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Average Reviewer Rating:
 
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Number of Reviews:
65
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( Displaying Reviews:
31 - 40 )
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August 5th - 8th
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Reviewer: slowbee
Chicago
August 11, 2005
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This resort made our vacation. We were scheduled to stay 4 nights at the Courtyard Marrior in LBV. We called on Friday and asked for a 3 night stay. Got a great Annual Passholder rate for the French Quarter.
The resort was in great shape. Room was very nice and very clean. Compared to the hotel we checked out of, this was the Plaza. We loved the decore and room decorations. My daughter loved the pool. We've stayed at the All-Stars and Pop Century resorts before and you can tell a big difference in service. The check in lines are a lot quicker. Service was wonderful. We were there for our anniversary and received an Anniversary card from Cindrella and Prince Charming.
If I had any complaint it would be that the main lobby of the resort was small and didn't offer much to do other than the pool. But that's splitting hairs.
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25
out of
25
people found this review helpful
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07/29/05-07/31/05
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Reviewer: Bassgod76
Delray Beach, Florida
August 01, 2005
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As a kid, I always stayed at Fort Wilderness, so I was excited about my first stay in an actual Disney resort! My wife and I stayed at Port Orleans Riverside to celebrate my birthday.
PROS:
Hotel Room: clean rooms, bathroom area had a cool looking tile floor with two pedastool sinks, hot showers, and bathrooms had ample towels.
Landscape and outside facilities: Pools were nicely kept, and there were several pools to choose from. Landscape was beautiful with neatly trimmed and edged lawns. Palm fron imprints in walkways were a nice touch. The dock area was clean and serviceable.
Lobby and Dining area: Very friendly employees, relatively clean (considering the mass of humanity and snot-nosed kids that flow through there), and the food is satisfactory.
Employees: Every Disney employee we encountered at any part of our vacation was friendly, professional and courteous.
Bob's piano show was a good time in the hotel bar.
CONS:
1. The first thing I noticed when I arrived is a strong musty smell that is present throughout the Riverside property. Maybe due to the fact that Disney was built on top of a swamp, which makes water drainage difficult. However, I did not notice this at the other resorts I visited during my trip.
2. Apparently, Port Orleans houses the most guests compared to any of the other Disney resorts. With this in mind, you would think Disney would furnish more buses. This was not the case. At the Magic Kingdom bus station, every hotel's bus stop was near empty, except for the 50+ guests at the Port Orleans station. This was the same story for the boat from Downtown Disney. Tons of openings for the other hotels, not Port Orleans.
3. The meals at the main dining area are a bit pricey. For my wife and I to have eggs and pancakes cost us over $19.00.
4. The beds are relatively small, but comfortable.
I would stay at PO again if I wasn't really going to do any hardcore park hopping. However, the headaches associated with Disney's lack of transportation, will prompt me to book with Coronado Springs or the Caribean Beach Resort in the future.
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18
out of
21
people found this review helpful
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June 26, 2005
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Reviewer: HaleyAnn
Chicago, Illinois
June 30, 2005
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We are Disney regulars (annual passholders...at least 15 visits) and have always stayed at deluxe resorts. We thought we'd save some money and stay at the PO Riverside for three nights. We had read positive reviews and heard this resort is most like the deluxe resorts. How wrong they were! First of all, I did not like that the rooms opened up to the outside...not a hotel lobby or hallway. I felt like we were staying in a motel. The corridors of the resort (we were in magnolia) were dirty with beat up walls and dead leaves, cigarette butt debris on the grounds. My husband commented that the corridors and elevators looked liked his dorm from college! Our room was small and had a musty smell mixed with powdered rug freshener. Food left from the previous guests was still in the refrigerator. (Did housekeeping know there were new guests staying in the room? Were the sheets changed?) The beds are full sized so too small for my husband (6'1" and 240 #s) who was up most of the night. The room's walls were beat up and the shower had hairs in it...it didn't appear or smell as clean as you would hope your hotel to be. I called housekeeping to ask for pillows (each bed had 2 and we had 4 people who each like 2) and was told I could only have 2 extra pillows. I called moments later for a bed rail (the beds are quite high for young children) and asked them to send that with pillows. I was told they "weren't that organized" and they would come seperately. The same person came less than 5 minutes apart. In with the pillows and bed rail came bugs...I hated
the outside access. We were supposed to stay 3 nights and only lasted 1. We called at 7:00 in the morning to have a transfer to AKL. It was only an additional charge of $31 for the two nights for a standard, parking lot view. What a steal! We love AKL and will never stay at PO again. What a disappointment!
