tell me about your experiences at POR please

[crltkcagle]

I am super stoked! We just made our reservations for September at the Port Of Orleans Riverside! (Even though I really wanted to go back to ASM because the kids loved it) I am from New Orleans and was just wondering what this hotel is like? Is the food good in the restaurants? Are there things for the kids to do at the hotel? Tell me all you know and share any personal experiences you had with it. Thanks!:mickey:

[crltkcagle]

nobody ?really?

[laguna]

We stayed in the Port Orleans Riverside a couple of years ago and plan to stay as well this upcoming March. This is a fantastic hotel with easy access to Downtown Disney. It's only a boat ride away! The food is average and the entertainment is great with the boat rentals, pools, etc. Depending on your room location, there is lots of walking. We very much enjoyed our stay at this hotel.

[Funforall]

We stayed there last October. The atmosphere is great. We walked around the property exploring and seemed to keep finding new things to keep us occupied. POFQ is not far off and has lots to offer as well. Be sure to take the boat ride to DTD. It does take a while and can be very cool at night.

You will love it.

[Thumper03]

POR was our original "home" resort. It will always be a special place to us. It's a beautiful, peaceful resort. The surroundings will be quite contrary to your ASM, but I'm sure you'll appreciate the differences.

The foodcourt is good as foodcourts go. We've actually not experienced it since it was remodeled last year...but we've not had any complaints.
Boatwrights, the sit-down restaurant is very good. Great breakfasts and very nice dinners. You would need to make ADR's.
The lounge at night is great fun...even if you're just walking by, you can't help but smile and clap or sing along.

The boat to DTD is relaxing...a nice time to get off your feet and feel the breeze.
A horsedrawn carriage ride is available...we've not taken advantage of that, but I'm sure someone here has, and will gladly share.

The main pool is a lot of fun, and the quiet pools are really nice at night when most of the kids are off dreaming of Mickey.

Our kids LOVE POR...even if we just go and visit, they call it home.:mickey:

[Genie1953]

Hi there...I have not been to PO Riverside recently, but I did stay there back in Sept/Oct 2005. When we got back I posted a report. Unfortunately it is no longer available.....however, fortunately, I kept a file of the posting so am pasting it below. Please keep in mind that this was back in 2005 so hopefully it hasn't changed too much. Here you go...but be warned...it is quite long!
=========================
We just returned from Port Orleans Riverside. Our stay was from 9/28 thru 10/3 (2005). We absolutely loved it! We stayed in the Magnolia Bend section in the Oak Manor building. From our building it was a short 5 minute walk across a bridge to the main building where the check in desk, gift shop, arcade, lounge, food court and restaurant were all located. It took longer (about 15 minutes) to walk over to the main pool, but that didn't matter because there was a Quiet Pool right next to our building that we preferred using. We were very close to the quiet pool...just stepped out the door to our room and walked about 20 feet to the left and we were overlooking the pool. Laundry facilities were in the quiet pool area.

When the reservations were made the only request we made was for a non-smoking Magnolia Bend room. On checking in we were given a room on the second floor looking out across a beautiful and quiet courtyard with a fountain and benches. It was just lovely. The room also looked out over the river as well.

When I made our reservations I was told that Magnolia Terrace buildings did have elevators but Alligator Bayou buildings did not so that was a big factor for us. We did not want to climb steps after walking the parks all day long. For those with families the trundle beds are only available in Alligaor Bayou (at least that was what we were told).

The house keeping service was wonderful. The second day we returned to the room to find that they had fashioned a flower from a washcloth and placed it in a glass. It resembled a white rose and was a nice touch. They always neatly arranged our soaps, shampoos, conditioners, etc in a decorative manner. We did leave a tip each day for the housekeeper in a special envelope. I found the envelop design especially for the "MouseKeeper" on the web somewhere and added Disney stickers for a special touch.

The food at both the Riverside Mill Food Court and Boatwright's was excellent. We were on the free dining plan so that made it even better. We ate breakfast at Boatwrights twice with NO ADR and got there at about 7:30 am when they opened. We were seated without any waiting at all. The food court was quite busy if you did not get there before 8am with long lines for both getting your food as well as paying for it. One morning it took us 45 minutes to get through both lines when we got there at about 8:30am. You can bet it didn't happen again. One morning we decided to walk down to Port Orleans French Quarter to try their famous Beignets. It took us only 10 minutes to walk from our building to the food court at that resort. Those beignets were wonderful and well worth the walk. That morning we caught the bus for our park from the French Quarter Resort instead of walking back to Riverside.

Transportation was great. The availability of both bus and boat transportation was a nice touch. We always caught the bus at the main building although there was a bus stop not far from our building. They were both about equal distance from our building. We did not wait longer than 10 minutes at most for any bus except when coming back from Magic Kingdom on Saturday night. We had to wait in line for about 40 minutes. The buses were coming every 10 to 15 minutes but the lines were very long as it was closing time for the park. We were so very tired but we had a great bus driver. His name was Bill and he said that he normally worked the Animal Kingdom route but was just helping out on the Port Orleans Riverside route that night. The entire way back he quizzed us with Disney trivia. It was a blast. Before we knew it we were at the resort. We were having so much fun that the passengers were begging him to take us around one more time so we could play some more trivia.

One evening we decided to get off the bus at the Port Orleans French Quarter resort and take the boat to Riverside. We ended up taking the boat all the way to Downtown Disney and then back to Riverside. It was very relaxing after a busy day at Epcot.

