Trip report stayed at Port Orleans Riverside

Resort: We arrived in Disney and walked through the airport, there was a guy holding the Disney Magical Express card. He told us the easiest way to get to our bus. We waited no more then 2 minutes in the line before our bus loaded. We stopped at Saratoga Springs, POFQ and then to our resort. I was not even 12:00 when we got to the check in. We had Mary taking care of us. This is the only name I remember because I took notice since she was so nice and personable. Our rooms were ready, I was shocked being we had requested connecting rooms since traveling with our 6 kids. We walked to our room in building 15 (alligator bayou), we paid for standard rooms but had a beautiful view of landscape with a quiet pool in the distance. The rooms were very nice, and very clean. We had towel animals already. Our rooms were close to everything, the main building, the boats, the main bus stop and quiet pool. The furthest thing was the main pool and that was not far either. We did not eat in the resort restaurant, but did use the food court. It is fine for a quick meal. The refillable mugs are well worth the money and the coffee was pretty good. I thought I would be missing dunkin donuts since we were not renting a car this trip. The General Store has everything you would need, we even got a binky (pacifier) since we forgot it at home. The boat ride to FQ and downtown disney are great, easier then taking the buses and some great views. You can see the old tree house villas. The bus system was pretty good, the only places that took some time were the water parks since you had to stop somewhere before.

Water Parks: The water parks are still the same and we enjoy them. The one new ride was Crush n%26#39; Gusher, this ride changed my families opinion about which park is better. It used to be blizzard beach but now it is Typhoon Lagoon. You must get the garbage pail ice cream sundae. It is so big, yet so good and I don%26#39;t even like ice cream that much.

Parks: First off let me say the parks were crowded, we have never gone when it is busy and probably will not go again when busy. We would take breaks in the middle of the day and go back to the resort. Magic Kingdom was great as usual, so much to do. I loved the Jack Sparrow add ons to POC ride. I went to Haunted Mansion for the first time and the guy who lets you in the room was breathing funny behind me in the dark. When we walked to get on the ride I was saying something about it to my daugher and bam he was right there behind me again. This castmember made this my favorite ride of the trip. Animal Kingdom has always been a family favorite and yet we never seem to see too many animals. We went to this park a few times. We did the evening magic hours here and our teens loved it. Some of my kids were able to ride Expedition Everest 7 times this night alone. They loved doing Kali River Rapids at night. I thought we had pretty much exhausted going to Hollywood Studios, but went for our almost 3 year old. He loved Playhouse Disney and the Muppet 3 D movie (he giggled so much my husband thought I was tickling him). Indiana Jones was great!! We finally got to see this. We went to Epcot on our last day with full intentions on monorailing over to MK to do a few more things. I took the baby over to Soarin to get fast passes for my bunch while they went to test track. They went the wrong way (probably because I was not there the guide them)and won the dream fast passes. Of course I did not find this out until I parked the stroller went into the building for Soarin%26#39;, down the escalator and to the ride. We then ventured and went on more rides and ended up staying in Epcot for day. I actually enjoyed it, even though Epcot has not been one of my favorites. We went on Maelstrom in Norway since it was one of the dream passes, this was actually nice. We were able to trick our oldest teen daughter that we were going to get wet going down the hill backwards. She did not notice the boat stopping outside when we entered.

Food: We kind of grabbed and go since we are a huge family and did not want to be tied down to reservations. We liked Wolfgang puck Express in downtown disney and Lotus Blossum in China (Epcot) the best. I liked Earl of a Sandwich but was not a hit for all of my family.

Trip report stayed at Port Orleans Riverside

2 weeks to go and you brought it alve for me .thanks great report ,now if only i can win those passes ,which way did they go lol:)

Trip report stayed at Port Orleans Riverside

Nemmis- Not sure they said over some bridge. It was nice several castmembers would say congratulations to them. It was a wonderful experience.

What a great trip report. You certainly had a blast and it was good to read how happy you was with the POR.

I was worried about staying there since it had some bad reviews. That was how I found this forum. The grounds are much nicer then CB, but CB is closer to all the parks making your time in the buses shorter. Both are great resorts. We are thinking of trying CS next visit so we can compare all the moderate resorts.

Of course my family wins the dream fastpass without me after I did all the planning. Oh well they won, and that is what every child wishes when they head to disney.

Wonderful trip report! Sounds like so much fun~ We stayed at the POR in 2006, and really enjoyed it! You have made me hope my 150 days comes quickly!!!

