Thinking of staying at POR, comparison help please

[tinkerpea]

Hi all,
We are looking at staying at POR for 2 or 3 wks next may, there is 5 of us DH myself and 3 boys twins who will be 8 and a 11 yr old!

I just wanted to get some comparisons from other resorts I've stayed in, so I can try and compare the size
We have stayed at
Pop twice (2 rooms as we took my mum aswell)
AKL ( again 2 rooms took Dm)
SSR 2 bedroom....loved loved loved this place
AOA LMR (2 rooms)

We was really scared about the size of SSR de to size and everyone who kept saying it was huge, but found it not to be that bad as we was right next to the pool and bus stop at paddock section.

Also we found the walk from LMR to the food court to be nothing, not sure if we are just used to walking or don't mind it due to the buzz of Disney lol!
Anyways
1.what would you say the room size is like compared to the resorts I've mentioned

2. Resort size compared to resorts mentioned, I.e how far from room section that has the 5 person rooms to the food court/bus stops/ main pool.....

I understand it might be a bit of a squash for the amount of time we like to stay but the 2 bed villas unless we get a good discount like last time wil price us out we're hoping to use the room mainly for sleeping, our boy will be old enough that we can stay out later at night other in the park dinner or pool side

Thanks for any help you can give me ..

 

[Deb & Bill]

The murphy bed is a little bigger than crib sized. About 5.5' by 2.5'. Will your youngest fit on that?

 

[tinkerpea]

The murphy bed is a little bigger than crib sized. About 5.5' by 2.5'. Will your youngest fit on that?

Ha yes he will fit just fine, I have looked up pics of the rooms at the fold down bed looks to be perfect size for either of my twins as they are only little,
A lot of pics on trip adviser have pics of kids laying on the bed that look to be around 12/13?

If it does become an issue they would just share the queen bed.

 

[webstah]

Check out this thread, and this website
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3063960
www.portorleans.org

Alligator Bayou is the section that sleeps 5. You can book a preferred room in Alligator Bayou (the only section that has the preferred catagory) and be close to the main building and one of 4 bus stops, as well as near a quiet pool and the main pool.

 

[Tinkerpeas hubby]

Check out this thread, and this website
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3063960
www.portorleans.org

Alligator Bayou is the section that sleeps 5. You can book a preferred room in Alligator Bayou (the only section that has the preferred catagory) and be close to the main building and one of 4 bus stops, as well as near a quiet pool and the main pool.

I'm using Dh phone so it's set to his user name,
I have looked all the way through that thread thank you
I'm looking more for any comparisons of the POR resort compared to ones I stayed in, I'm trying g to get a feel for the size of the resort rooms, distance from room sections to bus stop so I can see if the walking distance is something we are used to, and also how spread out the resort is size wise to get to pools and food court

Hope that makes sense, my biggest regret is that I didn't take the boat to POR from SSR in October as I would have known what it was like then!
I've looked at loads of pictures but I can't gage the info or feel from the pics if I could get some views of others it would help

 

[nkereina]

Rooms will be bigger than the values you have stayed in but smaller than the deluxes you've stayed in. Frankly, I think the new placement of the murphy bed in the AB rooms takes up more room and storage space than before. However, the decor of the room is now nicer IMO. You will be in AB since you are a family of 5, so check out a resort map to request a building that is convenient for you. All of the AB buildings are near at least a quiet pool and a bus stop, but some can be rather remote from the main pool and food court. I wouldn't let it discourage you from staying there, but it's not too convenient if you need to run out to fill up mugs or something. If you are concerned about the building locations, you could always book a preferred room.

 

[Tinkerpeas hubby]

Rooms will be bigger than the values you have stayed in but smaller than the deluxes you've stayed in. Frankly, I think the new placement of the murphy bed in the AB rooms takes up more room and storage space than before. However, the decor of the room is now nicer IMO. You will be in AB since you are a family of 5, so check out a resort map to request a building that is convenient for you. All of the AB buildings are near at least a quiet pool and a bus stop, but some can be rather remote from the main pool and food court. I wouldn't let it discourage you from staying there, but it's not too convenient if you need to run out to fill up mugs or something. If you are concerned about the building locations, you could always book a preferred room.

Thank you ( I'm using Dh phone) I've looked at the POR map, and where abouts the rooms are at AB section, I'm thinking since we didn't find SSR to much I a trek from place to place that we will find POR just fine I mean nothing is as big as SSR lol!

I think we will bring collapsible storage boxes with us so we can pack away the boys clothes, infact I think the best thing we could do to save space is bring one of those hangers with the storage space shelves in, that way we can hang it on the clothes rail and put all the boys clothes away as if they was drawers
I'd prob bring one for my clothes too!
And then have a pop up bin for the dirty clothes we want to wash, this should help us with any storage issues we will face.

 

[robinb]

Can you afford a 1BR at SSR or OKW? I think that a room at POR will be way too small for a family of 5 for 2-3 weeks.

 

[Magic3forme]

for 2 weeks I would stay in one of the villas. We have 5 and the rooms at POR for 2 weeks would be awfully crowded. also having a full kitchen/ washer dryer would be a huge advantage... not to mention 2 bathrooms

I would try a villa in AK - Kidani... 3 bathrooms in a 2 bedroom.

 

[robinb]

for 2 weeks I would stay in one of the villas. We have 5 and the rooms at POR for 2 weeks would be awfully crowded. also having a full kitchen/ washer dryer would be a huge advantage... not to mention 2 bathrooms

I would try a villa in AK - Kidani... 3 bathrooms in a 2 bedroom.

The Kidani 1BRs sleep 5 (king bed, fold out couch and sleep chair) and have 2 bathrooms.

