Disney's PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE RESORT Information & Questions

[TeachTink]

Just booked my stay for POR the week after Thanksgiving! Hubby and I stayed there as a couple in 2014 but this will be our first time staying there with our daughter. She will be 4 when we go. It will be her first trip to Disney World!! So excited!

 

[AyrshireGirl71]

We have booked 7 nights at POR garden room view for 3( my husband, myself and our 14 year old son). It will be our first visit to POR. We normally stay in SSR( not available to book via UK Disney. I assume due to refurb) Looking at the map, we would love to stay in block 85 Magnolia Terrace. Is that option available at online check in or do I need to contact Disney and put the request on my booking? We love doing rope drop early hours. What is the bus transport like? We have stayed in SSR many times, so we are used to multiple bus stops and big reort. Any hints/ tips for POR. Thanks so much

 

[Laura's Dad]

We have booked 7 nights at POR garden room view for 3( my husband, myself and our 14 year old son). It will be our first visit to POR. We normally stay in SSR( not available to book via UK Disney. I assume due to refurb) Looking at the map, we would love to stay in block 85 Magnolia Terrace. Is that option available at online check in or do I need to contact Disney and put the request on my booking? We love doing rope drop early hours. What is the bus transport like? We have stayed in SSR many times, so we are used to multiple bus stops and big reort. Any hints/ tips for POR. Thanks so much

We make our room requests via the TouringPlans website. Disney has changed their policy with room requests, now taking faxes 30 days in advance. TouringPlans has a room finder tool that shows you most of the views from the rooms. You can have them fill out a fax for you and they will send the room request for you. It works for us pretty well.

If you call Disney they may note your desire for Magnolia Terrace. We have stayed at all 4 mansions and much prefer Oak Manor or Magnolia Terrace. Oak Manor are royal guest rooms so that would not be a garden view fit. Both are close to bus stops and are also close to bridges that lead to the resort center.

Since it is your first time, i would highly recommend Andre Wiley's terrific website www,portorleans.org. He is the author of the two DIS posts on both Riverside and French Quarter. The information on his website will fully answer all of your questions and is an invaluable tool if you stay at either resort.

 

[Laura's Dad]

When will the Mardi Gras activities be available? I see from Andre's website that they no longer release the recreation schedules via his website. The February activities schedule says nothing specific about Tuesday. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[andrewilley]

When will the Mardi Gras activities be available? I see from Andre's website that they no longer release the recreation schedules via his website. The February activities schedule says nothing specific about Tuesday. Any help would be appreciated.

They usually put up notices around the resort a few days beforehand. So now that the resort is refusing to pass on any info directly (I still don't know why, it seemed to work for the last ten years) we'll have to wait until some kind guest photographs the publicly-displayed signs and passes them on. I'd guess we might hear something by the weekend before, so maybe around 22nd Feb?

Andre

 

[Laura's Dad]

They usually put up notices around the resort a few days beforehand. So now that the resort is refusing to pass on any info directly (I still don't know why, it seemed to work for the last ten years) we'll have to wait until some kind guest photographs the publicly-displayed signs and passes them on. I'd guess we might hear something by the weekend before, so maybe around 22nd Feb?

Andre

Thanks. We will be watching.

 

[keahgirl8]

We make our room requests via the TouringPlans website. Disney has changed their policy with room requests, now taking faxes 30 days in advance. TouringPlans has a room finder tool that shows you most of the views from the rooms. You can have them fill out a fax for you and they will send the room request for you. It works for us pretty well.

If you call Disney they may note your desire for Magnolia Terrace. We have stayed at all 4 mansions and much prefer Oak Manor or Magnolia Terrace. Oak Manor are royal guest rooms so that would not be a garden view fit. Both are close to bus stops and are also close to bridges that lead to the resort center.

Since it is your first time, i would highly recommend Andre Wiley's terrific website www,portorleans.org. He is the author of the two DIS posts on both Riverside and French Quarter. The information on his website will fully answer all of your questions and is an invaluable tool if you stay at either resort.

I have totally missed that! I did not realize they were taking requests that early. I arrive next week. Am I too late? Do we still do them like we always have?

 

[Laura's Dad]

I have totally missed that! I did not realize they were taking requests that early. I arrive next week. Am I too late? Do we still do them like we always have?

Not sure. You could always try. They are now being handled by the reservation center and not by the individual resorts.

Here is an official WDW link with a number you may wish to call from Disney Mom's Panel



https://disneyparksmomspanel.disney...s-staying-wdw-resort-hotel-im-staying-360983/

 

[andrewilley]

They are now being handled by the reservation center and not by the individual resorts.

Adding requests as typed notes in the reservation on the main computer system has always been something you can do with a phone call to the Reservation Center.

