I thought we would spend our first full day at WDW exploring the Port Orleans French Quarter Resort. I was awfully happy that I had tacked on another night at this resort. Had I not done that, we would have transferred over to the Beach Club at 11:00 AM. Since we had a second night, I definitely thought it was to our advantage to relax and see what trouble two wild & crazy girls could get themselves into. Look out Port Orleans, here we come!
I tuned our resort room television to Port Orleans version of the weather channel and heard predictions of scattered showers for the next several days. As long as it didnt thunder & lightening like it did the night before, I didnt care. We put our bathing suits on and ventured out of our room.
Our first stop was the food court (aka, Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory). The seating area was decorated with huge Mardi Gras parade props in a sort of warehouse setting. I dont normally eat breakfast, but today I made an exception since everything smelled so yummy. There were lots of choices for breakfast, too: cereals, Mickey waffles, omelets, biscuits & gravy, eggs, bacon, ham, etc. We had our resort mugs with us and filled them up with ice-cold water. Sheesh, the night before we had paid for unlimited soda, and once again we were filling them up with water. What did we care; we were on vacation!
After breakfast, we headed over to the swimming pool, but not without taking a few photos of the wonderful New Orleans' style jazz band members that lined the walkway to the pool:
click here to view one of them.
My daughter and I really enjoyed the French Quarters swimming pool. She especially enjoyed the waterslide. I did, too, even though I never went down it. If any of you remember my thread from the end of last year, I actually had this resort booked for a few days of my Christmas vacation. Since Disney had shuttered the resort due to the sagging economy, I had to stay elsewhere. At the time, I had really been looking forward to staying there, especially since many of you had sent me links to your wonderful photos of it. I remembered one photo in particular. It was of Doubloon Lagoon, complete with the Mardi Gras styled dragon waterslide that had King Triton astride it. When I showed that photo to my young daughter, she had said, Look, Mama; sea-men in the swimming pool! I got such a kick out of that (I have a silly sense of humor). When I finally got to view that waterslide in person, I said to myself, Look; there it is; sea-men in the swimming pool. I had a good chuckle.
Click here to view my photo of the waterslide.
After a few hours, it was time for lunch. We put our cover-ups on and walked over to the boat dock. I thought we would take the boat over to the Riverside resort for some lunch, followed by a swim in the pool over there. Our boat skipper was very nice and filled our short ride to Riverside with stories and jokes. Once we got to Riverside, he let my daughter pick a coin from his basket as a souvenir of our ride. She was thrilled to do that and picked the shiniest, green coin that she could find.
We walked to the food court to see what was on the menu for lunch. The food court is called Colonel's Cotton Mill and features a working cotton press that is operated by a very tall water wheel (32-feet tall). Even though the food smelled great, I wasnt very hungry; however, my daughter was famished, so she ordered chicken strips and french fries. Once again we filled our resort mugs with ice-cold water. When she finished her meal, we asked for directions to the pool area and quickly found our way to it.
We had a great time swimming. The pool area at Riverside is called Ol' Man Island. I especially loved hanging out below the waterfall (what a great way to cool off):
click here to view a photo.
My daughter wanted to try the waterslide, so we walked over to the area where it was located. I didnt go down the slide myself, but she did. Over and over and over again. I stayed at the bottom of it with my waterproof-disposable camera and snapped a few pictures:
click here to view one of them.
After a few hours, we took the boat back to the French Quarter, went to our room, showered, and changed. When we had checked into the resort the night before, I had inquired about Bob Jackson and his show over at the Riverside. I was told that his show was held on Thursday through Monday (Tuesday and Wednesday were his days off). Since Bob was playing that evening, I wanted to see his show.
