Question about size of POR

[3littlecuties]

We stayed at Polynesian for our last trip largely due to proximity to the parks and ease of getting there with three little ones. For our next trip, we would like to stay somewhere a bit cheaper if possible, but it is my understanding that the only moderate resort that can accommodate 5 is POR.

I'm looking at the info for POR and it looks very large and spread out. Is this the case or does it just look this way? Is it a long walk to get anywhere? I guess we can pay for a preferred location room. Does that make walking distances shorter? I'm worried about my children being able to walk too far (especially my daughter with Down syndrome).

My other concern is that there are 4 stops for the bus. Does this make the trip to the parks that much longer? And is it hard to get on the buses if they fill up on other stops?

 

[nkereina]

We stayed at Poly on our first trip and POR twice since. We are two adults with no kids, so our experience may difference, but even though POR may be considered large, it's well laid out. CBR, for example, is elongated and if you're at the furthest building, it's a hike. POR is spread out in more of a circle, with various bridges connecting to the path to the main building. Since you are a family of 5, you will automatically be placed in AB, so you could book a preferred to ensure you are close to everything.

The multiple bus stops don't add on much time, IMO. Sometimes, the buses don't even stop at the others or there may not be someone waiting at one of the other stops. We never found it to be a problem.

 

[goofyintoronto]

I was expecting POR to be massive when i first went....but I was pleasantly surprised because it wasnt large at all! Its a nice size. Its a gorgeous resort, its one of my fave mods. I also love the boat to DTD and the bike rentals.

I personally dont like POFQ, it just doesnt appeal to me. But if youre wanting a smaller resort, you might consider it.

 

[2manydaves]

We've stayed at POR multiple times w/ our family of 5. It is a big resort, and the walk to the food court / main pool from some AB buildings can be 10-15 minutes. My kids have never seemed to mind the walk. The paths are beautiful and peaceful.

We never had an issue with any of the bus stops. Multiple bus stops mean there's always going to be one pretty close to your room, and the buses have always come regularly. I don't remember having to wait more than five or ten minutes.

We did find that the wait for the bus back to POR after nighttime entertainment at MK was longer than for many other resorts, so you might want to keep that in mind.

I think POR is a great value for a family of five and I'm certain we will stay there again in the future.

 

[Shaden]

We've stayed at POR multiple times w/ our family of 5. It is a big resort, and the walk to the food court / main pool from some AB buildings can be 10-15 minutes. My kids have never seemed to mind the walk. The paths are beautiful and peaceful.

We never had an issue with any of the bus stops. Multiple bus stops mean there's always going to be one pretty close to your room, and the buses have always come regularly. I don't remember having to wait more than five or ten minutes.

We did find that the wait for the bus back to POR after nighttime entertainment at MK was longer than for many other resorts, so you might want to keep that in mind.

I think POR is a great value for a family of five and I'm certain we will stay there again in the future.

The walk from the farthest building to the Food Court/pools is 500 yards.

15 mins, only if you are slowly walking to enjoy the scenery/experience.

 

[aylarosie]

Stayed at POR in March this year,we were in th a ABY section wich sleeps 5 .The walk wasn't bad,my husband used a scooter but I walked it many times.You could call and have them note your daughter needs a room closer to the food court.That would also put you near main pool.The busses were great and the boat to downtown was fun. The BBob show is a must see for the kids they will love it ,though I thought it started a little late for some. We were right next to the "quiet"pool and near west bus stop.Another idea is to rent a stroller for the kids even if you don't push them its someplace to put all the stuff you need for three kids. I think you will enjoy the resort. Nan

 

[3pletprincesses]

POR is our favorite place to stay and we walk a lot there by choice. I would say that the further room all the way to the main building would take us about 15 minutes but we have 6 yo kids. The size of the resort is what we like the most. You can go outside and enjoy alone time at that resort. you will see other people around but nothing compare to the other resorts IMO. We stayed at a value once and we really didn't like the way it was crowded every where.

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

There's a huge POR thread here on the board with tons & tons of information and maps of POR, along with a link to a website for POR. We've stayed there several times and are actually going back again tomorrow. I always book a preferred room which is in the Alligator Bayou section close to the food court and main pool & bus stop. We were in building 18 last time a quick walk to everywhere and there was a quiet pool right behind our building. Can't wait to see where we are tomorrow.

 

[2manydaves]

The walk from the farthest building to the Food Court/pools is 500 yards.

15 mins, only if you are slowly walking to enjoy the scenery/experience.

Thanks for measuring it. OP has three small children, as do I. That's how long it took us to walk it from Building 24. Just trying to share our experience and give an honest answer.

 

[teentoddlermom]

We stayed at Polynesian for our last trip largely due to proximity to the parks and ease of getting there with three little ones. For our next trip, we would like to stay somewhere a bit cheaper if possible, but it is my understanding that the only moderate resort that can accommodate 5 is POR.

