Port Orleans: A review | Disney Parks Addict

WaterWheel at Port Orleans Riverside

I have always wanted to stay at Port Orleans, and when we had an extra day before checking into Animal Kingdom Lodge, I knew where I wanted to stay! It will probably be the one and only time that we will be able to stay here, as we have 4 kids and don’t fit! But the baby was young enough, we could fit, for one night at least! I wouldn’t want to do much more than one night, with this many of us, again though! (I think I just got spoiled by the 2 bedroom villas!)

I really enjoyed Port Orleans. I liked the vibe of the entire hotel. My biggest complaint was we were staying in the Alligator Bayou area, and it was extremely confusing to get around! I think if I had stayed there longer, I would have figured it out, but only one night, and I was confused! We did figure out how to get to and from the Main pool and the Main building. It took us awhile to find the bus stop though 😛

We checked in at like 7am, expecting to check in our luggage, but we lucked out and they had our room ready! SWEET! Skip a step! So we took our bags directly to our room, on the way to dropping off our rental car and taking the kids to their Pirate Adventure.

The rooms are nice – slightly larger than the ones at the value hotels, and just a step up from the values in about every way. Is it worth the extra money? Well, I am not sure about that, but you do get a little extra room.

Since we were in the Alligator Bayou (and had 6 people), we got a room with the pull down bed – which is GREAT for kids. My 3 oldest fought over who would get to sleep on it! They should have them in all rooms, in my opinion.

We checked out the Main pools at both Riverside and French Quarter. I actually enjoyed the pool at French Quarter more. The theme was quite a bit of fun, and the biggest plus is that is was MUCH less busy! However, all of us thought that the water slide at Riverside was better than the one at French Quarter. The one at French Quarter looked AWESOME, but the one at Riverside was a better slide.

We enjoyed beignets while we were swimming at the French Quarter. They were DELICIOUS. I think they must have been using a whole wheat flour, or it tasted like it, but it didn’t matter because they were yummy regardless! We didn’t eat at the quick service at Riverside, but we did refill our cups in there. It was a large area and very busy every time we went in there.

My daughter and I went down to look at the large gift shop and got to enjoy Yehaa Bob at the River Roost, while we were waiting to met a family member to give them something. He was very enjoyable to watch!

I can’t say much about the buses, as we only took one to Blizzard Beach, the morning we checked out, and it came right away, so we didn’t have any issues. We also took a bus back from Downtown Disney. We wanted to take the boat, but thanks to a thunder-storm, they shut down the boats while we were waiting in line 🙁 the kids were bummed. The buses we did take were great and ran consistently.

It is a beautiful resort and wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again! Other than the Alligator Bayou being incredibly confusing to get around, we really enjoyed our short stay at this hotel!