Port Orleans French Quarter

For my last trip to Disney World my friend and I choose the Port Orleans French Quarter Resort.  It's a moderate resort with a lot of charm, I really liked it.

My stay here started with a ride from the airport on Disney's Magical Express, I was fortunate to be the first hotel drop off.  When I got off the bus I was given beads, it must be Mardi Gras everyday!  I had no wait to check in.  

The only other resort I have stayed at in Disney World was All-Star Sports and this was a big improvement.  The resort had a much nicer setting, bigger rooms, a nicer pool area.  Even though the resort has a similar motel like structure, you never felt like you were at a motel. 

The rooms had good lighting (and I like a bright room), were tastefully decorated to the theme of the French Quarter.  The rooms had been refirbished in 2010-2011 (or something like that) and I was worried that the new queen size beds might make the rooms feel smaller, but there was plenty of room for my friend and I.  I think a 3rd person would easily be accomodated there, and a 4th would be fine depending on the relationship of the travelers.  The new queen size beds were comfortable too.

The room had a table and chairs, nightstand, 3 dressers drawers, a refrigerator, flat screen TV, double sink in the bathroom, a typical hotel hairdryer and a small safe.  There was no formal closet, but a clothes bar in the bathroom with a shelf.

The bathroom had two seperate areas.  The toilet and shower were in a seperate room (the lighting was kinda dim) and the sinks were outside that room with a curtain you could use to section off the sink area from the rest of the hotel room, a great privacy feature.  I loved the two sinks, 2 mirrors and all the extra space that comes with that.  It was nice to be able to spread out my stuff on the sink. 

The resort itself is the smallest of the moderate resorts and I found it was a very easy resort to get around and there really is no bad location.  We weren't close to anything, but then again, nothing was far away either.  Everything was under a 5 minute walk from our room (in building 2 - 2221). 

Port Orleans Riverside is the sister resort of French Quarter and I did get a chance to take a walk there one afternoon, the walk was about 10 minutes along a river and we took the boat back to French Quarter.  The river provided a great setting for both resorts and made it more picturesque. Riverside is a much larger resort and much more spread out.  While it also had a great theme, I don't think I would have liked how spread out it was.  But it does have a larger store, a sit down restaurant, a larger lobby and more activities.

I thought the location of the resort was MUCH better then the All-Star Resorts.  It was was much closer to everything (except that Animal Kingdom).  Whether we drove or took Disney Transportation, it was never a long drive.

Dining at the resort was only quick service, but they had a pretty good variety of foods.  I had heard the beignets were great there.  As much as I love fried dough, it was just fried dough with powdered sugar.  I found the lunch menu was kinda boring, but the dinner menu had a good variety of foods, not what I would have expected from quick service.

Overall, I thought French Quarter was a great resort, I would recommend it to anyone.  For couples it has a more intimate feel then some of the larger resorts.  For the price it has a good location (you can't compete with the monorail resorts or the Epcot resorts), a great setting, great ammenities and was a managable size.

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