Our vacation started better than expected. Our flight was early into MCO and our room was ready at Port Orleans Resort – Riverside when we got there. I had sent a letter, via US Mail, requesting Building 14 if possible or at least a refurbished room. We got Building 14 as requested and couldn’t have been happier with the accommodation. I highly recommend this resort for families with 5 people in them. My son slept on the pull out bed and slept quite well. The queen sized beds were very comfortable and it was nice having access to two sinks while someone grabbed a shower.
Our transportation experience was fabulous. We used Magical Express from the airport and were at our hotel around 11am. We used the Disney Transportation System to get to all of the parks with very little waiting time. In most cases, we were on a bus within 10 minutes, and often quicker. Returning from the parks had a slightly longer wait a few times, but no more than the stated 20 minutes. Overall, I would say we had an excellent experience. We even had a driver take time to help us locate a backpack that was left at our resort bus depot. They found it and we were able to pick it up later in the day. Bravo! The coolest form of transportation for us was the boat from Port Orleans to Downtown Disney. The ride was about 20 minutes long and quite informative. The boat pilot was friendly and talkative, which made it easy to know what we had to do later.
Our meals were varied in quality and experience. I will be giving my ratings on that in a separate post, but my son has decided he’d like to do one, also, from the viewpoint of a teenager. I think that may have some use for some of my Liner buddies and others. I will say this, if you are on any of the dining plans, above the Quick Service plan, don’t have any groceries delivered. There is so much food on the plan, that you can make meals out of snacks if you really want to. We were on the ‘free’ plan plus dining and made complete use of all the credits. All in all, if you get it free, it’s worth it. I will post some real number in the next few days.
We had interaction with our weekday Mousekeeper, but the weekend was just basic service. I’m okay with that, but the weekend Mousekeeper missed out. My kids developed a way of communicating with the Mousekeeper through notes, and animal messages. It was fun to watch and I took some photos to show some of that interaction. The pool at Port Orleans – Riverside is nice. Not too big, not too small, and not very deep, this is good for the kids. There is a slide into the pool that even my wife enjoyed. And, we got to see Yeehaa Bob Jackson at the River Roost Lounge. He is fun and worth the time! We topped off our stay with a carriage ride around the Riverside and French Quarter areas of Port Orleans. A nice ride and a good look at the resort areas.
The only thing I can really complain about is the Photopass photographers. They were in the assigned spots, most of the time. But, it seems to me that they could stand to have some roamers to catch some candid shots. We had one do that with my son as he was enjoying the interactive queue at Winnie the Pooh. But, he seems to be the exception. I prepaid the Photopass CD, so I will go ahead and get the pictures, but including the park pictures they put on the CD, we have a total of 84. Seem a little bit of a waste to me. Next time, I’ll just ask them to take their pictures with my camera. By the way, my pictures came out pretty good, too. But, there is a limit as to how many you can upload to the Photopass site, 160.
Well, look forward to my restaurant reviews and hopefully my son will get his done soon, also.
No countdown, officially, but I’m trying to put something small together for my birthday in December for me and my wife. So, maybe????
threestrandswdw 