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18
out of
57
people found this review helpful
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4/29 - 5/4/05
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Reviewer: bthomas
Alexandria, VA
May 30, 2005
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My girlfriend and I stayed at the Port Orleans, Riverside resort and had a wonderful time! While the food court was nothing to write home about, everything else was excellent. The grounds are just lovely. The greenery, the lagoon and the grand architecture made the resort a great retreat and a place where we could have spent the whole week relaxing. The main pool is a lot of fun. The dock for boating was convenient and the boat that took you to French Quarter and Downtown Disney, albeit quite a wait in line, was fun. The room was spacious for two and nicely decorated. We had no issues with check-in, in fact it was quite quick. I highly recommend this moderate resort.
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15
out of
16
people found this review helpful
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June 8th-14th 2004
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Reviewer: toocutecarrie
Crowley, Texas
April 12, 2005
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We stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter this past summer and absolutely loved it! It was just my mother and I and we had a blast! When we first arrived they took our luggage so that we wouldn't have to carry it all around while we checked in. The only issue we had was that something happened and our reservation got messed up. Come to find out, it was our travel agent's fault, but no harm done. We had reservations for a standard room, but somehow our reservation got lost. My mom panicked thinking we wouldn't have a room, but the resort employees were very helpful and considerate. They upgraded us to a water view room with no charge. It was in building 6, room 6136, right by the Sassagoula River. It was a wonderful view. We are going again this summer, and have requested the same room, or one around it. The walk to the front desk, store, and food court only took a few minutes. It was actually a nice, relaxing walk; we could take in all of the ambiance. What I loved about the French Quarter is that it's smaller than a lot of resorts, so it's easy to get around. Also, it's so quiet and serene there; you can sit back and relax. The Sassagoula Floatworks (food court) had great food for a fair price. There were many different choices; even a dessert area. Some of the choices were hamburgers, chicken strips, spaghetti, pizza, sandwiches, and more. Desserts included pecan pie, cheesecake, cookies, ice cream sandwiches, beignets, and more! It was delicious! We only ate breakfast there twice, but it was great! I had the sausage biscuits with gravy, and loved it! I also reccommend (as every one else has), that you buy the resort mugs. We used ours all of the time, and it's a souvenir. Jackson Square (the resort's store) was very nice. They had many items to choose from- clothing, hats, jewelry, frames, cds, snacks and more. We didn't really have time to get in the pool, but we're hoping to this next visit. We never had to wait more than about 5 minutes for a bus to the resorts; sometimes we had to wait a while to return to the resort. It wasn't a bad wait though, and it was still probably the quickest compared to the other resorts. One night when we went to Downtown Disney I lost my room key. I was worried, but as soon as we returned to the resort, they made both my mom and I new room keys. They were so nice about it too. It's a beautiful resort, and a great one to stay at if you'd like to just sit back and relax in peace.
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29
out of
29
people found this review helpful
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1/3/05-1/9/05
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Reviewer: mrscoobs
Columbus, Ohio
March 23, 2005
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-We stayed (3 adults) in a standard non-smoking room in Oak Manor (AAA discount 99.84/night plus $15 extra adult fee/night). The room was recently renovated, but didn't feel to new. The beds were very comfy for a hotel bed (and high too). The refridgerator in the room was a nice feature (now standard in moderate and deluxe rooms) as we kept drinks and fruit in the fridge for late evening/afternoon snacks, as well as the coffee maker for a cup of joe before heading to the food court. The resort itself is beautiful, one evening of your trip must be spent just strolling the paths at dusk.
-We ate breakfast once at Boatwright's (Egg's benedict was very good, mother did not like her scrambled eggs, a little on the chewy side for her), but the other mornings ate at the foodcourt, which we found to be excellant and speedy. We were going to eat dinner at Boatwright's, but the menu was limited and nothing seemed to jump from the page to make us sit down for a dinner.
-The transportation to the parks was fast and efficient. We never waited longer than ~8min to ever leave the resort to go to our destination. Just as a note, the ride to the magic kingdom from the resort is a hard ride to standup for due to a lot of turns (otherwise the bus was generally not crowded). Leaving the parks, the longest wait we had was leaving epcot after illuminations. Waited ~20min to get on a bus (though hats off to disney for having multiple buses lined up, it just took that long to get through the turnstile!)
-We loved visiting in January between the New year's and Marathon crowds, the parks were not very crowded at all
-Also, loved the boat to downtown disney! We took it to go see La Nouba (well worth the cost, our whole party agreed that it was one of the best experiences we have ever had at disney, truly amazing) and loved the peaceful boatride back to the resort at night with the lights dancing on the water from pleasure island.