Loved your trip report!!! We are going to WD 1st time in May with our children. We are also staying at POR. Did you go to both water parks? also did you get there in the morning? Did you request that area in POR. Did you take breaks at hotel everyday? How long were you there for? Sorry for all the questions-its just the First time!! Any other comments about anything would be wonderful!!

Welcome Home

So glad you had a good Holiday and enjoyed POR, many on the Forum think it%26#39;s Great, good to have first hand accounts tho

Love to hear about folks getting the Dream Fast Pass :)

Thanks for your Trip Report, it really helps to keep everyone excited until it%26#39;s time for them to go

PS are you thinking about ';Next Time'; yet ??

We did not request the section, we just got lucky. It was an absolute perfect location (1557 %26amp; 1558). I was afraid to request between alligator bayou or the mansion since I figured I would choose the wrong one. The pictures of the resort are great, but it is so much better to be there.

You are going in May so it will not be as busy, this was our first time being in disney while it is busy. We arrived Monday morning and left late Friday. We could of done everything if it was not so busy. We missed a few things but not important things. Monday we did not head to MK until about 1:00, we stayed for a little while then went back to the resort took the boat to POFQ, we realized we like POR better after being in POFQ. Tuesday we went to A.K for the morning then back to the hotel and then blizzard beach for the later part of the afternoon then to downtown disney to eat and shop(some of our kids went over to Hollywood studios to go on Rock n Roller coaster and then met us at downtown disney). Wednesday we went to M.K in the morning then back to the hotel, we stayed around the hotel all afternoon. I went to downtown disney with 2 of my kids to pick up sandwiches for everyone at Earl of a Sandwich, since I am not big on swimming in the pool I did not mind making the trip. At night we went to Hollywood studios did a few things we wanted to do there and then headed to A.K for evening Magic hours. Thursday we went back to Hollywood studios (some of ours headed to Typhoon Lagoon), then back to the hotel and ended our day at Typhoon Lagoon. We hung around the resort this night and I even got to catch a glimpse of Bob the Piano player playing in the lounge. On Friday we did our airline check in early, gave them our bags, checked out and headed to Epcot and our plan was to then go to M.K on the monorail. We won the dream fast passes and actually found more to do at Epcot then we thought. We went back to POR to catch our 5:30 bus to the airport. On several occasions we used the resort arcade, I enjoyed playing pinball something I have not done in some time.

We have been to disney before, so we had several things we could skip. We also did not do the dining plan because we were limited on the amount of days we could go to disney. If we did a sit down dinner each day we could not of done everything we wanted to in the 5 days. We figured we could save restaurants to eat at home.

You do need to start fast passing early, use your first fast pass on the rides that will run out (mission space, expedition everest, soarin, splash mountain, big thunder mountain, rock n roller coaster and tower of terror) Soarin was giving out 7:30 fast passes at 12:30. We were able to go on all the big rides at least once. Look on the ticket for what time you can get your next fast pass and do it then, this will allow you to get the most fast passes you can.

You can do the water parks in a half day, if buying a ticket for the day I would stay there all day plenty to do. Our water parks were part of our package so to only be there a half day did not make me feel like we threw money away and some of ours spent the whole day there.

We never opened a park, we just are not morning people and the beds were comfortable. We came close a few times. We only closed A.K on evening magic hours. We didn%26#39;t push ourselves because we wanted to be on vacation. It can be overwelming if you try to do too much too soon.

Also if traveling with little ones that can be heavy to carry bring an umbrella stroller. Our little one who does not use a stroller at home unless it is our jogger needed one to get from the bus to the stroller rentals. We ended up carrying him alot from the bus through security (they check your bags), to the entry ticket machines to the stroller rental. The site of the stroller rental area was a highly anticipated area for us.

I hope this helps. Just be sure to do the must sees first. If you miss something there is always another trip. We finally saw Indiana Jones this trip, after trying several times.

Yes the last week of February. We wont go again during spring break we usually go first week in March before the spring break craziness. We might try to sneak for the first week in December for a few days, I really want to see disney decorated for Christmas. It all depends on airfare when buying 8 tickets.

Thank you for all the information. I cant see getting up early either when you are on vacation. You know how much time you put into planning and since I have never experienced WD you have doubts of what you can do(what the kids can handle) like go to water park %26amp; then hotel then go back to MK etc. after reading your trip I am alot at ease. Our tickets include the water %26amp; more option- I can see the kids loving the waterparks!! Thanks again TheMacsfive