Recent 9 night stay!

How was your stay at Riverside? Leave your comments or full trip reports here. Photos welcome.
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yellowstonetim
Posts: 2
Joined: May 2nd, 2013, 10:11 pm

Recent 9 night stay!

Unread post by yellowstonetim »

Back from a 9 night stay at POR, and it was fantastic!

First, thank you to the MacDonald family our neighbors in room 9104(or 5?) who left us a partial case of bottled water, some vitamin water, and some gatorade on the morning they checked out, with a nice note asking us to enjoy. Thank you very much. It is the small unexpected gestures of kindness that can really have an impact.

The resort is beautiful. We asked for the closest room possible and had made a few other secondary requests such as corner, 1st floor. I also agreed to pay for an upgrade to get closer. We were pixie dusted a corner, Royal room, garden view in Oak Manor, 9103 to be exact.

And for Andre; I was texted my room number while in Animal Kingdom and was immediately able to access your website on my Note II and locate the room on your maps, so I knew exactly where it was. Thanks. Wireless was good at our room, the pool, and in the main buildings, but could be weak in certain areas of the parks. To use Disney's app I had to turn off wireless and use my phone 4G to get things done in those areas.

The walk was a little bit to the main buildings but parking was close. Did I mention this place is beautiful. We would often just stop on the bridge at night and watch the play of resort lights on the water.

The Royal rooms are fun. I think my wife pushed the button for fireworks on the bed twice. I did it every single time I got near the bed. The princesses are all represented with framed pictures and the corresponding princes are represented with two framed collection of silouettes. Sorry guys, we get second billing. :) The rooms are plush and nice. A corner room added to the light in the room.

I had no refrigerator, but I had made it clear I didn't need one if someone else did need one. When I checked out I asked for the discount and was given one immediately with no questions asked. We used a cooler and got all the ice we needed each day.

All the CM's were nice and when I stood around near the online checkin someone came by and took care of things with a tablet. Same thing at checkout. My wife used a rental scooter and all the CM's were helpful and accomodating. They sometimes knew more about the scooter than we did. They never made us feel like a burden.

Saw a racoon near the one bridge in the evening while taking the boat to DTD, and a group of deer in a meadow on a drive to one of the theme parks. Didn't get to see the otters in the river. Nature at Disney? More than you might think!

We spent a lot of time in the parks so we didn't get to use the mugs much. By the time we got back either the place was closed or the line was long so we didin't bother. Ate at the food court once and it was fine.

Our room was well cared for and we had cute towel animals at various times. I could tell when cleaning people changed due to their different styles of animals and other things - first one was good, second didn't do much, third was fantastic and did all the rooms around us with "displays" of two towel animals in each window.

Every CM we came in contact with was pleasant and helpful. And the place was beautiful. Did I say that already?

With a hanging organizer and collapsible hamper we did fine and were able to unpack the suitcases and live out of the room. (I dislike living out of a suitcase for some reason.)

Magic Bands worked absolutely fine except once: One day going into Epcot they wouldn't work. Someone came with a tablet, did something, and immediately they worked and we were on our way. That was the only issue we had.

The only other issue was that you have to physically touch the band to whatever the scanner is and it is best to lay the flat thick part of the band flat on the scanner. This is inconvienient when opening your door, your arm doesn't normally bend that way, and it was almost impossible to use the scanner to enter the resort (at the gate) We would end up using the card or my wife took her band off to touch it to the scanner. They should change the shape of some scanners if they want us to use a band attached to our wrists. The round balls at the parks were not problem.

Buying things and FP+ were easy and worked with out a hitch. The buying was too easy in fact!

Loved the hot tub and it wasn't too busy. ( I was worried about one hot tub for such a big resort, but all was OK.) Pool was nice and the landscape was lush with good landscaping. I liked the way Ol' Man Island was covered in trees and the pool was almost invisible from the buildings side of the river.

We would definitely do it again.

Two little notes of interest: The older CM who stands at the front to greet people and give them stickers or just say good morning, good evening, or welcome home, was very nice and added a great deal to the beginning or ending of the day and the trip. Second, I was driving out to return our ECV I had rented and one of the carts comes by on the road, the car was empty except for the driver. The driver all of the sudden lifted up a professionally made sign that just said, "Hey, Y'all!". As he drove by me. I laughed out loud and waved back! It made my trip pleasant. I don't know why such little things have such a big impact, but they do.

Now I need to plan the next trip. Thanks everyone for your help in making our trip awesome! And thanks Andre for this wonderful site which I used numerous times to plan this trip and used while at Disney, too.
WyoDisney
Posts: 71
Joined: June 12th, 2013, 5:43 pm

Re: Recent 9 night stay!

Unread post by WyoDisney »

Excellent report. Thanks. Leave in 55 days.
Trust in the Lord and lean not to your own understanding.


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Re: Recent 9 night stay!

Unread post by Admin »

Thanks for the great trip report, you obviously had a wonderful time. I love hearing how people's long-planned trips turn out, and I'm really glad that you found this site useful in your planning - and even for finding your room!

Andre
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- The Unofficial Visitor's Guide to the Port Orleans Resorts in Orlando, Florida -
us4disneycrazies
Posts: 5
Joined: October 3rd, 2013, 9:01 am

Re: Recent 9 night stay!

Unread post by us4disneycrazies »

Your mention of the "Hey Y'all" guy put a smile on my face.
We were just at POR mid-September and having a dreary, long wait for the bus one day at the North Depot when someone hollered out. Looking up, we saw this man driving by in a golf cart, sign in hand and a trail of bubbles floating behind him. It gave everyone a giggle and lightened the mood at the bus stop considerably!
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