Here's my mini review for last week!
We stayed at POR last week for the very first time. I've always wanted to try it out so when we decided to do a pre-night before our cruise at WDW we were very excited that there was availability. I started out booking a standard view room. Then changed to a river view room. Then ultimately decided on a River View Royal room. It was fantastic! We only had one day at the resort but we loved it. We thought the rooms and resort in general was so relaxing and done so nicely. Our room was located in Oak Manor. We walked the whole resort, explored the pool areas and gift shop. We ate dinner in the quick service and walked over to French Quarter for beignets which were fabulous! We weren't overly impressed with the quick service meal but it was fine overall and we liked the atmosphere. We didn't swim since we just didn't feel like we could do everything we wanted. But, the pools looked very nice. The river is what really draws me into the resort. I could sit and stare at it for hours. And, I expecially love the paths along the river!
Here's our only negative of our stay....and it was a big one for us. Our whole 1-night trip was revolving around us spending a day at the magic kingdom the following morning. We were going to wake up early, go to morning EMH, and spend one day there. We only go to WDW every couple of years so this was it for us. We woke up at 6 am and we were at the bus stop before 7 am for 8 am EMH. However.....the bus didn't come for us until after 8 am. Everyone at the bus stop waited an entire hour. We missed all of the morning EMH just waiting for a bus. If we had any idea that would have happened we would have made other arrangements. But, the monitor constantly showed us that a bus was almost there....but every single bus was full and just rode right past us for over an hour. It would show that the bus was coming at 7:14...then at 7:14 it would ride by and the monitor would change to 7:20....then that bus would ride by and the monitor would change to 7:28, etc. There were some very angry families at the bus stop! Three moms were on their phones making calls to the resort and transportation, and kids were melting down. But, you were afraid to leave and go somewhere else because you didn't know what the situation may be there and you may miss a bus since it always showed that one was on it's way. We watched about 7-10 AK buses come and go, about 7 Epcot buses come and go, and about 5 HS buses come and go. So we, along with everyone else, missed our EMH entirely. It was beyond disappointing that WDW would allow that. It was completely unacceptable. One family said that their entire stay at POR had been like that and that they wouldn't be staying there again because of it.
When we finally got on a bus we told the bus driver that we had been waiting for over an hour and what had happened. He was very apologetic and said he would let the right people know. But, it didn't matter at that point since it was already done. And, if it had been happening all week it doesn't seem that they are trying to do anything about it. The bottom line is that you shouldn't have to know which bus stop to go to to make sure you get picked up. If they offer it as a service they should make sure people get picked up from all of their bus stops. It definitely put a damper on our day but we shook it off and had a great time. I used to hear people talk about waiting hours on a bus to a resort or park and to be honest...I thought it was a huge exaggeration. I just didn't think that it really happened since I've never experienced something like that. Sadly, I stand corrected.
With that being said - it's still a beautiful resort and we loved the royal rooms. But, it's disappointing that I would have to have alternative plans for transportation if we ever stayed there again.