fbpx

Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort did not work for our family

Disney Social Media Moms Celebration is an invitation only event. However, it is a conference for which I paid a fee to attend. A fee was paid for my family members, as well, and the fee covered two night hotel stay, park hopper passes, and more. All opinions are 100% my own.

Disney Social Media Moms Celebration is an invite only event, but you still have to pay a conference fee. It’s not FREE, but it is discounted. It’s an invitation many of those in my industry would love to receive, but Disney can’t invite everyone. Our family has been lucky enough to be invited three years in a row. Each year we have stayed at a different Disney resort: Yacht Club, Beach Club, and this year, Port Orleans Riverside Resort.

Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort did not work for our family

Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort did not work for our family

First, I’m going to share Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort is BEAUTIFUL. At night, it’s even more gorgeous. The kids loved the pool, along with the slide at the main pool of the resort. Port Orleans doesn’t lack New Orleans charm, and attention to detail, by any means. Honestly, it’s one of the prettiest resorts I’ve had the pleasure of staying at.

Second, Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort is too damn spread out. Checking in, and walking across a bridge, to get to our room on the second floor of the number 85 Magnolia building? Bit of a struggle. What got me was having to walk even farther to get to the elevators, in order to get to the second floor to enter our room.

Luckily, our particular building we stayed in had a bus stop fairly close to it, and the main pool wasn’t a great distance from our room. We had two pools fairly close to our room. However, having to go get food was a bit of walk, which was fine in the morning when everyone was roaring to gooooooo. At night, following a full day of park activity, walking sucks.

On our first night, Mr. Sunflower and I didn’t realize there were so many bus stops. Instead of exiting at the East Depot, I believe the West Depot did him and the kids in. My plans took me to the South Depot, at the very front of the resort. I received “I’m lost” texts.

No getting around walking a lot at Port Orleans Riverside Resort

Buses. We’re a big Hollywood Studios and Epcot lovers. When staying at resorts, we enjoy being able to catch the boats to both parks. Getting around on the buses isn’t our favorite way to get around these days. However, I did like the little monitors letting us know bus arrival times to the depot. Very helpful. I also appreciated our buses at each of the parks didn’t require as far of a walk as when we had stayed at Pop Century for a few days back in 2015.

Another aspect of Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort I enjoyed? Having a food court. It’s a moderate resort hotel, which means it offers a food court. When staying at a luxury resort, such as Yacht and Beach Clubs, there’s only restaurants, with a pool side quick service type place. No food court. Nothing like sending the kids to get their rapid refill cups filled at the food court!

However, walking to the food court from our resort room was a hike, especially after a long day at the parks.

Disney Springs is close by for the hard core shoppers

Now, if you’re a big shopper and love to head to Disney Springs to give your credit cards a little activity – Disney Springs is close. It’s a short boat ride away. If you’re not a boat ride kind of person, no worries, you can take a bus from one of the four depots located throughout the Riverside property.

Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort is the perfect spot for anyone who loves shopping at Disney Springs, or grabbing a great meal at one of the many restaurants down at the springs. It’s also perfect for families who don’t mind the walking. It just didn’t work for our family, and by the time we were ready to check out, my feet were screaming at me. Good thing I had a pedicure scheduled during the second half of the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration adventure!

By | 2017-08-03T18:25:00-04:00 April 5, 2017|Reviews, Travel|4 Comments

About the Author:

Staci loves to write, and loves to share her "take" on everything thrown her way. Movies, entertainment, food, fashion, shopping, money, travel and family. There's nothing off limits at NovemberSunflower.com, and Staci's always telling it like it is: good, bad, and all that lies in between!

4 Comments

  1. Tamra Phelps April 5, 2017 at 7:39 pm

    Thanks for posting this. I appreciate the honesty. As a disabled person, walking is something that I have problems with—so, I need to know things like this particular one requires a lot of walking. (And I might have picked it since I really love New Orleans style!) I know, from your review, that it’s beautiful & has good qualities…but, like you said, not for me. When I go, I’ll pick another Disney resort/hotel.

    • Staci Gerardi April 5, 2017 at 8:53 pm

      You would need to get some kind of scooter if you stayed here. My mother suffered a stroke and heart attack last February. She would never be able to stay here without a scooter. It had ramps to everything, just had to look a bit to find them sometimes. The elevators in the different buildings all seemed out of the way, and super inconvenient for people having to use them. The one good thing? If you drive, the parking lots are SUPER close to the buildings you stay in, but again, getting to the elevators from the parking lots…. kind of out of the way.

      I’m so glad this review helped you make a decision for your next trip. This is why I do what I do!

  2. Katie April 7, 2017 at 10:03 am

    Thanks for sharing. We were at Caribbean Beach in February and my in-laws found that to be too much walking, so it’s good to know that about this resort as well.
    How were the food offerings in the food court? My mother in-law has a gluten sensitivity… she is hyper sensitive. Just the faintest hint of gluten and she’s sick for days. She was not able to eat very much at Caribbean Beach.

    • Staci Gerardi April 7, 2017 at 10:22 am

      There’s a lot of options as far as food, but I wasn’t paying attention to Gluten free ones, as we don’t need to be.
      HOWEVER, I will tell you, I witnessed on a couple of occasions, the staff didn’t have gloves on while handling food.
      I asked for a baked item, and she grabbed it with her bare hands. I shook my head and asked her to put something between her hand and the food she served me, and she immediately realized what she had done. Apologized, and grabbed wax paper to grab me a new one.
      So, my thought is, cross contamination will happen at almost every resort that has cafeteria style service like this one does. Might be better off staying at one that has restaurants to dine at?

Comments are closed.