Port Orleans Riverside Q&A Thread 2013, Part Three (NOW CLOSED, see 2014 thread)

[myhouseofmouse]

I will first start off by saying if I turn out to be the Jinx for POR, I am truly sorry.

I just changed my upcoming stay from POP to POR, due to the no KTTW card test. When I told my wife about it, she said that it would be worth the extra money to make sure we got the KTTW cards as well.

So if next week they add POR to the new test, I am truly sorry, as that is usually how my luck works.

 

[MickeyMomTo2]

Checked into POR tonight. LOVE the Royal Room. I'm not crazy about the white bed, but if they do add runners, it will look great. The room has such a rich feel! We do not have a fridge, but hoping Andre's predictions are correct. We are here for 9 nights so should get one. Booked pool view and also ended up on the corner by the stairs. Love it! This is our first stay at POR, so I can't wait to see the resort in the daylight!

 

[bethy82]

Hopefully by the end of the week all of the rooms should have fridges. Andre

When I returned to my room today the fridge was installed!

 

[PrincessKyleigh]

That's great news about the refrigerators. We don't "need" one, but my younger dd loves milk and we always like to keep some on hand for her.

Got our magic bands today. Now I just have to finish tweaking a few fp+ reservations. I'm getting so excited to be at POR, especially after reading so many positive reviews lately.

 

[Sue M]

I'm here now, no fridge in my room yet! I didn't request one though! Love my room in Acadia! We are right next door to the North bus stop!

We loved Acadian house also. Our room looked out to the quiet pool. We used the North Depot too and loved it! We were there mid to end of August, that time, value season, pleasant relaxing bus stop, and always got a seat.

I hope we get Acadian House in January. I love that location!

 

[Sue M]

We just got back from Orlando. We stayed in the Alligator Bayou room. I will say I was a bit disappointed with the room.

The room was not very clean, especially the bathroom. There were dust bunnies under the sink. Long dark hairs around the toilet (we are a family of blondes).

The cleaning lady wouldn't leave any more coffee supplies in the room after we used them up, I had to call the front desk for more. She would take our used towels but not replace them, etc.

To top it off, for some reason we got a wake up call almost every morning at 2:30 am. They could not figure it out why. We wind up just unplugging the phone at bed time.

We did however get a fridge on our last day. The manager did give us a discount for our issues but we wont stay there again.

We did a tour of the Disney Vacation club and we may look into that since we loved the parks & area.

Wow that is unbelievable!! How awful. I would have contacted head of housekeeping directly about the dirty room, and other issues of no clean towels, coffee, etc. during my stay to correct the shoddy service. And surprised they didn't give you a medical fridge either.
I'm so sorry to hear about this. POR is our fav resort, and they've always had such good housekeeping.
Very strange about the wake up calls. If that happened to me, it would ruin my vacay, because I have a really hard time going back to sleep so I'd prob be up the rest of the night good thinking to unplug the phone.

 

[disneymania0711]

What's going on with the bedspreads? All the rooms are without?

 

[andrewilley]

I just changed my upcoming stay from POP to POR, due to the no KTTW card test. When I told my wife about it, she said that it would be worth the extra money to make sure we got the KTTW cards as well.

Can I ask why this would bother you? They can still issue old-style KttW cards at any resort if you ask for them to, but over time they will presumably eventually default to issuing Magic Bands only (there's no point in them spending $2bn, or whatever, on the new system and then not using it!).

I would guess that cards will always be an option for guests who for one reason or another cannot easily use the bands though - disability issues spring to mind.

Andre

 

[bfamily5]

Can I ask why this would bother you? They can still issue old-style KttW cards at any resort if you ask for them to, but over time they will presumably eventually default to issuing Magic Bands only (there's no point in them spending $2bn, or whatever, on the new system and then not using it!).

I would guess that cards will always be an option for guests who for one reason or another cannot easily use the bands though - disability issues spring to mind.

Andre

I presume it's because of the MB only testing at POP. POP is currently the only resort without legacy FP access. They will issue you KTTW cards but they will not work in the legacy machines

 

[andrewilley]

I presume it's because of the MB only testing at POP. POP is currently the only resort without legacy FP access. They will issue you KTTW cards but they will not work in the legacy machines

Ah, right, I guess that's only to be expected. Disney can't carry on setting a FP+ limit and then letting people override it freely with extra legacy fast passes for very much longer - the whole system is in kinda meltdown already (look at how quickly general fastpass availability is running out daily, even at a very quiet time of year).

Andre

 

[4luv2cdisney]

Wow that is unbelievable!! How awful. I would have contacted head of housekeeping directly about the dirty room, and other issues of no clean towels, coffee, etc. during my stay to correct the shoddy service. And surprised they didn't give you a medical fridge either.
I'm so sorry to hear about this. POR is our fav resort, and they've always had such good housekeeping.
Very strange about the wake up calls. If that happened to me, it would ruin my vacay, because I have a really hard time going back to sleep so I'd prob be up the rest of the night good thinking to unplug the phone.

Is the housekeeping staff assigned to one resort or do they move from resort to resort based on need / occupancy? I always assumed housekeeping was hit or miss. Last trip the lady was cussing me out in Spanish while she made up the beds (this was at Pop)! I didn't think it was quite so funny at the time...but after the fact!! My husband left the room. He couldn't take it!

Anyway, I guess I just thought that could happen anywhere (kind of like bad bus service) and I wouldn't not return because of it.

