Port Orleans News

The main access bridge leading from the Riverside Marina and food court over to Ol' Man Island is currently closed for three weeks to allow worn-out wooden decking to be replaced, and for some structural work on a support beam to be completed. This work has been timed to coincide with the refurbishment of the feature swimming pool and the reduced occupancy levels in the Magnolia Terrace mansion building to attempt to reduce the amount of guests inconvenienced by the closure.

The bridge should be re-opened by Saturday 27 February but in the meantime guests will need to use the riverbank pathways and alternative bridges in order to cross to the other side of the resort or to access the children's playground and the fishing hole.



Work is continuing on the Ol' Man Island pool refurbishment, and more vegetation has been cut back beyond the seating areas in readiness for the installation of new perimeter fencing. Work is currently still on schedule for completion by 4 March.


Progress is finally being made on the children's water play area at French Quarter, and it looks like they have now finished the underground piping work and laid most of the remaining concrete pathway. Although there still appears to be a lot of work left to do, the target completion date currently remains at 29 February.



Additionally, construction staff are working around the perimeter edges of the main pool area, adding additional wrought-iron safety fencing between the pool deck and the Mardi Grogs seating area, and also installing lockable gates at the main entry/exit locations. I believe this is most likely part of a general Disney response to two recent tragic incidents involving children who accessed hotel pools unaccompanied or outside of lifeguard hours (see Orlando Sentinel articles in March 2013 and July 2015).






For more photos, see the Refurbishment Information Page.

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Update on 2 Feb: I've just been informed that the afternoon Mardi Gras activities planned for Port Orleans French Quarter on Tuesday 9 February, including the character greetings, have been CANCELLED for this year. The cut-down version of the cast member pargo parade will still take place at 10am though. The Recreation Activity Schedules that had already been printed for this month have been withdrawn, so I've removed them from the site too. I'll provide further updates as soon as I know more.

With all the departmental shake-ups going on at Port Orleans at the moment I'm still awaiting the full Recreation Schedule files for February (although quick photos are on the site). However I can confirm that the annual Mardi Gras 'pargo parade' put on by cast members will be going ahead on Tuesday 9th February at 10am, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale than in previous years.

This year’s theme will be "Candyland", but only six instead of the usual ten pargos will be used. The different lines of business (Custodial / Engineering / Food & Beverage / Front Desk / Housekeeping / Merchandise / Operations Learning & Development / Recreation / Watercraft Transportation / etc) will be combining to create the floats, and I'm not sure whether there will still be a departmental competitive element or not.

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A quick roundup of the latest news on the various refurbishment projects going on around Port Orleans, plus a bit more on the current Management Restructuring process.

French Quarter Children's Water Play Area

Work was originally scheduled to be completed by 24 December 2015 but work-permit issues delayed the planned re-opening date until 19 January 2016. However construction is obviously overrunning considerably beyond that based on the photos taken on 23 January which show water piping is still being installed and they haven't even started on laying the flooring yet. The information that I'm hearing at the moment is pointing towards an opening date of around 29 February 2016.




Riverside Ol' Man Island pool refurbishment

Work commenced on schedule on 11 January 2016 and the target completion date is still 4 March 2016. The work is mostly routine maintenance and perimeter fencing modifications. All of the through-route walkways, the children's playground and the fishing hole currently remain open, although letters recently sent out to guests indicate that some pathways may need to be temporarily closed during the work and the children's playground may also be affected at some point. There are no evening campfires at Riverside at the moment, but the French Quarter alternative is still available daily. A free shuttle service to French Quarter is in place, and the five quiet pools at Riverside are open as normal. The River Roost Lounge in the main building is opening a little earlier in the day than normal to compensate for Muddy Rivers being closed.




Riverside Magnolia Terrace roofing work

The building 85 roofing work will be split into five phases, and is expected to run through until 15 July 2016. The first phase has already commenced, which comprises the whole of central section of the building. That section should come back into service on 26 February and then work will commence on each of the four outer 'wings' in turn.



For more information and photos, see the Refurbishment News page.


Management Restructuring [Minor details updated 10 Feb]

A major reorganisation of the management structure at Port Orleans (and many other areas of Walt Disney World) is currently in progress, and some details are now starting to emerge. The following information is pieced together from multiple sources, but I'm sure there's more news still to come:

• The current Port Orleans General Manager, Suzette Noble, will now become the General Manager for Port Orleans Riverside, while Port Orleans French Quarter will get its own General Manager (still to be announced).
• "Proprietors" appears to be a newly-created level of management overseeing multiple areas such as guest service, front desk and recreation, reporting directly to each resort's General Manager. The current Guest Service Managers (Lon Rydberg at Riverside and Stefanie Shomper at French Quarter) have been promoted to this new role, while the original front desk/guest service management positions have been renamed as Guest Experience Managers, reporting to the Proprietors.
• The former Food & Beverage managers, James Campbell and Matthew Vaché, will now take on additional overall responsibility for the Merchandise departments at Riverside and French Quarter respectively.
• The exiting French Quarter Merchandising Manager has been transferred to the All Star Resorts as Duty Manager.
• There will also be separate Executive Housekeepers at both properties instead of the current combined operation.

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According to the Orlando Sentinel, Walt Disney World is embarking on (yet another) reorganisation of its management infrastructure. The changes broadly relate to the organisation of management reporting structures, with departments now organised more by physical location rather than thematically. Reporter Sandra Pedicini writes:

"The reorganization will give general managers and executives authority over geographic locations – say, the Magic Kingdom's Frontierland – rather than traditional categories such as merchandise or food and beverage. The philosophy is to take a more holistic approach to management, focusing on the overall guest experience, Disney said."

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