Got back from the World just about 2 weeks ago and wanted to give a quick review of our stay at Riverside. This trip 14 members of my extended family spent 11 days and 10 nights at POR. We has 4 different rooms 2 in the Mansions and 2 in Alligator Bayou. My in-laws all stayed at POR so we could all be together, and for all of them it was their first time staying at the resort.
My family was the first to check in and we got room 8579 in the Mansions. The room had everything we asked for in our fax, it was on the 1st floor in the mansions with a fridge. A added benefit was it was pretty close to a foot bridge.
I faxed our request 10 days before our arrival as well as 4 days before our arrival. In one fax we sent request info for 2 different rooms. The room for my family and the room for one of my sisters-in-laws. We also attached medical documentation to show a need for the fridges for both rooms. I know you don't need to show documentation for a medical request, but with the fridge shortage I sent it just in case. My sister-in-law,( the one who sent her info along with mine in one fax) checked in about 2 hours after us. None of her requests were going to be honored until we spoke to the front desk. The most important thing to my sister-in-law was that she be near us, so we could help her with her handicapped autistic son. We sent that information in our fax. Eventually everything was cleared up and she got room 8582. All's well that ends well.
we met our housekeeper on the way to our room, she introduced herself to us, and was very friendly. When we got into our room it was very clean and had the welcome towel Mickey on the bed. For the next 10 days we got no towel animals, but the room was always spotless. I'll take a spotless room over towel animals any day. 2 little things about our housekeeper, for the 1st 2 days she wouldn't take our tip. We would leave it and when we came back it was still there. Finally tracked her down on the 3rd day and told her to please take it. After that there was not a problem about her taking her very well deserved tip. 2nd thing was that she would leave us fresh soap daily and get rid of the used soap.
Everyday 2 new bars of soap would appear and the old ones would be gone. This was the first time that ever happened in all our Disney trips.
Our room was in a corner and had little traffic passing by it was it was wonderfully situated. The only problem was we got no cell phone service inside the room. You would have to step outside the room to make a call. Yes, we got cell service in the other room( 8582) but not in our room (8579). Funny thing was we did get wifi in the room. Another thing about the room was that a frog was living inside the decorative trim window slats. We met him our second night when my niece came by . She spotted him inside the slats and told us. Some nights he would be there when we got in, some nights not. His croaking did not keep us awake at all. Hope the little guy is doing well. I did not get to see my 2 other sister-in-laws' room because of our different schedules but they said they liked them.
We ate at Boatwrights once with all 14 of us and the food was wonderful. My 3rd sister-in-law and her spouse ate there 3 nights in a row. They where crazy about the food. The Jambalaya knocked her socks off. That is a big compliment because they own several restaurants here in New York, so food is really their life.
Had the resort counter service twice and both times had the make your own pasta, delish. My daughter enjoyed their chicken nuggets and my spouse liked the roast beef sandwich. Other members of my family had breakfast there daily and said it was crowded, but manageable. Found an odd kink in the new mug drink system . I did not use the mug right away, so when I did the soda machine said I has refills until Sept.9th. Check out for us was Sept 3rd. It was programed to give me refills for 11 days from 1st use, not 11 days from check in. Just a little glitch.
The grounds kept beautifully, boats to DTD never crowded and came frequently. Never saw any movies on the lawn and pools were used infrequently. The fire pit was being renovated so no marshmallow roast. What can I say, we are park people.
We had a wonderful vacation and are already planning our return for next year. We will be returning to Riverside again.
