Who's been to both WL & POFQ?

[Gregandmel]

I was wanting some input from people who have been to BOTH WL and POFQ and what their thoughts were vs the two resorts. We stayed at WL last year and for our next trip are thinking about going to POFQ. If you've been to both, what do you think we'd enjoy, or miss, about not staying at WL? I'm not sure our budget can afford WL on the next trip and i"ve heard good things on these boards about POFQ. Thanks everyone!

[Scott C]

I cant exactly answer your question but I can come close since I have stayed at POR many times(POFQ coming up in July) I think that the thing that I missed the most from WL was the boat ride to MK. The boat from PO to Downtown is nice though. We went to WL in Feb so we spent quite a bit of time at WL. Trips in the summer with longer park hours reduce my need to spend more money on the room as we are not there as much

Thanks
Scott C

[Stickey]

POFQ is a good choice if you decide to stay at a moderate. It is a very compact resort and has an excellent food court. POFQ has boat service available to DTD.

Of course, WL has great theming and it is close to MK. You will miss the boat to MK, a private balcony, the lobby, the geyser, and the nightly electrical pageant.

[sassafras]

We've stayed at both WL and POR several times and love both! Never stayed at POFQ, but it shares some of the same amenities as POR such as boats to downtown Disney, buses, etc. The grounds of PO are beautiful to walk around and very relaxing. The bus service at PO is better than the WL in my opinion. The restaurants are more relaxing, not all the hoopla of WC. It's just a matter of preference, but I wouldn't hesitate to book POR or POFQ if I wanted to make a trip and felt I didn't want the outlay of cash it takes for the WL.

[LauraleeH]

We usually stay at WL and decided to give POFQ a try since it wasn't as expensive. Well, we took a look at our nasty, filthy room in POFQ and asked to be traded to another room. We were then taken to a room with horrible plumbing and an awful smell coming from the bathroom, so we left and went straight to the WL and have stayed there ever since!

[garymacd]

We love them both. We would like to call WL our home away from home, but we keep going back to POFQ.

Both resorts are fairly small and compact - easy to get around.

WL has great theming, the geyser, larger beds, bunk beds and that boat ride to MK.

POFQ has beautiful theming, a more affordable price, a great dragon slide at the pool, a boat ride to DTD. But it has one thing WL doesn't have:


Beignets!!

:cloud9:

[Tygger7]

I've stayed at both POFQ and WL, and have no desire to ever go back to POFQ. I've heard much better reports about POR and am considering trying it next winter. I'm not a fan of "outside corridors", where your hotel room opens directly onto an open air walkway. People were very inconsiderate and we were woken up every day by kids running up & down screaming at the top of their lungs. At night, the adults would scream at the kids & each other. I would rather cut my vacation a couple of days short & stay at WL than to try POFQ again. I would even stay at Pop Century before POFQ, if that tells you anything. :)

[murphy1]

We stayed at all of them, honestly my first thought is how much I was scared of these black birds that attacked us at POFQ pool! We love WL! I would rather just save the money and stay at All Stars, if we decide between Mod and Value. We do a deluxe every few years.

[Aggie97]

We've stayed at each resort once; we definitely will return to WL but were so-so on POFQ.

For us, the benefits of WL over POFQ include:

Guest rooms - WL guest rooms have two queen beds rather than two double beds; the rooms and bathrooms also are nicer and larger and have indoor corridors (we found noise outside and on the walkway above our room at POFQ to be a great problem).
Dining and shopping - There are more dining options at WL, and it's extremely easy to get to and from the monorail resorts for fantastic dining and shopping via the CR-WL boat launch.
Transportation - We stayed at POFQ during a time of year when its buses were nearly always combined with POR, so we found transportation to be very time-consuming, particularly to the MK, where we spend a lot of our time. We loved the WL's boat launch to the MK.
Theming - WL's huge, beautiful lobby, tranquil theming, and outdoor/pool area resonated with us.


Whatever you decide, have a great time. The wonderful thing about WDW is that there's something for everyone! :mickey:

[Gregandmel]

I appreciate the input. It's exactly what I was looking for. I just needed a very very small nudge to get me back to WL. We've decided to cut the vacation short by 1 day, and go during value season instead of regular season to help with the cost. WL is what we are all about anyways as far as the theming goes. I know there are many many many things people love about POFQ and i'm certainly not against ever trying it, we just know how much we LOVED WL the first time. Thanks so much for the honest input.

[Crow]

I like both.
WL more exp. standard room got me a view of the smokehouse last time.
buses arent always the greatest
theming is great WL, boat to MK.
Artist PT:thumbsup:
POFQ has good theme, no sitdown restaurant. boat to DD is nice. for me the location is a little better as I spend more time at Epcot than MK.
WL is my fav deluxe
POFQ is tied for my fav mod.
do what i have done; split the stay between resorts to save some money.

[ayeckley]

The big differences IMHO are the transportation and food issues. The transportation is generally better at WL primarily because you aren't limited to just busses (all of the resort bus routes can be bad at times). The food situation at POFQ is worse too, not on the basis of quality but based on the number of options (there is only one counter service location and only one table service location). It can be extremely crowded (and messy) at peak parts of the day, particularly breakfast. Less so with WL, although it's not obvious why this is true since they also have only one CS and one TS location for breakfast.

We've never experienced the horrors (bad smells, dirty rooms, screaming kids/parents, evil birds, etc.) at POFQ that some have reported. We have experienced some of those things at Pop Century and All-Stars however. On the whole, we would stay at POFQ again but probably not PC or AS.

[kakn7294]

We stayed at all of them, honestly my first thought is how much I was scared of these black birds that attacked us at POFQ pool!Wow, that would be scary! We never had a problem with birds at POFQ thank goodness! We haven't stayed at WL yet (will be there in July!!!) but we love POFQ. It's our favorite resort so far.

[brownie]

We've stayed at both, and I think I'd prefer Port Orleans French Quarter over the Wilderness Lodge. The Wilderness Lodge is nice and you have some good viewing options for the Electrical Water Pageant. The food court is bigger at Port Orleans French Quarter and I enjoyed the theming better there.

[lockedoutlogic]

The best hotels are Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and Beach Club.....

but Port is a very solid moderate...much smaller than the others and a good location/ feel....

It still is completely unacceptible....however....that there is no full service restaurant.

That should be reflected in the price...in my opinion:mickey:

[pamickeys]

WL, don't waste time on FQ if you want to have fun stay at Riverside everything is there anyway. the food is better so is the nightlife. that said, WL beats them both, pool , food, buses ,MK Fort Wilderness is so close, skip FQ.

[Mickey91]

You will miss the ambiance and the closeness to MK. WL is just so wonderful you could miss it staying anywhere else on property. We stayed at POR and thought it was very nice. If you need to stay at a moderate, just try to chalk it up to a new expereince and different vacation and try not to dwell on what you are missing. POR and POFQ have their own unique qualities that when not compared to WL are very nice and quite enjoyable. Have a great trip!

[leighe]

We have only stayed at POFQ one night before checking into AKL but we liked it so much we considered changing our reservation!

I know it's blasphemey - but we weren't overly impressed by WL. Although it could be because our reservation there was the second half of a split stay with the Beach Club which is by far our favorite resort.