Our trip report

How was your stay at French Quarter? Leave your comments or full trip reports here. Photos welcome.
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Colorado_Disney_Fans
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Joined: January 26th, 2016, 2:03 pm

Our trip report

Unread post by Colorado_Disney_Fans »

My wife and I just returned from a short getaway to our favorite place - Disney World and Port Orleans French Quarter. We've been frequenting Port Orleans (as best we can) since our honeymoon back in 1993. We have stayed at French Quarter when our family was small - and for our short (Mom-and-Dad-only) getaways. As our family size grew (to 8 children going on 9), we began to stay over at Riverside to take advantage of the larger room capacity (up to 5 per room). For budget purposes, I would rather pay for 2 rooms, than the 3 it would require at the French Quarter. (haha)

I will say this - after experiencing both Riverside and the French Quarter several times - our hearts have landed squarely on the French Quarter. Certainly, we enjoy the ambiance; the jazz music playing in the background; the Mardi Gras theme and decorations; the awesome boat ride to Disney Springs; etc. But most of all, the French Quarter is smaller and quieter than Riverside. The food offerings at the food court have done well enough for us and the family, and (at least for us) has never been as crazy-busy as at Riverside. Yes, Riverside has more options when it comes to food, but French Quarter has the smaller crowds. We do wish, like others, that French Quarter would offer a year-round sit down restaurant...maybe someday.

Last week's trip was the first time that we ever requested a specific room prior to our arrival. We requested (as per this site's info page on when & how to make rooms requests) the same room my wife and I were in for our honeymoon (22.5 years ago). It was so AWESOME to find out that our request had been granted. Quick tip: if you can give a BRIEF story in your request, and be gracious towards the room allocation team, this might certainly help you further your request along. I'm sure the allocation staff have some tough days - so it might make a huge difference if you are willing to be kind in your request, and appreciative of their efforts, even if they are unable to grant your request.

Back to this trip...we were hoping that the new interactive water play area would be finished but they clearly have some ways to go still. This was our first trip back since they finished remodeling the bus depot.

I had heard about the new bus routes/service between the French Quarter and Riverside...the updated bus service was AWESOME. Having the buses go direct to their destinations without having to stop at the four Riverside stops was SO NICE...and then having joint service buses (which tend to be offered when less folks are traveling) always stop at French Quarter first on their way back was also SO NICE. We spent much less time on the buses this time around. Further, we didn't wait more than 5 minutes for any bus at any time or location on our entire trip. Now that might have been a bit of luck and coincidence...but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

The magic bands are making check-in very easy. In our case, it was as if the process of check-in didn't really even exist. We got off the Magical Express bus and just went straight to our room since we had been texted our room #, and notified that it was ready. The only negative we see in this streamlined process is that you have less face-time with staff. So you have to try harder in some cases to create opportunities to get to know some of the staff.

Food was good as always, and the authentic beignets are still the great treat they always have been. BUT, what happened to the meatball sub sandwich? We were disappointed to see that was not available. Certainly, a small issue that doesn't amount to much. We slept in each day, so we didn't get to breakfast until between 9 & 10am each day. Crowds were light by then.

The pool was open and looked good, but weather was cold the last week, so we didn't get in. That new interactive play area looks like it will be awesome! We missed the opening by mere weeks it looked like. It's great to see that much of the resort has stayed the same through the years.

For those of you who have stayed at French Quarter through the years, you will remember that the TV in the lobby (and an available channel in the rooms) showed several of the original Mickey and gang cartoons). They've now replaced the older cartoons with these new Mickey shorts that began coming out a few years ago. In our ENTIRE family's opinion, the new shorts are awful. Fortunately, in today's day & age, we can work around that. We just downloaded the older cartoons from iTunes, and fed it to the TV from our iPhone through the HDMI cable that we bring along. That's a great way to bring along any movies that you want. We've often thought it would be great for Disney to offer a pay-per-view channel with many Disney movies to choose from - but I'm guessing they'd rather have you out of the room - spending more money (of course)...which we do (of course) (haha)

Port Orleans French Quarter - continuing to be a great place to stay. We wish everyone a fabulous stay - even if you choose Riverside instead. ;)
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Re: Our trip report

Unread post by Admin »

Thanks for the great review, it's always good to get other people's opinions. I'm glad you found the Requests page useful and that you managed to get the very same room that you had for your honeymoon all those years ago when the resort had only recently opened - and busy years they have obviously been judging by the size of your clan!

I agree about the cartoons by the way - I'm a bit of a traditionalist too when it comes to those sort of things, but I guess that progress.

Andre
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- The Unofficial Visitor's Guide to the Port Orleans Resorts in Orlando, Florida -
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