The New and Updated Port Orleans Riverside FAQ Thread for 2008 --- NOW CLOSED

[Blake29]

Just returned from POR. I loved it. Everything everyone has said about it is true. Ill post a small TR later. Need sleep. BTW thanks Andre. I would recommend it to everyone!!!

Blake

 

[Golf4food]

After receiving some surprisingly good news yesterday we just booked an unexpected trip to POR for May. Woo hoo! Heading back to our favorite resort. Now if only it was closer than it is... we're in withdrawl.

 

[Jill Schwartz]

I'm almost convinced to switch from one room at Poly to two connecting (hopefully!) at POR for our family of two adults and three young teens.
This saves us almost $500 and we get two bathrooms, two TVs and a hot tub in the pool area!

My only holdback is what I've read about the buses at POR over the years.
We would be there Aug 29-Sept 5 considered "value" season. I would like to request building 26/27.
We normally are at parks for rope drop, so leave hotel an hour before parks open. If we went to West depot, would we end up on the same bus that just picked up riders from South? If so, would we be better off to walk to South?
Would this change for the once or twice we might go at "off" times...after an afternoon break and heading back to a park for dinner or EMH?
Thinking about renting a car, but then the savings over the Poly diminish...

Stayed at Poly once and it was gorgeous and convenient but having a hard time swallowing the cost for just one room/bathroom, and the pool and walkways always seemed a bit "crowded' there. Is POR quieter in this way?

 

[Caitsmama]

Jill, good luck in your decision.. however, i think you would have to personally drag me kicking and screaming from the Poly to POR.. LOL but, i guess it's all in what your taste is.. but, you have valid reasons for making a switch -- i am just a total Poly lover!

 

[webstah]

We always go just before Labor day, and the busses can be an issue later in the mornig.
When we are up early, we don't generally have much issue.
As far as the peace and quiet at POR, we were there in 2005, and POR had the overflow for one of the sports events.
The resort was filled to capacity. You could tell in the food court at the normal peak times, but other than that, with the 5 quiet pools plus the main pool, it was hard to tell there were that many people there.
Very quiet and relaxing.

 

[anthonyshine]

Can't wait!!!! Sorry, thats all!..just a little excited.!

 

[cottontail]

Hi Jill:

We are doing two rooms at por and a few nights at the end at the poly. These two resorts are favs of ours. I find it hard to go to wdw and not do both resorts.

Deb.

 

[DisneymoonJess07]

I'm almost convinced to switch from one room at Poly to two connecting (hopefully!) at POR for our family of two adults and three young teens.
This saves us almost $500 and we get two bathrooms, two TVs and a hot tub in the pool area!

My only holdback is what I've read about the buses at POR over the years.
We would be there Aug 29-Sept 5 considered "value" season. I would like to request building 26/27.
We normally are at parks for rope drop, so leave hotel an hour before parks open. If we went to West depot, would we end up on the same bus that just picked up riders from South? If so, would we be better off to walk to South?
Would this change for the once or twice we might go at "off" times...after an afternoon break and heading back to a park for dinner or EMH?
Thinking about renting a car, but then the savings over the Poly diminish...

Stayed at Poly once and it was gorgeous and convenient but having a hard time swallowing the cost for just one room/bathroom, and the pool and walkways always seemed a bit "crowded' there. Is POR quieter in this way?

We went at basically that exact time frame last year (Aug. 30 - Sept 7) and the bus situation was fine. We had terrible timing and often ended up running for the bus right as it got to the stop, but there were often buses coming fairly regularly, so it wasn't really an issue. We used the main depot (the one right by the restaurant, etc), and I think, if I remember correctly, that the buses depended on which park you were going to. I think for Magic Kingdom the main stop was the last stop before going to the park and for some of the others it was the first stop and you had to go around the circle before you got to leave the lot. However, it really didn't take that long, and the only time we were taken to POFQ was on the way back and it still didn't add that much time, since there's only one bus stop at POFQ.

POR is very spread out - if you look at the map of the resort you see that it's got curving pathways, but there is lots of vegetation all over the place and it's incredibly secluded. We stayed in Parterre Place, and I would recommend that to anyone looking for quiet - it was close to the main depot and lobby, and tehre are enourmous trees between you and the parking lot, so mostly all you see is the pretty river going by. It feels like a whole village of little & bigger complexes with pools and excellent landscaping in between.

:lol: Can you tell we really liked it?

 

[dbxazd]

We are going as a large group (Grand Gathering) with my family, their families and "just-like-family" families right after Thanksgiving this year We absolutely can't wait!!!

 

[andrewilley]

If you like the Poly, then Riverside is probably about the closest moderate match in terms of overall theming, but obviously there are still a lot of other differences - not least of which is the price of course!

As far as crowds go though, even when POR is very busy the people all seem to somehow vanish into the undergrowth. I have NEVER in 15 years of visiting the resort found it crowded once you get away from the main building - I guess because everyone goes off in different directions.

The bottleneck areas are the main lobby at peak checkin times (e.g. when a busload of new guests has just arrived) and the food court after around 9am (try to avoid eating there between 9am and 10.30am if you can help it, it will be rammed. Other than that it's not too bad). Also the boat dock for the Downtown Disney ferries tends to get rather busy late afternoon/early evening (even though the service runs every 10 minutes at that point).


As far as buses go, POR is a big resort and there can sometimes be issues with return buses at park closing time especially. Also, buses in the morning at peak hours (9am-10am) can get rather busy too, but generally there is a cast member on duty at the main South bus stop scheduling fill-in services as needed. We saw that last week (Presidents Day week) when there were a lot of people waiting at the South Depot for one park (MK I think) and three or four buses arrived in quick succession to handle the crowds. It can be a bit hit and miss, but generally works reasonably well (there are always exceptions of course, and those are invaribaly the ones that get posted on the boards... LOL).