However they are not the ones who actually read/action these requests, that is handled by the new Central Inventory Management team based near Disney Springs since August last year. They start looking at reservation requests and other room allocation needs for all WDW Resorts about 30 days out, rather than the previous 5 days when this function was handled on-site at resorts. Any request faxes sent to resorts are now forwarded to that team, who do not have any other guest-facing communication options.

Andre

 

[keahgirl8]

Adding requests as typed notes in the reservation on the main computer system has always been something you can do with a phone call to the Reservation Center.

However they are not the ones who actually read/action these requests, that is handled by the new Central Inventory Management team based near Disney Springs since August last year. They start looking at reservation requests and other room allocation needs for all WDW Resorts about 30 days out, rather than the previous 5 days when this function was handled on-site at resorts. Any request faxes sent to resorts are now forwarded to that team, who do not have any other guest-facing communication options.

Andre

So, is calling the best way now? Is there even any point if I'm less than 30 days out?

 

[ninafeliz]

So, is calling the best way now? Is there even any point if I'm less than 30 days out?

I would call right now and add them. It can’t hurt, and while I can’t be sure I just can’t imagine everyone’s room is set in stone at 30 days out. So much changes, particularly with the 5 day room only cancellation period.

 

[andrewilley]

So, is calling the best way now?

You can still fax the resort fax number, it should be passed on to the CIM team.

Andre

 

[Arkansas Disney Girl]

Does anyone happen to know the dimensions of these shelves(in the alligator bayou rooms)?
Thanks!

 

[gmflash88]

I asked over in the dining forum but figured I'd put it here as well. We are staying at POR in August and will likely have at least one meal at Boatwright's. Is an ADR necessary? I don't see it mentioned in "must do" lists that are all over the place so I feel like it's not a destination restaurant. If I could say for certain which night we will eat there, I'd just make the reservation but it's most likely that we'd just stop in on a whim.

Thanks all!

 

[Wood Nymph]

I asked over in the dining forum but figured I'd put it here as well. We are staying at POR in August and will likely have at least one meal at Boatwright's. Is an ADR necessary? I don't see it mentioned in "must do" lists that are all over the place so I feel like it's not a destination restaurant. If I could say for certain which night we will eat there, I'd just make the reservation but it's most likely that we'd just stop in on a whim.

Thanks all!

We made a last minute decision to eat at Boatrights instead of Disney Springs. I made an ADR a few hours before dinner. The night we ate there it looked like the restaurant was full by the time we left.

 

[keahgirl8]

You can still fax the resort fax number, it should be passed on to the CIM team.

Andre

I gave it a shot!

 

[2019TripIdeas]

View attachment 473127
Does anyone happen to know the dimensions of these shelves(in the alligator bayou rooms)?
Thanks!

We just recently got home and while I'm not 100% sure, I would say they're fairly shallow. I was able to put one packing cube in each shelf there that was probably about 12".

 

[2019TripIdeas]

We just stayed at POR a few weeks ago. It was our first time staying there. Overall thoughts: the outdoor areas were absolutely gorgeous and very well kept. We went to the campfire at night a few times and that was great. Our kids enjoyed playing on the playground and at the pool one afternoon.

We had some pretty big issues with the buses and found it easier to catch them at the main lobby depot, versus the West which was far closer to our room. Even at prime times (8:30/9 a.m.) there was sometimes no bus listed as headed to 1-2 parks on the app. After waiting almost an hour at one point, we started using Lyft which was super easy, quicker, more convenient overall.

We ended up eating at POFQ instead of POR a few times (weren't really impressed with Riverside Mill and wish they'd had healthier options.) We thought the food court at POFQ had some much better options. To be fair, can't judge the food quality because we didn't eat it.

Our room (Alligator Bayou) was really below expectations in terms of cleanliness. I did left Disney know this and haven't heard any response there. There was a dirty sock from a past guest behind the pull-down bed when we arrived... and it remained there all week. There was also paint stains on the floor from the recent? refurbishment (blue paint on the bathroom tile). We were in Building 26 in Alligator Bayou.

While I don't think we'll be back to POR (we did a split stay with the latter half at Boardwalk which was not very much more, in relative terms for a standard room, and had a far, far better experience there), I think we would do POFQ as we preferred the atmosphere over there and had wonderful interactions with the employees. I really appreciated being able to read through this thread as we were planning though!

 

[gmflash88]

Sorry you didn't have a good experience. If I may ask, how much was it to take a Lyft from POR to the various parks?

 

[2019TripIdeas]

^ i think the most we paid was $16 and least was $7! It was worth that to save 30 minutes or more, especially in the mornings.

On a few occasions, they did send cast members out to try to control crowd at bus stop when this happened. One cast member told people that buses were “every 25 minutes minimum and one bus had an issue so 50 minutes was to be expected” (which the people who stay there regularly verbally disagreed with and said it’s not usually that bad in the morning). I guess just bad luck but it left a sour taste in our mouths the one time we missed EMH because of it. Definitely worth the LYFT cost, to us.