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

[HiMagicFan]

I said that before we went to the good court for a late breakfast on our 'lazy day.' Holy moley that place was a zoo around 9 am- 10:30 am. Good grief! I don't know if that's every morning though. We said no wonder the parks are not that crowded at RD- everyone is still trying to get breakfast! Back to pop tarts for us!

It is peaceful and empty at 545am But, I like to get up early. I tried to walk through at 9am one morning -- I decided a mine field was easier to navigate.

Tom

Oh me Oh my! I have usually gone during (a) christmas holiday when it is very crowded anytime or (b) when the football and cheerleaders are there and it is crazy with kids running around....so early am it is and the pop tarts sound like a great idea!

 

[HiMagicFan]

Funny!!

We order Garden Grocer to our room, so we have bagels, cereal, yogurt, or fruit for our breakfast in the room. Yeah, the food courts can be a mad house!

Dan

Do you think Garden Grocer is cheaper than just buying the pop tarts for the room or bread and jelly at Fultons?

Trying to decide if we should put in the GG order or just buy as we go at Fultons.

 

[HiMagicFan]

THANK YOU!!! You answered my questions! So glad for this thread and the nice people like you I will make sure that we each have our cards on our magic bands and to periodically check our bill (even if we do have to add it up ourselves). Thanks again!!!

Ah good to remember. My sister and I always put down separate cards because we tend to lose the receipts or argue who owes what to whom. For us, once we found out they could, we just started putting down our own cards.

You brought up a good point about making sure it is like that on the magic bands - gotta remember to reconfirm when I check in.

Thanks

 

[HiMagicFan]

They WILL see decorations. They start putting them up the day after Haloween. Trust me, we've been going that time of year for the past 4 years. As soon as that last MNSSHP is over they transform the MK for the holdiays. Usually by 11/2 they have their decorations up.

This would make sense because don't they do the parade early and not exactly at christmas so they can show it on Turkey day?

 

[HiMagicFan]

So the bridge is closed during the day and open in the morning and evenings as I relaxed today by sleeping in and having a wander around the place. Epcot tomorrow, can't wait!

Thanks for the update - we are getting excited - leave on Friday!!!

Have fun at Epcot tomorrow!!

 

[HiMagicFan]

Anyone planning to decorate your window at POR for Halloween (or Christmas)?

No lights but i stocked up on walmart window clings and gel clings and will do our door - not sure if it will be on the inside for us or outside to share.

 

[slatterie]

Do you think Garden Grocer is cheaper than just buying the pop tarts for the room or bread and jelly at Fultons?

Trying to decide if we should put in the GG order or just buy as we go at Fultons.

We are going to do GG because we wont get there until 11pm at the earliest and Fulton's will be closed. Figure we are going to need a snack after the long flight and before crashing for the night.

/30 days and counting!

 

[Clochette nordique]

Not true. We've been going for the first week of November for the past 4 years, and usually by the middle of that week the parks have started putting up the Holiday decorations. We've even done MVMCP and the Osborne Lights that first week of November. It's true, though, that most of the resorts do not have their decorations and holiday offerings until closer to Thanksgiving, but going in early November you can still see the beginnings of the Holidays.

We have tickets for the first MVMCP on Nov. 8. They say Osborne is supposed to be up and running by then.

(omg, I'm now editing cause this has been answered so many times in the last 12 hours that I feel I'm just repeating what has been said 34 times already lol! So sorry for this answer on top of every other ones! I should know better next time.)

Poussière de fée!

 

[Clochette nordique]

Anyone planning to decorate your window at POR for Halloween (or Christmas)?

We will decorate for both since we have tickets for the MSSCHP on Nov. 1st and for MVMCP on Nov. 8.

Poussière de fée!

 

[mickey1968]

I am! I decorated my window at POP last year. I only did window clings and the gel clings. If I have time I might make some streamers with Mickey Heads and ribbon I have seen others do. I picked up a few more for this year at Wal-Mart, last year's came from Walgreens.

 

[DisneyFive]

Do you think Garden Grocer is cheaper than just buying the pop tarts for the room or bread and jelly at Fultons?

Trying to decide if we should put in the GG order or just buy as we go at Fultons.

Probably not much cheaper, but there is a much larger selection. That's why we use GG. We buy other stuff too, cases of water, snacks, etc...

Dan

 

[bigmac5]

Do you think Garden Grocer is cheaper than just buying the pop tarts for the room or bread and jelly at Fultons?