 

[Music City Mama]

So if next week they add POR to the new test, I am truly sorry, as that is usually how my luck works.

No worries here, we'll stay have our APs. Seriously, though, I hope POR isn't next on the chopping block (at least for a while longer).

Checked into POR tonight. LOVE the Royal Room. I'm not crazy about the white bed, but if they do add runners, it will look great. The room has such a rich feel! We do not have a fridge, but hoping Andre's predictions are correct. We are here for 9 nights so should get one. Booked pool view and also ended up on the corner by the stairs. Love it! This is our first stay at POR, so I can't wait to see the resort in the daylight!

Sounds great! Hope you get the fridge soon. It's also our first time at POR (we have stayed at POFQ) and we're excited. Told the kids this past weekend that we're leaving on Saturday.

 

[andrewilley]

Is the housekeeping staff assigned to one resort or do they move from resort to resort based on need / occupancy?

I think CMs do move around a bit, but certainly not on a day-to-day basis, they are based at one resort at a time. However a resort the size of Port Orleans has hundreds of housekeepers (17 rooms per day per CM, and 3,000 rooms, 7 days a week) so while there could always be a few bad eggs, I don't think it's a general problem.

Andre

 

[lindap1]

I'm pretty sure that we are staying at POR royal garden view room next year....my dilemma is...where is the first bus stop at? FQ or POR? and how far of a walk would the very first bus stop be from the Royal rooms?

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Can I ask why this would bother you? They can still issue old-style KttW cards at any resort if you ask for them to, but over time they will presumably eventually default to issuing Magic Bands only (there's no point in them spending $2bn, or whatever, on the new system and then not using it!).

I would guess that cards will always be an option for guests who for one reason or another cannot easily use the bands though - disability issues spring to mind.

Andre

Sorry at work all day, I think another poster answered this though. POP is on Testing Wave 2. So if you stay at POP now you will not get a key card or if you opt of the MB test you will get one without the magnetic strip being activated, so you will not be able to use it for FB- Though I agree that they need to move on this part of the testing, I want no parts of it.

 

[MickeyMomTo2]

We came back to our room in Oak Manor today and found a fridge. They are probably getting close to being finished!

 

[Venomhatch]

I'm pretty sure that we are staying at POR royal garden view room next year....my dilemma is...where is the first bus stop at? FQ or POR? and how far of a walk would the very first bus stop be from the Royal rooms?

First Stop usually is FQ but I mean sometimes they skip it if they don't need to go there. Also, When they do stop at FQ usually it doesn't take too long. The bus would beat you to POR if you got off.

 

[Sue M]

Is the housekeeping staff assigned to one resort or do they move from resort to resort based on need / occupancy? I always assumed housekeeping was hit or miss. Last trip the lady was cussing me out in Spanish while she made up the beds (this was at Pop)! I didn't think it was quite so funny at the time...but after the fact!! My husband left the room. He couldn't take it!

Anyway, I guess I just thought that could happen anywhere (kind of like bad bus service) and I wouldn't not return because of it.

Too funny!

I think CMs do move around a bit, but certainly not on a day-to-day basis, they are based at one resort at a time. However a resort the size of Port Orleans has hundreds of housekeepers (17 rooms per day per CM, and 3,000 rooms, 7 days a week) so while there could always be a few bad eggs, I don't think it's a general problem.

Andre

I agree, CMs are based at certain resorts. POR mousekeepers are based there, but not to say they can't move.
I've always had wonderful mouse keeping at POR. But as Andre says, with the size of the resort there's bound to be some not so good. And it's good to tell someone when this happens.

First Stop usually is FQ but I mean sometimes they skip it if they don't need to go there. Also, When they do stop at FQ usually it doesn't take too long. The bus would beat you to POR if you got off.

It's so hard to figure out what the first or last stop is. I think route depends on what park. Some times East Depot is the last, and we go straight to the park from there. And sometimes we'd stop at south depot after.
When I stayed at POFQ last January we never shared with POR, except mid day

 

[Venomhatch]

It's so hard to figure out what the first or last stop is. I think route depends on what park. Some times East Depot is the last, and we go straight to the park from there. And sometimes we'd stop at south depot after.
When I stayed at POFQ last January we never shared with POR, except mid day

Sorry I am soo tired. Did I miss something? I thought they meant DME. Whoops.

 

[bookgirl]

I'm pretty sure that we are staying at POR royal garden view room next year....my dilemma is...where is the first bus stop at? FQ or POR? and how far of a walk would the very first bus stop be from the Royal rooms?

Andre or Venom can give an official answer but my experience was:

99% of the time POFQ will be the first stop if they share (shared more comeing back from the parks then going to the parks and even then only shared a few times mostly in the middle of the afternoon). But occasionally someone has posted about a shared bus going backwards to POR then POFQ. I've stayed at both resorts and only went backwards once.

We stayed in the Royal Rooms and mostly used the South Depot (in front of the main building). Expecially first thing in the morning if we needed to go by the FC first. Twice we left from the East Depot and it wasn't bad at all since people were exiting as we were entering and seats were available (middle of the day/early evening).

We were actually about the same distance from the South Depot as we were from the East Depot. We sometimes used the East Depot when returning from the MK because that route goes W/N/E/S depots. Epcot and DHS both went S/W/N/E. or was it DHS that went W/N/E/S. Holy cow, it's only been 3 weeks. Any way one route started in the West Depot.