POR Royal Guest Rooms or AoA

J

JessN

New Member
Original Poster
We are new to DIsney and are going on a 7 day cruise in January. We have booked 3 days before our cruise at AoA mermaid room and have 2 days after the cruise. We were thinking of staying at the CBR in a pirate room, but didn't see the greatest reviews for it so we are now considering the POR Royal Guest Rooms or just staying at the AoA again for those 2 nights afterwards. We were wondering if POR's pool is good for kids 2-6 and if the royal guests rooms were worth the extra cost for the amount of time you spend in the room. Any advice would be great, thanks :)
 
Stellajack

Stellajack

Well-Known Member
This is all my personal opinion, but 'yes' the pool at POR is great for kids, and 'no' the royal rooms are not worth the extra. Again, my own opinion.
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
If you have a daughter(s), then yes the royal rooms are great! But if you have boys, you may want to stick with AoA as their pools & play areas are better for little kids than those at POR.
 
ratherbeinwdw

ratherbeinwdw

Well-Known Member
JessN said:
We are new to DIsney and are going on a 7 day cruise in January. We have booked 3 days before our cruise at AoA mermaid room and have 2 days after the cruise. We were thinking of staying at the CBR in a pirate room, but didn't see the greatest reviews for it so we are now considering the POR Royal Guest Rooms or just staying at the AoA again for those 2 nights afterwards. We were wondering if POR's pool is good for kids 2-6 and if the royal guests rooms were worth the extra cost for the amount of time you spend in the room. Any advice would be great, thanks :)
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No. In my opinion, they are not worth it. The theme at AOA is 100 times cuter. We've stayed in Mermaid, Cars and Nemo. We loved the inside of Nemo the best, but the outside of Cars is top notch. The pools are also much better. We stayed in the Royal rooms when they first opened. They are cute, but the 5 seconds the headboard lights up gets old really fast. The faucets are the cutest things ever, but once again, I think AoA is tons better for little kids.
I would not recommend the Pirate rooms to anyone. When we stayed in them several years ago, they were our favorite, but they simply got so dirty, we couldn't go back there anymore. They are now refurbing the other rooms, which I would stay in, but not in the Pirate rooms.
 
J

JessN

New Member
Original Poster
ratherbeinwdw said:
No. In my opinion, they are not worth it. The theme at AOA is 100 times cuter. We've stayed in Mermaid, Cars and Nemo. We loved the inside of Nemo the best, but the outside of Cars is top notch. The pools are also much better. We stayed in the Royal rooms when they first opened. They are cute, but the 5 seconds the headboard lights up gets old really fast. The faucets are the cutest things ever, but once again, I think AoA is tons better for little kids.
I would not recommend the Pirate rooms to anyone. When we stayed in them several years ago, they were our favorite, but they simply got so dirty, we couldn't go back there anymore. They are now refurbing the other rooms, which I would stay in, but not in the Pirate rooms.
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Which pool is better, CBR or AoA?
 
ratherbeinwdw

ratherbeinwdw

Well-Known Member
Another little thing to consider is the size of the wall safe. The ones at POR barely hold my camera and wallet while the ones at AoA hold a full size computer. Of the values--except for AOA, POP has the biggest bathrooms and safes.
 
cfry06

cfry06

Well-Known Member
We (myself, hubs, 3yo) thought the royal rooms were fun! A bit further from transportation, but the theme - esp the fireworks/light up headboards- were awesome! When we booked through a room discount offer for Feb 2014, the price wasn't that much more at all. The regular rooms at POR are great too- we love the resort.

Haven't stayed at AOA, but many friends have. Never heard of a bad experience. Not sure you can go wrong :).

My personal preference - since you are at AOA prior to the cruise, I think I'd lean towards trying something new after. But either way you'll be golden!
 
Tinkerbella16

Tinkerbella16

Well-Known Member
Royal Rooms are WELL worth the extra IMO. We stayed in one last year and loved it so much. The location of our room alone was worth it. We were only a 2 minute walk to the main building and bus stop. The room itself is beautiful. We will definitely be going back again sometime. And the main pool at POR is great for kids. My 7 year old niece LOVED the waterslide so much, it was hard to get her to leave the pool.
 
mousefreak

mousefreak

Well-Known Member
Glad to see the reports on POR. We are about ready to book a Royal Room for our 20th anniversary (wife LOVES Princess and the Frog) for late Sept 2015. It will be an adults only trip this time. Anyone else want to chime in on Port Orleans Riverside? Thoughts or suggestions?
 
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Much-Pixie-Dust

Much-Pixie-Dust

Well-Known Member
Stayed at both and here's my take:

Pools - AOA has three very well-themed pools with the main pool being saline, not salt water. Also underwater speakers were fun to hear Disney characters. POR - has much more shade and a pretty good slide. It's well-themed too, just in a different way.

Rooms - Little Mermaid Room is small for the 2 adults and 1 child. Sheets were not soft and I think they had a plastic-like covering between them and the mattress. Walls were thin and we could here our neighbors. Adorable theming, especially if there's a LM fan in the your group. Be sure to override the AC unit at night if you like to sleep in a cool room. The system defaults to a certain temp, if there's no movement in the room after a certain amount of time. Royal Room - Simply magnificent and whimsical in every way for a princess fan. The room seemed darker than the LM room, probably due to all of the trees that surrounded it. Room was very quiet and bed was comfortable. It's bigger than LM. We liked the additional space.

Resorts - POR has way more activities to do than AOA - surrey bikes, cane pole fishing, boat rental, boat to take you to DTD, horse/carriage rental. AOA does have a much better arcade. It's brighter and more vibrant, plus you can earn tickets to exchange for prizes, which my DD loved.

No matter which you choose, you will have a great time!
 
meganwdw

meganwdw

Well-Known Member
We have 4 yr old twin daughters and are staying in a royal guest room in November! We've stayed at POFQ several times but never POR. We are looking forward to anew resort experience!!
 
gooftroop5

gooftroop5

Well-Known Member
We really enjoyed POR royal room stay last summer. IMO POR is a great resort with an excellent food court and pool. The grounds were very pretty as well. We like the way POR is spread out so it doesn't feel as "resorty" but everything was within a short walk.

Our daughter LOVED the fireworks on the headboard and even our boys liked it. :)
 
BigRedDad

BigRedDad

Well-Known Member
We stayed at a Royal room at POR. It was nice. If it wasn't for the buses, I would stay again. I have never experienced worse bus service in all my time at WDW. I could go into grand details about it, but we wound up using POFQ buses (when separate) and walking. I warned a family waiting at the MK. They were about 50 deep in the line. I jumped to the POFQ bus, walked back to our room from there, cleaned up, changed, dropped everything off, went to the bar and got a drink when the family was just getting there. It was 45 minutes later. He echoed exactly what I said would happen. He counted 3 more POFQ buses coming with only 5-10 people in line and no POR bus.
 

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