Art of Animation- Little Mermaid v. Port Orleans French Quarter

Deeva007

Earning My Ears
Joined
Nov 16, 2017
For a trip in January with my husband, and 3 and 6 year old girls-- trying to decide between a 6 night stay at Port Orleans or Art of Animation Little Mermaid room. The price difference is about $50 a night to stay at POFQ
 
For a trip in January with my husband, and 3 and 6 year old girls-- trying to decide between a 6 night stay at Port Orleans or Art of Animation Little Mermaid room. The price difference is about $50 a night to stay at POFQ


The kids will probably ENJOY the theming of AoA more but it's a LONG walk from LM to the bus stop (not one I'd want to do with a stroller at the end of a long day). Everything is nice and compact at POFQ and there's a boat to Disney Springs.
 
Hmm, that's tough. Are you planning on spending a lot of time at the resort? I stayed in a little mermaid room last January with my then 3 year old. She absolutely loved it, staying at "Ariel's house". It was also warm enough that we were able to use the fabulous pool, but that's never a guarantee. Port Orleans is such a beautiful resort. It has a lot more amenities, as well. I'm leaning towards PO with only a $50 difference.
 
Those are exactly my thoughts-- kids would LOVE Art of Animation but the rooms are small and less convenient so as much as the trip is for them they dont know what they are missing and if its makes mommy and daddys life easier maybe its worth the extra $300 bucks ! Im thinking will get plenty of the princessy stuff at the parks anyway. We are going in January so the pool is iffy but we do have an entire down day built in for whatever resort we choose and the springs. Im not sure which has more activities besides the pool in case we cant use the pool.
 
Those are exactly my thoughts-- kids would LOVE Art of Animation but the rooms are small and less convenient so as much as the trip is for them they dont know what they are missing and if its makes mommy and daddys life easier maybe its worth the extra $300 bucks ! Im thinking will get plenty of the princessy stuff at the parks anyway. We are going in January so the pool is iffy but we do have an entire down day built in for whatever resort we choose and the springs. Im not sure which has more activities besides the pool in case we cant use the pool.

Check out portorleans.org. It's a very in depth site that lists about everything you can do at both POR and POFQ. We're going in May and we were torn between POP/AoA and Port Orleans. Ended up with POFQ because it's small and compact. I love POR but with my inlaws coming and a stroller, I wanted a resort where there are practically no buildings far from anything (dining/transportation/pool/etc)
 
Those are exactly my thoughts-- kids would LOVE Art of Animation but the rooms are small and less convenient so as much as the trip is for them they dont know what they are missing and if its makes mommy and daddys life easier maybe its worth the extra $300 bucks ! Im thinking will get plenty of the princessy stuff at the parks anyway. We are going in January so the pool is iffy but we do have an entire down day built in for whatever resort we choose and the springs. Im not sure which has more activities besides the pool in case we cant use the pool.

I would pay for the convenience with a young child. The little mermaid rooms are so far from the food court and main pool. I found myself skipping coffee in the refillable mug in the mornings because it was such a far walk, just bought coffee at the parks. The AoA theming is really fun but it is definitely a value resort. My daughter liked looking at the big characters, but it's not like they can be climbed on or anything, so the novelty wears off pretty quickly. The big blue pool is super fun for kids and has a great splash pad but doesn't have a waterslide like PO (which probably doesn't matter with one so young). The food is only so so at AoA food court, and it was a complete zoo when we were there. We went to the food court one night and left, ended up ordering pizza in the room, the lines were crazy. The food at POR and POFQ are both more highly reviewed, but I haven't eaten there personally. For me, the moderate resorts are worth the upgrade in general and with such a small price difference, my vote is for PO.
 
As the other posters have said when you are carrying 2 tired sleepy little girls you will appreciate how compact FQ is (my families favorite resort).
 


Depends on if your family cares or not, but the AoA Little Mermaid rooms are dog-friendly now, so your room may have or may not have received an appropriate deep-clean before you're checked into the room....
 
We love Port Orleans French Quarter! Boat ride to Disney springs is fun, and the lack of a long walk is also a good thing. You could always visit art of animation just to check it out while there, but it seems a long walk to make every day and every meal.
 
Depends on if your family cares or not, but the AoA Little Mermaid rooms are dog-friendly now, so your room may have or may not have received an appropriate deep-clean before you're checked into the room....

Even at the not official dog friendly resorts there is a chance a service animal was in the room before you. No matter what resort you are at if the room isn't clean to your standards, that is something they should fix immediately.
 
I did one night in LM room at AoA. It was very far from the main hub, bus stops, food etc, and it was very chaotic with long lines everywhere in the resort. We wouldn't stay again. We haven't stayed at PO yet, but we've dined there several times and enjoyed it so it's on our list of places to stay in the future.
 
We had this scenario a few trips back and went with POFQ. All of us agreed that it's our favorite resort, we just haven't been booking there since there is never a discount offered. Love the more compact feel and it's just more quaint. Plus maybe it was just our experience but it just felt more calm and quiet than the others.
 
Thank you everyone. I am leaning toward Port Orleans - but for some reason I keep thinking about Aof A since that was my first instinct. Such a tough decision.
 
Thank you everyone. I am leaning toward Port Orleans - but for some reason I keep thinking about Aof A since that was my first instinct. Such a tough decision.

Ask yourself if you are up for that walk to your room at the end of the night, when everyone is tired. Or the hike up to the front if you want a snack or a drink. Both of those are things you will have staying in a Little Mermaid room at AoA.
 
We did 1 night at AoA LM rooms, and while the theming is amazing, walk is long to front - would not want to do it for a week. Another option is POR Royal Rooms for a nice theme for the girls, but a little pricier than POFQ.
 
We stayed at AofA two years ago in a LM room and loved it!! My dgd was 4 and she loved walking to our room, seeing the Lion King area, and playing by the chest of jewels. We saw lots of little bunnies hopping around. Our room was about 4 doors from the start of the LM section, so closer to the food court/main pool area. We really enjoyed our stay!!! Try asking for a room close to food court. Might help. Since we’ve stayed at POFQ, that’s dgd favorite hotel - she loves the kids splash area and the slide at the main pool! She has requested POFQ again for our stay in June! You’ll really enjoy either hotel!
 
:welcome:
DW and I have stayed at both, but PoFQ was pre-kids. The nice thing about your decision, I think either one is the right one.

PoFQ will be more convenient for the reasons mentioned above.

BUT...the theming of AoA is INCREDIBLE!!! While the walk from the LM rooms is not short, I didn't find it to be too bad in the grand scheme of a Disney trip. With that said, we had a rental car and didn't have to do that walk at the end of the night often.

Have you given consideration to doing a split stay? Spend a few nights at AoA to get LM fix and then move to PoFQ for more convenience your last few days...or vice versa?

No matter what you choose, I hope you have a Disneyrific vacation! :tigger:
 
We stayed at the AOA Little Mermaid room this past Feb or March. In the mornings when your head to get breakfast or to just get on the bus to go to the parks, the walk isn't so bad. in the afternoons or nights when you come back that same walk is never ending. The decor is very cute. But the walk is awful when coming back from parks. If we had a rental car or drove down to where we could of parked close it wouldn't of been bad. I know AOA has a splash zone, it was not working when we went. And I THINK FQ has one from what I have read.
 
We ended up staying at POFQ! We couldnt use the pool because it was too cold and we were too busy at the parks anyway! It was great and super convenient. We may go back to DW in August or November for a few nights stay and maybe we will try the Little Mermaid rooms then!!! but would def stay at POFQ again too =)
 

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