March 1-8, 2009

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!
crigney
Posts: 3
Joined: January 31st, 2009, 12:33 am

March 1-8, 2009

Unread post by crigney »

Ok, I consider myself very well organized. I read EVERYTHING before we left for our trip. Some things turned out to be better than I thought, but other I don't think I could have ever prepared myself for. Here is run down of the good and the bad.

Bad: We arrived at the resort at around 5:00PM. The Magical Express trip took a lot longer than I would have thought. The CM at the ME thought that they should make a whole bus full of people wait 30 minutes on the bus "in case" another family arrived. No one arrived so they finally let us go after a few members of the bus complained about the wait. So when arriving at the resort we were not in the best mood, I admit. But we waited in line for check in for about an hour. We were traveling with my mom and she was very annoyed at the wait since we've never experienced a check in that long even at a Motel 6. Horrible service!!!! And I can’t stress that enough! There were also several people in line with problems about their rooms or the check in. FINALLY we made it through the line and into our rooms.
We had a reservation later in the week at Fort Wilderness Buffet (I read it was cheap). The bus ride was painfully long. One bus to Downtown Disney (the boat doesn't run that early), one bus to the main bus station at Fort Wilderness, and one bus to the buffet. We gave ourselves an hour and a half, thinking we'd get there early, and we got there right on time. If I were to do it again I would have booked another character buffet instead of this one, it’s only a couple dollars less than the other buffets, has a third of the choices and we super far away. Next time I would like to try Chef Mickey’s. But we loved Donald’s Safari Breakfast. The kids also got to do an African dance around the table “welcoming the day”. It was very cute.
We also used the bus transportation to the free golf and the return trip was HORRIBLE. It took almost two hours to get back to the French Quarter.
All in all I would get a rental car in a heartbeat over taking their transportation.

Good: The room was nice and clean and we got a water view without requesting or paying for one. The grounds are very relaxing and perfect for our two year old. He was able to run around free with us trailing behind to make sure he was safe. The boat to Downtown Disney was a very cool plus and the kids loved it. The buffet at Animal Kingdom was GREAT. Totally worth it. If I would have known they were that much fun I would have booked more than one. The pool at POFQ was nice too. Never too crowded and my 7 year old loved the pool. We were also very impressed with the food at the food court. We ate there for several breakfasts and almost every night for dinner and thought it was great. I thought it was a much better deal to get the kids meals for my husband and I since it came with two side and a drink. We bought the refillable mugs and we drank out of those and got chocolate milk for our kids meal drink and gave it to our two year old to help cut down on milk costs. We also loved the greeters at the front door. Both my boys walked away with tons of beads and coins to throw in the fountain. My son also went on the Pirate Adventure Cruise that left from the Riverside and thought it was a ton of fun! He talked about it for the rest of the day.

I could hear some stuff through the walls but not a ton. In fact my two year old had a hard time sleeping at night and during nap time and cried for a good half hour to 45 minutes and then woke up every two hours after that. My mom had the room next to us and told us that she never heard him and even tried hard to listen for him.

Overall I would rate the resort a 7. The only reason I would rate it that low is because of the check in process and check in staff (not very friendly). I would also recommend renting a car over using the free transportation. If you are taking a young child and your child isn't in the greatest of moods your timeframe might look much like ours. Get to the parks around 9:00, kid poops out around 11:00, the bus takes about a half hour to return to your resort, it takes about an hour to get your child to go down for a nap then sleeps for two hours, its about 2:30 by this point. If you had a car you would easily make it back in time for the parade at 3:00 or 3:30. But since you have to wait 15 minutes for the bus, then wait another half hour for it to arrive at the park its 3:15 at the very earliest. Then you have to walk to the park gates, get through security and RUN to the parade. Not what I call a relaxing vacation.
ctguy1962
Posts: 16
Joined: February 15th, 2009, 5:20 pm

Re: March 1-8, 2009

Unread post by ctguy1962 »

Good review. My only comment would be to take an easier and I think faster way to Fort Wilderness. Take the bus to Magic Kingdom as they seem to run quite often. Then take the boat at the entrance to Magic Kingdom right to Fort Wilderness. The boat ride is nice and relaxing. Then it's just a short walk to your buffet.
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Re: March 1-8, 2009

Unread post by Admin »

Thanks for the review, sorry about your check-in experience. Wait times can vary tremendously, but I'd agree with you that at both Port Orleans resorts (maybe all the moderates?) the delays are often excessive - personally I'd say that any wait longer than about 10 minutes is too long. I susepct there either aren't enough CMs available at peak periods (such as when a bus drops off) or they are spending too long with each guest explaining the resort and often the whole workings of WDW. My money is on the former to be honest, as the second part should be expected - especially with new guests.

As for the bus transportation, I fully agree that trying to get anywhere except going from resort-to-park can take far too long, although I can't think how they could do it better to be honest, they can't run special buses just between the 20+ resorts all day. Fort Wilderness is one of the worst to access (even if you drive) as their internal bus system comes into the equation too. As the previous poster said, the trick is to take the bus to the MK first, and jump on the resort ferry near to the bus terminal which will take you straight to the central area of Fort Wilderness.

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joanncevarndell
Posts: 3
Joined: August 2nd, 2009, 2:31 pm

Re: March 1-8, 2009

Unread post by joanncevarndell »

this is all new to me, so glad i found this site and took the time to read these reviews i have 39 days until my first visit to POFQ and can't wait
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