sophie832
F&W Addict
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2010
- Messages
- 845
We just returned from a four-night stay. This was our first moderate after staying at the deluxe level three times (I don't know if the Dolphin is considered deluxe, but I consider it to be that level). We should've faxed a room request per all the posts on these Boards, but instead we only put in a request for Magnolia Bend when we made the reservation. We ended up in AB Building 24 (Room 2436, to be specific). At first, I wasn't sure I'd be happy there, but in the end I totally loved our location! It was quiet and out of the way.
We really liked the atmosphere of the resort. The plant life and decor all made it seem very true to the New Orleans theme. We also thought the staff were friendly and helpful. We had a towel Mickey on our bed when we checked in, and got another towel animal our second day (we're not sure what it was supposed to be, but we're thinking it was two swans). We had no issues with bus service (yes, we were lucky). Our room was very close to the West Depot, which was either the first pickup or the third pickup for the buses, so we never had to wait for another bus. Yes, we had a view of the parking lot when we stepped out our door, but that didn't matter one bit. We kept our shutters closed most of the time so people walking by wouldn't be able to see inside, so what is the point of the nice view? We never heard much noise from other rooms (maybe the occasional toilet flush), and we didn't have to deal with the hundreds of high school seniors staying at MB (we got plenty of exposure to them every time we picked up at the East Depot). We took a carriage ride and rented a surrey bike, both of which were a lot of fun. Never got the chance to use the pool(s), but the quiet pool was right by our building and always looked inviting.
Now, there were a few things I wasn't that happy about. Not having a luggage rack in the room was weird to me. It might've been ok if there was any real dresser for clothes, but instead the AB rooms have a few drawers at the bottom of the trundle bed, and a couple of shelves next to the fridge area. Neither of these was suitable to put our clothes in (I didn't want to continuously have to bend down to the ground to open the trundle drawers), so we ended up living out of the suitcases...one was on the couch/trundle, and the other was on the ledge above the air conditioner. When we first got into our room, there were small hairs in quite a few areas (sink, back of the tub, on the mattress cover (the part that is beneath the actual sheets). The room was clean overall, and we didn't request mousekeeping to come clean, but I think either someone very hairy stayed in the room before us, or mousekeeping wasn't very careful. Both of our initial shampoo/conditioner bottles were missing one Mickey ear...not a big deal, but little touches count. The light switch for the vanity area was behind the cord for the hair dryer, which was annoying. I hated the shower...I had to turn it almost all the way around just to get water that was hot enough, and the "rain" style shower head just didn't have enough power (guess that's a personal preference). On our first morning, I turned on the shower to let the water warm up, went over to the sink, and all of a sudden there was water all over the floor! Turns out, the ledge at the back of the shower basically acted as a conduit for the water to run right out. After that, we made sure to aim the shower head as far down as we could, and put a washcloth at the edge of the ledge just in case. We could only plug certain devices into certain outlets because the plugs would just fall out if they didn't have a bigger side to the plug. Finally, we couldn't even use the empty outlet behind the bedside table because it was just far enough behind the bedpost that you couldn't reach it...in fact, the plug for the alarm clock was only partially in the outlet (just enough to power the device).
I guess most of these issues are really minor, and we would still definitely return. In fact, I would request AB Building 24 again because it was so peaceful and close to the bus stop. Overall, it was a good vacation, and I'm glad we chose POR.
We really liked the atmosphere of the resort. The plant life and decor all made it seem very true to the New Orleans theme. We also thought the staff were friendly and helpful. We had a towel Mickey on our bed when we checked in, and got another towel animal our second day (we're not sure what it was supposed to be, but we're thinking it was two swans). We had no issues with bus service (yes, we were lucky). Our room was very close to the West Depot, which was either the first pickup or the third pickup for the buses, so we never had to wait for another bus. Yes, we had a view of the parking lot when we stepped out our door, but that didn't matter one bit. We kept our shutters closed most of the time so people walking by wouldn't be able to see inside, so what is the point of the nice view? We never heard much noise from other rooms (maybe the occasional toilet flush), and we didn't have to deal with the hundreds of high school seniors staying at MB (we got plenty of exposure to them every time we picked up at the East Depot). We took a carriage ride and rented a surrey bike, both of which were a lot of fun. Never got the chance to use the pool(s), but the quiet pool was right by our building and always looked inviting.
Now, there were a few things I wasn't that happy about. Not having a luggage rack in the room was weird to me. It might've been ok if there was any real dresser for clothes, but instead the AB rooms have a few drawers at the bottom of the trundle bed, and a couple of shelves next to the fridge area. Neither of these was suitable to put our clothes in (I didn't want to continuously have to bend down to the ground to open the trundle drawers), so we ended up living out of the suitcases...one was on the couch/trundle, and the other was on the ledge above the air conditioner. When we first got into our room, there were small hairs in quite a few areas (sink, back of the tub, on the mattress cover (the part that is beneath the actual sheets). The room was clean overall, and we didn't request mousekeeping to come clean, but I think either someone very hairy stayed in the room before us, or mousekeeping wasn't very careful. Both of our initial shampoo/conditioner bottles were missing one Mickey ear...not a big deal, but little touches count. The light switch for the vanity area was behind the cord for the hair dryer, which was annoying. I hated the shower...I had to turn it almost all the way around just to get water that was hot enough, and the "rain" style shower head just didn't have enough power (guess that's a personal preference). On our first morning, I turned on the shower to let the water warm up, went over to the sink, and all of a sudden there was water all over the floor! Turns out, the ledge at the back of the shower basically acted as a conduit for the water to run right out. After that, we made sure to aim the shower head as far down as we could, and put a washcloth at the edge of the ledge just in case. We could only plug certain devices into certain outlets because the plugs would just fall out if they didn't have a bigger side to the plug. Finally, we couldn't even use the empty outlet behind the bedside table because it was just far enough behind the bedpost that you couldn't reach it...in fact, the plug for the alarm clock was only partially in the outlet (just enough to power the device).
I guess most of these issues are really minor, and we would still definitely return. In fact, I would request AB Building 24 again because it was so peaceful and close to the bus stop. Overall, it was a good vacation, and I'm glad we chose POR.
Hope you have a great trip! 
