PLEASE Sell me on Port Orleans Riverside Resort

[LeeAnn]

On our next trip our little one will be three, therefore, we will offically become a family of five. Now there are limitations on where we can stay. The least expesive is Port Orleans Riverside Resort. However, I have never been a fan of it's theme and location. But we really don't have much of a choice. Feeling bad about deciding to stay there, I was wondering who out there have loved this place? What is great about this place? PLEASE sell me on Port Orleans Riverside Resort.

Thanks.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We stayed at POR on our honeymoon, and it is a lovely resort!

I actually think that it is a great place for families, there is a well-themed main pool (with a bar) and a fishin' hole (you can rent fishing rods), and a number (5?) of quiet pools, scattered throughout the resort. We loved having our "own" pool right behind our building.

We loved the theming, that you could get away from the business of a Disney vacation, and wander the paths (I liked finding the lizards), the food court was good and well-stocked (lots of grab and go items too).

If there is a downside, it is that the resort is fairly large, but again, unless you're planning on using the refillable mugs, you don't have to be close to main building, as there are bus stops and pools all around the resort.

PLEASE don't worry about POR, I think you'll likt it :)

[disneyfan328]

As a family of 5 as well we loved POR when we stayed there last September. It truly is a beautiful lush resort. The food court is ok and there is a restaurant - boatwrights - we never got to eat there but I heard good things about it and also it ALWAYS smelled so good.

We did the fishing hole one morning and it was lots of fun too. We also liked being able to ride the boat to DTD is a wonderfully relaxing ride. There is a lot of great paths to walk around and we loved the "rustic" feel to POR - we were in bldg 15 which was pretty close to the food court/bus stops ect.

We are only going to be a family of 4 on our next trip and are staying at a value for expense purposes but I would stay at POR again in a heartbeat. It is a retreat from the business as the PP stated meaning that it is very laid back with a quiet river ect. There are no huge icon or Disney characters around everywhere. It is a more subdued atmosphere which with a 3 year old may be a blessing!!

I would say to go and have a great time. You won't regret it.

[Ksmith75]

We stayed twice at the POR. We loved it. We are staying at the POP this year and are kinda hoping we like it there - but with a 9 night stay the POP was a better deal. Back to the POR. It is wonderful. Clean and quiet. You will love it. Fultons General Store is great for gifts and other things you may need, sodas, box of donuts, cough medicine:ill:... You will love it there!

[elmjimmlm]

I cant believe #1Donald Fan hasn't responded on this yet because he is THE POR #1 fan...
We have stayed there 3 times because we are also a family of 5 and haven't gone deluxe yet...It is very laid back and quiet unlike the parks and that is nice to come back to...They also have a great food court...Boatwrights has a great breakfast too...
If you do decide to stay there then ask for building 14 in AB...It is the closest to the food court, a short walk to the busses if you go through the parking lot and a short walk to the quiet pool with laundry behind...They have a boat that goes to DtD and its a great ride...You really cant go wrong staying there...Have fun...:mickey:

[Buttercup]

This is all great stuff! We're staying at POR for the first time in March - I'm glad to hear it's going to be quite nice!:number1:

[missymouseworld]

We have stayed at the POR the last two times and my family won't have it any other way. With the buy 4/get 3 offer, I offered them a change to stay this upcoming April at the Contemporary, but no one wanted it. All 3 kids really like the pools, the surroundings, foodcourt, etc. My husband and I like the boat ride to DTD, even if it is just the ride and we don't get off. Also, you can take the boat to POFQ and use their main pool. We haven't tried that yet, but are planning on visiting their food court and checking out the pool this year. Boatwrights is a good restaurant; we have eaten breakfast and dinner there, and really enjoyed it.

With a family of 5, you are limited in the moderates and values. We have stayed at the Deluxe level before, but didn't care for walking thru hallways, upon hallways to get to your room. With POR, you open the door and there you are, outside enjoying the Florida weather.

Can't wait until April.....snowing really hard right now in NJ, kids off school....I need a vacation soon.