We did take a drive through Alligator bayou as we were leaving Monday and we did like those buildings as well, but our preference was the quiet elegance of the Magnolia Bend buildings and we were glad to have gotten those accomodations.

We would definitely recommend Port Orleans Riverside to anyone and will stay there again if we ever get back to Disney World.
=================================
Hope this information helped you out!!!

[Kairi_7378]

We stayed at POR in March. This wasn't my first choice of hotel, just where we ended up due to compromises. I was pleasantly surprised. POR is DH's favorite resort on property.

I have never been to New Orleans, but I think the theme of POR is more of a Mississippi River, low county environment. POFQ, the sister resort, is themed after the French Quarter. The landscaping at POR is beautiful, and has won landscaping awards. It is hard to believe, but the resort seemed to be both very serene and family-friendly at the same time. Every moning on the way to the bus depot, we saw ducks and bunnies. I think you can get a nice view here even in a standard room so I wouldn't pay extra for a water view at this resort.

There are many amenities at POR. There is a main pool with a slide, and there are four quiet pools. There is a fishing hole for children, carriage rides, and an arcade. The boat to and from DTD is a nice feature. The view of DTD is spectactular from the water! At POR, you are free to use the pool at POFQ, which has a sea serpent slide. We were at POR the week after the food court renovation, and were very pleased with it. I didn't eat at Boatwrights, but it sure smelled delicious whenever we walked by! I liked the food court at POFQ- the beignets were a nice treat any time of day (but I don't know how they compare to "real" ones in NO.)

Another thing I like about these two resorts is their central location within the WDW property. You are almost equidistant from all of the parks. (AK is a little longer because the bus also goes to Blizzard Beach.) I have read many complaints about busses at these resorts but have never had any problems. I hope that you have a great time!

[prprincess]

We've stayed there once and absolutely loved it. If it weren't for the fact that we're trying to hit all of the resorts at least once, we would probably be staying there for our next trip. I absolutely love the resort's theming and surroundings. It's very relaxing.

The food court there is also my favorite out of all the resorts I've stayed at, and I love that you can take a boat to DTD.

[crltkcagle]

thanks guys you rock!

[beckylovestink]

We stayed there in Nov 06 and loved it. THe parks we so croweded that we spent many afternoons at the resort. The rooms were nice, the food court had great options, the arcade was nice, we went for a carriage ride, fishing, and loved the pools. We are leaving in a few days and I wish we had books there again... my family wants to try POP, but I think por will still be my fave!:mickey:

[katzctkpt]

As you can tell from the profile POR is where we've stayed every year from 2004 until now. This just happened to be one resort that accomodated our family of 5 and am I ever glad it was. We have visited other resorts and thought wow it would be neat to stay here but, honestly the extra money to spend on the other resorts would've been a waste. POR has so much to offer. You have boats that travel to DTD from 11 am to 11 pm you have boat/bike rentals, horse drawn carriage rides, a small arcade for the kids, a lounge, fishing just to name some things. I've never been to Louisana so, I can't compare. I just know that we love this resort and it's our home away from home. It is very laid back and family friendly. I think you will not be disappointed.

[crltkcagle]

Alot of people are calling POR their "home away from home" I guess it must have a homey feeling to it.

[#1donaldfan]

We love POR for the absolute relaxing "vibe" it has. The resort is designed in a way that everything is pretty much centralized. There are 5 quiet pools and one signature pool with a bar and hot tub. Just behind the main pool is a playground for the kids. The food court and Boatwrights are AWESOME !!!! Boatwrights has the best breakfast of ANY Disney eatery. You can hop a boat to DtD, ride a carriage, bikes, rent your own personal water craft. There is just so much to do and it's very quiet there, unlike the values which seem to be more like a park, eg. long lines in the food court, and loud. These are just a few of my favorite things......and I'm sure there are many more that are just not coming to mind.....have a great stay, which I KNOW you will.....:thumbsup:

[iloveupstateny]

We have stayed at POR twice in years past (2003/2004) and love it enough to book it again for our upcoming trip in April. Stayed in the mansions once w/DH for an anniv trip without kids :) and once in AB section with our kids. There is so much to do there we are getting one day less on our park tickets and will just play at the resort and do the boat ride to downtown Disney. It is a beautiful place to walk around at night and very nicely landscaped and I think there is a lot of wildlife because of that.
It is a very large resort so if you prefer to be close to the food court and main building, ask for AB building 14 or 18. Those are also close to the main bus stop.
Have fun, I hope you will find this to be a favorite of yours too!
Jen

[JerseyMouse]

POR, at least for us, has the feel of a deluxe resort at moderate prices...(sure hope no one from Disney is reading this)

Having tried at least one deluxe resort, and one value resort over the years, this is always the place we come back to, nothing beats it.

From the landscaping, to the great Piano entertainer in the evenings, the the overall feel of the place, we love it here. Our favorite location is Partere Place in the mansion section..it's a little bit of a walk to the main lobby, food court, and restaurant, but that's one of the things we enjoy most about it, it is a little bit away from it all, which comes in handy after a long day at the parks!!

You'll love it!

[crltkcagle]

I was worried the kids were going to hate it after staying at ASM. But after all these great posts it sounds like the kids are going to love it! I am so excited! Only 227 more days and counting!

[Dakota Rose]

I love POR so much that I worry about staying anywhere else. You'll have a great time!