Port Orleans Riverside Q&A Thread 2013, Part Three (NOW CLOSED, see 2014 thread)

[andrewilley]

Planning our first stay at POR! So the Unofficial Guide says to avoid buildings 16, 17 and 24 because of noise from the road.

I honestly wouldn't worry about that, I've never heard any noise from the main road - and the slightly closer circular route around the resort only has small amounts of slow local traffic. You might see the Disney buses going past from some of the standard rooms in 24, 35 or 36, but really no noise.

So apparently some roooms in AB are very far from the food court. If you had a car, could you just drive closer and park, or is there nowhere to actually park near there?

The furthest AB rooms are no more than about 500 yards away, so by the time you've walked to your car, driven round, then parked again and walked back to the food court you could have strolled over and probably be sitting and eating your food. I would only bother if you are planning to drive straight off somewhere after eating.

When we originally booked it was just 4 of us. I did all my ADRs including one at BOG. Now that our travel party grew, I have been unable to change the # of ppl on the BOG ADR. I was hoping my mom and dad could join us for this, changing our dining party from 4 to 6.

Well you can try, but BoG is pretty busy and while it would work at most Disney restaurants, you might struggle there.

Andre

 

[Venomhatch]

Good Beautiful Morning to Everyone!

"Any day spent with you is my favorite day. So, today is my new favorite day!"
~ Winnie the Pooh

 

[cbrown1007]

I LOVE this board! I've learned so much and am so excited! Our trip is March 2-8. Our friends are coming too, since we had a free dining code. My daughter's birthday is March 6, she'll be turning 5 in Disney! My husband's birthday is also that day. We'll be having dinner with the princesses that evening.

We've never stayed on site before and I am so excited for this! I've only been to Disney twice, and stayed at a family friend's in Kissimmee.


I'd love advice from Venom and Andre on requests for our group!

Ok, this may be a bit complicated to explain.

Room1 - Me, DH, DD4, DS1 (our first time staying on site!)
Room2 - Haley, Nick, DD9, DS7, DS5 (their first trip)
Room3 - Christie, Cameron

We've all booked Garden View rooms. And I guess we'll be in the Aligator Bayou, since Room2 has 5 guests. The 2 rooms with kids will have double strollers. Kids will likely be sleeping or exhausted when we get back to the resort in the evenings, so I'm thinking ground floor? What building would be a good request for our group? We're hoping to have rooms next to each other.

Thank you thank you!!

Anyone have any advice about what building to request?

 

[pixarmom]

Hello POR Fans! I just booked a surprise overnight for our kids at POR in March - we've stayed in all the mods except POR and all the deluxes except GF, so I thought it would be a good time to give POR a try. I booked a royal room, and have just two questions so far:

1) Looks like there will be some Oak Manor construction during our stay. I was considering a request for Parterre, but I see that some feel it's too remote. POR vets, what do you suggest? No request, request for Parterre to avoid construction, or request for Oak Manor based on location?

2) The bus! When we stayed at POFQ, the loop always ran POFQ-south-west-north-east-park. So I assumed that from the royal rooms, we'd go to the east depot on our way to the park, and disembark at the south depot on the way back to POR. Based on some recent posts here, it looks like the route can change - any advice? If it makes a difference, we're going to/from DHS on the first day and to/from MK on the second day.

Thanks so much!

 

[ksboyd20]

We just returned from a week at POR

We had a Garden View Royal Room and My goodness! Those rooms are absolutely STUNNING. My daughters were on cloud 9! We did have the white sheets but the bed runner was at the bottom and pulled the décor together.

We did online check in and I got both of my requests (ground floor, corner room) and my room was ready when we arrived at 11:00 am.

We did have a fridge, but everything in it froze. The knob was missing and we had no way to turn it down.

The walk to the main areas was not bad at all but the walk back from a whole day in the park was almost torture. LOL We made it through just fine though.

I loved the general store. It's huge and awesome.
The café area was ok. We only ate there once in the middle of the day and it was empty.

Oh, busses. The busses were always packed, but it didn't really seem to bother anyone. I noticed tons of people giving up their seats for pregnant/women with small babies.

We got hit with a lot of rain and cold weather so we did not get to ride the bikes, horse or watch the movie under the stars. We had one nice pool day. My kids loved the water slide and really enjoyed themselves at the pool.

I did love the resort and would return again.

 

[alan_renfroe]

We just returned from a week at POR

We had a Garden View Royal Room and My goodness! Those rooms are absolutely STUNNING. My daughters were on cloud 9! We did have the white sheets but the bed runner was at the bottom and pulled the décor together.

We did online check in and I got both of my requests (ground floor, corner room) and my room was ready when we arrived at 11:00 am.

We did have a fridge, but everything in it froze. The knob was missing and we had no way to turn it down.

The walk to the main areas was not bad at all but the walk back from a whole day in the park was almost torture. LOL We made it through just fine though.

