So, assuming we are never going to be able to get the original Dixie Landings nomenclature back, here are a few more practical ideas off the top of my head:
- Reopen Boatwright’s Dining Hall for breakfast. The Riverside Mill food court is a cattle market between 8am and 10am, so that would take some of the load off it and make more profit into the bargain – overall it’d be a win/win! I can't see much point in opening Boatwright's for lunch though.
- Add Rapid Fill refillable drinks mug dispensers to both of the feature pool areas. This would be a great guest benefit (I get asked about it regularly) but I suspect it might be an overall revenue loser for the pool bars. Selling the mugs at the pool bars would definitely go a long way towards offsetting any loss though.
- Repurpose the empty Bonfamille’s Café area at French Quarter. Now that the WDW test kitchen facility which was located there has apparently been moved off-site, I assume that the area will be investigated for bringing back into guest use. Of course I’d love to see it reopened as a restaurant, as all the infrastructure is still there and French Quarter is currently the only moderate without its own table-service location - maybe it could even be themed as "Tiana's Place" from Princess and the Frog? However if that is not considered viable then perhaps a gym/fitness center might be a good use for that space, providing an extra facility for guests from both Port Orleans resorts. Again, I do get quite a few queries about the availability of fitness facilities at Port Orleans.
- Return of watercraft rentals to the Riverside Marina. This would need third party involvement though, as the service was run by an outside company. Sadly I think it would be too much work to bring them back to POFQ too, as much of the dock infrastructure was taken away when the original service was shut down.
- Return of resort-specific merchandise would have been very high up on my list, so I’m really glad to see it’s starting to come back now. Apparel needs to be added though, and perhaps make the logo designs a bit more ‘interesting’ and themed (the current ‘Port Orleans’ wording looks more like someone’s Word Art attempt at a college football team poster).
- A minor thing, but reduce the volume of the pool party music as it can be quite intrusive and clashes with the theming - although at least it mostly occurs during the middle of the day.
- And finally, and perhaps a bit longer term, I’d love to see a walkable pathway from Port Orleans to Downtown Disney and the new Disney Springs area, in the same way that you can walk from the Epcot Resort area to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. In fact, almost all of the one-mile route is already guest-accessible via the paved footpaths beside the Lake Buena Vista Golf Course next to Old Key West, or alternatively using a longer route via the Treehouse Villas / Saratoga Springs to the east side of the river. So all it would take would be for a very short 130 yard footpath to be built between the southern end of French Quarter and the Disney Vacation Club Way road, and a short section of sidewalk added beside the Old Key West main entrance:
So, what other ideas have you got?
Andre