A Wonderful Stay August 6th - 21st 2010!

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!
jivesdisneymum
Posts: 2
Joined: August 26th, 2010, 1:14 pm

A Wonderful Stay August 6th - 21st 2010!

Unread post by jivesdisneymum »

We stayed at the French Quarter for 14 nights in August 2010. We had an absolutley fantastic stay.

We arrived at the resort on Friday at approx 3:30 in the afternoon after a 9 and a half hour flight from the UK. Check in was very hassle free and was fab, we were seen straight away as they opened another desk for us (even though there were only 2 families in front of us!). The cast member was really friendly and asked where we were from and showed us how to get to our room. She also gave us our 'Happy Anniversary' buttons as my husband and I were celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary.

We were in building 4 on the first floor, room 4207 which looked out onto a beautiful courtyard with benches and wrought iron work. Our building was in a brilliant location. We were close to the car park where our hire car was, the bus stop to the parks and right next to the main building and food court! PERFECT

We took the 2 min walk to our room and got settled in. The room was great, very clean and we even had a mickey shaped towel on the bed! The room was so neat and clean that I am sure it had been recently painted. We had a standard room with 2 queen beds, tv etc. Mousekeeping were very good throughout our stay supplying us with fresh toiletries and towel animals (swans and dinner jackets made from the face cloths...they made me smile!) on a daily basis. The paths and walkways in and outside of the bulidings were very clean too.

We tend to spend our days going to one of the parks early in the morning coming back to the room and using the pool mid afternoon and returning to another park or DTD on an evening. This resort is perfect for that. We enjoyed spending time in the middle of the day relaxing by the beautiful pool. and strolling around the quiet 'streets' listening to the bubbling fountains and cool jazz music or strolling to the boat dock to get the boat to DTD. There were always enough sunbeds to use and always fresh clean towels by the pool. Every time we went to the pool there were at least 4 lifeguards on duty at once, they were very vigilant too. Some even organised games such as giant jenga for children! Once the sun had set we were delighted on a number of occasions to see the horse and carridge clip clopping through the resort! Very romantic and relaxing to watch. At night the resort takes on a much more romantic feel, the buildings and gardens look stunning at sunset too! So much so that we both remarked that it would make a great Honeymoon resort.

We enjoyed using our refillable mugs at the resort which were included in our Quick Service Dining Plan. For us (my husband and I) they were very useful. We used them at meal times, by the pool (sadly this did attract the wasps :o0), to take back to the room and to fill up to take with us on car journeys. The choice of sodas and hot drinks were great so we never got bored!

As mentioned previously we were on the QSDP and we found this very beneficial. We have only stayed on WDW property once before (at the Carribbean Beach Resort 2 years ago for our honeymoon) and did not have free dining then. My husband is quite a fussy eater but even he was able to find lots of things to eat on the plan. We found the Sassagoula Floatworks Food Court very good. There were always available tables and if you avoided busy times there was rarely anyone in front of you in line. We often enjoyed sitting outside under the canopy listening to the gentle jazz music in the morning sun whilst we had our breakfast. Some of the food highlights at POFQ are probably the same as a lot of other people, we really enjoyed the Quesadilla, Taco Salad, Mickey Waffles and Beignets!! We found the cast members particularly helpful in helping us to make the most out of the dining plan, reminding us that we got desserts with meals and even letting us come back to get them.

The cast members around the resort were friendly and always said hello. We loved the greeter at the main entrance and would often walk through the lobby so that we could see him on the way to the bus!
The gift shop was very well stocked too and had a lovely range of Princess and the Frog merchandise (my current favourite). It also stayed open quite late so we could browse its shelves in the evening.

To summarise we had a fantastic stay at this quiet and peaceful resort and I would definitley stay there again! It is a great size, quite small and intimate but also has great facilities. The scenery and themeing is beautiful too!

And we both miss it already!
Quacker
Posts: 10
Joined: July 9th, 2010, 3:16 pm

Re: A Wonderful Stay August 6th - 21st 2010!

Unread post by Quacker »

Again, many thanks for a superb report!

