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Relaxing Resort

Posted: February 14th, 2013, 12:22 pm
by canadajewel
My family just got back from our first stay at Riverside. I can't say enough good things about it. Coming from the snow, it was the perfect place to stay to enjoy all of the gorgeous landscaping - flower gardens, trees, water fountains and beautiful lawns. We stayed in Acadian house - all of my room requests were met. We were very close to the bus stop, 2 pools, and laundry. Unless you are really lazy, the concern about the distance to the food court from these rooms is not necessary. It's all very close.

We loved the pool - great life guards there that actually enjoy their jobs! I've never seen that before. They were watching carefully for every little thing and I saw one jump in an help a little boy once.

Buses came within 5 minutes of us getting to the bus stop every time except one: we waited maybe 15 minutes to get the Animal Kingdom bus. We watched about 6 Magic Kingdom buses go by while we were waiting!

The food court is awesome! Lots of variety, good healthy options at a third of the price of the sit down restaurants. The chefs were amazing at providing safe food for my son with anaphylaxis.

Lots of activities for the kids too: games at the pool (with prizes), campfire (free marshmallows!), outdoor movies etc.

All of the staff members were very nice and helpful. Rooms were a good size and very clean. The beds were comfortable too.

Just a couple negatives that are worth mentioning:
-check-in was VERY slow! And this was at 11:00pm. I didn't think we'd need to do online check-in since we were arriving so late, but there was a huge line and the process of checking in was ridiculously slow.
-I wasn't that impressed with Boatwrights. It was probably the worst of the 8 table serve experiences that we had during our two week stay.
-The courtyard of Acadian house was a pick-up/drop-off for tour groups. So it was often noisy there early in the morning and late at night. I would rather face the parking lot next time than a gathering place for teenagers.

Oh, also, Magical Express worked well for us.

Anyway, we'd stay there again for sure!

Re: Relaxing Resort

Posted: February 14th, 2013, 2:21 pm
by BigRedDad
Glad you had a great time. I am counting the days til we get there. Anxiously watching the weather and hoping for the long term prognosis to change. I really want low 80s during the days. Right now it is looking like 60s/40s.