We just returned from our family of five trip to Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside and stayed in Alligator Bayou Block 24. Overall we had a great trip, but there were some not so great parts and I thought it best to share our personal views.
Check in - on arrival we did queue for 10 mins or so to check in but the staff in reception are friendly and helpful. Any issues during our stay they tried to resolve. We had to go to Bell Services and waited again for about 20 minutes for someone to drive our bags to the room. We were in block 24 which is at the back of the resort. This was generally a good location as it’s near the West Bus Stop but is about a 10 minute walk to the reception/dinning hall and main pool.
Bus - Regular busses to all the Disney Parks and at the West Stop means you are first on the bus, but also means you have to go to all the other stops to pick up. People getting on at the reception (South) were always standing we found. Bus times are on the Disney app and they are very regular which is great.
Pool - The main pool is nice, heated, has lots of life guards, fun kids entertainment, and has both shallow and deeper (5ft) sections. It’s open 10am-10pm. The slide is good and there is a spa jacuzzi. The bar has nice salads (pre-made) and good but expensive drinks. There are some smaller pools across the site which are always open but don’t have life guards. All the pools have a large supply of clean towels available.
Room - Clean and spacious family room with two doubles and a fold out single…but the walls are paper thin. We could hear everything through the walls and the family next door, and next family that came, were extremely loud! 5am children talking and screaming woke us all up. Rooms are cleaned every other day and have an iron, fridge, hair dryer and wash products. Air con unit was loud so we had to turn it off. Ceiling fan made do for us though.
Staff - As above normally friendly and polite. Gianna at the fire pit though was rude and obnoxious to adults and children. Over the top with the ‘fire safety’ role and made my daughter cry taking her marshmallow off of her when the stick broke….she was breaking pre-made sticks wastefully and saying ‘how she was taking her anger out’ and even told a guy off for only having half a marshmallow on his stick! She made one parent take a marshmallow stick out of the bin and hand it to her….Rude and not what we expected, customer service in this instance was a complete let down. Complained to Spencer Kayleigh who tried to appease us and were friendly. Kayleigh even gave a follow up call to check we were ok. As an aside, the hotel also allowed us a slightly later check out as we had evening flights, which was great of them.
Food - Day one nice, day two nice….but the same thing every day for two weeks, urgh. There is very little healthy to eat too. Overnight oats with an additives list longer than the flight here, and a few pre-packed salads are the only break from deep fried and junk food. Add to that long queues at times, and the checkout staff can’t find the items on the till so it takes forever and the food goes cold before you get to the table. Large drink selection is available but the water is normally warm, but there is plenty of ice. If you don’t have the dinning plan this trip is going to be very expensive for you.
Quality of food is mass cooked so average, and there are very limited kids meals…so on the dinning plan your adult plan gets hammered as pizza isn’t on the kids menu. A large pizza counts as two adult meals, a slice of pizza is one. Save money on buying beers at the bar by getting a beer (or wine) to put in your fridge with every adult meal. Our daughter pretty much lived on brownies and cakes as the kids meals were too limited. We tried to eat as much as possible on the quick dine plan in the Disney Parks as there was much more selection. Oh, and it is exceptionally rare they remind you that with your meal you are entitled to a drink, make sure you get one even with meals at the pool bar, there you can have cocktails and anything there with it, but you have to ask.
Resort - Spacious, beautiful, clean and has great views. Nice areas to go running as there is no gym. We went to look at the French Quarter but the Riverside grounds and the pools were much better we thought. There is a boat to Disney Springs which is a nice event, and horse and carriage rides on site at night. We went in the bar one early evening but it was a bit devoid of atmosphere and the drinks were expensive. We didn’t use the arcade but the shop on site is big and nice to look around. We used the laundry once, it’s $1.50 for detergent for one wash, $3.20 for the wash and similar price then for the dryer, which is all controlled via an app that tells you when it is done which was good.
Overall we had a lovely time, paper thin walls kept us awake, and the attitude of one staff member was very frustrating, but it’s a lovely site with great bus connection to the parks each day. Uber comes right to reception for trips elsewhere. If you maximise eating out for variety then it’s a great place to stay.