I'm surprised nobody has commented on it. Perhaps a lot of readers have been before and know all about it, but to someone like me, who has never been it is a real eye-opener. Still a while to wait until May 1 2011. Funny enough, we plan to do as you did. That is, early starts, and leave the parks when they start to get busy for some pool/relax time, then head on out again later.

We'll take advantage of the extra magic hours - morning and nights.

Was also interested to read about your food experiences. May main concern is my father is very picky (you know the type - fries with everything) and I am the opposite - i like to vary and try new things or at least as much variety as possible. We will not each much on site though - perhaps the odd snack and certainly breakfast as i understand it opens at 6am - great for us early risers lol. Lunch & Dinner we will find off site at other resorts and Disney locations. Also, we plan on hiring a car for the middle 7 days of the holiday. this means a good old visit to the old all-you-can-eat buffets, ihop, etc. - just to escape the Disney trap :D

Did you try the Jambalaya at all? - nobody seems to have - I'm dying to try it and would like to know if it is worth the wait lol.

Anyway, thanks for the report again and hopefully I can work out the best place for a room within close proximity of bus stops and foodcourt/reception etc.

Steve
buffer2212
Posts: 1
Joined: September 26th, 2010, 5:40 pm

Re: A Wonderful Stay August 6th - 21st 2010!

Unread post by buffer2212 »

Hi, this was a very informative post. We are going to be in POFQ in 5 weeks time, also coming from UK. Have stayed in Disney before but not this resort. Its good to hear that it is small, I had read this before but your room being only a few minutes walk is great. We wont be arriving until about 8pm, is the food court still open at that time? Did you try a Mufaletta sandwich - people seem to rave about them but I would love to know whats in them.

Sandra
Quacker
Posts: 10
Joined: July 9th, 2010, 3:16 pm

Re: A Wonderful Stay August 6th - 21st 2010!

Unread post by Quacker »

Lol Sandra!

All this exotic-sounding food :lol:

I look forward to your report too - I read on another forum some of the buildings are smoking buildings - my father has asthma so I would like to know if this is a big deal or not?
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Admin
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Joined: September 11th, 2008, 6:44 am
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Re: A Wonderful Stay August 6th - 21st 2010!

Unread post by Admin »

The food court is open until 10pm-11pm every day (some parts until midnight) so you'll be fine arriving at 8pm.

None of the accommodation buildings at WDW allow smoking at all, not even on the balcony/common areas. There are a few designated open-air smoking areas dotted around the resort which are shown on the map, so you can avoid them if you wish.

A.
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maddox4
Posts: 4
Joined: September 13th, 2009, 5:05 pm

Re: A Wonderful Stay August 6th - 21st 2010!

Unread post by maddox4 »

If you don't like olives...don't try the muffalotta! I happen to love them and ate a couple of these when we were there last year. The bread is wonderful, the meat is delicious ( I think there may have even been cheese) but the highlight is the olive spread. My husband doesn't like olives, but agreed to try it after I scraped some of the excess off--didn't like it at all!
We are going back to French Quarter next September on the free dining plan and I am looking forward to eating these again...just sorry it is so far off!
Quacker
Posts: 10
Joined: July 9th, 2010, 3:16 pm

Re: A Wonderful Stay August 6th - 21st 2010!

Unread post by Quacker »

admin wrote:The food court is open until 10pm-11pm every day (some parts until midnight) so you'll be fine arriving at 8pm.

None of the accommodation buildings at WDW allow smoking at all, not even on the balcony/common areas. There are a few designated open-air smoking areas dotted around the resort which are shown on the map, so you can avoid them if you wish.

A.
Glad to hear/read this. I may have seen an old out of date page on the web when I read that!

I guess that would make building 4 the most convenient for buses, foodhall and reception - of course it will be further away from other facilities lol.
mama2disneyfan
Posts: 2
Joined: November 6th, 2010, 2:21 pm
Location: Michigan, USA

Re: A Wonderful Stay August 6th - 21st 2010!

Unread post by mama2disneyfan »

Thanks for the great review of POFQ. We will be staying there for the first time in early March 2011 and we are looking forward to even more now.
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