Riverside, Caribbean or Animal Kingdom lodge?

[Gojira ゴジラ]

Thanks for reading folks.

We've been to the Animal Kingdom. We love it but we think it was just too far to anywhere else but the Animal Kingdom. And waiting for the bus was a major pain.

So we stayed at the Caribbean last year. We have some mixed feelings but they were leaning toward not liking it (bed bugs, far from the bus stop etc). Two things we like: The Carribean Burger and it did not take too long to wait for the bus.

This year we have the option to go to either one of them, but we haven't tried the Riverside yet. So I have a few questions:

1. How frequent does the bus come? Do you have to wait long?
2. I notice the room layout is identical with the Caribbean, what about the quality of the room?
3. What are the differences between the Riverside and the French Quarters?
4. Which one is better?

Two other non-Riverside questions:
3. Which do you recommend most (AK/Caribbean/Riverside/FQ)?
4. I could stretch it out to the Beach Club, but do you think it's worth the extra hundreds?

Thanks so much

 

[ml123_9]

We always stay at RS. We've stayed in Bayou Village and Magnolia Bend. We prefer Bayou Village. It's in a more wooded area and has a little more casual feel. That of course is my opinion. The rooms are nice and have decent space. They are designed to sleep 5. We request a preferred room near the food court in buildings 14 or 15. Those are about a 2 minute walk to the food court and maybe a 3 minute walk to the bus stop. The busses for us seem to run pretty frequently except during the afternoon slow time. In the mornings they seemed to be 2-5 minutes apart. The boat to DTD is awesome and very peaceful and relaxing. The main pool is great with water features and a slide. The food court is top notch and we always eat at Boatwright's on our off day. The gift shop is nice too. We've never stayed at FQ but it's smaller and the buildings are closer to the main building. One little hint, if you do decide on RS and are leaving the MK after Wishes. The FQ bus line is typically shorter. So get in that line and take the bus to FQ and explore FQ some then hop on a boat or walk to RS. I hope this helps. :wave:

 

[Mimi]

I think you'd like the French Quarter. The rooms are pretty much the same as the rooms at CBR but I prefer the FQ. It is a quiet resort with a very nice relaxing atmosphere. No matter where your room is the walk to the lobby and buses is short.

Bus service is different depending on the time of year that you go. The last time I was there FQ got its own bus. At other times they share with the Riverside. When that happens, FQ is first to be picked up and first to be dropped off. This means you will probably get a seat on your way to the parks and that you'll have the shortest ride at the end of the night when you're tired and/or standing.

Other perks: you can use the Riverside's pool and take a boat to DTD for some shopping.

 

[gnuts0306]

CBR is my FAVE resort! We love the atmosphere. We love OPR. Its such a colorful, relaxing place!

 

[jformica]

I can't speak to the bus schedule and wait times as we always rent a vehicle so we are not a "prisoner" to someone or something else. I'd rather spend the extra $200 in the scope of thousands because time is money on a vacation like Disney.

In any event, we have stayed at all you state and it's really up to you. I will scratch Caribbean off your list. It's our least favorite moderate and you've already had a less than perfect experience. As far as the others, Coronado and Riverside are our favorite (by the way, my wife I and 3 children). However, it's almost as far as AKL so that may not be your cup of tea. POR and POFQ are both great, POFQ is smaller and more convenient however lacks the options of POR (the theme pool is small and cheesy) and it doesn't have the dining options and recreational activities of POR. However, if your asking my opinion I would choose to stay at a Deluxe every time. If you could afford BCV then that would be my choise for proximity, dining, recreation, boardwalk and overall beauty. AKL would still be my 2nd choice.

 

[Brandon.]

woah you had bed bugs at cbr???

 

[JEANYLASER]

try POFQ! I will try POFQ for Dec 2011!

 

[onesandzeros]

I’ve enjoyed stays at Riverside several times. The surrounding atmosphere between the Bayou and Magnolia sections is very different. If you like the outdoors and a wilderness feel, the Alligator Bayou section is a good pick. Each grouping of buildings has a small pool to relax by. The buildings in the Magnolia section resemble plantation mansions. There are two large pools in this section that are quit and typically used by adults. Towels are not provided at any of these pools. However, you can pickup a towel at the main kids pool on Ol’Man Island. I say kids pool because there are slides fountains, etc (I’m sure adults enjoy it too).

My tip regarding buses is avoid using the main platform stop near the lobby. There are three other stops located near Bayou and Magnolia buildings (west, north, east). The lines are much shorter and buses seem less full. But that probable depends on the time of year you’re visiting.

I haven’t stayed at AK or Caribbean, but I have visited both. My impression of the AK is the same as yours. It’s a long way from most of the attractions. The Caribbean just felt really hectic to me due to the
number of guests.

 

[wvdisneyfamily]

If the AKL is an option, I'd suggest checking out the Wilderness Lodge. It is close in price to the AKL. You have a boat to the MK, Fort Wilderness, and Contemporary. The Contemporary boat gives you monorail access.

 

[Gojira ゴジラ]

Thanks for the responses, I manage to narrow it down to POFQ and AKL.
AKL is very tempting especially with 30% off after June 15. I almost booked Beach Club last night.. almost hit the book now button but then perhaps I could use that extra money for other things.

 

[JEANYLASER]

you will love POFQ!

 

[mousetime]

Just got back from Riverside (home at 330 am today) the room was nice we got a water view and we only had a 2 min walk to the main house,didn't even ask for it, that was a surprise which was nice. Buses where fare and few between, all week worse I have ever seen. Caribbean had better bus service at Christmas week then riverside had last week.We'll be going back to the Caribbean be for we go back to the Riverside.

