Port Orleans Riverside Q&A Thread 2013, Part One [Thread now FULL and closed]

[Missytara]

Frequent lurker, infrequent poster here! We're heading to POR for our 6th stay next month and I was curious about the reliability of the wireless connection. I unfortunately will need to get some work done while we're there and the connection on our last stay was a little too spotty at times. I'm wondering if investing in an internet to go device would be a better idea.

You can find information on the sticky at the top of the board regarding internet connections and supplements if you need to definitely need a really good connection.

 

[MikkiMom]

I was nervous about storage space too. It ended up not being a problem for us. Each of the girls took a drawer under the murphy bed. My husband and I had our clothes on the shelve in the "closet" and we all hung a few things.

Do you remember about how many hangers they had? I'm funny about wrinkles so I hang as many of my clothes up as I can. Thanks!

MikkiMom

 

[Missytara]

Do you remember about how many hangers they had? I'm funny about wrinkles so I hang as many of my clothes up as I can. Thanks!

MikkiMom

We had four women in a room a few years ago and I remember we each had at least two hangers for each of us, so there should be at least 8 or 10.

 

[emlibs1mom]

You can request more hangers from mousekeeping too. I'm sure we'll need to.

 

[Towmater Blue]

Got in yesterday at about 9 am. My reservation was totally broken. None of my faxed requests were granted. The CM checking me in, made one phone call, and got me one of my requested rooms.

After about 30 minutes, she finally got me my room key card. I went to the gift shop to buy something and my KTTK card was rejected. Back to the front desk. 40 minutes later, my original reservation had to be deleted and a new on entered. The CMs were great.

Well, POR is a beautiful resort and my room is very nice. But it's very confusing, the pathing is horrible and in just two days, I already hate the bus service. This morning, at 6:50 am it took me 45 minutes to get a bus to AK. I made it to my Tusker house ADR with 5 minutes to spare.

I ate lunch in the food court.. Make your own pasta. It was pretty gross. One does not boil Alfredo sauce. I shouldn't have watched her put together my meal. Not that it would have tastes better. The brownie was really good tho.

I'll see how the rest of the trip goes before I give final judgement on POR.

Sorry to hear you got off to a rough start. Hope things get better. I am working on a trip report, as we just returned from the World two days ago. I totally agree! The create your own pasta was pretty gross and wasn't edible for me. The texture of the boiled chicken and the nonexistent flavor was it for me. Grilled chicken would have improved this dish tremendously.

 

[Towmater Blue]

Hey Chuckers, this morning was an absolute CRAP show with the busses, I agree. But it was the first bad day, all the rest have been great for us since Sunday.

As for the food, we had the make your own pasta, and it was great. Marinara sauce though. I can understand the alfredo might not have been awesome, especially since the load the pan with a ton of oil first, I wonder if you can ask for it with no oil ?

The pizza is pretty great, the cakes are awesome, we had a salad, also very good.

As for Boatwrights, HUGE disappointment. The Filet Medallions are no longer available, but there is a New York Strip with a pepper corn reduction, it was pretty great. The Jambalaya was TERRIBLE, it tasted like a bowl of peppers, that was the only flavour to it. And I have been dying to eat the crawfish bites for months, SO excited for them, and they were the worst thing I have eaten (well, not eaten) all week. Instead of Crispy, light and firm, they were heavy, very very oily, and rubber-ish in texture. At first I thought I just ate a bad one, tried a couple more and they were all like that.

The Pecan pie though, ... awesome.

Hope your trip is great !!!

It is always interesting to read about others' experiences. Our Jambalaya was very tasty and well seasoned. We enjoyed our meals at Boatwrights. Sorry to hear you didn't have the same experience.

 

[star04]

I thought it would be fun to rent a Surrey bike on our trip. However, Dh & I have 2 small children (ages 4 & 2 during trip). Is it possible for all 4 of us to ride? Will we need to rent the 4-seater, or will we be able to all fit on the 2-seater?

 

[Missytara]

I thought it would be fun to rent a Surrey bike on our trip. However, Dh & I have 2 small children (ages 4 & 2 during trip). Is it possible for all 4 of us to ride? Will we need to rent the 4-seater, or will we be able to all fit on the 2-seater?

You can get a two seater; it will have a two seat bench in the front with a cross bar and seat belts for the little ones. I don't know if there is a restriction on how young the littlest one can be.....but I know that you have to be at least 4-6" tall to pedal the surrey bikes.

 

[justthe2ofus]

Hi everyone. My daughter and I will be arriving to Disney World for the first time on June 10th. We are stayimg at POR for 7 nights and cannot wait.

Has anyone booked the Pirate Adventure for their children? If so, did they enjoy it? Would you recommend it for a nine year old girl?

Anyone?

 

[nonstopdisneymom]

Anyone?

I have not booked it, however I tried to book it for a date during our trip June 8-15 and there wasn't any availability.

