What can you tell me about Port Orleans Riverside? Currently booked at the Contemporary but seriously considering changing due to the savings. Details about your experience there, travel to the parks, especially for early dining reservations, the pools, etc. Haven’t decided anything for sure yet. Traveling with 4 young kids (7, 4, 2 and 3 months) in June.
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We stayed at both. The pool theme is much better at POR. POR is very large and requires quite a bit of walking. We loved the atmosphere. Buses were not an issue for us but we are early people. A couple of times we saw people left at the south depot due to full buses. We mostly used the north depot. We enjoyed the boats to Disney springs and made use of the POFQ pool. Over all I like the feel of POFQ best but POR was a great second. That all being said nothing can beat walking to MK Or monorail access when you have strollers.
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Port Orleans Riverside is a beautiful resort! I love walking through the resort early morning and late at night. The main building with the food court, bar, lobby and store are much quieter than CR in general. There is a main pool and multiple quiet pools throughout the resort. I haven’t stayed at Port Orlean in a couple of years but I still check in at Port Oleans website on a regular basis.
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Have stayed at Riverside twice. It is hard to beat. We really liked it. But in your case this is a “moderate” resort, and you’ve got a party of 6. Disney’s moderate rooms are a tad smaller than what you get at the “deluxe” like the Contemporary Resort, and we found the luggage storage area to be skimpy at POR. So it will be cozy with that many people. When we stayed there last year with our grown son, we found it to be that way. If I were in your shoes, that is what I’d be concerned about. You might want to call and ask Disney about an appropriate sized accommodation. We’ve also stayed off site at one of the nearby suite hotels as well (like the Buena Vista Suites outside the WDW entrance in Lake Buena Vista). Half the cost and twice the room. But not the same as staying on the property for sure.
Uhm … the other option you might consider is renting DVC resorts, since you are watching cost. We are doing that for the very 1st time ourselves for our own visit again next June. You get into the larger “deluxe” rooms at a substantial discount to Disney’s regular and special rates. In our case it is only slightly more than POR, but significantly less than the normal deluxe resort pricing.
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That’s good to know! I am just having a hard time justifying $1400 extra when we will be there mainly to sleep. Yes the convenience is nice and I would LOVE to be able to walk to MK but we aren’t used to the added benefits of a deluxe resort either so it’s not like we would really know what we are missing. We have stayed at Coronado Springs for our honeymoon and All Star Movies when we went 2 years ago. Just so long as there is room for the baby in her crib I think we can make do with a smaller space for a $1400 savings.
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How would that affect our dining reservations that we have made already and our ability to book FP at the 60 day mark??
Will you have two cribs? I think you may have a hard time fitting two in either of those resort rooms. Have you looked at Fort Wilderness Cabins? They are usually discounted and that may have enough room!
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My main concern is being able to get to our early dining reservations on time - all are at 8 am each day.
We will only have one crib. Our youngest is due in March and our 2 year old is already in a “big boy bed”.
We actually checked into the cabins first and got scared off by the transportation piece. Any opinions on ease of transportation??
The boat to MK is amazing! I am not sure about the internal buses- hopefully someone can answer. You can put 3 of your children in one bed?
No my understanding is that POR allows for 5 plus an infant in a crib. A pull down bed or something? Plus 2 regular beds.
The POR rooms we stayed at had 2 queens beds and a pull down, so you should have plenty of sleeping area. There is room for a crib too. We were very happy with the transportation. Took busses to all the parks and the boat to Disney Springs (your kids would love that boat … my 20 year old sure did). Staying at POR should have no impact on your ADR or FP. I think if you stay off site, you are limited to making FP only 30 days in advance.
Oh I have exactly the same thought and booking only for first week of December-following!
Did you do early breakfast reservations at the parks? We too are early birds overall and that is my biggest concerns, as we have an 8 am breakfast reservation each day. Which bus stop is picked up first? We would definitely do a preferred room to ensure proximity.
We did have early reservations. We did early morning magic twice. Once we ubered (my fault we woke late). The other one we used the South Depot bus. We did that one because bell services was close and we were visible. Bus came 6:45 ish. We had no problem. ADRs early at the parks should be no issue. Another resort might be tougher.
Bell services was close? Can you clarify? That’s good to know that it won’t be an issue getting there. I was worried about that.
I think we are going to switch. I know I posted on here a few weeks ago because I discovered that there was not any busses to Epcot from Contemporary which was an issue for us since apparently the monorail didn’t start running to Epcot until 8 am. I was worried about making it to our reservations. Someone suggested talking with Bell Services to ensure we had a way of getting there. Is this something you would suggest at POR as well?
I have stayed deluxe the last 2 times and there was a mini fridge in the room each time. I figure moderates do not have a room fridge? Can you confirm if yes or no to the room fridge, thanks!
I’m pretty sure all the resorts have the fridges - I think we had one at All Start Movies the last time we were there.
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