my stay at french quarter

How was your stay at French Quarter? Leave your comments or full trip reports here. Photos welcome.
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This forum is for Port Orleans FRENCH QUARTER Trip Reports, not for general questions. Please try to keep your reviews relevant, informative and useful to other visiting families. Thanks!
herbandtez
Posts: 12
Joined: March 23rd, 2013, 9:13 pm

my stay at french quarter

Unread post by herbandtez »

don't know if I will do the French quarter again in future. our room was lovely--kingbed corner room--but I requested 3rd floor and got 2nd. I requested a room on the riverside end of the resort and was in building one at its furthest point. I literally had the room furthest from riverside that you can be. any effort to change floors or ends met with the loss of the 2 window corner room. i was frustrated as we had reservations here for 16 months and it was our 40th anniversary. we had a beautiful water view, but the view was not a priority for me. our stay was nice, but not any nicer than at pop century thought the room was prettier. our room maintenance was excellent. the Christmas décor was lovely. I missed that crazy Disney theming that pop century and art of animation have. I found the food court to be sorely lacking. breakfast was fine, but breakfast is fine anywhere. supper was poor--very very poor. we use the food court so this is an issue for us. your site has been a super info source. thank you!
Thorpy
Posts: 171
Joined: February 10th, 2013, 1:06 pm

Re: my stay at french quarter

Unread post by Thorpy »

I can imagine that had you been at the Riverside end as requested, that you might have tried their food court. Much better selection.
Stlcat
Posts: 4
Joined: October 25th, 2013, 3:46 pm

Re: my stay at french quarter

Unread post by Stlcat »

Sorry to hear about your experience. Be sure to email guest relations. My wife and I had a similar experience. I emailed guest services and factually stated what happened. To my surprise, I actually received a follow up phone call. As a result, my faith in the Disney 'magic' has been renewed. Probably didn't hurt that I sent letters to the Port Orleans General Manager and several Disney execs.
herbandtez
Posts: 12
Joined: March 23rd, 2013, 9:13 pm

Re: my stay at french quarter

Unread post by herbandtez »

i am sure that I went in with a bit of a chip on my shoulder because I called in about the discount on the room the day after the discounts for the time period we would be there became available and I was told all those rooms were already filled so I missed out on the discount, but I was so very lucky to get a king bed room. I made sure to reiterate that there was no luck involved--I paid for that privilege. I tried several times to get the discount and no cancellations ever occurred that enabled me to get in on it. the failure to grant any of my requests was just icing on the cake. I am, for the first time ever, truly looking into other places to vacation besides disney. there has never been anywhere else I wanted to go before and our trip was fine---crowds weren't bad, but wdw is slowly killing its own magic. (sigh!). I sure miss the tinkerbell shop where tink zipped all around and magically appeared in that mirror when you called her. I will never do another character breakfast now that the characters scarcely interact with anyone---makes me sad. :cry:
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Re: my stay at french quarter

Unread post by Admin »

I'm not sure of course, but I wonder if they may have misunderstood (or they did not make it clear when they entered your requests into the system) when you asked for "a room near the river side", that you were asking for a river view room, which is what you got (and it's a very nice feature too, and such a regular request that maybe they assumed that was what you were asking for). Also, all of the King Bed rooms at POFQ are on corners, so you couldn't have lost out on that specific feature if they moved you to any other King room.

As for discounts, even if you rang the day an offer started there may not have been any rooms made available in your booking category - so maybe not a case of being sold out, but never being sold at discount at all. POFQ often doesn't get as many discounts as some of the other resorts, since it is comparatively small and very popular anyway, so the discounts tend to be relatively limited. You need to remember that discounts are only issued in order to help Disney move slow-selling room inventory, rather than as an extra treat for already-booked guests - so while they are lovely if you can get them, you shouldn't feel too put out if you don't.

Shame you didn't enjoy the food court - personally I have to agree that the Riverside one is much nicer and has more choices that I enjoy - but I guess it's also twice the size of FQ.

Andre
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herbandtez
Posts: 12
Joined: March 23rd, 2013, 9:13 pm

Re: my stay at french quarter

Unread post by herbandtez »

andre, I specifically asked for building 6 or 7--not close to riverside. they also told me at all the king bed rooms were not corner rooms and offered me a first floor king room but told me I would lose the corner. I told them that it was my understanding that all king rooms at French quarter were corner rooms but they were adamant this was not so. anyway, I have beat this one to death. it was indeed a lovely resort and, as I stated before, housekeeping was wonderful as was the beautiful holiday décor.
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Re: my stay at french quarter

Unread post by Admin »

Ah, if you asked by building number that dashes my theory anyway. Did you fax them before you arrived incidentally (as per my advice in www.portorleans.org/room-requests.php). Just curious.

Not that it helps you now, but ALL of the POFQ King Bed rooms are indeed on corners (see http://www.portorleans.org/images/build ... n-POFQ.pdf), and even where there are external stairways on one side of the room there are still dual windows. Not sure why the CM would tell you otherwise (unless maybe they were normally based at Riverside, where most but not all of the King rooms are on corners?)

Andre
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herbandtez
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Joined: March 23rd, 2013, 9:13 pm

Re: my stay at french quarter

Unread post by herbandtez »

no andre, I did not fax in my requests ahead as you suggested. I will remember that in future. apparently it helps. I believe you that all the king rooms are corner rooms. I studied your maps and, as a result, moved my reservation from riverside to French quarter. love the well lit room. thank you.
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Re: my stay at french quarter

Unread post by Admin »

Sounds like you got a great room with a nice view... just completely the opposite end of the resort to where you wanted! Sorry it didn't work out quite as planned, I do wish the CMs were a bit more clued up sometimes.

Andre
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