Trip Advice

[Suzie88]

Hi everyone,
New here and would like some advice if possible please. I haven’t been to Disney for around 15 years so never as an adult actually planning the trip.
My partner and I are planning on going next summer however it’s not the simplest trip. I’ll try and break it down as much as I can.

We’re currently looking at a week in Disney next June - and have several options.

1. Stay at either PO (either resort) or CBR. For either we would upgrade to the Disney dining plan.

Now I am aware that PO is generally the most desired resort especially when there are no children however the bus times are really putting me off, especially compared to the (what should be snappy) Skyliner. What would everyone’s view be post Skyliner opening? Would it be worth the extra £100 at CBR for the quick park trips? With only a week we will be making the most of our time out there in the parks.

2) Another option that I have also thought of is to increase the trip to a 10 day trip. Stay at POFQ for 5 days on the dining plan, then move to the dolphin for another 5 nights. I am aware that the dolphin doesn’t do the dining plan but feel that 10 days on the plan could be overload for us anyway. That way we could still take advantage of the ME, and the dining for part of the trip, and the location on the boardwalk for the other half.

Has anyone done a trip like this and can advise in anyway? It seems quite complicated but that it could give us the best of both worlds potentially.

3) Disney will just be the start of our trip before we continue on. Could we still make use of the ME on our return (if we went back to the original hotel) or does it have to be straight from the hotel?

Thanks in advance

 

[Realfoodfans]

We've never had an issue with bus times for PO. The advantage to us is boat to DS as we like to eat there a couple of times during our stays. However we use our car to the water parks as that requires changing buses.

We’ve never considered splitting our stay before but I could see that working for a longer trip.

Last time we visited we spent an afternoon touring other resorts just to try and decide if that might work for us in the future.

Can’t advise on ME transportation as we always have a vehicle - I hate coach travel and would taxi/Uber if not having a car.

Good luck with your plans.

 

[alanandline]

ME is only for arrival day at resort from airport and check out day for to airport I believe.

Why do you think the dining plan will become overload? Surely you are going to eat? If upgrading to Delux plan then I get why anybody might say overload, even a day could be described as such.

Are you saying the options are Disney for a week or Disney for 10 days, just splitting the hotel? Personally I think Disney needs the 10 nights, bit preferably for me at same resort. Whilst I know lots go into parks on checkout day and go back later to collect luggage and move on, but it is a bit messy and not full day either way, so a 7 night stay is only really 6 full days with 10 giving you 9. Most people will tell you that you just cannot be in the Theme parks all day everyday without collapsing. Most will say either 2 or 3 in a row split up by either resort day, water park day or shopping day. So with Disney having 4 parks plus 2 water parks you’d say be only having 1 day for each. I think that’s not enough for the Disney parks, especially Magic Kingdom. So my advice is go for 10 whichever hotel route, but preferably in same.

I had the same quandary over PO or CBR, but at the time CBR pre free dining was a little cheaper. I was surprised how many just seem to have no interest in the Skyliner. CBR also gets a lot of comments about the buses, the resort being vast and being a good walk from all the main amenities.

CBR and POR have about the same number of rooms, but CBR covers over 200 acres and many say it is just too big.

I think every resort has its positive and negative attributes.

Enjoy

 

[alanandline]

From what I understand the direct bus to the water parks has been reintroduced, certainly seen enough mentions of this for the PO resorts.

 

[starrysky]

We’ve done Pop to POR once before as we couldn’t get the full trip we planned booked in at POR. It was fine but I didn’t feel I could relax at Pop as we weren’t really able to unpack etc.
For me I would agree with the other posters about staying in the same resort all the time.
POR both resorts are lovely we especially like FQ as it’s the smallest by far and you can use the amenities at both resorts which are a short walk from each other so that gives you the best of both option. Also keep in mind that both PORs have boats that take you to Disney Springs (buses as well) so that gives you another transport option to there and they are the closest non DVC resorts to that area.
Bus wise FQ has only one stop at the main front area while POR can be a bit of a long journey. We found it was quicker to get off at the first stop and walk back to our room than wait for the bus to take us. Depending on where your room is.
As for the ME you would need to be booked in to stay at least for one night before you use that service as you can’t just turn up and take it you have to be booked on to it and they give you a time the day before.
For example if we are leaving on the Saturday the time is posted to our room the Friday morning.
If you are upgrading to the dinning plan keep in mind that some places need two credits so you might find when you factor that in it’s not as much as you think food wise. Also snack credits can be used on certain bagged items like sweets etc so you can always do that to take home.

 

[Suzie88]

Thank you for all your help so far. In terms of food overload it’s more around the amount of snacks etc. I don’t feel we’ll make best use of them so may pay for them unnecessarily (although I guess within the free dining not really).

I’ll keep looking at options, I have been given a maximum budget for the first half of the trip (Disney) so if I could get it in the budget we could stay for the longer. The issue being my partner is not Disney mad and therefore I feel the values wouldn’t be the way forward to introduce him, but that he would enjoy the moderates.

 

[saintrob]

We've stayed at both Port Orleans resorts and CBR and wouldn't return to CBR simply because of the buses! I assume that the skyliner will help transportation but at the moment I'd wait and see. As someone has already said, with POFQ only having one stop, the buses are better than at Riverside.

We frequently do a split stay and have stayed at the Dophin. It's a great hotel in terms of location and has a good selection of restaurants however I wasn't impressed with the room quality. We much prefered the Swan as it was more relaxing and only a five minute stroll to use the facilties of the Dolphin.