The buses which leave from the South Depot do not service the other three POR Depots until about 10.30am (when the crowds have died down a little). The West, North and East stops should get their own separate buses until around 10.30, after which they get the same bus travelling on from South Depot.

However do bear in mind this is all subject to change; the new GPS-tracking system is meant to allow the system to flex as needed, so sometimes unexpected routes will get inserted to cope with extra demand.

Andre

 

[Caitsmama]

If you like the Poly, then Riverside is probably about the closest moderate match in terms of overall theming,

I respectfully disagree there -- If you like the "tropical" type theme, i would check out CBR -- at least it's more in line with the tropical aspect.. It has that whole Jimmy Buffett laid back feel.

 

[Blake29]

Just returned from POR on the 24th. The first 2 days I went to the south depot. We always left from there. We never went to the others. Then after that the bus went from there around to the west,north and east then to the parks. It didnt matter what park it was the same routes around por. Sometimes we would go to FQ and other times we didnt. I was in the Magnolia building and it was close to the east stop. tried both the east and south. really didnt matter. EMH was the best to get to the parks. I was always there by 7am and never had to wait for more than a few minutes. As far as leaving the parks MK was the worst wait. About 20 minutes. only had to stand a few times on the bus. This being my first time staying at a disney property they really have it together. The buses run pretty constant. If you miss one, there will be another one within a few minutes. hope this helps.

Blake

 

[Jill Schwartz]

Thanks everyone for the all the info! I went ahead and booked two rooms at POR instead of one at Poly.

Caitsmama, I do know what you mean about someone having to drag you kicking and screaming from the Poly...we greatly enjoyed our stay there 3 years ago. However even then it got a wee bit annoying sharing one bedroom/one bathroom with three pre-teens for 4 days. Now that they are all teens, I'm worried that 7 days of all that family togetherness 24 hours a day will get on my nerves! POR seemed like a nice middle ground for two rooms, two bathrooms/4 sinks, and $500 less.

Now I just have to figure out a building preference to request. My main concern is the buses (having to wait too long/overly crowded) but it doesn't sound like we can count on one particular depot being better than another.
I thought perhaps 18 or 27 for a combo of convenience but perhaps more quiet/less foottraffic than 14...and they seem mid way b/t South and West depot. Or, 38 looks interesting...seems like it would be quiet but convenient to the bridge to Old Man Island.

Oh, the CM that booked us did say our two rooms would be "guarenteed" connected b/c we could say 2 adults in one room and 3 kids in the other. He also repeated several times that I should check the WDW website at the end of March for new discounts to be released, as well as encouraged me to put the dining plan on my ressie, emphasizing that any dining discounts could be added as well...he brought it up, not me!

 

[webstah]

You could just about spit from buildings 18 or 27 and hit building 14. they are not that far apart.
That being said, our building of preference is building 18. Both 18 and 27 are just a stone's throw from the food court, a quiet pool right outside, and not far from the south depot. I think it would be a bit of a haul for the west depot.

 

[steelernut]

I was wondering if someone might have a list of the corner room #'s for the buildings in Alligator Bayou?? I was going to request one and thought it might help if I could give the room assigner some exact #'s. Any help would be a big help to us because this will be our first trip to WDW.

 

[annmarieda]

just back from our 11 night stay. LOVED this resort despite the rocky start. (I will list that below) First though...what I found amazing.

1. even though it is a huge resort...you would never know. Only one day was the food court crazy busy.

2. The grounds are very beautifully themed.

3. The trundle actually worked for my 6' adult husband. My 5 year old slept there until she had a bad dream about spiders and could not sleep there again. (not that there were any bugs in the room)

4. We never waited long for a bus to the parks. Although often it was a packed bus with guests standing, we never ever waited at the stop more than a few minutes (quite literally) Return trips were similar, however more packed, but still not much waiting.


I hated to leave...can't wait to go back.. Now, for the down side...due to a system crash, our complete res. was lost for hotel, ddp and park tickets. We were placed in a temp. room and housekeeping didn't know we were there for days.. finally, maybe luckily, the hairdryer caught on fire (yes, literally) and we demanded it be fixed immediately. After that, we had beds made and linens and toiletries replaced daily. Prior to that we had requested daily to get new towels and toiletries as one bottle of shampoo for 5 people for several days was not enough. I think had we not checked in so late none of this would have happened...

 

[Caitsmama]

Hi everyone! We will be sleeping at POR tomorrow night! Can someone tell me the length of the pullout trundle bed?? I know it says it's for kids up to about age 10, but i am wondering if anyone has measured the size of it.. TIA!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Hi everyone! We will be sleeping at POR tomorrow night! Can someone tell me the length of the pullout trundle bed?? I know it says it's for kids up to about age 10, but i am wondering if anyone has measured the size of it.. TIA!

I don't know the actual length but here is a picture. It don't remember it being too much shorter than the bed. . .

 

[Caitsmama]

Ok, i just found my info on the POR unofficial site! 70" long... has any adult slept in these beds?? Personally, i am thinking i may want to cram up in this bed v/s sleeping in a double bed with my MIL - i love her, but am not use to sleeping with another person!

 

[Caitsmama]

Thanks for the pic!! But, i am a lil confused.... does the bed NOT connect to the bigger bed in anyway??? I have a trundle bed at my grandmothers house, and it is connected underneath to the bigger bed -- this pic doesn't show that it's connected at all... seems like a glorified mattress on the floor -- is there ANY support under the mattress at all?