Checked out yesterday morning (12/1) after a 4 night stay in our beautiful Royal room. It was our first stay at POR, though we'd stayed at FQ twice before. We absolutely loved everything about the resort!!! Our Mousekeeper was wonderful and DD9 was thrilled with the towel bunny she received and the arrangement of her stuffed animals every day. We were in Parteree Place, room 9711. It was a corner room, very quiet and could not have been more convienent. We had a rental car, and never used the busses, so I cannot comment on bus service. We ate in the food court a few times and found all the food to be very good.
Our magic bands and FPP worked flawlessly. I was nervous, having heard stories from others about the bands not working. I loved being able to just swipe to enter our room, enter the parks and pay for food, drinks and merch. Our FPP picks were great. We made multiple changes on the fly and had no issues with them either.
The only issue I did encounter was in our refrigerator! We had one in our room that I think was new, because I found a strip of tape across the door. We stopped at Whole Foods prior to checking in to purchase allergy safe food for our trip. We filled our fridge and on the 2nd day we came back to our room to find that the power along that wall (dresser w/ tv, fridge and ceiling light over table) had gone out. I called it in and filled my cooler grocery bag with ice and transferred my food. Not knowing how long it had been out, or how long it would stay out, I didn't want to take chances. Maint. reset our power about 2 hours later and I restocked the fridge. The next day, we lost power to our entire room in the early morning. It wasn't very long, less than an hour, and I left the fridge full during this time. We went out that morning and came back midday to find that all of the food in our fridge had frozen solid!! For example, I had a box of 5 hard boiled eggs and ice had formed around all of them and frozen them into a block!! My daughters chicken tenders turned into Popsicles!!
We tried to thaw things out, but it most of what we had did not turn out well after being thawed.
I wound up losing about $50 worth of food.
I didn't speak with anyone at the front desk about these issues. We had such little time that I didn't want to use any of it over something that really couldn't be fixed. I'm wondering if I should contact guest relations now about the issue?
All in all, we had a magical time! It ended way too fast, and I cannot wait to return! We would absolutely return to POR!
If I would've been on the same side of the building but in Parterre, I think I would've been closer to the main building. You probably just want to request close to the main building -- ground floor might not be a bad idea either because you may not be that close to the elevator and she probably really doesn't want to lug the clubs up and down stairs. Enjoy your stay!
After staying at Riverside my verdict remains the same, I prefer French quarter. It was just a little crowded and sprawled out for me. I really enjoy the more laid back atmosphere of FQ. The dining hall in particular was a bit too much for my taste, lots of people, half of which standing around looking sort of lost. I can see the draw for families or people who want more to do but as I said before we rarely use the amenities outside of the quick service dining hall and that held true this trip. We didn't swim, only used the playground for about 20 min one morning to let the baby stretch her little legs and that was really it. The grounds are equally pretty at both resorts and while I haven't seen the newly renovated rooms at FQ I imagine they are pretty much the same, unless you spring for the Royal rooms at RS. 
