Resort Thread Disney's PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE Resort

[Wood Nymph]

We wanted to go from Riverside to FQ at around 7pm one evening, and by then there were a lot of people waiting to go to Disney Springs. Rather than taking up four seats on the main ferry, the captain called for another smaller boat and we were given a private high speed ride, we got there in about two minutes! The driver said he often hangs around the resorts to do this at very busy times, but was a lovely bit of extra magic for us.

We saw a small boat sitting near the marina. I wondered why it was there.

 

[FLCA026]

@FLCA026 The ferries generally are direct, they don't stop at the other resort en route. The flag colour tells you which resort it serves (yellow for Riverside, purple for FQ, and dual yellow/purple if it happens to be a combined service). That said, if a guest asks to be dropped off at FQ, they will happily accommodate them as it takes almost no extra time.

Queues can indeed get quite long - especially late afternoon/early evening, when there can often be a couple of boatfuls of people waiting. There will be more than one boat on the route, but if the line is up to the walkway by the Marina Rentals kiosk, I would suggest getting the bus instead if you are in a hurry, as you could have to wait a while.

We wanted to go from Riverside to FQ at around 7pm one evening, and by then there were a lot of people waiting to go to Disney Springs. Rather than taking up four seats on the main ferry, the captain called for another smaller boat and we were given a private high speed ride, we got there in about two minutes! The driver said he often hangs around the resorts to do this at very busy times, but was a lovely bit of extra magic for us.

Andre

They did ask guests on the boats if anyone needed to stop at French quarter on our way back from Disney springs. Going to Disney Springs at 4 pm our boat was so full they said they weren’t able to stop at French Quarter.
We like the boat ride. Just didn’t expect the long line. It wasn’t horrible at 11 when we took it.
On our way back from Disney Springs, we saw three boats waiting on the side. I think because of the very very long line at Disney springs. Maybe they were all going to take care of that.

I guess we just needed to plan in more time.

 

[FLCA026]

@FLCA026 The ferries generally are direct, they don't stop at the other resort en route. The flag colour tells you which resort it serves (yellow for Riverside, purple for FQ, and dual yellow/purple if it happens to be a combined service). That said, if a guest asks to be dropped off at FQ, they will happily accommodate them as it takes almost no extra time.

Queues can indeed get quite long - especially late afternoon/early evening, when there can often be a couple of boatfuls of people waiting. There will be more than one boat on the route, but if the line is up to the walkway by the Marina Rentals kiosk, I would suggest getting the bus instead if you are in a hurry, as you could have to wait a while.

We wanted to go from Riverside to FQ at around 7pm one evening, and by then there were a lot of people waiting to go to Disney Springs. Rather than taking up four seats on the main ferry, the captain called for another smaller boat and we were given a private high speed ride, we got there in about two minutes! The driver said he often hangs around the resorts to do this at very busy times, but was a lovely bit of extra magic for us.

Andre

We didn’t want to get out of the line and go to the buses since we didn’t know the situation with that. So we just stayed in line at that point. I think we now know we need to buffer in a little more time depending on the time of day.

 

[mcd2745]

The boat from POR to DS.....

only the dock at the Marketplace is used, correct? The boats don't stop at the Westside or Landing?

 

[andrewilley]

only the dock at the Marketplace is used, correct? The boats don't stop at the Westside or Landing?

Correct, the other docks at Disney Springs are not currently in use, not even for internal water taxi services (which is a shame as that was a useful facility to get from one side of DS to the other).

Andre

 

[FLCA026]

I wish the other docks were working. We had to run to summerhouse as we were late due to the long wait.

 

[mcd2745]

Correct, the other docks at Disney Springs are not currently in use, not even for internal water taxi services (which is a shame as that was a useful facility to get from one side of DS to the other).

Andre

I wish the other docks were working. We had to run to summerhouse as we were late due to the long wait.

Yeah....it basically eliminates any of the West Side restaurants from our plans. Those restaurants should be pressuring Disney to use the other docks. Not using them must be hurting their businesses. We're not going to get off at the Marketplace, walk all the way to the West Side and then have to walk back to the Marketplace to get the return boat. If we could get off at the West Side, work our way through to and end at the Marketplace it would be ideal.

 

[andrewilley]

If we could get off at the West Side, work our way through to and end at the Marketplace it would be ideal.

Take the bus there, which drops you off behind Planet Hollywood so it's an easy walk to the West Side restaurants. Then you can take your stroll back to the Marketplace area afterwards and get the boat back to Port Orleans.

Andre

 

[FLCA026]

Take the bus there, which drops you off behind Planet Hollywood so it's an easy walk to the West Side restaurants. Then you can take your stroll back to the Marketplace area afterwards and get the boat back to Port Orleans.

Andre

I guess we need to do that next time. We like the boat ride. The line was long for the boat and we were going to get out of line and take the bus but didn’t know what that situation would have been for that at that time.

 

[NicoleLarson]

I was just looking at rates with the Disney + subscriber discount and it's 50% off for my dates, for POR. Any guesses why it's so discounted? Other resorts were no where near this, only 10-20%

 

[Wood Nymph]

I was just looking at rates with the Disney + subscriber discount and it's 50% off for my dates, for POR. Any guesses why it's so discounted? Other resorts were no where near this, only 10-20%

We were able to get a 40% discount with our annual passes for our June reservation at POR. It is almost unheard of to give 40% off for a moderate resort. Disney must be having trouble filling rooms at POR. That is the only thing that I can think of to explain the deep discounts.

 

[Harmacist]

I was just looking at rates with the Disney + subscriber discount and it's 50% off for my dates, for POR. Any guesses why it's so discounted? Other resorts were no where near this, only 10-20%

The Disney+ deal was for certain AoA family suites (Nemo?), one of the All Stars, Riverside, Saratoga, and Savanna view rooms at AKL. All are basically 50% off. Certain resorts might be sold out for your dates, for mine Saratoga and the suites were gobbled up.

July must be looking light for bookings. I've read that Canadians and Europeans are looking to not travel to the US this summer at least. I don find it odd that it's just July, not early August as well. The 40% AP summer discount ended 7/31 as well and dropped to 35% starting in August.

I had a resort view at AKL for the end of July for $295 using 40% AP discount, the savanna view rooms were $395 and I couldn't justify $100+ a night for 7 nights. With the Disney+ discount the savannah view was $339, for that price I had to jump on it. It was less than $400 to upgrade for 7 nights.

 

[andrewilley]

Rack Rates are now live for January-October 2026.

As expected, the booking categories for Riverside are only:

• Standard Location
• Standard Location - 5th Sleeper
• Preferred Location
• King Bed
• Royal Guest Room

Andre