Good luck and enjoy!:cool:

[#1donaldfan]

I cant believe #1Donald Fan hasn't responded on this yet because he is THE POR #1 fan...
We have stayed there 3 times because we are also a family of 5 and haven't gone deluxe yet...It is very laid back and quiet unlike the parks and that is nice to come back to...They also have a great food court...Boatwrights has a great breakfast too...
If you do decide to stay there then ask for building 14 in AB...It is the closest to the food court, a short walk to the busses if you go through the parking lot and a short walk to the quiet pool with laundry behind...They have a boat that goes to DtD and its a great ride...You really cant go wrong staying there...Have fun...:mickey:


Ha, Ha, Ha !!!

...yes, we find POR our home away from home....your getting a lot of good information here, so you can rest assured that you'll love that place. It's just so relaxing, and that's a supersized plus after a long day at a park....give it a try and I'm positive you'll love it..!!!:thumbsup:

[MegPeg85]

Ditto to all the good reviews of POR. It's my favorite moderate resort for sure. It's beautiful, relaxing, and just plain nice.

[JMTStone]

My husband and I went on a "without kids" trip and stayed at POR in November 2008 (thanks to Magical Journeys - Denise - we got a really good deal). I really liked it. It felt relaxing. We were in building 14 which is steps away from everything but felt real secluded. It was nice and quiet. We only ate there once, breakfast on our final day. It was yummy.

Don't fret. Any day at Disney is better than any day in your busy life.

[ILoveLegos]

I like POR so much, that it is the only Disney accomodation that I've stayed at outside of my own vaction home. Yes, the theme-ing is just that good!

[katzctkpt]

Another vote for POR AB bldg 14 or 18. I like them both. After a busy day in the parks it's nice to come back to a quiet relaxing place. The rooms are nothing elaborate but they are clean and themed just right to fit in with grounds.

[EmmMOM2]

We loved the simple little things such as the fish food machines, you can put in a quarter and out comes food that my kids LOVE to throw in the water to feed the big fish in the water boat area their.
You can rent paddle boats and we loved watching the ducks with their new baby ducks walk around the resort. It is quite lovely.

The breakfast at the restaurant their is VERY yummy as well.

You'll have a great time....

[LeeAnn]

Thanks for info. It has been helpful, especially that Port Orleans website.

Feel a bit better but still worried about 2 things:

1.) Transportation (to the parks) What has been your experience during a busy time (or end of Aug/Labor day) crowds? We are 3 kids and 2 strollers and usually stay late. Kids nap thruout the day in stroller wake up and they charged to go. But at the end of day, it a little rough for us. If the wait is very long then they will fall asleep and that makes it hard to get on the bus. And we would need seats. We have done this at other resort but I worry about it at this one.

2.) Is the room location to the food court and bus stops? There nothing to do but wait on that. It just the possibly of being so far away, again worries me. Yes, is possible at other resort. We had this problem @ Carb. but then we were w/o kids and had a car.

The paddle boats seem interesting. My kids are small. Is there room for an adult to paddle and a kid sit next to them. Are they strapped in? How many fit on one?

Thanks.

I do like the idea of a refrigator in the room. I read somewhere that there is no freezer compartment in the frig. Is this true? I would like to freeze a couple bottles of water bottles.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Usually if there is one complaint about POR, it's the bus system. POR shares the buses with its sister resort POFQ, and FQ gets first pickup. There are 4 stops at POR, so you should be able to get to at least one stop from your building without much of a walk. However, there is a good chance that at peak times the bus will be full or near capacity. There's just not much you can do about it.

We stayed at POR for the first time in 2007, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

[ILoveLegos]

At POR you have to wait for buses, and there are a lot of stops and its is a shared loop with POFQ. <== All true!

I un-wisely didn't bring a stroller for my 4.5 year-old niece once and ended up carrying her every night from the park-bus-hotel in my arms while she slept like a princess!

If waiting for buses is an issue, then the Magic Kindom monorail hotels might be a better choice for you especially with little ones and strollers in tow. However even when staying there, the WDW bus system will still effect you when you are going to DHS and AK from there.

Have you considered renting a car? Then you don't have to struggle with the strollers on the bus and you can come and go as you please at nap time and you can still enjoy my favorite resort POR! Also consider taking a taxicab during those busy park closings, it is a good option in a pinch too!

