We have a 6am flight on Saturday February 18 to Disney World where we will be staying at Port Orleans Riverside for the second time. We grabbed a dining deal, whatever it was, half off or whatevs and decided to upgrade to the Deluxe Dining plan. We just don’t want to think about it. This trip will be me, DW and DS4. We will have a giant review along with photos after the trip. It’ll not be as fun to read as live, but it’ll be fun… I promise.
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Looking forward to your report, have a magical trip!
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I am looking forward to your report!
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Hope you have a great trip! Looking forward to hearing about it.
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Love trip reports - have a great time!
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Have fun! I look forward to reading the trip report. 
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Looking forward…
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Nice! Can’t wait to read about your adventures!!
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1st unplanned splurge… 1st class upgrades on our flight to the D. The upgrade was reasonable and our flight time changed so we only have 30 minutes to make our connection, so we figured, “what the hell.” We leave tomorrow morning!
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Well everyone. We are on our way. My concern about the connection time wasn’t valid being as we are sitting on an hour and 10 minute delay. First class is still legit. Happy we upgraded, so I can manspread without guilt
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Sorry for the delay! But enjoy your manspread in peace!!
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Up in the air. Son is passed out and wife is enjoying a movie. I’m alone with no one but you folks and my whiskey to keep me company. Can’t flipping wait to get to the D.
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Hi Everyone,
I believe I’ll have to bring this to you in installments. We got home on Sunday and I am deathly ill. That’s actually me saying I have a “man cold.” I have to hand it to you ladies you typically handle being sick a lot better than us dudes. You’re tough.
We landed at Orlando Airport around half past noon and headed to the magical express. Odd?!? Somehow they had us staying at Port Orleans Riverside with a requested drop-off of Coronado Springs??!? How does this happen? Anyway, the cast member was nice enough and handed us a paper slip to hand the driver when getting on the bus. We waited in line for a LONG time. I would say it had to be 40 minutes before a bus pulled in. We each had a back pack and a carry-on each and I had my trusty CPAP for my sleep apnea. While waiting in line I got a text that our room was ready. We requested to be in building 25 near the West Depot, with a second choice in building 28. To my surprise we didn’t receive any of those rooms and instead were given a room in a preferred location. We were to be in building 18 room 1812. We boarded the bus, found some seats and settled in for being the last stop of 4 for this wagon of Magic.
We arrived at Port Orleans Riverside and gave the driver a $6 tip for handling our bags then headed to Bell Services where we asked about our stroller and requested our groceries to be delivered to the room. We rented a stroller from Kingdom Strollers and they kicked in a coupon for free delivery from Orlando Grocery Express where we’d ordered water, sodas and a couple snacks for our DS4. I was surprised that Bell Services was just like, “your stroller is up against the wall over there with the other ones. Sign here…” Last time we stayed they hand delivered it to us. Oh well, I thought, they missed out on a chance at a tip. The woman working in the booth did ask if we wanted a ride to our rooms, but we declined being we hadn’t yet eaten lunch and the room wasn’t a long walk. We headed into Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory, the quick-serve at POR, and grabbed some lunch. I had the chicken nuggets, DW had the caprese flatbread and DS had the pepperoni flatbread. It was all delicious. Disney really does do nuggets well.
After lunch we headed to our rooms without consulting a map. Yeah, I took the long way around. We walked across Ol’ Man Island and had to circle back to the room. As we walked to our room I took note of building numbers and saw that building 27 was next to 18. I realized that we were likely only a few more minutes to the West Depot than from the South. Once we got to the room, I confirmed this. When we swung open the door to the room, we were immediately struck by the appearance of a lot more space in the room this visit than last. It was definitely a product of having a king size bed and the fold down instead of the two queens and fold down last time, but it was awesome nonetheless. Shortly after getting to the room, our groceries appeared and we tipped the bellman, then our bags. We again, tipped this bellman and decided to unpack so we could stuff the suitcases inside each other and have more space. After a short disagreement read argument about drawer space between my DW and myself, we were unpacked. We used every shelf and drawer in the joint, but we did it and our suitcases fit next to the sink. Score. A lot more space. Now it truly felt like our vacation was ready to start!
We talked as a family and really let our DS4 make the call. Should we swim then take a boat to Disney Springs for dinner or should we head to Epcot, ride some rides and grab dinner there. I was hoping for the park as was DW. DW had me book a fast pass for Frozen Ever After that night and really wanted to ride it. I just wanted to get into the craziness that is the D. DS4 was leaning toward swimming then asked what Fast Passes we had. I told him we had Mission Space, Frozen Ever After and Spaceship Earth (He loves this ride). DW told him she really wanted to ride Frozen and he said, “Ok, fine. Let’s go to the park.” He was pretty fired up the moment we headed out the door. We rolled into Epcot at about 6:30 and headed to Mission Space. None of us had ridden before and DW hates spinning so we decided on Mission Green. Truth be told we weren’t even sure if DS would be tall enough. He measured 43.5 inches with bare feet before we left. We got to the fast pass line and the cast member measured him and he was just tall enough. Score! He’d likely also be able to ride Expedition Everest this year. Mission Green, is pretty lame. DS and I rode orange a couple days later and it wasn’t even close. Orange is legit, Green is pretty lame. Directly after we rode Mission Space we walked to Norway to ride Frozen. Frozen was an awesome ride. You should all fast pass this when you go to the Cot. After Frozen we were trying to decide on where to eat. We could have gotten a reservation at 9 Dragons last minute, but opted for quick serve at Lotus Blossom in China. Don’t eat here. It’s disgusting. It is literally as bad as Panda Express maybe worse. The woman working the register was confused as to why we would be using our deluxe dining plan here. She tried to dissuade us, but we were just happily like, “no… it’s fine.” Once we started eating we vowed to listen to the cast members moving forward. After dinner, we headed down to Space Ship Earth and wrapped up our evening after the 30 minute breakdown on Spaceship Earth. We headed back to vacation HQ aka POR to rest up for our Breakfast reservations at 8:40am at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom.
To be Continued
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Can’t wait to read more!
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I hope you feel better soon!
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Do you remember about what time you arrived at POR from the airport? We’re landing at MCO a little before 11:00 and are staying at POR as well, so I’m interested in “typical” transport times with DME.
Can’t wait to read more of your TR. Thanks for sharing!
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Love a trip report!
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We left the airport a little before 2 and we got there just before 3. We also landed around half past noon. I forgot to account for the delay we had coming out of Reagan in DC. I had to go and get my CPAP from Baggage claim since we each had a checked bag and only 3 ME tags. I only checked it because we upgraded to First Class last minute and got 2 free checked bags each . We waited in baggage claim for like 30 minutes for the bag and about 40 minutes for the Magical Express.
The bus ride was about an hour and we waited about 40 minutes.
9 Dragons is arguably my least favorite WS TS, but I would never choose Lotus Blossom over it - especially if I was on the DxDP. 9 Dragons is very pretty inside; my gripe is that the food, although not “bad”, is no “better” than any number of local home town Chinese restaurants and costs 2 to 3 times as much…
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