Disney World – Part 1
Woman in the Middle | November 29, 2017At the suggestion of a friend (Thank you, Tracy!) we stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter resort at Disney World. There are no hotels at Disney World, only resorts, as every named complex is so large it could never be just a hotel! Every resort has a theme and it will be no surprise to learn that the theme of our resort was “New Orleans.” This theme was carried out with vigor, even to the food served in counter service restaurant, which included muffaletta and po’boy sandwiches and beignets. However, we found the menu varied enough to eat there several times for breakfast or dinner.
The Good News: We were on the third (top) floor near an elevator. It was very quiet and peaceful even though we were near where there should have been quite a bit of foot traffic. We never heard noise from our next door neighbors. The rooms appeared to have been recently updated with new carpet, bathroom fixtures, and furniture. The sink area had two sinks, which was great. The French Quarter is the smallest resort, and so the distance from the room to the front area where all the amenities were located as well as the bus stop to take us to the parks, was reasonable. Nothing is a “short” distance away at Disney World, LOL! Also, because the resort isn’t humongous, everyone who wants on a bus gets on. I have heard this is not the case at the larger resorts. Finally, since this was a “moderate” cost resort, we had two queen size beds. The budget resorts only have full sized beds.
The grounds were very nice and there was a playground, pool, and splash pad, which we did not use but all looked very fun if you were there with children.
Between, the size of the resort, the ease of getting on the buses, and the size of the beds, we made a VERY good choice to stay at the French Quarter. I am not the only one to think that. At least three other people mentioned to us that French Quarter was their favorite when we struck up conversations here and there during our stay at Disney World.
Things to Keep in Mind: The rooms at French Quarter opened onto outside corridors, which is not my favorite room configuration, as the only window, when the blinds were open, allowed anyone walking by to see into our room. This screams more motel than hotel to me. Also, the room was kind of small. This was particularly true of the room that held the toilet and bathtub. But I didn’t fly all the way to Florida for a big bathroom, so it was survivable!
While the previously mentioned pool, playground, and splash pad were lovely, they came with the price of the room. Assuming you also had passes to get into the park, you need to consider how much time you want to spend enjoying the hotel amenities while that park pass goes to waste. If you really want to use those resort amenities, my suggestion would be to buy a three day park pass, but stay for five or six days. Every other day go to a park and every other day enjoy the pool, etc….That way you get your monies worth from both the hotel and your park passes. To spend $100 a day on a park pass and then spend only a few hours in the park seems to me to be the equivalent of burning dollar bills in your room.
A final note is that the front desk offered us a $50 credit if we skipped all maid service for the duration of our trip. This would mean that in order to get fresh towels or have the trash emptied, we would have to call for that service specifically. I turned that “opportunity” down. It was a very good call on my part. We were EXHAUSTED at the end of each day and returning to a freshly made up room was wonderful. Also, having to call for our trash to be emptied or towels to be delivered would have been a pain at the end of a long day at an amusement park.
Hubby in our room when we arrived. Behind him is the sink area. Off to the left of the sinks is the very small room that holds the toilet and bathtub. Note that there is a drape you can pull across the entryway to the sink area, which was very handy for dressing, since there were four of us. The toilet room was small, so changing clothes in there was a bit of a pain.
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