Port Orleans News

According to the Walt Disney World website, room and package booking rates for all of 2013 for the on-site hotels (including Port Orleans) are due to be released on 11 July. Currently the US site only allows you to book until 31 December 2012, although some of the International sites have allowed 2013 bookings for non-US guests for a while now.

Update 6am EST, 11 July 2012: The 2013 booking rates are now available via the WDW online booking system. Full details can be found in our Room Rates page.

The Disney Parks Blog has a short feature on the newly refurbished lobby at Port Orleans Riverside with some nice detail photos, saying "The two-month refurbishment included new tile, colorful rugs, decorative period lighting and some new furniture. The space is very inviting – it sure seems brighter and more spacious to me." See http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2 ... ld-resort/

American Independence Day is fast approaching, and the Port Orleans Resorts will be offering plenty of fun activities to keep the young (and young at heart) resort guests entertained on Wednesday 4th July. These will include old-fashioned lawn games, a watermelon eating contest, candy counting, a cake walk, a pie throwing contest, plus all the usual pool activities, movies, etc.

One quick tip from me: if you want to see the special Magic Kingdom fireworks, go on Tuesday 3rd July. You'll see exactly the same show, but without the crazy crowds. Then you can either enjoy the resort activities on the 4th, or head over to see Epcot's celebrations where the larger size of the park may help make it feel a little less crowded.

And here are the other activities for the rest of July, also available at the usual Recreation Activities Schedule page:

I can't believe where the time has gone, but five years ago today the very first files were served out from the fledgling www.portorleans.org domain. It wasn't a full site at that point, just a collection of a couple of resort maps and a few pictures I think.

I first registered the actual name on 22 June 2007, and I noticed the timing because I've just this week paid the annual server hosting invoice for the coming year (all donations via the homepage gratefully received... LOL).

The first online post where I referred to anything from the site was on 1 July 2007, on the UK-based DIBB forums (after the idea was first mooted on 11 March in another DIBB thread). A proper 'menu-based' site was still a few months away (26 Oct 2007) but I think I shall count 1st July as the site's official birthday for now.

And now, five years later, the site gets around 1.5 million page hits a year. How time flies when you're having fun!

Thanks for everyone's support, and I hope this site has proved informative and useful.

Andre

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):




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.



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.




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: