TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

As Disney AP holders, this was our first experience staying at a Disney Resort, with the exception of Shades of Green. Personally i dont feel Port Orléans Riverside was worth the extra 475$ i paid vs staying at Movies. I booked PO over Movies, because it offered a fold down bed. First off, I will say the Resort is absolutely beautiful, the room was clean and the grounds were quiet for the most part. My primary issue was, we were booked into room 3402 which is lodge 34. Should have thrown a flag at check in when the cast member told me I was going to have to park in a alternate parking lot, this was because the parking lot for lodge 34 was being used as a staging area for construction equipment, so we had to park in lodge 28 parking lot, and walk to our room. While it wasnt terrible, after 23,000 steps at the parks, last thing you want to do is walk another 1/4 mile to your room. Our room was also next to the entry way stairs to the lodge, so we did get some traffic noise in our room. I will say the pathways were nice, and essentially it was close to the same distance to the west bus stop. We did enjoy the food court after the parks.Food was better than the park food and more reasonably priced. While we did not use them, the pools looked nice and the laundry area was clean. Only alternate transportation to the park is the busses, the boats on property take you to Disney Springs only. So you either have to drive POV or take the Disney buses. I don't know if we would consider staying here again, and personally prefer Shades of Green over Port Orleans.

Great experience! Very nice room with great amenities across the site. Very friendly staff whenever we needed anything. Food area was good too. Only downside is the walk from the hotel room over to reception for food and refillable drinks, a small stand nearer the rooms would be great.

Overall: Good, but if I were to come back to Disney, I would skip this resort. Hopefully this review can help someone who’s torn between resorts make an informed decision! THE GOOD: I did not select the resort myself, as the trip was a gift. The grounds are huge, gives that’s large southern estate vibe for sure. Staff was great, ESPECIALLY housekeeping who noticed we had a kid on crutches and got us a wheelchair before we even thought to ask. Multiple bus stops that made the grounds feel manageable (but more on that later). Liquid hand soap - THANK YOU! I had read that the resorts used bar soap. Sometimes it’s the little things! THE NOT SO GREAT: The rooms are motel style. For this reason alone, I would not have picked this resort. But as I said, someone else booked my trip. Below are the reasons why. My #1 complaint is the noise. I’m not talking about the nearby renovations or ground keeping staff. The walls… the windows… I could hear every conversation going by outside, every running child, I could hear the laughter of my friends through the wall, I could hear the loud rumbling of the housekeeping bins being rolled by... And the biggest annoyance was banging and loud sounds from who knows where. It sounded like there was a room above (which there wasn’t) and someone was constantly moving heavy furniture, or as if I could hear everything that dropped on the floor… which leads me to: The floors were bare laminate. No carpeting, no rug, nothing. I completely understand from a design standpoint (and cleaning) why this is…. But even just an area rug would’ve helped absorb some of sound, and frankly would’ve felt really nice on my poor, tired feet. Great big windows… but even with the semi sheer curtains, you can see everything, and I feel like everyone can see me. Which was very disappointing, because I would’ve loved to have the curtains open always, but instead kept them closed. Maybe it’s because of the size of the grounds, or the large capacity of the resort, but waiting for buses at the Parks felt like it took forever. At one point, a bus driver saw the massive line, how far behind everything was running, and opened up their bus to help, and then everyone’s packing in like sardines (plus all the strollers). They needed more frequent buses running at peak times. I’m sure that’s more a Disney transport thing than a resort issue, but it’s worth a note. I went to all 6 vending machines in our building looking for a coke… not a single drink machine would take my card or Apple Pay. Thankfully the General Store wasn’t too far.

We had a room in Acadian house on Magnolia Bend. The room was perfect for our family of four. Plenty of space for clothes and toiletries. Our room looked out to the car park it was a quiet spot. We were close to the north bus depot and one of the smaller pools. We have stayed at Coronado Springs previously so the restaurant wasn’t quite as big and got very busy in the evenings. I preferred Coronado for their dining facilities but liked Port Orleans for the grounds and our room location.

Good Resort, stayed at French Quarter last year, which we loved and I rated a 5! The rating is out of 5, if I could, I would give this resort a 4.5, but not a 4 as that would be too harsh! The main difference is this resort is much bigger and is harder to get around, unless you have a car. Cast members were super friendly and always available to help and lend advise, as you would expect with any Disney property. Grounds This is a very picturesque and great for families or couples that enjoy walking. The theming is around the New Orleans mansions and Louisiana bayou. The main swimming pool is great and opens late into the evening (10am to 11pm), the slide is great fun and the pool in general is large. They also have other smaller pools (3) located around the resort, these are standard pools with not slides etc. Rooms We stayed in a newly refurbished room and it was spotless. They are themed around Princess Tiana, which fits perfectly with the New Orleans vibe. The rooms are very spacious and have plenty of storage. The noise levels were literally non-excitant, even when the storms hit. Bed: extremely comfortable, very high for youngsters and I would suggest requesting bed guards. Location Location was very good, there is a boat which can take you to Disney Springs and operates regularly (every 15 minutes). As for travel to the parks, we had a hire car, but everything was within a 20 minute drive (they do have a bus which operates to all of the parks, but we did not use). Food and Dinning Boatwrights is the main restaurant (sit down service), again the food is themed around Louisiana and Port Orleans. We ate here once and would recommend it, very tasty and different to the usual Disney food. The Pasta was fresh! Otherwise, there is a quick service food court, this does get extremely busy at the standard food times - although the staff were fantastic considering how busy they where, it did put us off eating here. We ate here a few times and in general the food is nice and the dinning area was always clean.