Trying to decide if we should put in the GG order or just buy as we go at Fultons.

We did GG and had water/muffins/yougurt/ beer and coolers delivered. My hubby thought I was crazy but now brags to everyone how smart I was. Hehehe. It is thanks to everyone on DIS.

 

[siskaren]

Do you think Garden Grocer is cheaper than just buying the pop tarts for the room or bread and jelly at Fultons?

Trying to decide if we should put in the GG order or just buy as we go at Fultons.

Unless I'm mistaken, GG has a minimum order of $40, so if pop tarts or bread and jelly are all you want to buy, you'd have to buy an awful lot to make that minimum.

This would make sense because don't they do the parade early and not exactly at christmas so they can show it on Turkey day?

If you're talking about the Christmas parade, there's no way to see it unless you attend the MVMCP, or attend the taping on the first Saturday in December or are there after the last MVMCP (which I think is on the 20th) when it replaces the daytime parade.

 

[justakrazymom]

Do you think Garden Grocer is cheaper than just buying the pop tarts for the room or bread and jelly at Fultons?

Trying to decide if we should put in the GG order or just buy as we go at Fultons.

We skipped Garden Grocer. The fees were too much. We have bought a few things at the gift shop..so far much cheaper!

 

[lmhall2000]

Just returned from 7 nights of awesomeness!! Some tips and observations!

1. Did not realize until this morning that the shower curtain has these little suction cup thingies on the edge to help keep water from spilling in floor..shoulda coulda woulda.

2. Double check your bill! We did not get a bill printout until 6am (at our request) because we had to get a 6:30 bus to airport. Did not expect to see a problem, but realized we were charged for another family's bill at Chef Mickey's one night! It said 3 adults and 2 children but all our kids were adult meals...it was $165 that they had to confirm...once they realized that we also had 5 dining credits applied to that same night they realized we surely did not eat there twice in one night..so they credited it back...glad I checked!!

3. What is up with the ice? Granted we always were going at 10:00 at night when returning from the parks, but never could find a 'working' ice dispenser, 3 out of 4 had no ice and the one that seemed to work, you had to hold it for many seconds before just 1-3 cubes would fall in...I don't think we ever got more than 6 small cubes just out of sheer lack of time

4. Never quite got the bus schedule...sometimes Riverside would drop off first at South and other times North then South was last...the line for Riverside was usually the longest of any other resorts, usually 2-3x longer...you'd think Disney would adjust and send more buses...we had to wait more than 5x through 2 busloads and got on the third...luckily we were commando park goers and did not try to make it back to resort for midday breaks...but never had a problem unable to board the first bus at the four other resorts we stayed at in the past. I just think POR was booked with free dining guests..much more so than any other resort.

5. Friendliest CMs...only had 1-2 give a not so warm greet...but 30-40 that we ran into at various times were awesome!! Kudos to a great staff!!

6. Wheel was not running yet, but will be soon and looked great!!

7. Magic Bands worked great, only 2-3x did my daughters' not work at park entry, they worked fine for fast passes but sometimes would not turn green entering a park...otherwise super easy but some servers still learning how to get it to work...I ordered a cake from Boardwalk Bakery, I was supposed to pay for it separately, but the server could not figure out how to do that, the machine kept charging him 2 TS credits for the cake, he said he would work it out, but we never saw the charge and went to question it, Riverside CM gave us our credit back and said they could not find a cake at all so did not charge me...nice birthday gift for me, but felt bad that I should have paid something for that delicious cake! We did leave half for the staff at Flying Fish, so hoping they enjoyed it, too!

 

[HiMagicFan]

If you're talking about the Christmas parade, there's no way to see it unless you attend the MVMCP, or attend the taping on the first Saturday in December or are there after the last MVMCP (which I think is on the 20th) when it replaces the daytime parade.

I am planning to keep note of this as i always get the timing wrong. Thanks

 

[andrewilley]

We are booked in a pool view royal room. I would like to be near the bridge to the main building. On the map, it looks like most pool view royal rooms are. Is this correct? Do I need to make a request, or will we be good?

Pool View Royal Rooms are pretty much perfectly located, no real need for requests unless you want a particular floor or a corner room.

I have a question, and I am sorry if it has already been asked before but, if you have a room near the courtyard where they play the movies can you hear them in your room?

Not much, no, The doors are pretty solid when closed. You might hear the louder bits in a muffled way, but the films are only on for 90 minutes or so anyway. I've not heard anyone say it kept younger kids awake, etc.

