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

[TandLMommy28]

Online check in: done.

I'm confused, though. It had room requests but it was really basic options like ground floor or close to transportation. I thought there would be a box for filling in details. I guess I'll be faxing!

Lobby looks great. Can't view 360s from here, will have to turn on my laptop.

Will keep in mind the FQ bus trick.

 

[droycro]

I've been lurking here for a while but I wanted to post and say thank you, Andre, for posting those beautiful 360s! Now I am really, *really* excited about our trip. This thread and your website were the deciding factors that made us choose POR. It will be our first stay there and we have booked a Royal Room, so getting a preview of the lobby and the room we will be staying in is awesome. Only 213 days to go!

I've also been lurking for a while, and wanted to thank everyone for all the great information! What a great thread!!

 

[Teri1]

Here at POR! Got off the plane at MCO, got our bags, headed straight to ME. Waited 2 min to get on the bus and POR was the first stop. Bell services took our bags went straight to on-line check-in. Waited 1 min got our room assignment AB building 25 corner room with a pool view. We are close to the west bus stop. The CM's outside of bell services sang Happy Anniversary to us and wished DH a Happy Birthday, as well as a thanks for serving. (he had on his AF veteran hat) We were driven to our room. Couldn't ask for better service!

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[KonaKaiTom]

as well as a thanks for serving. (he had on his AF veteran hat) We were driven to our room. Couldn't ask for better service!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Can't thank veterans enough for their service so nice the CM did the same!

Tom

 

[Missytara]

Online check in: done.

I'm confused, though. It had room requests but it was really basic options like ground floor or close to transportation. I thought there would be a box for filling in details. I guess I'll be faxing!

Lobby looks great. Can't view 360s from here, will have to turn on my laptop.

Will keep in mind the FQ bus trick.

You don't make requests on online check-in. They have to be attached to your reservation.

 

[stindall]

I've started my trip report. There will be MANY POR pictures in it. For the first day, there will be over 70 pictures of POR. I really loved the resort.

Come on over and see some of the pictures if you'd like!

The trip to make up for the cold!

subbed! If anyone else has any recent TR's I'd love to read them!

 

[GraceMonica]

Okay! I think I'm staying at POR in March!

I've never stayed on site before...its VERY stressful trying to figure out which resort I would want to stay at!

First it was POR, one room for 4 adults...Then I decided I needed more space...so I was going to do 2 rooms @ POP which would be putting us at $500 over our room budget! PLUS, we would be downgrading (I feel like I'm too fancy to stay at a value...but not good enough to stay delux/cant afford it...)

And for a split second today, I considered POFQ...then I realized I'm crazy.

So I'm going back to my original plan of POR (Minus the Royal Rooms...that was our original plan...but then we added an extra day so it became out of our price range!)

I just hope I get a mansion...I'll request one and hopefully pixie dust will be sent my way!

This will be our first stay on property! It'll be my 21st birthday trip! SO Hopefully it will be memorable and magical! (My parents couldn't afford to take us when we were younger...they had 5 kids. So I guess this is my momma's way of making it up to me because out of the five of us [kids] I'm the most Disney Obsessed!)


Wooo. Man. I'm excited!

 

[Samar]

. We are close to the west bus stop.

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LOVE the West Depot busses! lol We were in 26 recently and the West busses had very few people on them at each time. I felt bad for the later stops.

Enjoy and watch out for tree frogs in your door way!

 

[wendow]

You don't make requests on online check-in. They have to be attached to your reservation.

What does this mean? We did online check-in a few days ago but then called and spoke to a CM for our actual room request. But that request is not showing up online with our reservation. Just shows we need a pack-n-play as our only request. Do we need to call someone else?

 

[momofmikey]

I started a separate thread about this, and then realized I should also post here.

Review of POR 8/24-9/1

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This was our second stay at POR AB section, and we had a great time again! We had booked last year's bounceback with a standard view and requested a first floor corner room. When we checked in around 3:00 Friday (no wait at all) they had put us in bldg. 26. That wasn't a corner room, so I asked if they had a corner room available. After 5 minutes or so with the CM on phone with housekeeping, they upgraded us to room 1520 - a great corner room. We were very close to the quiet pool, although construction was being done around the pool, so we had to walk around bldgs to get there. It was a 3 minute walk to the food court. We had a partial view of the parking lot, which was fine, and we loved being so close b/c we drove our car every day.

My 4 yr old and 9 yr old each slept on the murphy bed with no problem. Room was clean and housekeeping was wonderful.

Storage is definitely an issue. We packed extra hangers and a closet organizer. Everyone's shirts were hung up. The drawers were used for underwear, socks and shorts. PJs were put under the sink area. It was no problem getting more hangers. We didn't find the fridge super cold and had maintenance come, and a very nice, but very hard to understand, worker said nothing was wrong.

