Best place we have stayed in Orlando

How was your stay at Riverside? Leave your comments or full trip reports here. Photos welcome.
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Trickymickey
Posts: 2
Joined: October 27th, 2013, 7:37 am

Best place we have stayed in Orlando

Unread post by Trickymickey »

Hi everyone
We have just returned from a two week trip to WDW staying at POR, what a fantastic place. Yes there are a couple of things that could be done better the dining hall does get hectic, you do have to stand sometimes on the buses no big deal really.
The rest of the place we could not fault we were upgraded to a royal room on checking in and stayed in building 90 at the Oak Manor building room 9425 overlooking the pool, we could not have been happier with this. The shop is also very good and along with the usual Disney merchandise it also has a section that sells medical supplies like plasters, child and adult medicines sun creams and other bits that you may be short of.
I did read a lot of comments on how spread out the site was and how far away everything was but we did not think that this was the case,in fact quite the opposite it just makes the place feel more relaxed as you stroll around the grounds which are stunning.
We had the quick service dining plan which also worked very well saved us a bundle of cash and the resort mugs help a lot too.
We hired the bikes and the surrey bikes which our little one loved great fun having a leisurely ride around the site, you do get a bit more freedom on the bikes but both are good. We also did the fishing down at the fishing hole where between the three of us we managed to catch 5 fish in a half hour period beginners luck.
The water taxi to downtown disney is also well worth doing we used it a couple of times and I would recommend it.
The check in was quite easy, done in around 20 minutes we found the room easily and did not have any problems finding our way around the site.
We were given the magic bands which I thought worked very well once we had realised that we needed to download the disney experience app to make them work properly.
My only downside to whole trip is Fast passes, this was our 7th trip to Orlando and we have always visited around this time of the year September/October when the park wait times are not very long. I can see why they would have FP in the really busy periods but during quieter times I think they only add to wait times for the majority of people and on the hole slow things down. Maybe they give too many of them out and this means they have to keep letting more and more people in the FP line on whilst making the standby wait times longer, i would like to hear what others think on this issue.
Anyway just a minor gripe and I don't want to put a negative on a fantastic stay in a fantastic resort which we are already looking at visiting again just as soon as we can and we only got back yesterday.
us4disneycrazies
Posts: 5
Joined: October 3rd, 2013, 9:01 am

Re: Best place we have stayed in Orlando

Unread post by us4disneycrazies »

Sounds like you had a great trip!
My family also never minded the walk at Riverside, but seeing as how we've never stayed anywhere else while at Disney, maybe we just don't know any better? ;)
As for fastpasses, we only had one bad experience on our trip in September. We were in standby for the Peter Pan ride and while the posted time didn't seem too bad and the line moved fairly well to start, hoards of people started coming through the fastpass line slowing things down greatly. All the other rides throughout our stay seemed to effectively alternate fastpass and standby riders during busy times, but in this instance they didn't. After that, we were sure to use fastpass or fastpass+ for the popular rides to avoid a possible repeat. It's amazing how backed up some rides can get, even during the 'slow' season!
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Re: Best place we have stayed in Orlando

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The only reason FastPass (and FastPass+) work at all is that Disney heavily bias the number of people they admit towards those in the FP line. If they just alternated the two lines, the FP line would be as long as the regular line which would defeat the point. The ratio is sometimes as high as 10:1 in favour of the FP line, depending on how many tickets they have issued. That's the only way one line can be ten times quicker than the other, given that the same number of people are actually boarding the ride per hour.

That's what annoys me about the addition of so many new attractions to FP+. If people do actually use FP+ for those attractions, the standby lines will get longer and longer... meaning that more people will choose to book FastPasses, and so it become a vicious circle.

Andre
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MardiGroggy
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Re: Best place we have stayed in Orlando

Unread post by MardiGroggy »

You hit that one right on the nose, Andre. Enjoy the FP+ while you can. Eventually, it will become the "new normal" and there will be as many or more people in the FP lanes as there are in the standby lanes. Just as the dining reservation system initially guaranteed seating vs. taking your chances as a walk-in, it is now becoming necessary to book reservations WELL in advance or even reserved seating isn't available. We are now queuing up virtually via computer, rather than physically at the entrance to our favorite Disney diversions. Sort of vacation inflation, if ya' know what I mean. :(
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us4disneycrazies
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Joined: October 3rd, 2013, 9:01 am

Re: Best place we have stayed in Orlando

Unread post by us4disneycrazies »

It is a vicious cycle. We wouldn't have bothered with FP's at all, if we didn't think it was the only way we'd have gotten on certain rides.
I hope they keep the daily usage limits on the FP+ (and regular FP if they have them, not sure) and wish they were a little more conservative with how many they give out for each time period. While I enjoy some structure to my day, I'd rather not feel the need to schedule my entire vacation down to the minute. Allow guests more FP's and I'm afraid that's what will end up happening.
Trickymickey
Posts: 2
Joined: October 27th, 2013, 7:37 am

Re: Best place we have stayed in Orlando

Unread post by Trickymickey »

Yes it was a great trip holiday blues have set in since we have been home :(

As for the FP conundrum I agree it will reach a point where they become irrelevant, on several occasions during our visit the fast pass line was as long as the standby queue which meant that those in that line had a much longer wait than necessary.

We had FP for the tower of terror one day and waited 25 mins to get on the ride, but the point I am trying to make is if you did away with said passes at quieter times of the year then the 60 minute-wait in the standby queue could become a thirty minute wait for everyone.

What brought it home to me was when we went on soaring we had FP for this ride the standby line was 80 minutes as we walked down the line we came to a part where the queue bridges the exit corridor of the ride. I noticed on the way in some people in a group all wearing red T-shirts. When we walked under that bridge on the way out the same group were still in the same spot on the bridge it had taken around 20 minutes for us to board and complete the ride.
Maybe it is because you can now book in advance via the magic band.
I am not saying they are a bad thing I just think they should only be available on the day in the parks as they used to be, it worked ok before and while I do not mind change every now and then I also think if it is not broken then don't try to fix it.
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