Port Orleans Riverside Q&A Thread 2014 (Please read first post for FAQs!)

[WDWRids]

Cant wait!! Going Dec 6th - 13th with my husband, Sisterinlaw and Brotherinlaw. None of us have been at Christmas and I'm thrilled to be seeing the all the Christmas lights, trees, etc.

Planning on booking within the next few weeks but have a question for some of you "seasoned" DISers. This is the first time I've made reservations through Disney (all have been staying off site or with the Swan and Dolphin for meetings). If I book now and a deal comes out for December (ie free dining plan or room discount) how to do I go about getting those discounts? Do I just contact Disney to amend my reservation?

Thanks much!

 

[ToyStory3]

Hi - so if you want to be guaranteed a mansion room you would need to book a royal room, correct? Thx!

 

[Venomhatch]

Hi - so if you want to be guaranteed a mansion room you would need to book a royal room, correct? Thx!

Yes but if you have more than four guests and if the fifth is older than 3 I believe that you will be in the Alligator Bayou area then.

 

[ToyStory3]

Yes but if you have more than four guests and if the fifth is older than 3 I believe that you will be in the Alligator Bayou area then.

Thanks. There are only four of us. The mansions look so beautiful but not sure if having a royal room is really that important to us. But, I'm thinking I may want to book a RR if we definitely want to be in a mansion.

If I book just "river view" it could be either AB or the mansions, correct?

 

[GigiDisneyfreak]

Dining Reservations can be made 180 days from the date of your first arrival day. But at 180 days from day one you can make reservations for all of your days during that stay until you leave the resort. So you do not have to make day 1's ressies then wait til tomorrow and make day 2, etc.

I hope it helps, but if not let me know I can help you.

But she is staying for 12 days. She can make the 180 +10 on March 28 but what about the last 2 days. When can those be made.

 

[JamieLM]

7am-8am is usually pretty good. Even better earlier, but they only do bakery/cold items between 6am and 7am. To be honest, it doesn't really quieten off too much until lunchtime (even after 10am it is still quite busy). Yes, AB rooms have the ceiling fans, it's only the Royal Rooms which don't. The aircon units are stand-alone boxes near the door, and yes they can be quite noisy. In peak season it might be a good idea to have a reservation, as although it's not the busiest location at WDW, it can still get full around peak dining times. But often you can get away with a walk-up. It might be worth checking a few days before and see how busy they seem to be before cancelling your ADR (which can be done 24 hours beforehand without penalty) There is no such thing as a 'Courtyard' View booking, just Standard View, Garden View, Pool View, etc. Also, you can't specifically book the Magnolia Bend section, it will only be there as a request on your reservation and you could just as easily get a room in the Alligator Bayou section. Requests are often met of course, but it's not a guarantee. 'Standard View' rooms are basically in all the parts of the resort which mostly overlook the parking lots, although sometimes you'll get some trees or other vegetation, or a nice lawn or fountain courtyard, between you and the cars. See the building floorplan maps which are linked from post #4 in this thread. On the plus side, the current roofing work at Oak Manor (which is not the same area that you would be in anyway) will be complete by then - but there's no guarantee that something else might not be in progress then of course. Andre

Thank you Andre! I called two days ago and that is what they told me, so I guess another phone call is in order to request a "non" courtyard room, and request the manor terrace. I do understand the requests are not guaranteed. I take it I didn't speak to a wise Disney cast member. Ugh, thanks again!

 

[Venomhatch]

Thanks. There are only four of us. The mansions look so beautiful but not sure if having a royal room is really that important to us. But, I'm thinking I may want to book a RR if we definitely want to be in a mansion.

If I book just "river view" it could be either AB or the mansions, correct?

River view could be anywhere on property that you can see the river. Andre has a site where you can check each building to see where the river views are at. www.portorleans.org

But she is staying for 12 days. She can make the 180 +10 on March 28 but what about the last 2 days. When can those be made.

Yeah I saw that afterwards and someone helped to point that out for me so I didn't post anymore on that. Originally I didn't notice their length of stay.

They should be able on march 30th for remaining days.

 

[czmom]

Hi! We are a family of 4 booked in a garden view room for one night only in May. What are my chances of getting a room in AB instead of the mansions? My kids would really like the trundle bed. And my DD and I stayed in a Royal Room last year- loved it- but would like to experience AB this time.

I do plan on faxing in my request. Either way, happy to spend more time at POR. It is a beautiful resort.

 

[maryj11]

What is the closest bus depot to preferred building 27 ? South or West ? Thanks for any info.

 

[LeahA]

14 Days until I'm at POR for the first time!!!

AB section, parking lot view , requested building closest to a preferred building, and requested a high floor

ADR's booked, Magic Bands received, FP booked, Online Checkin done

All I have to do is pack, I so need this vacation.

 

[siskaren]

Hi! We are a family of 4 booked in a garden view room for one night only in May. What are my chances of getting a room in AB instead of the mansions? My kids would really like the trundle bed. And my DD and I stayed in a Royal Room last year- loved it- but would like to experience AB this time.

I do plan on faxing in my request. Either way, happy to spend more time at POR. It is a beautiful resort.

I'd say very good because there are a lot more AB rooms than there are mansion rooms that aren't royal rooms, plus looking at the map at http://portorleans.org/room-requests.php, it looks like garden view is by far the most common view category at AB. In fact, buildings 26 and 28 are all garden view, and 34, 38, and 39 are almost all garden view. Also, FYI, it's a Murphy bed, not a trundle bed.

