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

[Venomhatch]

I've read all of Andre's wonderful advice about making the requests via phone or fax from 2 - 5 days prior to arrival. What I'd like to know is if anyone has a template of the fax you've used? I can build one myself but if anyone has used one that's been successful in the past that would be great. That may be something Andre could put on his site for future use. I'd be lost without this thread and all his incredible work on the portorleans.com site. My kids continue daily to pour through all the pictures and information.

We're getting very excited as the days are slowly counting down. I want to be ready to make that last request before we get there. Thanks for all your help!!!

Here below the dashed line is the fax I used one year.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort
Attn: Room Assignment Manager (????? ???)
Thursday, February 04, 2011


Hello, and good day to you and your staff!

On February 11th, my Family and I will be spending our annual vacation in Walt Disney World at your Port Orleans Riverside resort. We are all looking forward to this trip from February 11th-19th with much excitement. We would be most grateful if you could possibly accommodate a room request for either “building 14 or 18” in the Alligator Bayou area? I have also paid extra for a “river view”. The reason I have this request is that one of us in our group has had heart surgery in the past year and they are under medical restriction to not have to walk long distances. I have a standing doctor order for them to follow this while on vacation.

We will be arriving at your resort in just a few days, and would greatly appreciate any assistance you can provide in making our wonderful vacation more enjoyable and magical.
I have already called the 1-407-934-6000, number and they said they put in a request for this building and room requests.

Sincerely,
John and Jane Doe
Home Address: 1234 Walton Avenue, Wally World, FL 32830
Home Phone: 407-936-5778 and Cell Phone: ???-???-????
Email: ?????????@yahoo.com

• Buildings requested 14 or 18 in the Alligator Bayou.
• Paid extra for river view.
• Near food court access to main building.

 

[Gorechick]

FWIW, I've always gotten my room requests granted by booking the room category I wanted, having a building or view preference on the reservation and sending a friendly fax reiterating my request a few days before. The standard is to send a fax and luckily POR still accepts them.

 

[Venomhatch]

FWIW, I've always gotten my room requests granted by booking the room category I wanted, having a building or view preference on the reservation and sending a friendly fax reiterating my request a few days before. The standard is to send a fax and luckily POR still accepts them.

Yeah they do. My friend there says he sees everyone of them, but it is very difficult to accommodate all of them so be simple don't ask for a lot of things. Also keep in mind that Medical reasons take importance.

 

[ejrj]

Sorry if this has been discussed recently, I stopped following the thread once you all convinced me to book at POR...but HELP.

We just had to move our dates from the start of October to the week of NOv 28-Dec 5. I've just come to find out that this is the oft talked about Pop Warner week. I am not concerned about the parks but DO NOT WANT to be in the same hotel. I understand that while the majority are at one on the values, there is always a moderate option as well.

Does anyone know is POR is this years moderate? Andre or Venomhatch, can you find out? I do want to make other arrangements if that is the case.

Thank you so much for any information you can provide.

 

[icesk8abc]

Wow, thats dedication

Your Mum is gonna be so excited! When you switched back did you manage to get Royal Rooms?

Yes!! I am so excited! Thanks.

 

[icesk8abc]

The water taxi to and from DTD begins at 11 am and runs until 11 pm each night. The last trip leaves at 11 pm from DTD and docks at POR. The water taxis runs every 20 minutes until 4 pm and every 10 minutes after that. After that, you can take the bus until 2 am.

The trip is POR, POFQ, DTD, POFQ and POR. You cannot do a round trip; you have to exit and stand in line.

From the first post in this thread:
If you’re travelling to Downtown Disney, a much more relaxing and romantic option is the 20-minute free water taxi service which runs along the Sassagoula River every 10-20 minutes from 10am to 11pm. Outside of these hours you’ll need to take the bus to get to or from Downtown Disney, and during the day that bus also serves Typhoon Lagoon.


Help!!! Which is most up to date?

Thank you!

Edited to add: We are meeting someone at DTD at 11:00 am and need to make sure we can get there/the best way to get there.

 

[heatherbynum]

How far would buildings 16 and 17 be from the food court, bus depot, etc? I know it says they are the next closest but just curious

 

[Venomhatch]

How far would buildings 16 and 17 be from the food court, bus depot, etc? I know it says they are the next closest but just curious

To Food Court:
850 feet roughly to the food court.

To Bus depot (Main Depot):
1500 feet if you go through the building to the Main Bus Depot aka South Depot.
1100 feet if you cut through the parkinglots to the Main Bus Depot.

 

[LaDonna]

I think I'm just going to ask for Building 16, I'm guessing all the buildings pretty much have Garden View, I'll just say something like "requesting building 16 please so I can get as close as I can to main building" if I say it like this I'm wondering if I may even by chance get a preferred room? I know the chances are very slim but I don't want to say a certain building and take them out of the mix just in case lol

Also I can't fax anymore We have no landline.....so if I call instead are my chances lower?????

