Why you like or dislike Port Orleans Riverside

[dumby]

Please let me know why you like or dislike Port Orleans Riverside.

 

[dixiedizfan]

We loooved POR! We stayed in the AB section, which was abundant with gorgeous, lush landscaping. Even walking to the laundry room was a treat, crossing over cute white footbridges to get there. The mansion side of POR is more formally landscaped, but still beautiful. We enjoyed the large foodcourt (they had caramel apples!) and gift shop. Boatwright's restaurant was delicious, too. POR has a large main swimming pool and several smaller quiet pools, which are great. If I had to pick one thing to dislike it would have to be that there are MANY people who stay here, thus making for a very crowded pool and foodcourt. Also a very long line to board the boat to DD. But even though there were a bunch of us waiting for the buses, we never had to wait long for a ride. So far it's our favorite resort.

 

[harleyquinn]

I also loved POR. We were very far (about 7 minutes) from the main building and I loved every minute of the walk. the grounds are so beautiful. We had a quiet pool behind our building that almost never had more than 2 people in it (In August!). We loved Boatwrights and Bob the Pianoman.

I loved every minute. I liked it better than POFQ. We were 5 seconds from everything there, but I loved that quiet relaxed atmosphere at POR much better.

 

[landmark]

We also LOVE POR. We've stayed at both POR and POFQ and prefer POR. I love the quiet atmosphere. The rooms are very adequate and though we haven't stayed in the mansions we just love the AB. Love Bob Jackson. We like the foodcourt over POFQ and prefer the options.

The things we don't like about POR has been that both times we've stayed the busses were really busy and the AB doesn't have elevators. POFQ did have elevators so getting your luggage up was an easier task. All in all the minuses aren't enough to make us not go back. We expect that during busier times all resort busses are going to be busy and we expect that in AB we will get to take the luggage upstairs.

Already planning to go back. PS... Boatwrights has some amazing Banana Stuffed French Toast.

 

[Tiffany]

Just sub to this thread since we will at staying at POR for the first time in Nov.

 

[NCombs]

Loved it because:

1) The grounds are beautiful

2) Family entertainment in the evening at the lounge-Bob Jackson

3) nice food court

4) Our room location was great-Building 27-close to the main building and the main pool

5) Very relaxing

 

[Coloradomom]

We love POR and have stayed there many times. In fact our kids won't even consider staying anywhere else (teenagers). Why?
1. The food court is excellent...a wide variety and they always manage to keep things moving even when busy. Great desserts.
2. Old Man Island...we like to go there for our afternoon break (wish they had more chairs and did not allow smoking however). We also love it in the evening, nice and peaceful.
3. The grounds are lovely. We prefer AB and the more rustic look. We actually prefer to have a room further away because we enjoy the walk...it is not bad at all. The resort never feels crowded when you are walking the grounds because of the way it is laid out.
4. The buses work well for us. (we usually use the west bus stop and rarely is it standing room only to the parks)
5. Boatwrights is a fun place to eat...try the jambalaya!
6. The boat to DTD is quite relaxing, in fact it forces you to relax.

Can we tell...we really like it there?

 

[Noelle]

We've stayed at Port Orleans a couple times and have never been disappointed. We love the theme. My kids love the fishing with cane poles. We love the little boat that takes you to downtown disney. I love having a food court AND Boatwrights depending on what our schedule is like. The pool is great. We've never been disappointed with the bus service. It's a great place to stay and reasonably priced.

 

[ufgator]

I love POR. I've only stayed in the mansions part both times I've been. The grounds are so pretty; I love walking around. We stayed at Panterre Place the last time and I loved it; it was so quiet and the quiet pool was right there. I like the boat to DTD.

The bad part is the main pool is always crowded. Also, we wanted to eat lunch at Boatwright's but it wasn't open for lunch.

 

[NCombs]

Edited-pictures didn't post correctly.

 

[MonkeyPants]

I love Dixie Landings (I refuse to call it POR ) the grounds are so gorgeous, very relaxed feel the property. One of the few properties that I enjoyed just wandering around outside the grounds. The food court is very nice. The entire atmosphere is just great IMO.

I remember the first time I went with my cousins and we went fishing never expected to do that on site. I am not a fisher, but we still had a blast....caught nothing of course, but it was still good fun.

 

[Kycha]

Just got back on Saturday from our stay at POR. I was a little disappointed with this resort. I had requested Alligator Bayou on an upper floor, corner room because that is more my DH and my style. Rustic and charming. We ended up getting an "upgrade" to Magnolia Bend, Acadian House. Now, I did not request the upgrade they just gave it to us, but I am hard pressed to find what the "upgrade" consisted of. We ended up on the first floor with what I believe was a pool view room. Even though the pool was close by, there was no "view" because the foliage surrounding the pool was so dense. So, not one of our requests was met, but the room was nice and we were a minutes walk from a quiet pool. One complaint that I had was that every time I would take a shower, the water never got very hot. I think it is like this throughout the Disney resorts, because we had the same problem at POP Century in December. One other thing, I found the food court to be inadequate. Although the food was edible, it wasn't anything special. Trying to get french toast one morning was excruciating. It took about 20 minutes. And I did not think that their selection of food was very good. The food court at POP Century was much better. We went over to Port Orleans French Quarter for breakfast one morning. We found it much more enjoyable there. Basically the same thing at Riverside but you can get Beignets. Delicious. As you can see we only ate breakfast at Riversides food court, so I can't say anything about lunch or dinner. We did have breakfast and dinner at Boatwrights. They were very good.

