Port Orleans Riverside or Value Resorts

[WhitneyBB]

we are planning Disney the week before Christmas for 4 days. 2 adults and a 7 year old girl. Should we stay at a Value (pop, music, movies) or pay a little extra for port Orleans riverside? I've heard buses are bad at Port Orleans, any truth to that?

 

[tseitel]

If you look hard enough, I think you will find bus horror stories about every single hotel, even the deluxes. I personally would go for POR, bigger rooms, nicer grounds, pool slide. But do what fits your budget, and you are comfortable with. Google images of the resorts and look them over
And most importantly, have fun with whichever one you choose!

 

[kjw42]

We're making the same decision right now. POR is our favorite and I've never felt the busses are worse than anywhere else. However, I think the kids might get a kick out of the POP theme and we could save $ at the same time. We also don't spend that much time at the hotel anyway.

 

[mickey2minnie1]

We love the resort feel and make it part is of our stay. We have stayed at POR and the pool is awesome with the great slide. My know DS loved it. The grounds are beautiful and with a little girl, I recommend the Royal Rooms. We did not have trouble with the buses. Food was good too. Queen beds are a plus too. Boat to Disney Springs as well.

 

[Disneylover99]

Pop will save you money and you'll just get on the bus and go to the parks. No stops.

 

[disneymom0104]

I think the bus at Pop is better than POR. We haven't stayed at Pop since 2008, but I remember there only being one bus stop. We just got back from a stay at POR and absolutely LOVED the resort, but the buses were rough. (We have also stayed at CBR and the buses were bad there, too). There are 4 stops at POR and we also shared a bus with POFQ when leaving Epcot and AK, and it would drop off at that resort first. I wouldn't say the buses are a deal breaker at all- they are what they are and as long as you plan enough padding you will be fine even if you have to wait awhile. But Pop wins as far as buses go with the 1 stop. Other reasons I like POR better is the queen beds vs. full, the bigger rooms, slide at the pool, boat to DS.

 

[ncc1701]

If you choose POR you can walk up to POFQ and use their pool. As for the buses on our trip last year all the MK buses, except for a very early AM bus, did not share and the DHS and Epcot only shared during the day not at open or close. Even the boat to DS stopped sharing around 4 or 5:00

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

We love the resort feel and make it part is of our stay. We have stayed at POR and the pool is awesome with the great slide. My know DS loved it. The grounds are beautiful and with a little girl, I recommend the Royal Rooms. We did not have trouble with the buses. Food was good too. Queen beds are a plus too. Boat to Disney Springs as well.

I agree with mickey2minnie1, we also make the resort part of our stay. We take midday breaks, dinner reservations in advance, explore the resort and grounds, relaxing with a drink by the pool etc. Wife and I liked POR enough that we will be staying there again this winter, the only resort that we'll have revisited. We too had no problems with the buses and as another poster has stated, just about every resorts transportation gets slammed by somebody. And we like the boat to Disney Springs. The only value we have stayed at so far is All Star Music, and should you decide to go that route you can't go wrong there.

 

[keahgirl8]

I stayed at POR on my second trip and never looked back. I have never found the buses to be worse there than anywhere else.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Yes, I would pay extra for POR. It's a beautiful resort and the rooms are far more comfortable than any of the values.

 

[ellie05]

Hands down upgrade to POR

 

[LSLS]

Definitely upgrade. Pop has gone down in terms of service and guests (just stayed there for a night), and POR is my favorite of the moderates (and one of my favorites of any). Buses are not bad at all, don't worry about it.

 

[goofyintoronto]

POR is my fave moderate resort....and Pop is my fave value. Thats a tough pick. It all depends on what you prefer. POR would be nice and comfy since they have queen beds. Plus your 7 yr old will love the water slide. Grounds are gorgeous. Although Pop is so vibrate and fun and colorful. Plus it has only one bus stop, vs 4 at POR. Although POR does have that boat ride to Disney Springs...I love going there. Its a tough call! You cant go wrong with either place. If you have money in the budget, go for POR.

 

[bfal215]

I just got back from 8 days/7 nights at POR and found the busses to be fine. Longest wait we had was 15 minutes.

 

[joannamet]

Stayed at POR twice and then stayed at ASMusic and honestly, the differences were striking. The public spaces, grounds and pools are much more spacious and attractive at POR. The rooms are noticeably larger and better appointed. The beds at ASMu were terribly uncomfortable. Even my 11 year old commented on how much nicer POR was and that she'd rather be there.
For us the buses are a non-issue. We've had great service at both. The trick at POR is to walk up to the main bus stop in the morning because sometimes the bus fills up before it gets to the other stops. Coming back from the parks we get off at the closest stop.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

POR hands down.

 

[Funky Chicken]

Unless you are using Magical Express, I would stay at POR and drive to parks/meals. That's what we do.

 

[buzznina]

Our DDs do not care for POP much, mainly because most of it is more geared towards mom and dad (60s, 70s) But they did really like ASMO With that said, we will always try and do a Mod with queen beds, if the price is not that big of a difference. We have been enough times to know that buses are hit or miss everywhere so we do not even take that into consideration. But, I noticed that usually the people that have issues with the buses are the ones that totally dislike the multiple stops.

 

[caliope]

POR would be my choice between the two. We did not use the busses (had a car) but the resort itself was nice. We also prefer the queen beds.

 

[disneymom0104]

Stayed at POR twice and then stayed at ASMusic and honestly, the differences were striking. The public spaces, grounds and pools are much more spacious and attractive at POR. The rooms are noticeably larger and better appointed. The beds at ASMu were terribly uncomfortable. Even my 11 year old commented on how much nicer POR was and that she'd rather be there.
For us the buses are a non-issue. We've had great service at both. The trick at POR is to walk up to the main bus stop in the morning because sometimes the bus fills up before it gets to the other stops. Coming back from the parks we get off at the closest stop.

When we were there, 8/31-9/11, the main bus stop (South Depot) was the last stop for picking up and dropping off. West Depot was first. South Depot often had the most people waiting and they were almost always getting on an already full bus (standing room only)

We waited 30-40 minutes for a bus on 3 occasions (our stop was the North Depot- we did learn toward the end that if the bus filled at the West Depot, it would leave without driving around through the other stops- makes sense, wish we would have known sooner in our trip as we would have gone to that stop every time). Most of the rest of the time it was 5-20.

We shared with POFQ leaving Epcot and AK at closing every time. It dropped off at POFQ first, then went to the West Depot and around.

We were there during low crowds. That could have been some of it. We are patient and always arrived earlier than we needed. I would call the buses functional- I appreciate their service, but we never experienced any times we would call "great" Just our experience!

The boat to DS? That was great! One of our highlights. It did stop sharing with POFQ at 4pm I believe.