Staying at Port Orleans Riverside in 37 days...

DisneyFanClare

New Member
If you are having breakfast at the resort (which we hardly did as like every resort it was noisy) you can take your breakfast and go and sit in the boawrights dining room, not a lot of people knew that so there was only a few of us in there so was a nice quiet breakfast.
 
The busses left a lot to be desired to. I averaged 40-90 minutes to get to a park. Yesterday morning 8 Animal Kingdom busses came through.

Ugh... wow. I wasn't counting on that. I mean, I figured allow for an hour in the worst case, but 90 minutes? That's kind of insane. Last time I went to Disney was three years ago and we had no issues, but we were also at Wilderness Lodge, not PQR.

Anyone else stay here recently have this issue with the busses?
 

ratherbeinwdw

Well-Known Member
Ugh... wow. I wasn't counting on that. I mean, I figured allow for an hour in the worst case, but 90 minutes? That's kind of insane. Last time I went to Disney was three years ago and we had no issues, but we were also at Wilderness Lodge, not PQR.

Anyone else stay here recently have this issue with the busses?
All you have to do is walk up to the driver of any bus that comes along and tell him/her how long you've been waiting, and it's been our experience that a bus would be there within five minutes. We did this at POR a couple of times, and it worked. Also, make sure and ask the route through the resort when you get on the first bus. The driver can tell you where they are picking up first. We made the mistake of going to the lobby stop as everyone was saying that was the first pick-up point. It wasn't, and we either had to wait for another bus or get in a packed bus. Once we knew where pick-up started, we never had to wait for a second bus because of capacity.
 
All you have to do is walk up to the driver of any bus that comes along and tell him/her how long you've been waiting, and it's been our experience that a bus would be there within five minutes. We did this at POR a couple of times, and it worked. Also, make sure and ask the route through the resort when you get on the first bus. The driver can tell you where they are picking up first. We made the mistake of going to the lobby stop as everyone was saying that was the first pick-up point. It wasn't, and we either had to wait for another bus or get in a packed bus. Once we knew where pick-up started, we never had to wait for a second bus because of capacity.

Ah cool thanks for the tip!
 

ratherbeinwdw

Well-Known Member
Hrm really? Maybe I should find a map. We're staying in the royal rooms.
We were in the Royal Guest Rooms in the section closest to the quiet pool. It was very close to the bus stop and the bridge to the main pool and the lobby. The other section is a little farther away and will call for more walking.
 
We were in the Royal Guest Rooms in the section closest to the quiet pool. It was very close to the bus stop and the bridge to the main pool and the lobby. The other section is a little farther away and will call for more walking.

Ah ok, I don't know what section we're in. I asked for a preferred room within Riverside. I read that I should head to the East Depot, NOT South Depot by the lobby building. Is that correct?
 

Rob562

Well-Known Member
Ah ok, I don't know what section we're in. I asked for a preferred room within Riverside. I read that I should head to the East Depot, NOT South Depot by the lobby building. Is that correct?

Preferred rooms are all in Alligator Bayou, buildings 14, 15, 18 and 27. You can read about the rooms and see a map here: http://www.portorleans.org/room-requests.php About 1/3 of the way down is a map, the Preferred Buildings are blue.

The rooms are very convenient to the South Depot which is at the check-in/food court building. The East Depot would be quite a hike to the other side of the resort. You could head to the West Depot, but even that is farther for most of those rooms.

My suggestion is to head to the South Depot and make note of the shortcut to those bus stops so you don't have to walk around past the food court. (If you look on the map, across the parking lot from Building 15 is a pathway directly to those stops. Makes for a very quick return to your room in the evening)

-Rob
 

ratherbeinwdw

Well-Known Member
Ah ok, I don't know what section we're in. I asked for a preferred room within Riverside. I read that I should head to the East Depot, NOT South Depot by the lobby building. Is that correct?
If you are in preferred, then South Depot will be close, but if it's the last stop--which it may or may not be--then you may have to stand or wait for a second bus. If you get out early, you should be fine. The buses were fairly empty when we were at the bus stop in time to get to early hours. We were in Oak, so we were a minute from the East Depot. It was very convenient. It was also close to the lobby. If we wanted to stop at the food court before going to the room, we could walk across the parking lot, across the bridge and be right behind our unit.
Coming back at night from MK was always packed, even when we got out a little early. We had to stand almost every time. The other parks weren't nearly that bad. If you don't have bad feet or a bad back, then you'll be fine.
If you ride a couple of rides after the parade/fireworks, then the bus won't be nearly as crowded.
 
Ah cool! I think I chose preferred in relation to the royal guest rooms. Actually now I can't bloody remember... but oh well. Pretty shiny beds to occupy us in the mornings while I'm trying to dry my hair.
 

PoohsHunny

New Member
We will be at POR in a couple weeks and this will be our 15th time going but only 3rd time at POR. We love this resort!! Our first POR visit was the Princess Room and absolutely loved that but this time will be a regular room. I love the ambiance of this resort. I hear a lot of complaints while sitting on the bus about the walk but this resort is so beautiful and relaxing that I don't mind the walk. Yeah, I am tired at the end of the day and truly wish my Pixie Dust would just let me float back to my room, but in the end I enjoy the walk and how peaceful it is. I have never taken the boat and have always depended on the bus and never had a long wait. They seem to come pretty regular when I have been there which has been at the end of September going into October. This will be our first time in November and from the sounds of it should be a good time crowd wise!! So, everyone going soon have a Magical time and take in POR sights and sounds....you will LOVE it!!

{COUNTDOWN=2014/12/11 0900 POR Here We Come/COUNTDOWN}
 
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Gonegrrl

New Member
If you are in the Royal Rooms you are close to everything and you will be in either Oak or Parterre in the Mansion Section. Your bus depot will be the East Depot. We were there last March in a Royal room in Oak it was amazing. Back in March 2015, hoping to be in Magnolia Bend. This resort was fantastic and we never ever had an issue with the buses. The longest we ever waited for a bus was about 7 mins and we always got seats from the East depot.
 

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