Disney's Port Orleans Resort - Riverside

Arrived Orlando/Disney expecting a 'nice - upscale' room (we were there for our niece's Disney Wedding (which was very nice) but room we had at Port Orleans Riverside was old, smelled of old smoke, room needed a major overhaul ... the rest of our party had very nice rooms ... matresses, linens, covers etc were basically clean but worn out.

All I can say is that the sheets were clean (at least!). But the bathroom was not cleaned well (pee stains on the toilet seat hinges. We found bobby pins on the floor, the paint and furniture were chipped. But the shuttle service was very good.

I spend 70-100 nites per year in hotel rooms and normally don't write reviews, but this one deserves my special attention... The hotel simply did not live up to the website advertisement. Paid an extra 15 dollars for the water view and did not get any view at all. The maintenance people were out early with their air compressor - pressure washer waking everyone up and managed to pressure wash the sidewalk at the expense of getting all the cars parked in the front row full of wet grime (including ours). The bathroom was clean, but everything was motel six quality from the small towels to the little bottle of combo shampoo conditioner and there were sugar ants crawling all over the place. Paid a very premium price for a below average experience.

The room was dark and stuffy. It was also not very clean. The food at the hotel was terrible. Good location and pretty grounds.

I'm not sure where to start. The four Disney parks were great but our hotel experience soured our first trip to Disney. The customer service at Riverside was absolutely horrendous. Since we had two families with small children(5 year old, two 3 year olds, and a 3 month old), we were "promised" a conjoining room on the first floor. Instead, we were given two rooms on the second floor(w/o an elevator) that were neither conjoining or adjoining. In order for them to correct the mistake, we were required to pack/unpack and move our suitcases to other rooms 6 different times within the first 3 days. We had also requested a crib for our 3 month old daughter. When we checked in at 10:30 am, we were "promised" that the crib would be in the room(which was the wrong room anyway) after we returned from the park. That did not happen either. I actually had to make two separate trips to the front desk(which was about a half mile from our room) before the crib was finally delivered at 11:00 pm. On the second day, they gave us keys to a room that was already occupied by another visitor. Despite all of their mistakes, I had two separate managers try and tell me it was our fault. It seemed like every manager I spoke with was more incompetent than the last. Each one kept making promises that the next manager wouldn't/couldn't uphold. It was a customer service nightmare!! When I asked for some sort of compensation for our extreme inconvenience, each of them looked at me like I was crazy. Finally after three days of empty "promises", they gave in a credited us $100. $100 credit, are you kidding me?!? If you have ever been to Disney, you know that's not going a long way. As a family, we have been taking two vacations a year for some time now. This is by far the worst experience I've had with a hotel and it's staff. I don't want to come off as a bitter person because we had a blast at the actual parks. I just want to make sure everyone is aware of what they should expect if they decide to stay at Riverside.

This hotel looks great from the outside, but inside is another story it is a two start average motel. Very small rooms, thank goodness only there for 2 nights. The hotel simply did not live up to the website advertisement. [...] extra 10 dollars for internet [...]. The bathroom was clean, but everything was motel six qualities from the small towels to the little bottle of combo shampoo conditioner including the side of the room and old TV. There are better hotels for that price in that area. I DID NOT RECOMMENDED THIS HOTEL AT ALL

From the outside, the you'd think you were in Louisana. But my 2 worst experiences were - (.1) the bathroom. The shower curtain had a good amount of blood on it. I don't know if the cleaning staff cut themselves while cleaning, but it was disgusting. (.2) transportation. As a resort hotel, buses are supposed to come by every 15 to 20 minutes to bring you to various attractions. It took 1-1/2 hours and a lot of complaining to get a bus to bring us (and others) to Blizzard Beach. The 1st bus that stopped was full, and they said they'd call in another bus to pick up, but after 20 minutes, none showed, so we asked the next bus that stopped to call into dispatch, and they said they would, but still no bus showed. And now the number of people waiting is increasing, and we're 45 minutes late meeting up with our friends. And still no bus. So we had to walk all the way back to the lobby, and no one working at the resort could/would help us - told us they didn't support transportation, but to us the house phone, so I called dispatch, ripped them a new one, and finally, a bus showed up. But by the time we got there, it was a 2 hour ordeal!

I was a little disappointed staying here. I had heard such great praise about this hotel and couldn't wait to try to it out. This being a Moderate Hotel I was surprised when the service was below value. I'll start with the positives, the grounds are beautiful. The problems started when I got my room key and was told it was on the second floor. I had to park very far from the building because there was construction in the building next door and the closest parking lot was reserved for construction workers. So it was quite a hike with 2 small kids. The room was on the second floor with no elevator and once inside we found a dead cockroach inside one of the drawers. We found a little girl’s princess crown on top of the pillows and thought perhaps the hotel assumed we had a daughter (we have two sons). The room was not cleaned on the first day we were surprised to find it just how we left it in the morning. The construction of the building next door kept us from walking around our area and using the closest pool because there were strong fumes from the paint or whatever they were doing. This did push us to walk around and really see how beautiful the hotel property was, however, it made me wonder why we were stuck in the back in an area called the Alligator Bayou when there were so many beautiful areas where no construction was happening. On our last day we did not receive our check out statement under the door as requested and the housekeeping staff was pushing us out of the room at 9:00 am. We when left she gave us a dirty look, then later chased us down to give us the princess crown we had found the first day, it was then that I realized the room had not been properly cleaned before our arrival. It would take a lot for me to change my mind on this Disney hotel. It was very disappointing.

The hotel was in a great location but the room was old. Paint was chipping off the tub and ended up in the bath water.

Small room, though don't spend much time there at WDW. LOTS of noise through walls from family next door- could hear them urinating in bathroom while we laid in bed... (and they likely heard us- if they could over Dad's screaming at kids.) Did not enjoy cafeteria dining at hotel, or nescafe "coffee." Also, fridge in room set at "like a cooler" temperature according to engineering. Did not keep soda or milk cold.