Disney To Reopen Port Orleans French Quarter Resort

[Tagrel]

Here is some good news for those that love POFQ!

Disney To Reopen Port Orleans French Quarter Resort

The Walt Disney World Resort announced Friday that the multimillion dollar renovation of Disney's Port Orleans French Quarter Resort is complete.

The opening will create more than 200 job openings at French Quarter for a variety of positions including housekeeping, recreation and the front desk.

The resort is scheduled to reopen on March 21 and Disney has started taking reservations for the resort.

French Quarter closed on May 4, 2003, as part of a complete room renovation for Disney’s Port Orleans Resort. The freshly renovated rooms have all new furniture, new carpeting, new wall coverings and remodeled bathrooms.

French Quarter opened in May, 1991 and has 1,008 rooms.


Original Story Link (http://www.local6.com/news/2806705/detail.html)

[MissBianca]

Wow! 1,008 remodeled bathrooms. Two years ago, we remodeled one bathroom and what a chore that was! Can't wait o see the pictures!

[BetsyAnn]

My favorite moderate is back -- may need to get serious about December soon!

[FLSharon]

I am sooo Happy to hear this... not because I like FQ, but b/c its been a bear gettting into POR with FQ closed. Now here's hoping they arent' closing POR next. I thought they were but cm's told me not.. so I'll see.... maybe i shouldn't do the happy dance just yet.

[Moley]

This is a moderate which has the feel of a deluxe. I'm really happy to see it open again. Now if they would just bring back Bon Famille's.

[pixi]

hey Moley,
what is it about POFQ that makes it feel like a deluxe?
...just re-thinking my contemporary decision!... lol!

[cshore]

We are requesting a change to POFQ for our March trip. It is our favorite moderate and is slated to re-open the day we arrive. How cool is that!! I think the furnishings and the landscaping make this such a pretty resort. I love the boat ride to Downtown Disney and Boatwrights is my hands down favorite restaurant for breakfast. I was excited about our March trip, now I am ecstatic!

[Gretta]

Oh cshore,

I am so envious. I just ran and asked my husband if we could put of our February trip until March. He says no. Airline tickets are bought and the kids are in school in March. Cshore, you are so lucky that is my most favorite resort! Can't wait to hear all about it.

Gretta

[Moley]

hey Moley,
what is it about POFQ that makes it feel like a deluxe?
...just re-thinking my contemporary decision!... lol!

Hi pixi! :wave:

Of all the moderates, I love French Quarter the best. It has the feel of a deluxe because of grounds and size. The rest of the moderates are huge. You can get a room out in the boonies and have to walk forever to get to the main dining areas. Even though there are internal bus loops, they don't run often enough when you want a quick bite.

With French Quarter, it is an easy walk even from the most remote room on the property. If you share busses with Riverside, French Quarter gets picked up and dropped off first, making it less likely you will have to stand on the way to the parks.

The Food Court is smaller than Riverside's but compared to room quantities, it is more spacious. It is less likely to be packed. The pool is gorgeous, the prettiest of the moderates, IMHO.

I also love the boat ride to Downtown Disney. Yes, Riverside has this, too. It is still a cool transportation feature. No boats to a park/shopping destination from Caribbean Beach or Coronado Springs. And even the deluxes can't float your boat to Downtown Disney.

Smaller size can cut waits for guest services and checking in, too. That's why it 'feels like a deluxe' to me. