Tell me about Port Orleans Riverside ...

[Jimmy Mouse]

A little info. We are a once a year vacation family and we go all out. Normal Disney trip is 10 days, Deluxe (Club Level this past September) and budget about $12K for the whole vacation. On our last stay we purchased Platinum Passes so we can go more and spend less on each vacation. I do love the Deluxe but willing to sacrifice for more trips. I really don't think the kids will mind going 3 or 4 times a year I mean, who would complain lol. So for Christmas we got a Nemo Family Suite at AoA for $6k less than the Contemporary would have cost us. I just booked a Spring Break trip 4/20 - 4/28 2019 and I guess it's a busy week so again the Contemporary was going to be over $8k for room only. I researched for about 2 hours and booked POR in a Royal Guest Room garden view for less than $3k room only. I can live with saving $5000.00 knowing I can use Minnie Vans for about $500 for the whole 10 days. I'm feeling pretty good knowing I can take more trips for the same price we spent on one but really know nothing about POR. So anyone have any info? I want the Good, Bad and the Ugly .... and Go!

 

[dansdad]

A little info. We are a once a year vacation family and we go all out. Normal Disney trip is 10 days, Deluxe (Club Level this past September) and budget about $12K for the whole vacation. On our last stay we purchased Platinum Passes so we can go more and spend less on each vacation. I do love the Deluxe but willing to sacrifice for more trips. I really don't think the kids will mind going 3 or 4 times a year I mean, who would complain lol. So for Christmas we got a Nemo Family Suite at AoA for $6k less than the Contemporary would have cost us. I just booked a Spring Break trip 4/20 - 4/28 2019 and I guess it's a busy week so again the Contemporary was going to be over $8k for room only. I researched for about 2 hours and booked POR in a Royal Guest Room garden view for less than $3k room only. I can live with saving $5000.00 knowing I can use Minnie Vans for about $500 for the whole 10 days. I'm feeling pretty good knowing I can take more trips for the same price we spent on one but really know nothing about POR. So anyone have any info? I want the Good, Bad and the Ugly .... and Go!

These will tell you just about everything you could possibly need to know about POR.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...ort-information-and-questions-thread.3374035/

https://www.portorleans.org/

 

[Haley R]

A little info. We are a once a year vacation family and we go all out. Normal Disney trip is 10 days, Deluxe (Club Level this past September) and budget about $12K for the whole vacation. On our last stay we purchased Platinum Passes so we can go more and spend less on each vacation. I do love the Deluxe but willing to sacrifice for more trips. I really don't think the kids will mind going 3 or 4 times a year I mean, who would complain lol. So for Christmas we got a Nemo Family Suite at AoA for $6k less than the Contemporary would have cost us. I just booked a Spring Break trip 4/20 - 4/28 2019 and I guess it's a busy week so again the Contemporary was going to be over $8k for room only. I researched for about 2 hours and booked POR in a Royal Guest Room garden view for less than $3k room only. I can live with saving $5000.00 knowing I can use Minnie Vans for about $500 for the whole 10 days. I'm feeling pretty good knowing I can take more trips for the same price we spent on one but really know nothing about POR. So anyone have any info? I want the Good, Bad and the Ugly .... and Go!

We really like POR (although POFQ is our preferred resort). We enjoy the river and the overall atmosphere of the resort. It's very relaxing and we like the spread out buildings because it's nice to walk outside at night around the resort. We never used the main pool, but the quiet pool was great. We stayed in one of the mansions and really liked it. We only ate breakfast in the food court once and it was less than desirable, but we could've just had a bad experience. We also tried getting into the Boathouse one night, but we were told we would have to wait until 9 pm so make sure you have an ADR if you want to eat there.

I'm a little confused why you would want to spend $500 on Minnie Vans when they have a free bus, but I'm not judging. We never had a bad bus experience at POR.

 

[Karen46]

We enjoyed the Royal Rooms last April and we requested a pool view room which places us close to the bridge and the walk to food was easy.
We also called the bounce back number when we were in the Royal Room for a stay we had already booked at the CR tower room for September and we were able to save $750 for our 4 night stay and I got the tower for under $400 a night. I would try the bounceback when you go in December for your April trip.

POR was very nice, buses were fine. We used a Minnie van for one park opening when we saw the bus stop was crowded but otherwise it was fine. The boat to Disney Springs was easy and pleasant.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

Well ….. I read reviews, location, walking distance, food etc. I just changed to the Yacht Club for only $800 more with the Gift of Magical promo so …… But thanks for those that replied!!!

 

[Aerodyne78]

A little info. We are a once a year vacation family and we go all out. Normal Disney trip is 10 days, Deluxe (Club Level this past September) and budget about $12K for the whole vacation. On our last stay we purchased Platinum Passes so we can go more and spend less on each vacation. I do love the Deluxe but willing to sacrifice for more trips. I really don't think the kids will mind going 3 or 4 times a year I mean, who would complain lol. So for Christmas we got a Nemo Family Suite at AoA for $6k less than the Contemporary would have cost us. I just booked a Spring Break trip 4/20 - 4/28 2019 and I guess it's a busy week so again the Contemporary was going to be over $8k for room only. I researched for about 2 hours and booked POR in a Royal Guest Room garden view for less than $3k room only. I can live with saving $5000.00 knowing I can use Minnie Vans for about $500 for the whole 10 days. I'm feeling pretty good knowing I can take more trips for the same price we spent on one but really know nothing about POR. So anyone have any info? I want the Good, Bad and the Ugly .... and Go!

