Port Orleans News

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Port Orleans Riverside Lobby (partially) re-opens...

Posted Tuesday 26th June 2012, 9:03am (EDT) by The Sassagoula Sentinel

The main lobby at Port Orleans Riverside has re-opened today after its two-month refurbishment... well, almost. At a fairly late stage they decided to add an extra treatment to the floor tiles, which took a few days to apply and harden. This must of course now be done with the previously-completed section of the lobby too, so they will shut that side off again for a few days while the work is completed. Then the furniture will be put back into place. I don’t know what’s happening about the carpet though - I know that originally a new one was planned to be put down, but it looks like the new floor is all tiled to me.

But it's looking very nice already, this was taken first thing Tuesday morning (26 June):

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Update on Thursday 28 June:

The Lobby Refurbishment work is now pretty much complete, with the carpeting (in the form of two giant rugs) now laid and all of the desks opened for guests. A few items of furniture still need to be added, and the kids' TV needs to be moved and queue lines set up, but otherwise it's basically done.

On first view, I'm not completely sure if the darker blue in the carpet might be one colour too many though, but I'm sure it'll grow on me. It's apparently proving very popular with guests.

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Update on Thursday 29 June:

There is now a spaciously open section where the old Online Checkin desks used to be - there will be another large rug going in here, and more furniture, but that won't be for several months as the rug is being hand-made. Otherwise, a few small chairs need to be added in front of the children’s TV and some new stanchions for the queue areas which should be installed over the next couple of days.

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The new light fittings over the desks seem very evocative of the period theming - and nice to see the lovely artwork on the back wall has been retained:

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Alligator Bayou final buildings start refurbishment

Posted Sunday 24th June 2012, 8:56am (EDT) by The Sassagoula Sentinel

If anyone was sleeping in an old Alligator Bayou double-bedded room last night, you would have been among the very last few. The final two Alligator Bayou buildings (26 and 35) today go down for refurbishment, so the last of the old rooms (and those old double beds & trundles) will have gone away forever.

Currently, buildings 25, 26, 34 and 35 are down for refurbishment. Two of them (25 and 34) are due back within a week, and the final one (26) should be completed in about four weeks. It really doesn't seem like nearly two years since this all started over at French Quarter does it?

Note: Some Accessible rooms are taking a few days extra after the rest of a building has opened, and if so adjacent rooms are not being occupied while work is being completed. There have been some reports of noise during the daytime from locations <em>behind</em> these Accessible rooms (in building 18 for example, which has more Accessbile rooms than some other buildings)

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Meanwhile, over in the Riverside lobby, work is drawing to a close on the refit there too. The construction walls are due to come down tonight, and front desk/check-in services should be operating from their new stations on Monday morning. For tomorrow only, concierge services will remain in their temporary River Roost location, and they will be moved over during Monday night so on Tuesday morning everything should be complete (barring a few very minor finishing touches apparently). Can't wait to see what it looks like!

Port Orleans Riverside Refurbishment Updates

Posted Sunday 10th June 2012, 1:20pm (EDT) by The Sassagoula Sentinel

The Alligator Bayou guest room refurbishment program is continuing apace, with one new building commencing work every Sunday. Building #39 closed today, and building #34 is due to close on Sunday 17th June. The work is generally taking twelve days per 64-room building, so #39 and #34 are intended to be returned for guest use on the 22nd and 29th of June respectively.

As previously mentioned, the ‘twenties’ numbered buildings are taking slightly longer to complete due to the additional roofing work that is being carried out, which is being further hindered by the wet Florida summer weather. Buildings #27 and #25 are currently estimated to be returned for use on the 20th and 27th of June, but those dates are still somewhat uncertain.

Finally, buildings #26 and #35 will both be closed together on Sunday 24th June, which will signal the final goodbye for the last few non-refurbished guest rooms at Port Orleans. By the end of the first week in July there should be just one building still undergoing renovation (#26) which will hopefully be completed around the third week in July.

For the latest updates, please keep an eye on www.portorleans.org/rehab.php.


The work on the main lobby at Port Orleans Riverside is also moving along well now, with the new chandelier already hoisted up into place. Work continues on laying the fabulous new tiling, and currently the plan is for the construction walls to be removed overnight on Wednesday 20th June, reopening for guests on 21st June.

Update on 20 June: The lobby reopening has been slightly delayed until around Monday 25 June due to extra work being done on the new floor tiles (and drying time).

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WDW Ticket prices increasing from Sunday 3rd June

Posted Friday 1st June 2012, 5:00pm (EDT) by The Sassagoula Sentinel

While not solely related to Port Orleans, resort guests will certainly be affected by today's announcement that ticket prices at Walt Disney World are due to increase on Sunday 3rd June. I won't deal with all the details here (which range from a $4 increase for a one-day/one-park base ticket to more than $100 increases for children's Annual Passes) but all of the major Disney news sites have the breakdowns, including:

Disney Parks Blog (full list here)
Touringplans.com Blog
AllEars.Net

If you are planning on getting your tickets in advance it might be best to do it on Saturday, as most ticket types don't start to expire until you actually commence using them.

Slight changes to the Alligator Bayou refurbishment order

Posted Wednesday 23rd May 2012, 5:15am (EDT) by The Sassagoula Sentinel

There have been a few minor adjustments to the order of the refurbishment schedule for the Port Orleans Riverside Alligator Bayou area:

  • Buildings 15 and 28 will be re-opening on Friday 25 May as planned.
  • Next to commence work will be building 25 (instead of 18 as originally planned) which should be ready for re-opening on 8 June (or shortly after).
  • Building 18 will now be started on 3 June, due for completion on 15 June.
  • Building 39 will be started on 10 June and finished on 22 June.
As always, please see the Refurbishments Page for the latest updates.

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