Garden View category opens. Queen Beds not guaranteed at POR

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The Sassagoula Sentinel
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Joined: April 6th, 2011, 11:32 am

Garden View category opens. Queen Beds not guaranteed at POR

Unread post by The Sassagoula Sentinel »

The new 'Garden View' room category came into effect on 1 January 2012 at Port Orleans, with views now available as follows:
  • Standard: Parking lot views
  • Garden: Lawns, courtyards (including fountains, water features, etc), bayou landscaping/pools/streams - but NOT parking lots
  • Water: Swimming pool view
  • River: View of the Sassagoula River
  • Also bookable are Preferred Locations (buildings 14, 15, 18 and 27 at Riverside only) and King Bed rooms.
Unfortunately though, it seems that the presale information provided by the Disney Reservations Center, and the descriptions on Disney's online booking website, were both wrong - or at least premature - in claiming that all Garden View rooms at Port Orleans Riverside would have queen beds from the outset. This will indeed be true once the resort-wide refurbishment program is completed in August, but for now only about one third of the guest rooms at Riverside have been updated.

While many guests will have booked Garden View rooms simply to ensure that they do not overlook a parking lot, a significant number of bookings have apparently been made solely on the basis that this was the only room type at Port Orleans Riverside which advertised Queen Beds in the amenities list (see below examples). Sadly, at present the chances of getting queen beds by booking Garden View are not any better than they would have been with any of the other room categories.

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As of today (7 January) the WDW booking website is still quoting Queen Beds as a benefit of this room category, but the management team at the resort are working to get this corrected as soon as possible. I do know that resort staff will try their best to keep guests happy at check-in, and they will attempt to accommodate anyone who specifically asks for - or had made a Garden View booking because of - queen beds. However with only a limited number of queen bed rooms available, there are obviously no guarantees.

If queen beds are particularly important to you I would suggest that you call the reservations center now and ensure that your existing booking has a note added to it requesting queen beds. Don't believe them if they tell you that you are guaranteed to be given queen beds anyway, as until around August that will not be true. A few days before you arrive you may wish to contact the resort on 1-407-934-6000 and ask to speak to the on-site room allocation department (not just the central switchboard who will initially answer your call) and reiterate your request and explain the reason. They will do their best to help you if they can.

Note: this issue does not affect Port Orleans French Quarter, where all of the rooms have already been refurbished and feature queen beds. However in a bizarre twist, the WDW booking website no longer includes any descriptive text for Garden View rooms at French Quarter... has someone perhaps inadvertantly removed the accurate description? :roll:

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Update on 15 January:

Over the last couple of days Disney have finally corrected their official booking website, and Garden View rooms are now listed as having 2 double beds, rather than 2 queen-size beds. Oh well, better late than never.

Update on 24 June:

The final two Alligator Bayou buildings closed to undergo refurbishment today, so there are now no double-bedded rooms left at the either of the Port Orleans Resorts, and guests are now guaranteed two Queen Beds (or one King Bed, if booked, of course).
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