The POR main bus stop location is right at the food court, boat to DTD and pretty close to the main pool/fishing hole area. Your room could be anywhere throughout and the resort is kind of spread out (hence the location of the other bus stops).

The paddle boats were standard paddle boats (two bucket seats) little belt-y thingy around your waist, kids get a life preserver if memory serves. I can't be sure totally sure though I've spent much more time in other WDW boats and I could be confusing them with the water mice - LOL! :mickey:

The in-room fridge is a standard little dorm sized chest model. I squeezed water bottles and what was left from the large room-service piza in there (bring ziplock bags). It is not that big though (btw, I used the microwave in the food court to warm the pizza up for in room pizza-snacks for late-night). In the morning the water was cold, not frozen on the coldest setting.

POR is truly a lovely resort with lots of unique features (horse pulled carriages, fishing, boating, the boat to DTD, Ol' Man Island, flower & fauna, winding paths and bridges, the mill, the mansions, the bayou) - believe it or not I choose to take the buses and leave my car behind when I go, but then again it reminds me of my college days squeezing onto the Rutgers University Buses - okay, sorry I'm a bit more nostalgic for the busing aspect of WDW than your average guest would be - but I reminds me of the good ole college days. :blush:

[MarkC]

I know you've already received plenty of favorable responses, but I'm going to add one more. My wife, who usually doesn't even have an opinion on such matters, loved Riverside so much I had to beg her to try something else. We've even gone back to the food court because it's one of the better ones on property. Agree with building 14 as the best on property. You will love it.

[Goes4FastPass]

It's Disney World and you have 4 people to share it with:woohoo:

[mom2morgan]

I was there in December, and didn't mind the busses at all. Never had a really long wait. We actually even did a lot of dining at other resorts - and we've always heard that trying to go resort-to-resort is so bad, but we didn't mind (except on the night we inadvertently arrived at Magic Kingdow on our way back from the Polynesian RIGHT after the fireworks..that time we had to wait for a second bus and then ended up standing).

[JMTStone]

We figured out that in Building 14 you can take a "back way" to the main POR bus stop. We went beginning of November and never had an issue. It was just DH and I and we only had a full bus once. DH and I got up for a family with a little one and the 6 year old was telling such stories about her day at Magic Kingdom, it was worth it!

[katzctkpt]

As you can tell POR is our home away from home. The buses have not been an issue for us. We have not waited more than 10 minutes at the resort depot for a bus and the only time we've had to wait longer is at the park depots when you are leaving a park at closing. But, all resort buses are busy and everyone is waiting. As long as your strollers are easily collapsable it shouldn't be an issue and most people I've seen sitting on the buses will give their seat up if someone is carrying a small one. We have done so plenty of times.

[Momto2Princesses&1Pirate]

We love POR. After staying at POP on our first family trip (too wild, crazy and loud) we knew we wanted something different on the next trip. DS grew up and we moved up to POR. I had read all of the advice about which buildings to request and noted that on our reservation through MJ. Sad to say, upon checkin, they were packed and not only did we not get 14, 15, or 18 we were in the next to the farthest out building. I just wanted to cry. We got on the boat ride to DTD and it was so relaxing that I didn't care about the location anymore - hey, I'm at Disney..... As it turned out, that building was wonderful. There was a pool right around the corner from our room and the bus stop was also a very short walk. At night when we were tired and got off the bus we were soooo glad to be so close to our room. The kids, DD11, DD6 and DS 4, loved looking for bunnies, lizards and squirrels while walking the paths. The bus situation was also not a problem either. We almost always got on an empty or near empty bus in the mornings. We finally learned that if the previous bus was filled up at the main bus stop the next bus bypassed it and came to our stop first. It was wonderful. All in all, we decided that we loved the location and will probably request that building and room on our next trip. So no matter where you end up at the resort be patient and it might end up being your favorite.

[beachezncream]

in our opinion POR has one of the best food courts of them all :thumbsup: you can get plain pasta for the kids and breakfast is great :thumbsup: not always close to where your room... but its well worth it