Food court was good - I know we're in the minority but we don't love it as much as everyone seems to. Had breakfast 3x and dinner 1x. Did laundry Wednesday evening - plenty of availability and no problem. Love the gift shop and found the CMs very helpful. Loved the greeter at the door with stickers and crocodile.

Very aggravating about the towel situation at the main pool. Not a big deal for us b/c we were only there for about an hour one afternoon, but it's ridiculous the amount of towels on chairs with no one there.

Grounds are beautiful as always. The one time we rode the bus to MK was good in the morning, maybe 5 minute wait, and 10 minute wait at night. South Depot where we, and most other people, got off was the last busstop.

Booked bounceback for next year, and can't wait!

 

[Finkerfell]

They sure can! If it's for an early AM ADR, we usually call the night before and tell them what time we need to be picked up. But we have also called in the AM and had one waiting for us withing 10 minutes.

Excellent- thank you!

 

[gr8tdame]

I started a separate thread about this, and then realized I should also post here.

Review of POR 8/24-9/1

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Very aggravating about the towel situation at the main pool. Not a big deal for us b/c we were only there for about an hour one afternoon, but it's ridiculous the amount of towels on chairs with no one there.

!

This chair reserving happens at all resorts and vacation destinations. Even 5 star resorts. People feel the need to reserve their chair ( afraid they won't have one). They drop a towel on a chair on their way to breakfast and may not return until late afternoon or not at all. This is just plain selfish and rude but it happens at every resort in Mexico and the Caribbean and especially at the Deluxe Disney Resorts. These are the same people who make multiple ADR's etc. I don't let it ruin my vacation. We just take things in stride and hope people will learn to be more relaxed and charitable to others. We try to lead by example. After all,our children are watching and learning from us.
Overall, we find POR the most relaxing of all the resorts and the CM's at POR are the best.

 

[JessiMommy]

Frankly, not really. It's only a few inches per bed, so unless you're checking with a tape measure (what? me?) then I doubt you'd notice. What is more of a loss though is the missing drawer space from the old four-drawer armoires (especially in Alligator Bayou). I also missed not having the under-bed storage space for cases in the AB rooms, so a double-whammy there.

Andre

LOL...you did not really measure did you?? ...

Ok, thanks, good to know. I think I'll bring extra hangers to free up drawer space.

 

[crazy4wdw]

Very aggravating about the towel situation at the main pool. Not a big deal for us b/c we were only there for about an hour one afternoon, but it's ridiculous the amount of towels on chairs with no one there.

I thought I read somewhere that Disney was going to put an end to reserving chairs by the pools. The life guards are going to be pulling some type of stickers on reserved chairs and if no one sits in the chair(s) within a 30 to 40 minute period, the towels will be removed. Maybe they're only going to do this at the deluxe resorts.

 

[Gorechick]

The CM's are too busy playing poolside games with guests to walk around and police the chairs. Next time I go I will ask people near a chair if anyone had been there. If they say no or don't know, the chair is mine.

 

[TandLMommy28]

Maybe I'm a jerk but if the only thing holding a pool chair is a resort towel, I will move the towel. If they have personal belongings, I won't touch them. But how can you claim a chair with a towel that isn't yours?if you are willing to risk your personal property to save a spot, well, clearly it matters more to you than it does to me! But using something that isn't yours to reserve a spot that can't really be reserved? Yeah... I have no problem moving resort towels!

 

[ColonelHathi]

Hi again,

I'm trying to narrow down where we're staying. I think I'm leaning towards POR, mansions, over POFQ - but I'm a little nervous about the bus situation, I'm looking at Magnolia Terrace (not staying in Royal Rooms). I see from the map that the East Depot is right there, but that it's the last of the POR stops? I'm afraid of buses being full and passing us by (we're going end of October, 2013). Valid concern or no? I'm not really feeling the AB love

We've booked POR w/ a room only AAA discount for Oct '13 and requested Magnolia Terrace (but would go with either mansion over AB). If we don't drive (I'm a former CP and like to drive to AK and HS) we'll probably just walk over to the South (Main) Depot. So just wanted to say hi!

We're also going to be looking out for discounts like FD, next July(ish). If offered like this year, we are staying open to the idea of switching to FQ if POR doesn't have availability in the room categories we are interested in for our dates. This year only the RR were available for FD with similar dates.

 

[Bingham2]

We are staying AB in 2 weeks. Do they have the corner rooms with double windows? I would like to stay in one of those. We are also in a water view room... will that hurt my chances of requesting a corner room? Would it be better to check in online or wait until we get there? We won't be arriving until 6:30pm or so.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

We'll be there in 3 weeks. I'm so excited. We have a garden view room booked for 9 nights and the added on night in a royal room.

 

[jerseygirl81]

We booked POR for Aug 2013, my friend says she won't stay there again because it's to big we have stayed at CSR and CBR how does it compare to those resorts in size? Thanks, Linda