 

[b94ronman]

I'm sorry I have no love for Port Orleans resort area.....I stayed there once and it did nothing for me.....I'm glad to see someone say something positive about carribean beach....I just stayed there in December and thought the place was great. I read all the bad stuff on here about how big it is, how far away the food court is, how far away the main check-in building is, the busses are bad....... I experienced nothing different from any other moderate or value resort I've stayed at on property. I was afraid to stay there at first, but now after.....I will be staying there again in October. I had no problems....I stayed in Barbados....it was directly across the parking lot from the custom house where you check-in....in port orleans and the values my walk to my room was alot further (stayed In the 70's building of pop the year before) that being said the food court at pop was just as far of walk back because both are house in one building....the food court at Caribbean was 4 minutes away....I timed it on multiple days because of all the bad comments...sorry I didn't find that a problem. The bus pick-up was across the same parking lot as the resort check-in....again pretty close. The busses do stop at multiple stops inside the resort it self, but on the worst day I would say it added 10 minutes if someone had to load a scooter...so again it wasn't a problem for me. Mouse-cleaning was great...... no problems there.....the pool area is awesome.....hot tubs, huge pool with water slides, a separate kids area that is incredible, and each Caribbean area has it's own quiet pool. It has a great beach to hang-out on if you want to relax for the day, you can rent boats or go biking around it. This was my experience, so I don't want to say everything that people write is untrue....there are parts of Caribbean beach that are quite far, but since I didn't stay in that section and everyones trip is different, it didn't impact my trip the way it did theirs. I only wish they had queen size beds....beyond that I was very happy. Ive stayed in many of the resorts, from the contemporary to the allstars....you can find good and bad at each (I didn't really care for port Orleans, not that I had a bad experience there, it just didn't do much for me)..I wouldn't write Caribbean off until you actually stay there.....I found it to be a pretty cool place. I have a 9 and 7 year old and they loved it.......I'm sure wherever stay though you will have a great time.

 

[Ariel484]

We stayed at Riverside in February 2011....

1. We didn't have to wait very long for buses at all...I believe we shared the bus with POFQ, so we had to go around all of the stops at Riverside (4 total) and then pick up the people at French Quarter. For what it was, I didn't think the bus service was too bad.

2. We had a room in Magnolia Bend, Oak Manor. The quality of the room was okay...we normally stay in a deluxe resort so we're a bit spoiled I guess. The only part of the room I REALLY didn't like was the shower - almost zero water pressure, and the bottom of the tub was pretty slippery. My husband was disppointed that we got a room with 2 double beds and not a king bed, but I was expecting that (I think I just forgot to tell him about it beforehand). I think king bed rooms are pretty rare.

3. I've never been to French Quarter, but I think it's less spread out than Riverside. We got lucky with our building assignment...I think we were about as close as you can get to the lobby/pool area. I could see the stay being much less enjoyable if you have a far walk to those places.

4. Not sure, sorry!


As for your non-Riverside questions, really not sure...but you didn't exactly sound enchanted with AKL/CBR (CBR especially), so why not try something new? Maybe you can do a split stay, starting at Riverside or FQ and then switching to Beach Club. You will LOVE the location...we normally stay at the Boardwalk and we absolutely think it's worth the money to be able to walk to 2 parks.

Good luck! :wave:

 

[David Roberts]

This is simple.. If waiting for the bus is an issue than stay at POFQ. It has a great theme and it's smaller than Riverside or Carribean Beach. You'll have a great time.

 

[Gojira ゴジラ]

Thanks all.
I finally decided to stay at POFQ for 5 nights and 3 other nights at the Beach Club

 

[juniorthomas]

Thanks for reading folks.

We've been to the Animal Kingdom. We love it but we think it was just too far to anywhere else but the Animal Kingdom. And waiting for the bus was a major pain.

So we stayed at the Caribbean last year. We have some mixed feelings but they were leaning toward not liking it (bed bugs, far from the bus stop etc). Two things we like: The Carribean Burger and it did not take too long to wait for the bus.

This year we have the option to go to either one of them, but we haven't tried the Riverside yet. So I have a few questions:

1. How frequent does the bus come? Do you have to wait long?
2. I notice the room layout is identical with the Caribbean, what about the quality of the room?
3. What are the differences between the Riverside and the French Quarters?
4. Which one is better?

Two other non-Riverside questions:
3. Which do you recommend most (AK/Caribbean/Riverside/FQ)?
4. I could stretch it out to the Beach Club, but do you think it's worth the extra hundreds?

Thanks so much

You actually had bed bugs?

 

[thewhitequeen]

I've been doing some reading on the Port Orleans resort and there is a really nice fan page on the web dedicated to it that answers tons of questions. French Quarter has been renovated and they are starting Riverside, but both look really nice.

I don't know anything about Caribbean Beach.

 

[Gojira ゴジラ]

You actually had bed bugs?

Yeah both of us had.
At one point we thought our skin was too sensitive. We stayed on AKL, Grand Californian (LA), Caribbean and all ended up with bed bugs.

But after staying on different hotels on non-disney related vacations, with no bed bugs or whatsoever, we concluded it was just happened that our rooms were dirty.

@Ariel: how long does it take to walk?

 

[WorldKey]

I can't say enough good about Port Orleans Riverside! We've stayed there a number of times - all good experiences. Of course everyone has reasons for liking/disliking certain resorts. I love the architecture and themeing and also the beauty of the grounds. The food court is nicer than a lot of the moderate resorts. Fun comedian/sing-a-long bar on the weekends. Bus service is fine - never seen huge lines, but then we usually go to WDW in September. There are a number of bus depots scattered across the property. Usually at EPCOT within 15 minutes in the morning. One nice amenity is the boats that take you to Downtown Disney.
Which ever you choose I hope you enjoy!! Have fun!