I loved the general store. It's huge and awesome.
The café area was ok. We only ate there once in the middle of the day and it was empty.

Oh, busses. The busses were always packed, but it didn't really seem to bother anyone. I noticed tons of people giving up their seats for pregnant/women with small babies.

We got hit with a lot of rain and cold weather so we did not get to ride the bikes, horse or watch the movie under the stars. We had one nice pool day. My kids loved the water slide and really enjoyed themselves at the pool.

I did love the resort and would return again.

Great report! It's got me excited about our first stay at POR in May! I think since we will have our vehicle we'll probably drive to the parks instead of relying on the buses. Well, we may take bus to MK, but we'll drive to the other parks.

 

[Alicatt]

Does anyone know if the refridgertors have little freezers.

 

[bfamily5]

Yessss!!!! We are paid in full as of today!!!! 2013 was a less than magical year for our family so this trip means the world to us!! Can't wait to come "home"

 

[jimmiej]

Yessss!!!! We are paid in full as of today!!!! 2013 was a less than magical year for our family so this trip means the world to us!! Can't wait to come "home"

I paid our trip off today, too! Congrats to both of us!

 

[jimmiej]

We are there 7 - 12. My mom is going with us to celebrate her b'day which is on the 19th (and she's helping with the kids).

I'll be the one wearing the lime green DIS lanyard. If you see me, say hi!

 

[buzznina]

Does anyone know if the refridgertors have little freezers.

Sorry, no freezer compartment. Sometimes if you turn it to max it will freeze items on top shelf close to the back. I believe the control know is on the back of the fridge top corner.

 

[podgirl]

We stayed in a Royal Room Garden View from Dec.22-Jan.2. I didn’t fax a request, but lucked out with a corner room that had views to the river and the garden at Oak Manor. The white sheets/bed runner combo was great and I can’t imagine how dark those rooms used to be with the old bedspreads.

We never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus the whole time. Really! The longest we waited for the boat to DTD was 15 minutes and that was NYE.

The recreation facilities and activities were well maintained. We enjoyed an outside movie one night, swam every day and went to a couple of marshmallow roasts. So nice to enjoy a campfire but not have to sleep in a tent!

You are allowed to use the pool at POFQ and it only takes about 5-10 minutes to walk there, along the river. Laundry facilities were plentiful and inexpensive, at $2 a wash/dry. Soap is $1 and there was a change machine (at the facilities between Oak/Parterre).

The food court was never over crowded (at lunch or dinner), even though we were there at the busiest week of the year. The Made-to-Order Pasta is enough for TWO adults to share, as are the ice cream sundaes, since they have 3 scoops of ice cream. If you are on a dining plan, you can check out with your entree and drink and have the cashier stamp your receipt if you want a sundae for dessert. You then have up to 90 minutes to return to get it.

The MagicBands worked perfectly and I was able to make changes to our FP+ as little as 10 minutes before a ride time. We all found them fun to use.

Enjoy your trips! Staying at POR is the only way I can get my husband to go to Disney World. It’s such a well-landscaped, peaceful place to vacation!

 

[jepperson1]

Sorry, no freezer compartment. Sometimes if you turn it to max it will freeze items on top shelf close to the back. I believe the control know is on the back of the fridge top corner.

Here now, and there is a freezer compartment in our fridge.

 

[jepperson1]

Sorry, no freezer compartment. Sometimes if you turn it to max it will freeze items on top shelf close to the back. I believe the control know is on the back of the fridge top corner.

Here now and we have a standard dorm style fridge with a freezer compartment.

 

[Patience]

We had a small freezer compartment in the brand new fridge in our room in September.

 

[Alicatt]

Thank you all for your freezer answers. When you say small, would they fit 2 capri sun pouches or small juice boxes?

 

[patclairesmom]

Just officially booked our stay at POR for July 15-22nd. I can't wait to go back. This will be our 3rd time staying at this wonderful resort.

 

[lhqueenbee]

Thanks Venom and Kappy fir your responses to my BOG ADR question. In my head I figured BOG of all places was least likely to accomodate this. But wanted to ask anyhow. I really appreciate the responses since this isn't necessarily the spot for ADR questions!!
19 more days for us!!! Yay!!

 

[ejayne2]

Can anyone tell me the best way to get a complaint to POR? I have their address but not sure who I should address it to? Is their an email address or fax?

Thanks

 

[Venomhatch]

Thanks Venom and Kappy fir your responses to my BOG ADR question. In my head I figured BOG of all places was least likely to accomodate this. But wanted to ask anyhow. I really appreciate the responses since this isn't necessarily the spot for ADR questions!!
19 more days for us!!! Yay!!

Your very welcome!

Can anyone tell me the best way to get a complaint to POR? I have their address but not sure who I should address it to? Is their an email address or fax?

Thanks

Well you can PM me and we can take it from there.