Our con: We are used to the deluxe size rooms at disney (mainly the contemporary) and found that the room felt small, especially with three adults. This is the reason it got a 4 rather than a 5, and truly the only reason
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22
out of
22
people found this review helpful
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November 23-30, 2004
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Reviewer: Tinkerbellegirl
Milford, CT
March 16, 2005
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This resort was awesome, we had planeed on staying at the all stars but decided to upgrade. We liked the smallness, and when we walked around the resort, we realized there was nothing more than a 7-10 minute walk away. We tried the food court, and must say breakfast was really not great and lunch was just average. our room was great and we liked the curtain separating the bathroom area from the bedroom area.
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4
out of
5
people found this review helpful
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05/17/04-05/25/04
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Reviewer: Numinous27 (numinous27@hotmail.com)
Nashville, TN
January 18, 2005
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Port Orleans-French Quarter
Honeymoon
Waterview room-Building 5-3rd floor
May 17-May 26th 2004
After a long search for our honeymoon resort, we chose Port Orleans-French Quarter, and couldnt have made a better choice.
I faxed ahead our request for a king bed, and a corner room. I had told this information to our reservation operator as well, and dropped the word Honeymoon as many times as I could. It worked!
As we realized that our time of arrival would be pretty late (we came straight from our wedding on Cape Cod, we called ahead and made sure the resort knew we would be arriving late. They were very polite, and said they would see us soon.
Once we arrived at the property, (at 1:30 am), our first little twinge of Disney excitement was found at the guard gate (oddly). The Guard, came out to our car, and we gave them our names, she replied, Well, youve had a long drive Mr. and Mrs. Montoya, congratulations! The fact that even the guard knew that one we were coming in late and two that we were newlyweds, showed the extra effort that most CMs put into making you feel special.
We walked into the lobby, and it was dead quiet; oddly, this may be the best time to check in, no wait at all.
We checked in quickly, with very friendly, though tired service, got our room keys, and park tickets. We had our bags to be picked up by Bell Services, a service I will use again, not having to lug your gear all over the resort, is very nice.
The bellman showed us to our room. Now I'm not a huge fan of French provincial falls into this category, and I almost didnt stay at French Quarter because of it, what a mistake that would have been, our room was excellent, well appointed, and fun. We had a huge double bed, a small table, a 27 television sitting on a cabinet and a handy coat hook and shelf, all made from gorgeous dark wood. From the cut out corners and lovely curtain separating the bathroom and bed room, to the beautiful pedestal sinks, we were very happy with the room.
Our room was in Building 5 right on the river, from that vantage point we were up in the trees, pretty far away from other buildings. The theme is really solid at this resort, from the intimate and plentiful courtyards, to the gas lamps; this is a very romantic resort. The city feel, ads to the romance, and takes you away from feeling like you are at some sprawling resort. A walk along the river will make anyone feel as though they were on a honeymoon!
We awoke the next day, got dressed and headed down to the food court for breakfast. You've read it before, and I'm trying not to cover items listed over and over again in reviews, but you can not go wrong buying the reusable mug. If you like morning coffee, bam, you have it, without ever having to wait in a line, that alone is worth the small price, along with getting drinks with any other meal, its a true value.
We had French pastries, and coffee outside, which we would eat almost every morning of our stay, besides being quick to buy and eat, the price never went above 7 dollars. We sat outside, where a few iron tables sit under lazy ceiling fans. We sipped and watched as birds ate crumbs, jumping back and forth to the jazz that plays in every corner of this resort. While I cant go on enough about how romantic the grounds were, kids seemed to have a great time, heck, they are at Disney world, they had better be happy.
After we would eat, we would take the very short walk to the bus depot just outside the lobby. This was and would be the only true test of our stay. The buses arent as plentiful as you would like, and being the first stop on the Port Orleans circuit, while allowing you seating, to then make 5 other stops at all the other riverside areas, does make the bus fill up and adds 20 minutes to your wait, not counting the time it takes to get to the parks. You will read endless reviews of the WDW transportation system, bottom line is, it should be improved, but it works pretty well. It is in the end much more convenient than driving, which we tested one of our days, believe me, stick to the bus.
We would end up spending a lot of time at night at the one pool, the theme pool. It was mostly empty at night, and also according to how empty it was, very romantic too. It isnt as big as other resorts, nor is there any other pool, but that comes with the small, intimate size of the resort, which mattered to us more anyway.