I'm looking at the info for POR and it looks very large and spread out. Is this the case or does it just look this way? Is it a long walk to get anywhere? I guess we can pay for a preferred location room. Does that make walking distances shorter? I'm worried about my children being able to walk too far (especially my daughter with Down syndrome).

My other concern is that there are 4 stops for the bus. Does this make the trip to the parks that much longer? And is it hard to get on the buses if they fill up on other stops?

No doubt about it, there is a lot of walking involved when you stay at PORS. I've been 3 times since Feb 2012, and have stayed in Acadian House, (right by the North depot), AB building 38, and Oak Manor 9027. AB is the area that has the pull down bed for a family of 5. The resort is so spread out that there are only a few preferred buildings, AB14 being very close, but you must pay extra for preferred, and those rooms never seem to be available to book. I would recommend you try for that. And the bus service is spotty. We've had some terrible waits, and no waits at all. It is hard to figure. If you are there at a non-peak time, in addition to the 4 stops at PORS, they will stop at POFQ. However, if you can get past the idiosyncrasies of this resort, it is such a lovely place to stay. It is now just about my favorite resort, and you can see by my signature that I've stayed at a lot of different resorts.
Have you noticed that when you go to AK or HS from the MK resort area that you have to take a bus? My experience staying at the GF was that we had to share with Cont and Poly, so that was just as long as the PORS bus loop. And when you go to Epcot you have to change from the resort monorail to the Epcot Monorail, and that's a bit of a pain too. So my suggestion is to book a preferred room at PORS and take your chances with the bus. Good luck!

 

[GetGlowing]

There are four preferred buildings at POR. Check out PortOrleans.org for everything you need to know and a lot of stuff you didn't think you needed to know! lol

http://portorleans.org/room-requests.php has detailed list of room types, locations, maps, and more, and check out the POR thread here, too.

 

[Chuckers]

When it comes to any resort, the upcharge for a preferred room is usually worth it. In this case it's $10 a night.. not a lot with all things considered.

 

[julluvsdisney]

POR is awesome! We LOVE it! We stayed last august with our 9 and 4 yr old boys. AB was so awesome! Our only regret was not booking a preferred room. We book standard and we were in building 36. It was a bit of a hike when you wanted to get food quickly or you were tired after a long day (we would usually get off at the south depot to stop at the food court to fill our mugs at the end of the night and walk back to our room).
I think the walk was 5-10 min walk depending on how tired we were! It's worth the extra money to get a preferred room. My in laws stayed preferred while we were in standard and they were so close to everything! This trip in June we are staying preferred and I couldn't be happier(it wasn't originally available when I booked the spring promo but I was lucky to have it open up)! I know the theming is totally different from the poly but it has that same lushness! Its a beautiful resort! as far as the busses go we always got on at the south depot and almost always got a seat (unless we were going for RD that was little busier but I think you'll find that at most resorts at that time of day). I never felt like we were on the bus very long. Only problem we had was a few times when we would stay until park closing there seemed to be a lot of people going back to POR. But then again most of the resorts bus lines were pretty busy so it may have just been that time of year/day! Have a great trip!

 

[gilesmt]

This is a perspective from a blind person with very limited sight. We loved POR and if not military with SoG option this would be our resort choice, we stayed in 2008. For s person who is blind, the resort is very laid out and confusing, at first we were placed in the mansion that starts with a "p". To me this was the worst, I could not navigate the paths up to the mansion, there may have been an elevator but I could never find it, and it was a long way to the front building. After being lost in a raining down pour we were placed in building 14 AB section. Much much better, food court 2 minutes away, bus stop 2 minutes away, quiet pool 3 minutes away, main pool 3 minutes away. It is definately worth a few extra dollars for a prefered room and I would pay the price. As for the bus stops, POR does have 4 stops and it also stops some times at pofq, it was a little confusing to me, but I never found it long or extra crowded except for late night after park closes and then they all seemed to be crowded. Hope that helps.

 

[katielafave]

We just upgraded to a preferred room today for all the above reasons. With 2 small children convenience ranks high for us.

 

[Missytara]

This is a perspective from a blind person with very limited sight. We loved POR and if not military with SoG option this would be our resort choice, we stayed in 2008. For s person who is blind, the resort is very laid out and confusing, at first we were placed in the mansion that starts with a "p". To me this was the worst, I could not navigate the paths up to the mansion, there may have been an elevator but I could never find it, and it was a long way to the front building. After being lost in a raining down pour we were placed in building 14 AB section. Much much better, food court 2 minutes away, bus stop 2 minutes away, quiet pool 3 minutes away, main pool 3 minutes away. It is definately worth a few extra dollars for a prefered room and I would pay the price. As for the bus stops, POR does have 4 stops and it also stops some times at pofq, it was a little confusing to me, but I never found it long or extra crowded except for late night after park closes and then they all seemed to be crowded. Hope that helps.

