1200 pics, 1100 miles, 15 deluxe dining meals, 1 great time at POR Completed 9/5

alan_renfroe · Jun 11, 2014

Hello! Welcome to my first trip report in five years. Our trip was May 29-June 5, 2014 and it was our first time to stay at Port Orleans Riverside. We had 7-day park passes with water parks option and deluxe dining.

The cast: myself, DW, DS17, and DD14

The celebration: my wife and I celebrated our 19-year wedding anniversary on this trip

So, without further ado, let's get right to it! Glad to have you along for the ride!

alan_renfroe · Jun 11, 2014

PrncessA · Jun 11, 2014

I'm here! I can't wait to hear all about your family's Disney adventures!

Surprisingly you will make a cameo in my TR, and you didn't even know it! LOL

alan_renfroe · Jun 11, 2014

After months of planning and anticipating our travel day finally arrived on May 29th. We decided to go to Disney World back in October of last year, so we had plenty of time to plan our trip. At the 180 day mark I made our restaurant reservations and tweaked them along the way. At the 60 day mark we made our FP+ selections and ended up not having to tweak them very much at all. We received our MagicBands about 28 days prior to our check-in date. Three days prior to our arrival date, I did the online check-in.

I had to work a half day on our departure date, so DW took our Honda Odyssey through the car wash.

The bags were all packed and ready to go...

But Boo, our 1-year-old kitten, wasn't ready for us to leave! (Don't worry....he and our 8-year-old dog Truman were left in very good hands!)

The family met me at my workplace and we were soon on our way.

It is about a 9-hour drive from our home to Orlando. We had originally planned to leave a little later in the afternoon and drive to Valdosta, Georgia for the evening, then on to Disney World the next day. At some point we decided it would be best to leave right around lunch time so we could beat rush hour traffic in Atlanta. Since we would be leaving a little earlier, we figured we would just go ahead and drive all the way. We made a reservation for a hotel just outside of Walt Disney World off Hwy 192 called Galleria Palms.

We drove about five hours to Valdosta and stopped at Exit 18 on I-75 for gas and dinner. There is a good country buffet restaurant at that exit called Ole Times Country Buffet. (We decided a buffet would be a good choice because we wouldn't have to wait on an order....just go in and help ourselves!)

Fried catfish, shrimp, smoked sausage and greens

Before long we had finally made it to Florida!

We stopped by the welcome center

It was 10pm as we were getting near Disney World. Looking out of the driver's side window I could see Wishes going on! What a great way to arrive!

By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was raining really hard so I didn't get a picture upon arrival. I did take this picture the following morning.

Everyone was really tired from the trip and ready for bed. I'm the biggest child in our family and it was killing me to know that we were soooo close to Disney World and not actually IN Disney World! Everyone seemed to have a good night's sleep...except me. I was too excited!

Coming up next: Day 1. We check out of Galleria Palms and check in at Port Orleans Riverside. And Deluxe Dining begins with lunch at Kona Cafe!

alan_renfroe · Jun 11, 2014

PrncessA said:
I'm here! I can't wait to hear all about your family's Disney adventures!

Surprisingly you will make a cameo in my TR, and you didn't even know it! LOL

Oh wow that is so cool! Glad to have you here for the TR! LOVED your video you posted on YouTube....your kids are adorable!

KatMark · Jun 11, 2014

I'm here, Alan. I can't wait to read all about it. My only regret is we did not get to meet.

Great start and that food at dinner looks really yummy.

rteetz · Jun 11, 2014

Locked in! We are staying at POR in July can't wait!

dramadrew · Jun 11, 2014

I'm in with reading how many photos you took on the trip!

alan_renfroe · Jun 11, 2014

KatMark said:
I'm here, Alan. I can't wait to read all about it. My only regret is we did not get to meet.

Great start and that food at dinner looks really yummy.

Yeah I hated that we were so close and then didn't get to meet. That Hollywood Studios day was an interesting day as you will read later in the report!

I thought that was a good dinner, but for some reason DW, DS, and DD weren't very hungry and didn't eat much. I think it was because they were loading up on trip treats along the drive!

rteetz said:
Locked in! We are staying at POR in July can't wait!

We've always stayed at Coronado Springs and love it, but we wanted to try something different. We absolutely LOVED POR and now it is our new favorite!

dramadrew said:
I'm in with reading how many photos you took on the trip!

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I always enjoy reading trip reports with lots of pics. Welcome to the TR!

NewCrew42 · Jun 11, 2014

Nice start to your report! We were at POFQ May 29th thru June 6. Can't wait to read your perspective!

alan_renfroe · Jun 11, 2014

After a long drive the day before I thought I would get some rest, but I was too excited to sleep. I woke up really early on Friday, May 30, took a shower, then went to the hotel lobby for the complimentary continental breakfast. About 7:30am DW was up but the kids were both still asleep. I told her I thought I would go ahead and check-in at Port Orleans Riverside so that we could activate our MagicBands and have a full day.

It had rained really hard the night before but this was going to be a beautiful day!

The Galleria Palms worked nicely for just an overnight stay, but I was ready to get on Disney property! I took pictures on my drive in...

