Garden View rooms was indeed written with the fully refurbished resort in mind. It'll be accurate after August of course, but for now it looks like you might get refurbed (queens) or old-style (double) rooms.

Have you raised the question with the front desk, as I rather doubt you'll be the only person to query this and the booking site is quite specific.

Andre

 

[pmaurer74]

I was given Arusha view with bunkbeds for my upgrade

That is an amazing upgrade...did you request that or did they offer that to you? What was your room view before with the RGR? Just trying to ascertain if they are trying to match room category or not because I have nothing better to do until I get my own phone call!