Okay, now on to the positives. They have like 6 pools throughout the grounds. The one nearest our room was great. We would spend an hour or two every afternoon at the pool. It was very refreshing. It never got crowded. I think at most there were ten people at the pool the one afternoon we were there. They also have a jacuzzi somewhere on the grounds. We were never able to find it though. The transportation to Downtown Disney was great. Just step onto the ferry and within a half hour you are at the Marketplace ready to go. If you like to shop, go to the movies or visit Pleasure Island this feature is great. We also enjoyed the Marina. We rented a water mouse and spent a fun hour just racing around Sassagoula River. You can also rent bigger boats, bicycles and surrey bikes. They have the carriage rides in the evenings. We didn't get a chance to do this, but it is on the agenda for the next visit. We spent an hour one morning fishing at the Fishin' Hole. It cost about $4/half hour. You get the cane pole, a cup of worms and a towel. It was fun fishing, even though we didn't catch anything. If you enjoy wildlife, I would recommend this. We were able to see all kinds of birds, fish and river turtles. We also spotted a river otter playing in the water.

I hope this information helps in your decision. We would stay at this resort again. We had an enjoyable time.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

We stayed at *Dixie Landings* in 1999. We were there only a couple days but I liked it enough to book it again for this upcoming visit (Nov/Dec). We have also stayed at Yacht Club, Poly, and Pop. I liked the POR food court back in '99 for the variety. I just loved the whole feel of the place. The grounds were peaceful and beautiful.

It will be 6 yo DGS and myself. I had planned on taking him fishing at the hole, but now that I find out you get a cup or worms, I don't think there is any way I can handle this. I know it sounds crazy, but I honestly can't imagine having anything to do with worms. I wonder if there is a way to fish without dealing with the worms, as in another type of bait.

Thanks,
Tink

 

[BelleBoo&AmisMum]

LOVE POR! We spent a week there last October and I'm in the early planning stages of my 30th b-day return trip there in '07! We stayed in Magnolia Bend Parterre Place and had an awesome room, it was quiet, we had a bridge right out front to get to the main building and the quiet pool was a 45 second walk away! The kids loved watching the boats on the Sassagoula and taking the boat to DTD. We were there with our three kids and had enough room to be comfortable! Every morning on our way to the car DD would go looking for the bunnies that were hanging out around our building. It was just perfect!

Our first room was over in AB and we had to request a move, it hadn't been remodeled yet and had a slight musty smell to it and DD has asthma, we were moved quickly and without problem! I can't want to go back!

 

[kaytieeldr]

It will be 6 yo DGS and myself. I had planned on taking him fishing at the hole, but now that I find out you get a cup or worms, I don't think there is any way I can handle this. I know it sounds crazy, but I honestly can't imagine having anything to do with worms. I wonder if there is a way to fish without dealing with the worms, as in another type of bait.

Thanks,
Tink

Sure, why not? You're not actually planning on catching any fish anyway, are you? Isn't it catch-and-release? So, just fish with no bait!

 

[mrscoobs]

Love the theming of the property (ever realize that the buildings are supposed to look more and more rustic as you travel up river from POFQ to the end of Alligator Bayou).
-The foliage is wonderful as it has had time to grow and gives the resort a wonderful feel.
-The carriage rides are very nice, and their presence gives even more atmosphere as the clip-clops from the horseshoes just sends you back.
-Loved our room in Oak Manor and all the resort was refurbished recently (20042005)
-Never waited long for buses, liked the North Depot as it wasn't crowded and we only stood once (from main depot in front of main building to MK for opening)
-Yummy breakfast at Boatwrights
-decent food court, we actually just bought fruit and other breakfast items the night before and put them in the fridge provided in the room.
-like the high beds and the curtain that divides the sink area from the rest of the room

We would easily stay in POR if we stay in a moderate again, but we just like the room size of the deluxes. That really is our only beef with the resort

 

[mickman1962]

I too will call it Dixie forever. Stayed in '96 and loved it. The only negative I had was it seemed to take forever for the bus to actually start going somewhere. It has 4 or 5 stops in the resort.

 

[rcpae]

We just returned yesterday and we loved every minute of our stay! In fact I'm a little teary eyed writing this because I want to be back soooo bad.

We loved the grounds and the dense landscaping, the meandering paths, and the relaxing atmosphere.

My kids enjoyed Ol' Man Island, and the arcade. They also loved to see what our mousekeeper would surprise them with every evening. Would it be a new towel animal, or how she set up their stuffed animals?? We would actually enter our room with the video running to see what "surprises" were waiting.

I can't say enough good things about this resort!!

 

[msteddom]

I loved POR because of its beautiful landscaping. I really enjoyed my daily walks from Parterre Place over to the food court. I loved having the boat to Downtown Disney as well. I think the resort is beautiful and I can't wait to return!


Melissa

 

[sanibelover]

OK, I have to be a dissenter. We stayed at POFQ last November and didn't really think much of it. The theming is lovely - as is POR. Boatwrights sweet potato pancakes are GREAT!

BUT - for an adults only trip(don't know the specifices of who you will be traveling with), I think it's BORING!! There is no "buzz" there if that is what you are looking for. No nightlife really unless you take the boat to DTD. If we had the kids with us, it probably would have been fine, but the rooms are small and claustrophobic (sp?) since you cannot leave the curtains open because of the walkways right outside the window.

Just got back from a stay at the BC and the Swan - liked the Swan better - and loved the location. Loved having a balcony to sit on at night or first thing in the morning. Walked to EPCOT, Walked to the Boardwalk, all kinds of GREAT restaurants(Swan and Dolphin) - much more "adult" than any of the moderates.

POR is fine and you will probably like it (if the price is right, it can be a real bargain as far as Disney goes), but I recommend a car since nothing is close by. (I don't like to be at the mercy of Disney transportation)

I thought you could use a different viewpoint.