For future reference, you can place a request on your ressie for a medical disability and they would have placed you in a more convenient area.

Also, AB 14 is now one of the 4 preferred buildings, so now you can book preferred and request to be placed in AB 14.

 

[mb187143]

POR is the one and only Disney resort we visited that I would not stay at again in the future. DH and I have stayed at many, value to deluxe, and the only one we disliked was POR, due to the layout. We were in parterre place, so it was a hike to get everywhere. The bus stop at the main building was our frequent choice, as the one "closest" to or building was equidistant from our room but often the last stop so buses would sometimes keep on going because they were too full.

The walk to the feature pool was longer than I really felt like dealing with for a mid day break, but the quiet pool was fairly close. The lines for the buses at night from the park to POR were sometimes so long we'd take the POFQ bus (if they weren't shared) and walk back from there. The last thing we really felt like doing was adding more walking but I'd rather be moving than standing in a bus line.

We stayed at CSR and CBR before and after POR, and we didn't find those resorts to be nearly as frustrating. It's personal preference though. It just wasn't the resort for us at all.

 

[rosiegmendez]

For future reference, you can place a request on your ressie for a medical disability and they would have placed you in a more convenient area.

Also, AB 14 is now one of the 4 preferred buildings, so now you can book preferred and request to be placed in AB 14.

Agree! Thanks to this forum, we requested building 16 for AB (standard rate but in "preferred" area) and it was a 5 minute walk, if that, to pool, dining hall, lobby, bus stop, etc.

We are a family of 5, kids loved the bunk bed. Buses were not really an issue at all but I'm used to having to drive to Disneyland, park, drive back home at night. It was nice to hop on a bus and have someone else do the driving!

Have fun!

 

[3littlecuties]

Have you noticed that when you go to AK or HS from the MK resort area that you have to take a bus? My experience staying at the GF was that we had to share with Cont and Poly, so that was just as long as the PORS bus loop. And when you go to Epcot you have to change from the resort monorail to the Epcot Monorail, and that's a bit of a pain too. So my suggestion is to book a preferred room at PORS and take your chances with the bus. Good luck!

With little ones, we spent most of our time at MK and Epcot. We took the monorail at both of those and didn't mind the stops because our kids enjoyed the monorail ride so much. We actually didn't have to switch to go to Epcot because you can easily walk to the TTC from Poly and get on directly there.

We ended up driving our car to both AK and HS because we didn't want to deal with the buses. We just found it very hard to hold hands with little ones and carry a diaper bag while one of us had to fold up a double stroller and try to get everyone on the bus. We experienced that in 2008 when we stayed at the Wilderness cabins and that even had an extra bus due to having to get to the end of the campground and that was our most disliked part of the trip.

Actually, this is making me reconsider our reasons for staying at Poly last year. We will still be in the same situation with a double stroller and even if we don't have a diaper bag any more, we will still have a bag of some sort. Our youngest will be 3 on our next trip so hopefully he will stay with us a little better but I don't know about my daughter who has Down syndrome (she will be 6 by then but she doesn't understand danger and she will run away from us). It just makes the whole getting on the bus process very difficult.

Hmm...something to think about.

 

[mb187143]

With little ones, we spent most of our time at MK and Epcot. We took the monorail at both of those and didn't mind the stops because our kids enjoyed the monorail ride so much. We actually didn't have to switch to go to Epcot because you can easily walk to the TTC from Poly and get on directly there.

We ended up driving our car to both AK and HS because we didn't want to deal with the buses. We just found it very hard to hold hands with little ones and carry a diaper bag while one of us had to fold up a double stroller and try to get everyone on the bus. We experienced that in 2008 when we stayed at the Wilderness cabins and that even had an extra bus due to having to get to the end of the campground and that was our most disliked part of the trip.

Actually, this is making me reconsider our reasons for staying at Poly last year. We will still be in the same situation with a double stroller and even if we don't have a diaper bag any more, we will still have a bag of some sort. Our youngest will be 3 on our next trip so hopefully he will stay with us a little better but I don't know about my daughter who has Down syndrome (she will be 6 by then but she doesn't understand danger and she will run away from us). It just makes the whole getting on the bus process very difficult.

Hmm...something to think about.

We found the trip to and from the MK to POR to be the most consistently frustrating. The MK bus was always packed after the first stop so standing room only for the remaining three. The line for POR leaving the MK on a night where it closed later with no parade or fireworks was so long it went through two bus queues and up the entire middle of the covered bus area. It was even longer on a night where there was a parade and wishes. We took the bus to POFQ and walked back but it was a hike at the end of a very long day. This was during a low crowd time in September, I don't even want to imagine it during peak crowds. Your mileage may vary depending on when you hit the bus stops, but we're not the only ones we know who had the experience above.

Also the room size is drastically smaller than the Poly, so prepare yourself for that. That's true of any mod, those rooms are much smaller than the Poly rooms. Just something to be aware of.