 

[LaDonna]

I think I'm just going to ask for Building 16, I'm guessing all the buildings pretty much have Garden View, I'll just say something like "requesting building 16 please so I can get as close as I can to main building" if I say it like this I'm wondering if I may even by chance get a preferred room? I know the chances are very slim but I don't want to say a certain building and take them out of the mix just in case lol

Also I can't fax anymore We have no landline.....so if I call instead are my chances lower?????

I didn't mean to say that all the rooms were garden view, what I meant was I have booked a garden view room lol

 

[Venomhatch]

I didn't mean to say that all the rooms were garden view, what I meant was I have booked a garden view room lol

Pmed you!

 

[ajordan79]

Looking forward to my family's first stay at POR! We were really pleased with CSR during our last stay but decided to try something new this time around. It looks like there are a lot of activities for familes. Is the outdoor movie seasonal? We will be there in November and thought that the older kids could take part in this while the younger ones go to bed a little earlier.

As far as the room goes, I just want to be in the mansion section. Hopefully there will be a little pixie dust in that regard.

Almost forgot, has anyone's child done the pirate cruise at the resort? Thoughts on it?

 

[TwiddleDeeTwiddleDum]

Yes, I stayed in Parterre Place two years ago and it is a nice way to get to the front of the main building and marina. I did an all resorts, no parks trip, so it worked perfectly for me. There are also some nice benches along the way, to sit and watch the water taxi go by in the evening.

Enjoy!

I read your post to DH, he said an all resorts, no parks trip sounded good to him His favorite part of the trip is our daily TS, he could care less about rides, lines and crowds It's hard to balance, DS15 likes to do all the headliners & since we can't go every year, there's the pull of wanting to do ALL our favorites & we end up doing more than DH prefers.

We're doing our first split stay and finishing our trip at POR in a royal room. Hopefully by the time we get to POR, we'll have all our to-do's done so we can spend more time relaxing.

I do have an ADR at Boatwrights followed by a carriage ride for our last night, a nice relaxing trip finale' to commerate our 20 yr anniversary

 

[NJdadof2]

Looking forward to my family's first stay at POR! We were really pleased with CSR during our last stay but decided to try something new this time around. It looks like there are a lot of activities for familes. Is the outdoor movie seasonal? We will be there in November and thought that the older kids could take part in this while the younger ones go to bed a little earlier.

As far as the room goes, I just want to be in the mansion section. Hopefully there will be a little pixie dust in that regard.

Almost forgot, has anyone's child done the pirate cruise at the resort? Thoughts on it?

We leave for POR tomorrow I won't be getting much sleep tonight.

My DS is doing the the Bayou Pirate Adventure on Thursday. I'll be sure to post that night and let everyone know how it goes, along with my first impressions of the resort.

 

[nannye]

Hello Everyone, I am back from POR! V and I stayed at POR July 5-12 and I just fell in love with the resort. I knew I'd like it, but didn't realize how much I'd love it. We arrived around 11:30 and with it being the 5th I was worried about a long check in line... NOPE! only 1 person in front of us. Check In was a breeze our room was ready for us.

I booked a Gardenview Royal Room with a request for Oak Manor. I honestly am not entirely sure what I got lol It was great! We were in Oak Manor in Room 9058. Essentially our room was right under the big main staircase in the front of Oak Manor. Our door was right behind the fountain. So in my mind, we got a garden view, and a fountain view, and a River view since we still had a clear view of the river once we walked out the door. It was the perfect room and perfect location. I was worried about the movies on the lawn keeping V up, but we couldn't hear a thing. Everything was perfectly quiet. (Except when parents and children walked by your room talking loudly laughing and screaming at Midnight) Grrrrr.

Was anyone there at the same time as us???????? I didn't see another Dis'er or Lime Green Mickey Head the entire trip anywhere. I decorated our window if anyone was and saw it!

Room was awesome plenty of storage and space for the two of us.

Pool was awesome, we used both and V LOVED the waterslide.

One thing that got me, and just made the resort feel so homey was the staff. We walked to the bus and every single morning, Albert called out good morning Princess Victoria. He remembered her name by the second day and always commented on what she was wearing, (a coupld days in princess attire, 2 days regular clothes and another day in Mary Poppins. I really missed him the two days he was off! lol He made a HUGE deal out of V when she was dressed as Mary Poppins on our way to Park Fare.

Also V had a little battery operated fan and managed to get it caught in her American Doll's hair. This was a brand new doll and the only way to get it out was to cut it out. I was so distraught over this LOL. After cutting it i tried to pick the hair out, but to no avail. It was only a $2 fan from Walmart no biggie. One of the staff took it and sat there while I took V to the washroom, picking the doll hair out of the fan, it was so nice. Of course the fan didn't work after LOL but how nice was that.