 

[Shaden]

Best thread on the boards, awesome to see a new version (2014) rolling.

Andre, thanks for all you do.

Venom, thanks for constantly taking an interest here and helping people out.



You two (and some others here) are a big part of the reason we love Disney.

Staying at AKV this trip, BUT, have the whole family staying at POR, and so fricken happy about it so we get to hang around and walk the river and enjoy it all

 

[TeachMeMissB]

Hi All,

Very excited for our visit to Disney this May, we just hit the 75 day mark! I'm taking my grandparents for their 60th anniversary, my mom for her 50th birthday, and my little sister for her 16th birthday. We're staying in Port Orleans Riverside and have found these boards to be extremely helpful. I'm trying to make our vacation as special as possible and my little sister is a BIG Beauty and the Beast fan. We're trying to figure out lunch options for Be Our Guest but are concerned about waiting on such a long line without any seats for my 87 year old grandfather to sit on (I have also heard the line is in direct sunlight). I called Disney direct because I had heard that there is a fast-pass option only to find out that these were only given to a select few guests. Does anyone know if we can enter our names into a drawing or do anything to be considered for these passes? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[AmyKat]

Hi All,

Very excited for our visit to Disney this May, we just hit the 75 day mark! I'm taking my grandparents for their 60th anniversary, my mom for her 50th birthday, and my little sister for her 16th birthday. We're staying in Port Orleans Riverside and have found these boards to be extremely helpful. I'm trying to make our vacation as special as possible and my little sister is a BIG Beauty and the Beast fan. We're trying to figure out lunch options for Be Our Guest but are concerned about waiting on such a long line without any seats for my 87 year old grandfather to sit on (I have also heard the line is in direct sunlight). I called Disney direct because I had heard that there is a fast-pass option only to find out that these were only given to a select few guests. Does anyone know if we can enter our names into a drawing or do anything to be considered for these passes? Thanks in advance for your help!

This is everything you need to know about FP+ for BOG.

 

[andrewilley]

Thank you Andre! I called two days ago and that is what they told me, so I guess another phone call is in order to request a "non" courtyard room, and request the manor terrace.!

If you stay with a Standard View room, you might be best to simply request a non-parking lot view if possible (or request a view of a courtyard, that'd work too). If you switch up to a Garden View room then you at least know that your room won't be over the parking lots.

What is the closest bus depot to preferred building 27 ? South or West ? Thanks for any info.

South is a tad closer, but there's not a lot in it (if a bus drops off at West first, get off there rather than staying on the bus for another 6 minutes until it gets to the South Depot).

Andre

 

[maryj11]

If you stay with a Standard View room, you might be best to simply request a non-parking lot view if possible (or request a view of a courtyard, that'd work too). If you switch up to a Garden View room then you at least know that your room won't be over the parking lots.




South is a tad closer, but there's not a lot in it (if a bus drops off at West first, get off there rather than staying on the bus for another 6 minutes until it gets to the South Depot).

Andre

Thanks

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

Haven't booked yet for our summer trip yet but Riverside has made it to one of my final 2 choices. Stayed there last in 2009 and had a great visit.

Just a couple questions that may help me make my decision. Booking through Orbitz and preferred room is not a choice. Would book River view since it looks like most of these rooms also offer convenient locations. From looking at the map is there a bridge farther down close to Royal room locations?

Is the boat transportation to Downtown Disney still going with the construction going on at DD?

And what's the best way to get to POFQ from Riverside?

Thanks so much!

 

[mum22]

Doing the 8:00pm dinner show at the Poly what is my best plan to get there, and what time should we leave POR?

 

[alktdknckmom]

We were looking at staying at PO Riverside for our trip in September.

I went on Disney's website and added all my perimeters and it seems that PO Riverside quite a bit cheaper than other moderates. Even cheaper than Values by $500 for the time we're staying. I got a quote of $1711 for 2 adults, 3 kids, disney dining plan, 3 days of tickets, no park hopper/waterparks. I used the "compare" option so I was sure to enter the same specifications for all resorts. Art of Animation was $2192 for the same perimeters and just for comparison, Boardwalk and Yacht club are both deluxe and only $70 more than Art of Animation.

Does anyone know why this seems to be the case?

Thanks!

 

[kelconic]

We were looking at staying at PO Riverside for our trip in September.

I went on Disney's website and added all my perimeters and it seems that PO Riverside quite a bit cheaper than other moderates. Even cheaper than Values by $500 for the time we're staying. I got a quote of $1711 for 2 adults, 3 kids, disney dining plan, 3 days of tickets, no park hopper/waterparks. I used the "compare" option so I was sure to enter the same specifications for all resorts. Art of Animation was $2192 for the same perimeters and just for comparison, Boardwalk and Yacht club are both deluxe and only $70 more than Art of Animation.

Does anyone know why this seems to be the case?

Thanks!

The values (except AofA suites) only accommodate 4 people so you are being quoted for two rooms. POR has specific rooms that have a little Murphy bed which allows them to sleep 5. The AofA suites are quite a bit bigger than the POR rooms, have a small kitchen, and an extra bathroom. That is why they cost more. My family of 5 stayed in both on our trip and liked them both