Port Orleans News

The May 2012 Recreation Activities and Movie Schedules for Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarter are now available, see the main Recreation Activities Schedule page for full-size PDF versions, or click on the images below. The outdoor movies will start at 9pm and the daily campfires commence at 7:30pm.

The lobby refurbishment now underway at Port Orleans Riverside will be completed in two stages. In order to minimise disturbance to guests, construction work will take place overnight between 11pm and 7am, which is why "Ye Haa" Bob Jackson’s show in the adjacent River Roost Lounge will be ending at 11pm during the construction period instead of the usual midnight. There should be no other impact for guests as the lobby area is completely isolated from all guest room areas.

Stage One: Monday 23 April to Wednesday 9 May 2012 [Edit: now extended until 17 May]

One-third of the lobby area will be separated off by a construction wall, however guests will still be able to use the remaining section for Registration, Online check-in and Concierge services. It has been suggested that doing online check-in before you travel may help speed up your arrival process.

(Thanks to Denise at MouseSteps for the photo)

• Registration (regular check-in and check-out) will now use the desks in the newly completed section of the main lobby.
• Online check-in will be located within the main entranceway lobby during the busier parts of the day (9am to 6pm) and will return to the regular desks overnight until 9am the next morning.
• Concierge services will be located in the front of the River Roost lounge.

Port Orleans Riverside Lobby Refurbishment Commences, estimated to continue through to the first week in June. Alligator Bayou buildings 16 and 24 currently undergoing refurbishment too.

Work on refurbishing Port Orleans Riverside's stylish 'steamboat company' lobby area commenced yesterday and is expected to continue through to the first week in June. In the meantime, reception facilities will be temporarily borrowing part of the River Roost Lounge, and it is suggested that guests may find that using the online check-in system could speed up their arrival process. The work will include brand new carpet, refreshed paintwork and other details, but all staying true to the original design concept of the resort. I'm pleased to say that one of my favourite details, the gorgeous period and themed paintings and maps on the walls behind the check-in desks, will be staying.

The Alligator Bayou guest room refurbishment program is also progressing well, with building 24 new well underway and building 16 commenced over the weekend. As the 'twenties' buildings are having roofing work done at the same time, and each one will not be re-opened until the scaffolding is down, it's possible that building 16 may reopen before 24. Building 17 will be the next to start work, this coming weekend. See http://www.portorleans.org/rehab.php for the latest updates.

The final 256 Royal Guest Rooms located in Port Orleans Riverside's Parterre Place reopened today, completing the refurbishment of the whole 1,024 room Magnolia Bend mansion building area.

Sunday 15 April will then see work recommence on the remaining Alligator Bayou Lodges - starting with building 24 and progressing with one new building started each week for the next three months. Currently the planned schedule is 24, 16, 17, 28, 15, 27, 18, 39, 25, 34, 35 and finally 26. Refurbishment work will take approximately two weeks per building so there will be some overlap with at least two buildings down at any given time. The "twenties" buildings could each be closed for slightly longer than two weeks to allow time for additional roofing work which has been scheduled to run in parallel with the room updates. See the top of the Reburbishment News Updates page for the latest progress information.

The Easter Sunday 2012 Recreation Schedules are now available, see the main Recreation Schedules page for more details.

It’s great see some character greetings at the resorts on Easter Sunday, especially for those who want a quieter start to the day and don’t plan on hitting the parks too early. There are lots of other fun and activities during the day too, many of which seems to involve various sorts of rather enticing confectionary... still, at least there’s some running around involved to get it!

Also, both of the resort gift shops (Fulton’s General Store at Port Orleans Riverside and Jackson Square Gifts and Desires at Port Orleans French Quarter) are offering pre-made and made-to-order Easter Baskets until Easter Sunday. These can be ordered in advance and held for pickup.