I had read many nice things about Bob Jackson and his show via the Internet. When Disney made some cutbacks the year before, Bob was one of them. A Bring Bob Back to Port Orleans! letter-writing campaign was started and I joined in. I sent my letter to Disney stating that I had not experienced Bobs show myself, but had read many nice things about it. I received a phone call and some e-mail correspondence from Disney regarding my letter, and I had read that others did, too. Eventually, Disney made the decision to bring Bob Jackson back to the Port Orleans Resort. When I was adding a night to my vacation itinerary, I chose Port Orleans specifically because of the newly back Bob Jackson. I figured that if I was going to pick a resort to stay in, it might as well be one that would easily allow me to attend a fun show. And so when I checked into the French Quarter the night before, I had inquired about Bobs show.
My daughter and I decided to walk to the Riverside Resort since our French Quarter room was
located in building seven, just a short walk away. The walk took us less than ten minutes and was very enjoyable. When we got to the Riverside, we found the lounge where Bob was playing. I believe the name of the lounge was Scat Cats, and it was located next to Boatdwrights Dining Hall, the only full-service restaurant at Riverside. I asked a hostess if my daughter and I could order a bite to eat in the lounge before Bobs show began, and I was told that we could. Since Bobs show was set to begin in approximately thirty minutes, our timing was perfect. We were hungry, so we quickly ordered some food and drinks. Dining two tables away from us was a family with a boy similar in age to my daughter, and our children soon made fast friends. When our food arrived, I noticed that the lounge had filled up with people. It looked to me like most folks knew that Bob was a good entertainer with a great show. I could tell that we were in for a treat that night.
Bobs show began on time and it was even better than I thought it would be. Not only did Bob get the kids singing and dancing up on stage, he got almost all of the adults winding a conga line through the lounge, myself included. My daughter and I had a ball. It was so much fun. That night I had one of my vacations first It Just Does Not Get Any Better Than This moments. You know those moments. The priceless ones when you thank the Lord Above for being alive. There I was with my daughter, hanging out in the lounge of a resort, with the two of us singing & dancing & laughing & making fools of ourselves. Ill never forget that night or the fun that we had. Just us girls. And a hundred or so other vacationers.
After Bobs show was over, my daughter got an autographed photo of him. (Ill scan it in and post it so that you can see what he looks like.) I told Bob that I loved his show. I also mentioned that I was part of the letter-writing campaign that helped bring him back, even though I had never seen his show before. Bob thanked me from his heart. I was touched.
I made a quick phone call to my son before my daughter and I left the Riverside resort that evening. I told him that we had just seen Bobs show. He asked me how it was, and I told him. He said that he wished he could have been with us, but he didnt sound jealous, just a little wistful. I told him that we would definitely see Bobs show when we all vacationed together again at WDW. That made him happy. I hung up the phone and my daughter and I walked to the marina. We took a boat back to the French Quarter so that we could drop off our photo of Bob Jackson in our room, then we walked back to the marina and took a boat to Downtown Disney. It was a lovely evening and too early to end it.
We enjoyed a great boat ride to Downtown Disney:
click here for photo. Our skipper was hysterically funny. He actually stopped our boat right near the Tree House Villas and asked for everyones boat tickets. Since no one had a boat ticket, he told us to all get off, but to be careful swimming to shore because we were in alligator territory. The kids looked at him in horror (wondering, I am sure, Is this guy for REAL?) and the adults laughed. The skipper said that we were awfully lucky that he was in such a good mood because he decided not to charge us for the ride after all. He started the boat back up and took us the rest of the way to Downtown Disney, all the while keeping the jokes and Disney quiz questions flowing.
As we pulled into port at Downtown Disney, the skies were threatening us with a distant thunder and lightening storm:
click here for photo. I told my daughter that we had less than an hour to shop since I was afraid that the boats would quit running due to the inclement weather (I really wanted to take a boat back to the resort and not a bus). We found the toy store that sold the Mr. Potato Head parts and I found myself buying three boxes of them (including two Mr. Potato Head bodies). I could not resist the cuteness of that toy:
click here for photo.
As soon as my purchase was paid for, we quickly went back to the dock and boarded the boat that was heading back to Port Orleans. All in all, it had been a wonderfully full day. No sooner had we gotten back to the French Quarter than it began to rain. Once again, we had great timing.
. Great report for PO-PQ.
