Port Orleans Riverside - what's it like?

I just don’t think you will have floor space with the Murphy bed and a crib? The crib in the sink area?

When we stayed at POR, the rooms had a refrigerator, coffee maker and in-room safe (which I really liked), all of which we used. We had a “preferred” room once too. Those are the rooms closest to the lobby/parking/transportation/restaurant areas … those room locations will spoil you quickly :slight_smile:. My wife and I also enjoyed the smaller satellite pools that are away from the main pool … more private, less crowded and in nice settings. The first time we stayed at POR we made breakfast in the room from stuff we took along and kept in the refrigerator. The 2nd time we ate breakfast every day at the Mill Food Court, which I thought was pretty good. Even laughed our fool heads off one night listening to Yehaa Bob at the lounge. Each to his own but like I said, POR is hard to beat and we’d stay there again.

TourPlans have excellent reviews of the WDW resorts including POR, complete with room layout diagrams, amenities and photos. You really do want to read them. I would think a crib would fit nicely between the bed and window.

Normally the monorail starts service to Epcot an hour before the park opens. I’m not sure what bell service is, but the busses start early every morning and got us where we wanted to go in a pretty efficient manner.

We’ve never had breakfast reservations, but did a Tours of the Kingdom gig once. The park opened at 9 and our tour started at 8:45. When we arrived at MK about 8:30, I was stunned to see all the people already there waiting for the park to open. Once we got thru bag check, we were directed to a cast member holding a “reservations” sign on a tall pole above the crowd. After checking our Magic Bands, they took us right in the park via a side entrance much to the amazement of the people standing at the front of the lines. You should double check the process when you check in at the resort, but I think restaurant reservations work the same way if they are before the parks open.

Be careful with the mini refrigerator at POR, I have had it freeze everything multiple times (I guess that is better than too hot).

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I have stayed at POR eight times. I love that resort. I will say if you need to get to a pre rope drop ADR I would be at the South Deport before 7:00 am. The one issue many people have at POR are the buses. It is a large resort- when the buses are “off” it impacts a lot of people. The link I posted above has a page on transportation. As you exit the lobby there is a little shed with bell services there. Recently there have been a few posts on chat regarding the length of wait for pre rope drop buses at POR. Would you be able to take a taxi with your children?

We stayed with 4 children (1 under 3) for our first visit. We absolutely loved it. Loved the atmosphere and that you could take a boat to Disney springs. We never waited long for the bus, but we went in October so not sure about the busy seasons. The commute time to the parks was never longer than 15 minutes. We loved the dining options too. The counter service (can’t remember the name now) had so many options compared to others. The pool was very nice and we kept saying that as soon as we got to the resort, the hustle and bustle of Disney was gone and you could really relax. We would definitely stay there again, except all the kids are too big to fit in one room so we’ve moved on to deluxe villas as a family of 6.

Yep that was my suggestion from my CR stay. It’s my experience that bell services is more plugged in to the bus schedule than the front desk. I don’t have any proof of that :blush: south depot was our choice only for pre RD. The other depots don’t have any CMs around. At South depot I felt that I was visible so if there was a bus issue I could go to a CM for assistance

Yes this is true. We struggled too.

There is plenty of room for the pack n play between the bed and the door to the room. That is where we put ours at POFQ.

Just an FYI to the OP, @Kellbell827, if you choose POR you will be getting a Pack N Play for the baby. (Bring your own sheet!) I have heard that they do offer actual cribs at the deluxe hotels, if that makes any difference.

Have you considered renting a car? I realize I am in the minority, but we really liked the flexibility of being able to drive with my DS 10 months. Then you don’t have to fold the stroller until you are at the car and able to put them in the car seat. However, I realize travelling with that many car seats might be pretty challenging. You could rent them perhaps. This would definitely ensure that you can get to your dining reservations.

I stayed at AKL and Poly last April and both had pack and plays but I have heard the same thing about cribs. I struggled with the pack and play at AKL and could not imagine it fitting with the pull down bed but looking at the room plan I see where you are saying. It will be very tight! It is so important to get a good night sleep. Will the children be able to sleep with everyone in the room? Will you all have to be in the room and stay there with the baby down for the night?

I was just at POR in Nov. They have a mini fridge. The pull down bed is also a nice plus. We loved the resorts. I have never stayed at a deluxe resort so I did not think the rooms were small at all. You should be able to fit two cribs just fine. Maybe one by the sinks because there is plenty of room there. We always used the west depot because it was the first to be picked up so you always got a seat and it was the first to be dropped back off. I think the max I ever waited for a bus was about 10min. The resort is absolutely beautiful. I would go for POR! It will save you a ton of money and its a great place. Good luck! :slight_smile:

@PrincipalTinker, is POR your favorite moderate resort? Do you have an overall favorite resort on property?

It is my favorite moderate! I love just about everything about it! I also have found the cast members to be so kind! My favorite resort is AKL. It is the only place in the world that I can sit on a balcony, drink my coffee and watch the giraffes eat the leaves off the trees- pure magic.

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We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside over 4th of July in 2016. It was awesome. It’s a large resort, but it’s not that large. Even the farthest rooms will only be about 10 minutes from the dining area. There are some things to consider. There are 4 bus stops at POR and the main stop is the last one picked up and the last one dropped off. The West depot is first. With children, I would recommend staying in Alligator bayou near the West or North depot. Personally, being near the dining hall doesn’t appeal to me. We ate there some last trip for breakfast, but will not during our upcoming trip next month. The food is better in the parks. In all of Alligator bayou the 2 queen rooms will get you two queen beds and one fold down twin bed. The rooms are tight, which I hear is standard fare at the world. There’s not going to be much space for 5 of you in there, but if this isn’t an issue for you you’ll love it. We looked at other options for this upcoming trip and decided to stick with Port Orleans. We upgraded to a king size bed room this time which will still come with a fold down kids bed.

This is a decent resource on POR. http://www.portorleans.org/

@pmoriart, I’m curious about how you are managing meals. I thought the Riverside Mill was good for one or two meals, but can’t see myself doing much more than that. We are going back for our second time at POR in June and I’m trying to figure out a good dining strategy that will be efficient and tasty. Would love to hear your thoughts!

The twang twang banjo music is everywhere - I could not stand it. I also did not like the busing - it drove me batty. Some trips we would stop at POFQ, other times we wouldn’t stop at POFQ.

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We just changed to POR yesterday. It will save us about $1100! I think we will be able to make it work. There will be some nights where we will probably come back pretty early but I was thinking that once the baby is down at least my older two will be out doing things - like at the pool or whatever. I’m thinking that since she will be so little, there will also be times where she falls asleep in the stroller in the parks or in transit to wherever! Vacation in general will get us off of our routine a bit but I’ve learned to roll with it and make the best of it!

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Thanks for the tips! I am thinking that we made the right decision, being that switching to POR will save us $1100! I can live with the room being a bit tight since that isn’t where we will be most of the time. The kids’ experiences in the parks are my top priority, followed by nice pools!

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We head to the parks in the morning, so we plan to eat there mostly. We were lucky in that for our upcoming trip Disney was offering Free Dining, so the upgrade to Deluxe Dining was really inexpensive. We opted to upgrade and booked our dining reservations the day we could. As it stands, we have all our meals scheduled in the parks or at resorts on the monorail loop. We’ll have breakfast at the resort one day since we have a day where we plan to stay at the resort to swim and relax until dinner when we’ll take the boat to Disney Springs and then head to the park for some fireworks. We haven’t eaten anything but breakfast at the Mill, so I can’t comment on lunch. The breakfast is ok.