This would make sense because don't they do the parade early and not exactly at christmas so they can show it on Turkey day?

But Christmas Day IS turkey day! [British muttering: Americans, they don't know nuffing!]

1. Did not realize until this morning that the shower curtain has these little suction cup thingies on the edge to help keep water from spilling in floor..shoulda coulda woulda.

3. What is up with the ice? Granted we always were going at 10:00 at night when returning from the parks, but never could find a 'working' ice dispenser, 3 out of 4 had no ice and the one that seemed to work, you had to hold it for many seconds before just 1-3 cubes would fall in...I don't think we ever got more than 6 small cubes just out of sheer lack of time

4. Never quite got the bus schedule...sometimes Riverside would drop off first at South and other times North then South was last...the line for Riverside was usually the longest of any other resorts, usually 2-3x longer...you'd think Disney would adjust and send more buses...

1. Well I've learned something new today, thank you!

3. Do you mean the ice dispensers in the food court, or in the vending areas around the resort? The vending areas might be over-used at the moment due to the lack of fridges. The food court ice machines have been deliberately doctored to reduce the flow of ice (as Rapid Fill is now meant to pretty-much fill the cups). It annoyed the heck out of me though, at first I thought the machines were faulty (as did a lot of other guests, repeatedly jabbing at the control). That needs a rethink IMHO.

4. There isn't a schedule for the buses as such, the despatch system is largely computerised now (using GPS tracking of the buses) and there is meant to be at least one bus per park every 20 minutes. The routing around the various Riverside stops is based on the theme-park that each bus serves by the way, so there is some logic there if you look hard enough - MK buses use one route, Studios buses another, etc.

They do indeed send more buses at busy times, but when you get lines as long as the ones at park closing even those extra buses don't always seem to help much (but think how bad it would be if there was only one bus every 20 mins after Wishes! With 3 buses an hour you'd still be there at 3am!).

Andre

 

[Yellowstonetim]

We noticed the little suction cups on the shower curtain, early on and I tried to use them, but the tile in the bathroom was just rough enough that they do not work. They just won't stick. Nice idea but even Disney isn't perfect I guess. Along those lines we had a shelf above the faucets in the sink area; on each faucet there is a post that you raise and lower to close or open the drain in the sink. The shelf was so close to the faucets in our room that the right sink could not be closed to hold water. Oops. Slight miscalculation. The left one just barely worked. It was not a major issue, and I did not report it.

Should I report it so they can do something or is it too minor?

Regarding the magic bands we did have an issue at one restaurant getting additional charges on the account correctly and after several tries the manager said, it was on them! Very nice!

I thought the ice machines were all out of ice!! No one could get them to work right. That can't be intentional can it?! One little cube every few seconds. On the other hand, the ice machines near our room worked great and but out good volume quickly. I was relatively disappointed in the whole mug experience, but that was a very minor part of the trip.

Did I mention we had a great time?

 

[andrewilley]

Should I report it so they can do something or is it too minor?

I thought the ice machines were all out of ice!! No one could get them to work right. That can't be intentional can it?! One little cube every few seconds.

I think it's worth reporting anything that's not working properly, as otherwise it never gets fixed and then the next guest has the same "well it's OK, but a bit annoying" experience. No need to make a big performance about it, but just so they know - it might be a simple adjustment.

I felt the same about the ice machines in the food court as you did, the flow rate had been reduced so much as to seem faulty. And yes, I did the same as you and tried the other dispensers on the assumption that the first one was broken, as did other guests. I agree that it's something that they should change back, and hopefully feedback will tell them that. I mentioned it in passing to the F&B Manager while I was talking to her anyway.

Andre

 

[sibesx2]

I thought the ice machines were all out of ice!! No one could get them to work right. That can't be intentional can it?! One little cube every few seconds. On the other hand, the ice machines near our room worked great and but out good volume quickly. I was relatively disappointed in the whole mug experience, but that was a very minor part of the trip.

Did I mention we had a great time?

I agree about the ice in the food court! I heard one CM say that the ice was either stuck or empty when it dispensed only a few cubes at a time. That could be correct because there was a few time when I was lucky enough to get a full cup of ice on the first try. I also had trouble with the drink dispensing part. There was 1 station that never worked on Coke. And there was a few times when I had to try a few stations to find one that worked. I give the mugs a thumbs down!