 

[justthe2ofus]

I have not booked it, however I tried to book it for a date during our trip June 8-15 and there wasn't any availability.

Thanks for the response. Our trip is around the same time period as yours; my daughter and I are at POR from June 10th until June 17th

 

[wayneJR]

Cant wait fir 15/11/13 I really want alligator bayou

 

[Viking Princess]

Just got back on Saturday!

We flew into MCO on Monday afternoon, and walked right on to a ME bus with 4 other people (2 OKW and 2 POR). We had checked in online in advance, and faxed in room reservations. I think I posted here earlier that the CM responsible contacted me because I'd read the room maps wrong and so he wanted to clarify which room I really wanted, so I knew in advance that my requests were granted.

I was floored when we walked into the lobby. So much for a 'moderate' resort. It was bright, and clean, and open. At 5pm I walked right up to the desk and had my packet and KTTWs in hand less than 5 minutes later. We were in Magnolia Terrace by choice, and headed on over to check out the room. The grounds are gorgeous, and even though we were closer to the East Depot, we walked to the South depot every morning because it was so beautiful we didn't want to miss anything. We never waited longer than 15 minutes from a bus from the resort, but we always left from the South Depot. For those of you aiming for RD or an early morning ADR, there was one bus we were on that did not do the circle of stops after picking up at the South Depot, and two on the way home from the parks that serviced the West Depot first. We also had seating on every bus to the parks (and this is with a crowd rating of 4 or 5 from Easy WDW).

We were greeted by the Mickey Ears towels on our bed, as well as an elephant towel animal on the windowsill waiting for us to arrive. Other than that we did not receive towel animals for the rest of the week. We tipped mousekeeping every day, and they kept the room tidy. The room was also spotless when we got there, and everything was in working order. We loved our room and the view, but I understand how some people with 3-5 people could have an issue with storage space especially as souvenirs mount up towards the end of the week.

We spent one day in each or the parks, as well as a couple hours at Universal the last day (Tuesday-Saturday) and didn't wait for any ride longer than 20 minutes until MK day. Even then it was only 45 minutes for PP, Splash, BTMRR, and Space Mountain -- then less for almost everything else. We had perfect weather and cannot wait to go back

I was also particularly thankful that at the end of the day, they split up the buses between FQ and POR so that you and any tired little ones don't have to drop off at FQ before heading towards POR.

If there was anything I wasn't impressed with, it was the food court. We only ate there for one meal towards the end of our trip, when we were too tired to make it to the parks but it was pretty bad. It's a food court, so I wasn't expecting any kind of great food, but the same entrees that I've had in the parks were served there and were inexplicably worse. This only applied to the entrees though, the desserts were all fabulous. The employees were also very unfriendly. You shouldn't read this and panic and question your reservation, it was a very small blip on a very great experience.

 

[MickeyEars]

Do you remember about how many hangers they had? I'm funny about wrinkles so I hang as many of my clothes up as I can. Thanks!

MikkiMom

I also hang my clothes up so I call housekeeping as soon as we get in the room and request additional hangers.
I normally request at least 20 and have always gotten them.

Carla

 

[sunnydays28]

We checked in today about 12:30 after moving over from AoA (wonderful!!, BTW, I was sad to leave) and our room was ready. Every thing I asked for was granted: 1st floor corner room close to quiet pool, footbridge and parking lot. My daughter was surprised with a signed birthday card from the princesses and over the moon about the room--she can't stop talking about all the things the princesses left for Tiana to decorate with, she got it immediately. It is beautiful here, so quiet and relaxing. But we are very, very tired and after DTD all afternoon, were way less than impressed with the food court. Slow, slow service and yet CMs standing around doing nothing, blah food ( nothing nasty just not that tasty) and crowded , chaotic room, which I understand CMs can't do anything about. But we are not really food court, fast food people so maybe that is how it always is.

Overall awesome resort, very happy to be here for 4 more nights.

 

[freckles04]

Awesome and helpful reviews You guys are making me SOOOOO excited for our first stay at POR....!

 

[Dixiemom]

Received our Mickey Mail a few days ago and I booked our carriage ride yesterday.......One more month to go!!!!

First stay at POR and the wait is excrutiating!!

 

[tinkerbell1984]

We check in in 4 days! Faxed my room request yesterday, haven't heard back yet. We requested either magnolia terrace or ground floor in a close bayou room. We'll see! We have a large stroller so stairs aren't an option!

 

[coffeecassie]

We have garden view. Hope you have a great trip!

I'm here in a RR at Oak Manor, maybe I'll run in to you guys! lol

 

[mommy2jack]

Anyone?

We have my 4 yr old DS signed up for the Pirate Adventure Cruise on our upcoming trip. (LEAVE IN 8 DAYS!! ) I'll report back in on how it goes. From what I've read it sounds like the kids have a great time. I'm hoping my DS will love it!