We stayed at POR a couple weeks ago, also in a Royal Room. We LOVED it. It was a first time staying there, we've always stayed at Value Resorts on previous trips. POR was peaceful & quiet, never heard any noise. Our closest bus stop was the East stop & it was a breeze getting on & off the buses. I would stay there again in a heartbeat. We have an 8 year old daughter, and she got a kick out of the room, especially the headboards with the fireworks. It's a beautiful room!

 

[Aerodyne78]

We really like POR (although POFQ is our preferred resort). We enjoy the river and the overall atmosphere of the resort. It's very relaxing and we like the spread out buildings because it's nice to walk outside at night around the resort. We never used the main pool, but the quiet pool was great. We stayed in one of the mansions and really liked it. We only ate breakfast in the food court once and it was less than desirable, but we could've just had a bad experience. We also tried getting into the Boathouse one night, but we were told we would have to wait until 9 pm so make sure you have an ADR if you want to eat there.

I'm a little confused why you would want to spend $500 on Minnie Vans when they have a free bus, but I'm not judging. We never had a bad bus experience at POR.

We used a Minnie Van on our last night. MK was open until 11pm and it wasn't EMH. Our feet were killing us, we were tired, and already bummed that it was our last night, so we opted for the Minnie Van. We knew that we'd get to the resort faster because there was already a LONG bus line to get back to POR, and we knew that whenever we did get on the bus, we'd have to stand, and we didn't want to. The Minnie Van was the way to go on busy nights, and we've already added a few van rides into our next trip budget.

 

[nkereina]

Is that $500 estimate for Minnie Vans under the new pricing structure?

Yacht Club is nice, but for a savings of $800, POR would suit us just fine. We think it has the best food court on property and the boat to Disney Springs is great. If I were taking as many trips a year as you seem to be planning, I would be less worried about proximity to the parks since time wouldn't be of the essence.

 

[Haley R]

We used a Minnie Van on our last night. MK was open until 11pm and it wasn't EMH. Our feet were killing us, we were tired, and already bummed that it was our last night, so we opted for the Minnie Van. We knew that we'd get to the resort faster because there was already a LONG bus line to get back to POR, and we knew that whenever we did get on the bus, we'd have to stand, and we didn't want to. The Minnie Van was the way to go on busy nights, and we've already added a few van rides into our next trip budget.

I guess it works for some people. It’s not an added expense we would like to add to our trip.

 

[Aerodyne78]

I guess it works for some people. It’s not an added expense we would like to add to our trip.

For us, it's not something we plan to use every night of our trip. Truthfully, we didn't even plan on it until the night of. By this time we were so exhausted from a long (and fun!) week, we just wanted to get back to our room ASAP. That night, MK was the busiest we had encountered all week, and our patience was already somewhat thin from Epcot earlier in the day (it was packed from F&W, and some folks there weren't being very considerate of those around them). Like I said, for our next trip we plan on budgeting some Minnie Van trips at night if/when the parks are extremely crowded & we don't feel like waiting on multiple buses just to get back to the room.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

We stayed at POR a couple weeks ago, also in a Royal Room. We LOVED it. It was a first time staying there, we've always stayed at Value Resorts on previous trips. POR was peaceful & quiet, never heard any noise. Our closest bus stop was the East stop & it was a breeze getting on & off the buses. I would stay there again in a heartbeat. We have an 8 year old daughter, and she got a kick out of the room, especially the headboards with the fireworks. It's a beautiful room!

I seen pics of the room and yes they are beautiful no doubt! But my girls favorite park is HS and mine is Epcot so the yacht club should work great for us. I plan on trying something different each trip and going on shorter trips here and there so POR is on our list.

 

[4dents]

We stayed at POR once several years ago as we were traveling with other family members who needed space to accommodate five people. Overall, we enjoyed POR - no major complaints. We've also stayed at All Star Sports, All Star Movies, Pop Century, POFQ and Animal Kingdom Lodge (AKL). Of these, POFQ is, without a doubt, our family's favorite, primarily because of the theming and small size of the resort. POFQ is always at the top of our list for our travel agent to search when booking our Disney reservations. This year, we booked a very short Disney vacation in advance of our Disney cruise and decided to "splurge" a bit; so, we booked three nights at Wilderness Lodge; we originally booked POFQ but opted to upgrade given the short duration of our stay (hence, justifying the cost . . . ).

Granted, you may be "spoiled" a bit from having stayed in Deluxes, but I think you'll be pleased with POR . . . but I'd TRY to reserve POFQ if possible!

 

[ArmyVet80]

You would save a significant amount of money if you don't do the Minnie Van service and just use normal Uber or Lyft. It was going to cost us $30.00 to go from Yacht Club to the Contemporary for dinner one night if we used the Minnie Van service. We used a regular Lyft and it cost us $15.00 with the tip. 50% less for the same trip and it included the tip. We also took an Uber from Yacht Club to Wilderness Lodge (Artists Point) for dinner one night and it would have been $28.00 through the Minnie Van service and was only $14.00 with tip via Uber.