Disney's PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE RESORT Information & Questions

[jova]

I’m thinking of requesting a ground floor room for our December trip because we will have at least one stroller for grandchildren. Are there any problems with bugs, lizards, etc with being on ground floor? We have a pool room view booked with 5 people, so AB section. Any suggestions on buildings? It sounds like we would like to be close to west depot, as we are park people and not so concerned with being close to resort amenities. (Ground floor is also in consideration of any downstairs neighbors we would have with active 3 and 4 year olds,lol)

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I’m thinking of requesting a ground floor room for our December trip because we will have at least one stroller for grandchildren. Are there any problems with bugs, lizards, etc with being on ground floor? We have a pool room view booked with 5 people, so AB section. Any suggestions on buildings? It sounds like we would like to be close to west depot, as we are park people and not so concerned with being close to resort amenities. (Ground floor is also in consideration of any downstairs neighbors we would have with active 3 and 4 year olds,lol)

We've never had any bug issues at Disney, however with that said, I grew up in FL and bugs can make their way in, doesn't matter what floor your on so I would not let that dictate your decision to request a ground floor. Pool rooms can be in any of these buildings for Riverside 16, 17, 18, 24, 25, 35, 36, 39 all of these are AB so you might also be near North depot. I have never found the walk to the depots bad at POR.

 

[disny_luvr]

I’m thinking of requesting a ground floor room for our December trip because we will have at least one stroller for grandchildren. Are there any problems with bugs, lizards, etc with being on ground floor? We have a pool room view booked with 5 people, so AB section. Any suggestions on buildings? It sounds like we would like to be close to west depot, as we are park people and not so concerned with being close to resort amenities. (Ground floor is also in consideration of any downstairs neighbors we would have with active 3 and 4 year olds,lol)

I don’t think you’ll find problems with bugs, lizards, etc more on the ground floor than the second floor. I will say, those little lizards are all over the place, especially at night. I’d just make sure there are no lizards close to the door before entering your room. On our POR stay last month, we actually had a lizard in our room. I know they are harmless, but I about died. We were very vigilant about making sure no lizards were nearby when opening the door to our room. We noticed that some of the mouse keepers keep the door opened slightly when cleaning the room and we think that that is when the little lizard entered our room. Of course, we don’t know for sure, and it could’ve happened on our own accord, too. Back to the lizard in our room, it was on the wall by the light above the table and scurried behind the drapes when we opened the door. I went down to the front desk to ask if someone could help us remove it while my DH made sure it didn’t move from behind the drapes. A nice gentleman appeared at our door a few minutes later and removed it; he said it happens quite often.

Ah, making memories...

 

[Wood Nymph]

I’m thinking of requesting a ground floor room for our December trip because we will have at least one stroller for grandchildren. Are there any problems with bugs, lizards, etc with being on ground floor? We have a pool room view booked with 5 people, so AB section. Any suggestions on buildings? It sounds like we would like to be close to west depot, as we are park people and not so concerned with being close to resort amenities. (Ground floor is also in consideration of any downstairs neighbors we would have with active 3 and 4 year olds,lol)

We had a ground floor room with a pool view in building 25 and didn't have any problems with bugs or other critters. It was an easy walk to the West Depot and not too far of a walk to the food court.

 

[jova]

I’m glad to hear bugs etc, shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t want to have to maneuver stairs at the end of the night with a potential sleeping child after a day in the park. And we don’t want to be disturbing anyone else’s vacation below us with noisy children (3 & 4 year olds just can’t master their indoor voices when excited!)

We've never had any bug issues at Disney, however with that said, I grew up in FL and bugs can make their way in, doesn't matter what floor your on so I would not let that dictate your decision to request a ground floor. Pool rooms can be in any of these buildings for Riverside 16, 17, 18, 24, 25, 35, 36, 39 all of these are AB so you might also be near North depot. I have never found the walk to the depots bad at POR.

I don’t think you’ll find problems with bugs, lizards, etc more on the ground floor than the second floor. I will say, those little lizards are all over the place, especially at night. I’d just make sure there are no lizards close to the door before entering your room. On our POR stay last month, we actually had a lizard in our room. I know they are harmless, but I about died. We were very vigilant about making sure no lizards were nearby when opening the door to our room. We noticed that some of the mouse keepers keep the door opened slightly when cleaning the room and we think that that is when the little lizard entered our room. Of course, we don’t know for sure, and it could’ve happened on our own accord, too. Back to the lizard in our room, it was on the wall by the light above the table and scurried behind the drapes when we opened the door. I went down to the front desk to ask if someone could help us remove it while my DH made sure it didn’t move from behind the drapes. A nice gentleman appeared at our door a few minutes later and removed it; he said it happens quite often.

Ah, making memories...

We had a ground floor room with a pool view in building 25 and didn't have any problems with bugs or other critters. It was an easy walk to the West Depot and not too far of a walk to the food court.

 

[Amy and kids]

Scored a second night on Hotwire, $106/night. Can't wait to check in tomorrow!!! If I've stayed there before it was as a very young kid (I think we always did POFQ) so I'm super excited!

How did you find the room for that price on Hotwire exactly? It doesn't show which hotel you are getting, just a star rating, right?