 

[Jennisney]

If you want to stay at PO, id choose POFQ, its smaller and the buses seem alot faster IMO. The skyliner doesnt have Air Con i dont think, so Im guessing theyll be super warm inside.

Also I saw your other comment about snacks, you will have loads left at the end, but you can use them to get bags of sweets and stuff in Goofys Candy Co. If you dont want to take them with you, you could give them to someone else in your resort like a family maybe?

 

[Suzie88]

Ok, so my split stay doesn’t seem feasible as neither the swan/dolphin seem to be booking yet which means we could end up being left with less than a week booked and the potential that FQ may not be able to accommodate extra nights.

In that case, it seems the majority are still with POFQ rather than CBR despite the Skyliner? I saw the time between the two seemed to be planner for between 6-7 minutes travel on the Skyliner as opposed to a 20-25minute bus ride and a potential extra 20 minutes wait? Are people not confident that it could significantly cut down travel time? Obviously I guess I need to consider these are just 2 parks and the other parks on the bus could entirely remove that benefit taking average times across the stay.

It seems both have their positives and negatives.

 

[Jennisney]

In that case, it seems the majority are still with POFQ rather than CBR despite the Skyliner? I saw the time between the two seemed to be planner for between 6-7 minutes travel on the Skyliner as opposed to a 20-25minute bus ride and a potential extra 20 minutes wait? Are people not confident that it could significantly cut down travel time? Obviously I guess I need to consider these are just 2 parks and the other parks on the bus could entirely remove that benefit taking average times across the stay.

It seems both have their positives and negatives.

The amount of time you’re staying at Disney you will have plenty of time to do all the parks, the bus wait times are really not that bad, each of the bus stops have a screen which tells you when the next bus will come. The wait time is never that long. And from POFQ the longest journey I think is MK, which takes about 15 minutes, but it doesn’t feel that long. I’ve never been on a bus that takes 20-25 minutes to any of the parks from POFQ.

Edit: actually the longest is animal kingdom I seem to remember, but again not that long

 

[Realfoodfans]

From what I understand the direct bus to the water parks has been reintroduced, certainly seen enough mentions of this for the PO resorts.

Oh brilliant news thank you!

 

[alanandline]

Also with CBR being so big as it stands it can be up to 20 mins walk to the lobby area. I believe the Skyliner is off to one end, I think near to the Riviera resort, so could be longer than that to walk to the Skyliner

 

[~Piglet~]

I felt that the buses at POR seemed to take longer than at other resorts, MK especially - but that's to be expected due to POR's location. I think we've all had that point in our hols where every other hotels bus arrives at the parks bus stops bar your own

I've done a split stay in the past with no issues; I tend to leave stuff in my case though and get it out as needed - I never fully unpack! Disney were great taking our cases from one hotel to the other (we hadn't hired a car that trip).

If you're considering a stay at CBR can I suggest CSR to you as an alternative?! (I can't help being slightly biased toward CSR, I love it there). I've always found the buses to be fine and it is quite central to the parks for journeys, with the exception of MK.

Whatever you decide upon you I'm sure you will have a great time

 

[Suzie88]

I felt that the buses at POR seemed to take longer than at other resorts, MK especially - but that's to be expected due to POR's location. I think we've all had that point in our hols where every other hotels bus arrives at the parks bus stops bar your own

I've done a split stay in the past with no issues; I tend to leave stuff in my case though and get it out as needed - I never fully unpack! Disney were great taking our cases from one hotel to the other (we hadn't hired a car that trip).

If you're considering a stay at CBR can I suggest CSR to you as an alternative?! (I can't help being slightly biased toward CSR, I love it there). I've always found the buses to be fine and it is quite central to the parks for journeys, with the exception of MK.

Whatever you decide upon you I'm sure you will have a great time

Thank you! CSR does appeal (and is further liked by the fact for about £10 more can have an extra night at DW in comparison to POR).

The worry with CSR is the convention centre and if with the new tower it will struggle at capacity (we’ll be there in the summer). Also I had heard bus rides were longer but a quick google suggests not.

 

[~Piglet~]

The worry with CSR is the convention centre and if with the new tower it will struggle at capacity (we’ll be there in the summer). Also I had heard bus rides were longer but a quick google suggests not.

I'm wondering about the impact of the tower too, it will be interesting to see if the resort is busier than on our previous trips, especially around the dig site. The convention centre keeps itself to itself - I like the fact that a proportion of CSR guests are attending that area; it always made CSR seem very quiet even though it is a fair size, it never looked crowded!

....if you get an extra night for not much more than £10 its worth considering, you can never have too much time at Disney POR was very nice too, I think I was probably a bit young (30's!!) to appreciate it fully? I found it quite ...sedate?... whereas now 10 years down the line I'd probably enjoy the surroundings more.

 

[alanandline]

I’ve been reading www.portorleans.org a fan site for both sides of the resort. They say the buses are now generally separate for each resort, especially at peak times. There POFQ has its own bus from just 1 stop. However POR has a bus to stop at 4 stops. So it has the problem of be 1st stop and always get on but 10-15 mins before it actually leaves the resort or last stop and sometimes it will be full and you’ll have to wait for another. This though is the problem that all the moderates seem to have.

 

[Suzie88]

So feeling a bit silly. By the time we finally decided on a place last night and now the price has gone up (no standard rooms now). Is it likely they will reappear over the next couple of days?

 

[alanandline]

I wouldn’t bank on it. How much is the upgraded room extra?

 

[Suzie88]

It’s gone up £200 so more than we’re willing to pay.

 

[Suzie88]

We are completely flexible on dates from mid June yet the standard rooms seem to have vanished completely! It’s so strange