V asked to stay at French Quarter next (she just liked the slide) BUT I'm not convinced. I'd love to try other resorts, but....... I got bit by the POR bug! so if we do go again, It might have to be a split stay....... I don't think I would want to miss out on POR! The only thing I wasn't thrilled with was the Food Court. I think maybe we just hit at bad times, once I got the Make your own pasta and i got in line and waited and realized too late that there wasn't an alfredo sauce Marinara or Pesto only. Well Pesto is out due to nut allergy so I had to get marinara and I ate only half. I hate marinara. My own fault tho, but they should offer some kind of white sauce.

The next time I got the chicken sandwhich of some kind, I forget, but it was so dry and overcooked. I ate it anyways but boo.

We did a carriage ride and LOVED it!!!

Can't think of anything else to say, but Thank you Andre and everyone on this thread who helped with questions and such.

V and I had a wonderful time.
And really was No one else there at the same time as us?????

 

[Phatoomch]

We leave for POR tomorrow I won't be getting much sleep tonight.

My DS is doing the the Bayou Pirate Adventure on Thursday. I'll be sure to post that night and let everyone know how it goes, along with my first impressions of the resort.

Safe trip down and enjoy! Can't wait to hear your report

 

[charminnie]

I am thinking about booking POR for our next trip in october, but have heard that the bus trnsportation for POR is horrible. Is this true? Any good reports?

 

[nannye]

Safe trip down and enjoy! Can't wait to hear your report

Phatoomch, I totally missed you becoming a CM... What do you do?

 

[Phatoomch]

Hello Everyone, I am back from POR! V and I stayed at POR July 5-12 and I just fell in love with the resort. I knew I'd like it, but didn't realize how much I'd love it. We arrived around 11:30 and with it being the 5th I was worried about a long check in line... NOPE! only 1 person in front of us. Check In was a breeze our room was ready for us.

I booked a Gardenview Royal Room with a request for Oak Manor. I honestly am not entirely sure what I got lol It was great! We were in Oak Manor in Room 9058. Essentially our room was right under the big main staircase in the front of Oak Manor. Our door was right behind the fountain. So in my mind, we got a garden view, and a fountain view, and a River view since we still had a clear view of the river once we walked out the door. It was the perfect room and perfect location. I was worried about the movies on the lawn keeping V up, but we couldn't hear a thing. Everything was perfectly quiet. (Except when parents and children walked by your room talking loudly laughing and screaming at Midnight) Grrrrr.

Was anyone there at the same time as us???????? I didn't see another Dis'er or Lime Green Mickey Head the entire trip anywhere. I decorated our window if anyone was and saw it!

Room was awesome plenty of storage and space for the two of us.

Pool was awesome, we used both and V LOVED the waterslide.

One thing that got me, and just made the resort feel so homey was the staff. We walked to the bus and every single morning, Albert called out good morning Princess Victoria. He remembered her name by the second day and always commented on what she was wearing, (a coupld days in princess attire, 2 days regular clothes and another day in Mary Poppins. I really missed him the two days he was off! lol He made a HUGE deal out of V when she was dressed as Mary Poppins on our way to Park Fare.

Also V had a little battery operated fan and managed to get it caught in her American Doll's hair. This was a brand new doll and the only way to get it out was to cut it out. I was so distraught over this LOL. After cutting it i tried to pick the hair out, but to no avail. It was only a $2 fan from Walmart no biggie. One of the staff took it and sat there while I took V to the washroom, picking the doll hair out of the fan, it was so nice. Of course the fan didn't work after LOL but how nice was that.

V asked to stay at French Quarter next (she just liked the slide) BUT I'm not convinced. I'd love to try other resorts, but....... I got bit by the POR bug! so if we do go again, It might have to be a split stay....... I don't think I would want to miss out on POR! The only thing I wasn't thrilled with was the Food Court. I think maybe we just hit at bad times, once I got the Make your own pasta and i got in line and waited and realized too late that there wasn't an alfredo sauce Marinara or Pesto only. Well Pesto is out due to nut allergy so I had to get marinara and I ate only half. I hate marinara. My own fault tho, but they should offer some kind of white sauce.

The next time I got the chicken sandwhich of some kind, I forget, but it was so dry and overcooked. I ate it anyways but boo.

We did a carriage ride and LOVED it!!!

Can't think of anything else to say, but Thank you Andre and everyone on this thread who helped with questions and such.

V and I had a wonderful time.
And really was No one else there at the same time as us?????

Thank you for your wonderful report So glad you had a good time - I can't wait to stay at POR! Nice to hear about the staff - that is something I have heard mentioned often about the POR staff. How were the room sizes? Sometimes when I look at photos (and it could very well be the angles) it doesn't look like a lot of room to walk around the furniture.

Maybe you could pop into the July roll-call thread on 'Doing the Happy Dance' board - you might find others who were there.

What was V's favourite part of the trip (resort or park-wise)

 

[Phatoomch]

Phatoomch, I totally missed you becoming a CM... What do you do?

I'm not, wish I was. I meant when they post about the Pirate league - cant wait to hear their report