 

[Hatwriter456]

Never said we should kill bees. I'm a biologist lol. But there were hundreds of bees. They were crawling into people's resort mugs, landing on kids in the hot tub, all over the chairs, etc. Someone who is allergic wouldn't be able to go anywhere near the pool area. I'm sure they can at least make sure there aren't nests in the pool area. The park by my house has large bee hives/colonies next to the dog park and I've never seen more than a couple bees in that area.

I was there in June and I'm anaphylactic to honey bees and I didn't see an extra amount of bees around the main pool and I'm extremely paranoid if there are a lot around. I wonder if there was a nest nearby that got disturbed?

 

[kjw42]

I’m thinking of requesting a ground floor room for our December trip because we will have at least one stroller for grandchildren. Are there any problems with bugs, lizards, etc with being on ground floor?

We had an anole in our ground room last year, although my guess is it could happen on any floor. She was very tiny and cute. The kids still remember “Doris” very fondly.

 

[unrequited23]

I don’t want to have to maneuver stairs at the end of the night with a potential sleeping child after a day in the park.

I'm not sure if all of the ground floor rooms are like this, but we stayed in Building 18 and had 2-3 stairs to walk up to get to the level where the ground floor rooms were located, sort of like walking up the steps on a front porch to get to the front door. Our building did have a ramp, but it was tucked away a bit--we didn't discover it until our 3rd day.

 

[andrewilley]

Our building did have a ramp, but it was tucked away a bit--we didn't discover it until our 3rd day.

All of the buildings have at least one level/ramped entry point to the ground floor walkway, but as you say it's not always in the most convenient location.

Andre

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

I was there in June and I'm anaphylactic to honey bees and I didn't see an extra amount of bees around the main pool and I'm extremely paranoid if there are a lot around. I wonder if there was a nest nearby that got disturbed?

That's possible, but they weren't acting necessarily aggressive or like their nest had been disturbed. They were just ALL over everything. A PP said maybe they'd recently sprayed the bushes for mosquitos, and some mosquito spray can attract bees (from what I've been told, don't know if it's true). I did send Disney an email (the second ever in 6 years of being a passholder haha) to express my concern & see if there's something they can do to keep that from being the norm.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

How did you find the room for that price on Hotwire exactly? It doesn't show which hotel you are getting, just a star rating, right?

It was one of the HotRate rooms, yep. I've been messing around on there for a while and there are certain things that'll give away which room it is. On Hotwire POR is 3.5 stars, and it usually has a VERY high guest recommendation (like 95%). There's a list on Better Bidding that breaks down which areas & amenities to look for, and then you can usually have a reasonable amount of confidence in which hotel you're getting. On Hotwire if you search for airport shuttle & bonnet creek it'll show you Disney resorts (this does NOT apply on Priceline).

 

[LynnMc2015]

Has anyone ever ordered a custom cake for delivery to POR and if so how easy was it? I've ordered cakes before but directly with the bakeries for delivery to restaurants, never to the resorts. I am considering cake again for our upcoming trip and wanted to know if I should look at other options if it was too much hassle doing this through the resort.

Thanks in advance

 

[andrewilley]

Has anyone ever ordered a custom cake for delivery to POR and if so how easy was it?

It worked really well, the deliver from the Boardwalk Bakery directly to the resort food court and you pick up at the bakery counter.

Andre

 

[LynnMc2015]

It worked really well, the deliver from the Boardwalk Bakery directly to the resort food court and you pick up at the bakery counter.

Andre

Thanks Andre. I'd read a report recently where someone had a really bad experience (multiple phone calls, un-returned messages etc) and they never received their cake. The resort actually arranged one from Publix for them! This was POFQ but I'm sure its the same number you call for both so I'm nervous about having similar issues. We are coming from the UK so I don't want to have to make multiple calls back and forth.

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

We are arriving at PORS in 10 days yay!!! Just wondering if anyone there knows if the refurbishment has started? According to portorleans.org it was scheduled to begin July 21st but nothing had started yet? I'm not worried about it affecting our trip but I just want to make sure that if affects a quiet pool area that I make sure to request a room near another pool. TIA

 

[goofy289]

Has anyone had the roast beef melt from the food court and thought it was absolutely awful?? I ordered it the other day and quit eating after one bite. It tasted like burnt rubber! Gross!!

 

[ItsNotMuchofaTail]

I just checked in to POR today and I am reminded why I picked it again, it really is beautiful here. My room is clean and fresh and was ready at 1:00, so I am happy. Unfortunately, I did not get my requests granted, so I don’t know if my fax wasn’t read or it wasn’t possible. That is a slight disappointment, but I am here on the last leg of my road trip with my teenager. It’s all good!

 

[LynnMc2015]

Question about the carriage rides if anyone can help please. We are coming in 3 weeks and I was wondering if I need to call in advance to book this or will I be able to do this when we arrive - do they get booked up pretty quickly?

 

[andrewilley]

Question about the carriage rides if anyone can help please. We are coming in 3 weeks and I was wondering if I need to call in advance to book this or will I be able to do this when we arrive - do they get booked up pretty quickly?

You might get away with booking while you are there or just turning up, but it's a busy time of year so if you know when you want to go then booking at least a few days in advance would be a good idea.

Andre