We did also utilize the awesome boat ride up to Riverside on occasion and down to Downtown Disne. It is a slow but very enjoyable ride, keep your eyes open for the slightly disconcerting old tree house resorts on the left bank going to Downtown Disney, its odd to see them empty and falling apart.
Bottom line, you can not go wrong booking your stay at this resort, it was fantastic.
Have fun!
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37
out of
39
people found this review helpful
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November 2 - November 7 2004
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Reviewer: bolna
Nuremberg, Germany
January 11, 2005
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Standard Room, PO Riverside, Oak Manor, # 9013
We had requested a top floor room in Alligator Bayou and had even sent a fax. This did not work out. But the room was available when we checked in at 12 noon and we wanted to get to the parks, so we did not bother asking for a different room. It turned out to be quite perfect. We were in a ground floor room in Oak Manor, which was a nice walk to the main buildings as well as to the main pool. We looked out over the back courtyard. The Mansion side is very beautiful and very romantic. I never made it over to have a look at Alligator Bayou, so I do not know what I missed. I was worried having to walk around these big mansion buildings getting anywhere, but they actually have passage ways on the ground floor to allow crossing through the middle of it.
The room was nicely decorated and very spacious for 2 people. It also had a small fridge in it. Housekeeping was nicely done every day and we were generously supplied with towels and soaps.
We only had breakfast at the food court once, it was quite good. The dinner at Boatwrights was good, but not exceptional.
We never used the main pool, but were at the quiet pool every day and it was generally pretty quiet there. However, the water was very warm and not very refreshing on a warm day.
Bus service was great. I had been a bit worried about "a bus every 20 minutes". But we very seldom waited for more than 5 minutes. We generally went to the main bus stop in the mornings and to our "local" one in the afternoon, both worked well for us.
The shop was nice and had a good collection of general Disney souvenirs as well as some things themed for PO. There were also quite a few normal things to be bought. We used package delivery and it worked fine, we got a message on our phone when our parcels had arrived and could pick them up at the shop.
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15
out of
15
people found this review helpful
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12/17/04 - 12/22/04
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Reviewer: marksullivan4 (mark_sullivan4@excite.com)
Louisville, Kentucky
December 27, 2004
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Riverside Resort
3 adults, 2 children, 1 room
We are Disney veterans but had never stayed in Disney Riverside before but when offered an excellent room rate of $94 a night during the holiday week we bit and off we went.
We arrived on 12/17 and were greeted with long lines at check-in but the line when quickly and while I watched our two kids my wife and mother-in-law moved through the line quickly and without hassle. Our room was on the second floor of building 46 in the Alligator Bayou area which was beutiful but...was a winding walk from the lobby and back especially when you followed the signs from the lobby to the room. My MIL has to use a cane and would highly advise on any future visits that if you have issues with walking ask for a room near the lobby. We opted not to get the unlimited soft drinks b/c of this distance and the fact of our short visit.
The room was nice and we liked the two sinks but did not have enough counter space for all of the sundries we brought along. The beds were comfortable but the pillows were so soft that my wife and I both had headaches waking up the next morning. She asked for additional pillows from housekeeping and the nights after this we slept well. Housekeeping did an adequate job of cleaning but it was not spectacular.
The first night we ate at Boatwrights and enjoyed appetizers and tried to relax after a busy day of travel. The food and service was excellent but we only had appetizers and could not vouch for the entire menu. We ate at the food court twice and were not happy with the service or the food selections at Riverside, the first time the eggs were runny and the bacon limp and the second time we got to the food court right at the switchover from breakfast to lunch and the workers seemed confused about what was going on and it took about 15-20 minutes to get the food. On our last day we took the time to go to the food court at Port Orleans and ate until we couldn't eat no more. WORD OF ADVICE: if you stay at Riverside...eat at Port Orleans food court, it is worth the boat ride.
Transportation to and from was great and we did not have to wait for buses very long at all even at the outlying depots. We found the travel distances very quick and the frequency of the buses adequate also.
One of the nice features we took advatage of this visit was the wheelchair rental available available at the hotel and not needing to rent a wheelchair at each park. This ended up being an absolute necessity for getting around the hotel itself b/c of the large site so we rented it the second night and kept it for the rest of our stay. It ended up easier to push by mother-in-law around the parks instead of her avoiding running over several people with the electric cart.
Overall, Riverside was a great place to stay, mind you it is no Contemporary, but if you want to relax and not concentrate on the parks as much, this is the hotel for you. As we visit more and more the less I am interested in spending every minute in the parks but want to spend more time at the hotel and this will be my choice for a longer stay.
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22
out of
24
people found this review helpful
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