Port Orleans, French Quarter: hotel review

What a GREAT vacation! Kristin and I had so much fun and never wanted to leave; we’re already planning our next trip.

So here it is: our Port Orleans hotel review! This is a dual post with both mine and Kristin’s opinions on the hotel location, room layout, décor, etc. At the end of our review, we have provided a rating on a scale from 1 – 10, with an explanation of which hotel attributes factored into that rating..

 Port Orleans, French Quarter was the second stop on our Magical Express, which really was not a problem because it only took a total of 25 – 30 minutes to get there from the airport. My first impression of the hotel was “WOW! This is absolutely beautiful.” Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of the approach to the hotel, as a motor coach does not provide the best angles; however, I did get some really great shots of the outside.

The lobby is so simple and beautiful - the architect really did a great job on creating a welcoming entryway. It's warm and inviting with simple fountain in the middle. The lobby serves as the central "hub" to the other public locations of the main building: to the right you have the check-in desk, concierge, gift shop and arcade; to the left you have the restrooms, telephones, bar and food court.

The walls of the check in area are covered in beautiful, Mardi Gras themed, fresco-like paintings, which appear to truly capture the spirit of a New Orlean's reveler. The figures are dressed in over the top, ostentatious garb that reminds one of a masquerade ball. The embodiment of individuals anonymously participating in the PG-rated debauchery of Mardi Gras really had me loving the check in area. 

I really appreciated the size of the food court. There are tables everywhere and all of them are within a great proximity to the food service. The amount of light in the room is phenomenal and it really cuts down on the creepiness of the monumental Mardi Gras masks that hang from the ceiling. Overall, the decoration was delightfully cheesy, but in no way offensive. The only complaint that I may lodge is that the food service area is small and gets pretty crowded during breakfast time. The entrance to the area is the same as the exit and can get a little bottle necked - I don't even want to think what it would be like during the height of the season. The food offerings were diverse enough to allow us to eat something different every day. They had everything from Mickey waffles and chocolate chip pancakes to omelets and yogurt parfait.

The grounds are fantastic! I have never been the New Orleans, but these grounds are fresh out of the New Orleans of my dreams! Cobble stone walkways, lots of greenery, early 20th century style street lamps and wrought iron hitching posts. And of course, there are the beautiful buildings themselves. All of them have wrought iron railings and the fronts a varied in color to make them look like individually attached houses on an only street. The roofs vary between what looked like aged copper and shingled roofs and every window is flanked by shutters. There were gardens and a beautiful ambling river that would transport visitors to Downtown Disney. One really awesome thing about the grounds? The "streets" are demarcated by individual street signs with "punny" names like "Rue d'Baga". 

The pool area is very nice. Amorphous in shape, the pool offers A LOT of room to swim, tons of chairs to sit on and even a little bit of privacy for sun bathers. The slide look like so much fun (we didn't get to ride it, sadly) and there is a kiddie pool very closely located to the main pool. For those of you who cannot swim, the deepest the pool gets is 4.5 feet. There is a pool bar located within feet of the pool itself and is open almost as late as the pool (the bar closes around 11 PM). Unfortunately, there is only 1 hot tub which would have been lovely to sit in if it had not been monopolized by the same group of people the entire time we were there: it's removed from the path, and bushes line the perimeter that are high enough to block the hot tub from view of the nearby walkway. There is also a really great playground leading up to the pool for kids 12 and under.

Our room: Here is where mine and Kristin's opinions differ a little bit. Over the years, we stayed in a lot of the deluxe hotels because of the size of our family. When I stayed in the Caribbean Beach in 2009, I became a little more aware of what to expect from a moderate resort, so I found nothing really wrong with the room. It was big enough for four people; it was impeccably clean; there is a curtain separating the sink area from the bedroom; the shower and toilet are in their own space. My only complaint was that there were only 3 drawers in the bureau, which really did not prove to be much of a problem. Kristin agrees that the cleanliness of the room was top notch and the curtain separating the bedroom and sinks was a great touch; however, she has many more complaints than I do. The room was a little too small; the water closet barely offered enough room for the toilet, shower and person using it; the decor was not themed enough; there was no balcony and we stepped right out to the main walkway; our view was of a parking lot. Granted, if I were spending a week in the room itself, never leaving, getting room service and staring out of the window, I would completely agree. But for our purposes of sleeping, showering and a couple of hours of wind down time at the end of the day, I think the room served its purpose just fine. To form your own opinion, check out our video below. Please note that this was taken on the morning of the day we were leaving, so your room will look much neater every day after room service has visited.

[We're having trouble uploading the video. Check back once we've solved the problem!]

Overall, the hotel staff was great. The cast members working the concierge, check in desk, room service and the door man were just wonderful to interact with. We ran into a couple of cranky cast members here and there in the food court, but nothing terrible enough to write home about.

The transportation at Port Orleans offers you two choices: buses to anywhere on premises or a boat to take you to Downtown Disney. We have only 2 complaints concerning the transportation: some buses stop at Riverside after French Quarter, adding 4 additional stops to your trip; the boat between French Quarter and Downtown Disney is a touch long. Granted, there really is not much Disney can do about the length of the river, so that cannot really count against them. The Riverside stops really were more of an annoyance than an actual detriment to the transportation system; as a part of the Port Orleans resort, Riverside runs on the same buses, so they have to split where the buses go first between both resorts. It's only fair, but still annoying. On a really great note, Disney bus drivers do something incredibly amazing after the parks close and it gets later and later into the night: if a bus driver has no one on his bus, he will drive you from 1 place to another regardless of his designated route. On the Saturday of our trip, our party went to Jellyrolls for a late night of dueling piano bar fun. (So much fun! Review to come later.) We left a little bit after 1 AM and decided to take the bus from the Boardwalk to Downtown Disney where we could connect to a bus for French Quarter. After waiting for about 45 minutes and essentially deciding on taking a cab, a Magic Kingdom bus pulled up to the bus stop. (The Magic Kingdom was hosting a special event.) There was no one aboard and the driver offered to drive us directly to the French Quarter. It happened to us a second time after the Hoop-dee-doo Review the very next night! This personalized service truly was magical.

Our overall rating of the resort is based on the following criteria on a scale of 1 - 10:

1. First impression

2. Grounds

3. Room size and cleanliness

4. Food court offerings

5. Overall decor

6. Staff approachability and helpfulness

7. Transportation

RATING: 8

I'd say that overall, we were very pleased with everything that Port Orleans had to offer. We would definitely recommend the resort to others and we would definitely stay there a second time.

Ta Ta For Now!