 

[tinkerpea]

Can you afford a 1BR at SSR or OKW? I think that a room at POR will be way too small for a family of 5 for 2-3 weeks.

Yes we proberly can afford a 1 bed at SSR i did not realise the 1 bed slept 5, dh and I would love our own room, i do think we may struggle after having so much room last trip, and as in my OP we have stayed 3 wks at SSR last October in a 2 bed and loved it!
My thing is I would love to try POR, and so was wondering what others thought plus it would be a lot cheaper if they are stopping the discounts to the UK ( they seem to be cut dramatically ) I got 40% off the 2 bed plus free DDP so it was perfect!

I'm pretty stuck, I know that now the boys are older they will want to be out of the room more, and so I'm not sure apart from sleeping how much time we will spend in the room, I NEVER cook on holiday I do enough of that at home lol and so I really don't need the kitchen I did not use any of it last trip apart from the fridge, and even then a mini one would have done due to always using the resort mugs to refill before bed.

 

[tinkerpea]

for 2 weeks I would stay in one of the villas. We have 5 and the rooms at POR for 2 weeks would be awfully crowded. also having a full kitchen/ washer dryer would be a huge advantage... not to mention 2 bathrooms

I would try a villa in AK - Kidani... 3 bathrooms in a 2 bedroom.

We adored our 3wk stay at AKL in 2010 our boys loved everything about the resort, and we actually used to go across to the kidani section a lot due to the kids water play area an the slide opening ( they liked getting the different blow up animals not just the flamingoes) so if I can afford it and they had the availability then i would def consider it, I guess I'm trying to save penny's on this trip " unless we sell the house or my health insurance finally pays out then it will be the 2 bed at AKL lol

 

[KELLY]

I think you will be fine. But we also stay in a value for 2 weeks with 4 of us. I think on this board 2 things that get blown up. The walk from the room to the food court and the room size. Yes the rooms aren't huge but I would rather save the money. I'm with you and didn't think the LM rooms were far.

 

[Sue M]

I'd take a look on the first pages at the resort maps. We stay in the mansions, but in AB section you will see rooms close to the bridge over to old man island and north depot. So you'd be close to main pool, and just walk past pool to food court. Plus you would be a short walk to north depot bus stop. I avoid main bus stop, it's a mess. Way to chaotic for me. We always use that north depot or a east.
We love POR and never feel its to long a walk to get anywhere.

 

[gilesmt]

If you get a preferred room you will be very close to the main buildings and food court, swimming in big pool, and they are the rooms with the 5th sleeping area, Murphy bed.

We loved POR.

Tip since you are staying so long and have boys old enough to be a few minutes away. If you are in preferred, do the laundry, have the boys be in swim suits, you can let them swim in the quiet pool right outside while the laundry is being done. Don't quote me on this, but I am almost positive that there was showers also, so I would shower the kids after their swim and save time showering them in the one bathroom. Killing two birds with one stone. Someone told me they could not find a shower, so I am confused, only went once to POR, the other time I was at SoG and we never used the pool, so I was sure it was at POR. My girls were teens and always wanted a shower to get the soap out of hair and I remember this was great for them, and the baby just went in with them and saved so much time with one bathroom, especially for girls, boys are different, not as much fuss.

To save some time with breakfast, we had cereal one day, that night we would go to pofq coming home and get a bag of the fried dough, and bananas, the kids would eat them on the way to the bus the next morning and was enough to hold them off till 11 at lunch time. Pofq shares buses, so you can get off there, get your fixes and get back on the bus or walk back, about 15 minute walk along river, 5 min bus back, or even take the boat back up to POR.

Another thing we liked was we could share pools, back then, don't know about still doing, but my kids love to swim but POR was crowded some days, we went to pofq by boat and swim and then back.

POR is a great place for kids.

 

[webstah]

Last year, we were in AB building 24, about as far from the main building as you can get facing the parking lot, and right near the path to the west depot (Partierre Place closest to POFQ is about the same) and it was only about a 7 minute walk to the food court. POR and POFQ are sister resorts, and joined by a walkway along the river. You can use the POFQ pool, and even from building 24, it was about a 20 minute walk to POFQ for Begniets.

 

[robinb]

Last year, we were in AB building 24, about as far from the main building as you can get facing the parking lot, and right near the path to the west depot (Partierre Place closest to POFQ is about the same) and it was only about a 7 minute walk to the food court. POR and POFQ are sister resorts, and joined by a walkway along the river. You can use the POFQ pool, and even from building 24, it was about a 20 minute walk to POFQ for Begniets.

Did you walk through the parking lot? I was in building 35 and it was a LONG walk to the food court. Longer than just 7 minutes through the twisty-turny paths. If I were to stay at POR again I would stay over at in one of the Mansions but I realize that is not an option for the OP.

 

[webstah]

Did you walk through the parking lot? I was in building 35 and it was a LONG walk to the food court. Longer than just 7 minutes through the twisty-turny paths. If I were to stay at POR again I would stay over at in one of the Mansions but I realize that is not an option for the OP.

No we followed the path, but it wasn't as twisty as some of the others. We could walk off the stairs near the quiet pool, and it was a pretty straight shot down past building 27 (the side farthest from the food court). I timed it a couple of times when I went to get coffee for myself and my wife.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Did you walk through the parking lot? I was in building 35 and it was a LONG walk to the food court. Longer than just 7 minutes through the twisty-turny paths. If I were to stay at POR again I would stay over at in one of the Mansions but I realize that is not an option for the OP.

I think we were also in Bldg 35, but I felt like the walk was more of the journey rather than just a way to get to the food court. It was a really nice walk.