Trip Report Mar. 12-17

How was your stay at Riverside? Leave your comments or full trip reports here. Photos welcome.
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czang76
Posts: 1
Joined: March 20th, 2010, 2:57 pm

Trip Report Mar. 12-17

Unread post by czang76 »

I figured I would post my own trip report since I enjoyed reading everyone elses' reports prior to our trip! We stayed at Riverside Mar. 12-17 with our three sons ages 22 months, 6 and 9. This was our family’s first trip to Disney and first time staying in a Disney Resort. Riverside was perfect for our active family. I picked a moderate resort because I knew with a toddler we would not be spending hours and hours at the parks, so I wanted somewhere that would be a nice alternative when we were not at the parks. Port Orleans fit the bill.

We stayed in the Alligator Bayou section, building 38. We did pay extra for a waterview room, which was nice in terms of convenience because we were at the front of the building, but I would probably not spring for this again. Since none of the rooms have balconies, the “waterview” is not really necessary. (As this web site already says.)

I did phone in a request prior to the trip for something close to the main areas and transportation, so at first (from my research on this site) I thought building 38 would be too far from the main dining hall and pool area. But to us, the resort did not seem THAT big, so we never minded the 5 minute walk. The kids enjoyed walking over the bridges and we actually liked the more secluded location. It felt like we were camping in the woods. Plus, we were equidistant from both the South Depot and the North Depot bus stops. This was great because on return trips (depending on how the bus traveled), we could get off at whichever stop came first.

The room itself is your basic hotel room. I did not feel it was overly small or cramped. The two sinks were great for convenience. With a toddler, we utilized the fridge for milk and made coffee one morning (bring your own, the stuff in the dining hall is terrible!). My boys took turns on the trundle bed and got a kick out of that.

We enjoyed going for walks around the resort. We also rented a surrey one morning and liked riding around for a change of pace. We LOVED the water taxi to Downtown Disney. What a great perk! We also walked over to the French Quarter section and rode the water taxi back one night.

The pools were always clean and my boys enjoyed the water slide. We only visited one “quiet pool” which my kids found boring, so we headed back to the main pool, but it looked nice if you wanted serenity.

The food court was fine. Even though it almost always had a crowd, we never waited very long for our food at the counters and we always found a table. We had the quick service dining plan, and the cashiers were always helpful and willing to explain it to us (and many other confused guests). I would recommend the chocolate croissants for breakfast and the make your own salads for dinner. Yummy!

Overall, I would definitely stay at Port Orleans Riverside again. We loved the overall relaxed feel of the resort as well as the additional amenities that the moderate resorts offered.
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