Port Orleans News

This morning, a small group of Disney PhotoPass photographers was spotted taking posed sample shots around the grounds of Port Orleans Riverside. It seems that the portrait sessions currently available at several of the deluxe resorts, such as the Grand Floridian and Polynesian, are proving so popular that Disney is looking into the possibility of expanding their offerings into other locations, such as perhaps one of the moderate hotels.

One of the photographers indicated that Riverside was giving them some of the most photogenic backdrops so far, but of course nothing has been decided as yet and it may be some time (if ever) before the project is taken any further. Sounds like a great idea though.

LIVE VIDEO streaming direct from Port Orleans Riverside until 1 Nov 2010, see the Video page for details of when the feed is running, or visit EyesOnEars.com to join in the online fun.

A guest visiting the resort last week asked a manager at Port Orleans French Quarter about the rehabs and the possible new room themes. She was told that everything is still just conjecture at this point as far as the different themes go, but that if it did happen it would be only be a portion of the rooms, and that those rooms would be at Riverside rather than French Quarter.

The manager did however confirm that both resorts were definitely going to be refurbished and the work should take 18 months or so to complete. French Quarter would be started first (pretty much imminently) and would be completely finished by April 2011. She also mentioned that she had seen samples of the new carpet and it looked fabulous.

Back in March 2010, Disney filed work permit paperwork with the Orange County Comptroller’s offices for “guest room renovation” work to be undertaken at Port Orleans French Quarter by Friedrich Watkins Company of Orlando, FL — the same company which did the last series of Port Orleans room refurbs in 2004. This new work permit referred only to Building 7, and stated that the work must commence sometime before mid-March 2011.

More work permits were filed in June 2010 for room renovations to Port Orleans Riverside buildings 24 and 95 (Parterre Place) with commencement dates sometime before June 2011. Most recently, in July 2010, more permit paperwork was filed to cover all of the remaining sections of Port Orleans French Quarter (buildings 1 to 6), also with a requirement to commence work by March 2011.

There is still no official word from Disney about the refurbishments but the nearby DVC resort of Old Key West is in the process of having all of its rooms updated (based on permits issued at the start of April).

The last series of room refurbishments (2004/05) progressed at a rate of approximately 64 rooms per week and were carried out by the same company without requiring major closures or impacting on guest experience.

For other rehab news, check out Mouse Planet and wdwmagic.com.

A guest staying at Port Orleans Riverside this week has reported that they requested a room in the Magnolia Terrace mansion building but were told that the whole building is currently closed for refurbishment work. They checked later during their stay and noted that all of the rooms in that building did indeed appear to be unoccupied, however they did not see any actual work in progress. Hopefully this is for more than just the planned maintenance work on the elevators which has been scheduled. [Update: The building reopened a few weeks later, but without any noticeable room refurbishments having taken place.]