I'm here! Finally!

No disrespect to the previous night's hotel, but this place ROCKS! Port Orleans Riverside is beautiful!

Coming up next, getting checked in...and lots of pictures of Port Orleans Riverside on a beautiful day!

MaryAz · Jun 11, 2014

Checking in! You made it to DW!! Can't wait to read all about it!

amberg93 · Jun 11, 2014

Following along from Facebook

Great idea to just drive all the way through. Better to get the traveling done in one day if possible and get to Disney bright and early

And your driving ahead to go get checked in would totally be me if my kids were still sleeping. Can't waste that Disney time.

pigletgirl · Jun 11, 2014

I've been a long time lurker of your TR's so I was excited that you are doing another one! Great start!

(P.S -- can I just say I can feel your excitement!

)

Holly Quinlan · Jun 11, 2014

Joining in!

CSwan1 · Jun 11, 2014

Along for the ride!

alan_renfroe · Jun 11, 2014

NewCrew42 said:
Nice start to your report! We were at POFQ May 29th thru June 6. Can't wait to read your perspective!

Thank you! Hope you all enjoyed POFQ as much as we enjoyed POR! We went to the POFQ food court a few times for beignets.

MaryAz said:
Checking in! You made it to DW!! Can't wait to read all about it!

Hi Mary!

I hate that we missed seeing y'all. Looking forward to reading all about your girls trip also.

amberg93 said:
Following along from Facebook

Great idea to just drive all the way through. Better to get the traveling done in one day if possible and get to Disney bright and early

And your driving ahead to go get checked in would totally be me if my kids were still sleeping. Can't waste that Disney time.

Glad to have you along for the ride! Yeah it was a good move to drive all the way. I think next time we will just plan to drive all the way and stay on property as soon as we get to town.

I know right! I couldn't stand just sitting around...I HAD to get to Disney!

pigletgirl said:
I've been a long time lurker of your TR's so I was excited that you are doing another one! Great start!

(P.S -- can I just say I can feel your excitement! )

Awwww thanks very much! Glad you've come out of lurkdom pigletgirl! Welcome to the trip report! And yes, I am always excited about Disney World!

Holly Quinlan said:
Joining in!

Hi Holly!

Glad to have you join along!

CSwan1 said:
Along for the ride!

Welcome CSwan1! Glad you're joining us! :cool1:

alan_renfroe · Jun 11, 2014

It was about 9am on Friday, May 30th when I pulled up to Port Orleans Riverside to check in. Immediately I was just taken in by the beauty of the grounds. For a moderate resort this place is really nice!

Since I had already done online check-in, I was helped immediately by a cast member named Aimee. She was super nice and friendly. All of our MagicBands worked perfectly and she had some good news for me: our room was already ready! We could get in our room immediately!

She asked if I had stayed there before and I told her no, so she told me about some of the resort's amenities. She said to be sure to take the free boat ride to Downtown Disney and I told her that we planned to do that this evening for dinner. Then she said, "oh, due to the construction at Downtown Disney, the boat stops running at 5pm now." That was disappointing because we had planned to hop on the boat around 6pm for our 7:30pm dining reservation at Raglan Road.

Anyway, I was just thrilled that the room was already ready! At that point, I thought "should I go on back to the hotel and get the family, or should I get a sneak peak at the room for myself first?" Well, guess which one I chose? :rotfl2:

We were in Acadian House, room 8093. It was a corner room facing the parking lot and it could not have been more convenient to get to from the van!

I touched my MagicBand to the door and it opened right up. It was a beautiful room!

After checking out the room, I drove back to the Galleria Palms to get DW, DS, and DD. It was disappointing to have to leave the property, even for a few minutes. When I got there everyone was packed up and ready to head out. I told DW, "I've got good news and bad news." She said, "uh oh, what's up?" Well, the good news was that our room was ready and it was beautiful! And I LOVED the location of the room...very convenient to unload and load and easy to get to our van each day. The bad news: for some reason it was a handicapped room and it didn't have a tub. (My wife enjoys taking baths.) And there was the boat stopping at 5pm thing. Oh well, in the grand scheme of things we were quite happy with the situation.

We arrived back at POR and the family was just as in love with the place as me!

DW and DS decided to unpack while DD and I decided to do a walkabout around the resort. Coming up next, lots of pictures of the beautiful Port Orleans Riverside resort...and later, our first meal on the deluxe dining plan, Kona Cafe for lunch!

ReneeDisney · Jun 11, 2014

Great start! Love the photos and looking forward to reading more

Thanks for sharing!

alan_renfroe · Jun 11, 2014

It was about 10:30am and we were already checked-in and unpacked in our room. DD and I decided to do a walkabout exploring the beautiful grounds at Port Orleans Riverside. The following pictures are from our walk from our room to the main pool on 'Ol Man Island.

The main pool is HUGE and a lot of fun. It's even prettier in person.

This is the pool bar, Muddy Rivers:

1200 pics, 1100 miles, 15 deluxe dining meals, 1 great time at POR *Completed 9/5*

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1200 pics, 1100 miles, 15 deluxe dining meals, 1 great time at POR Completed 9/5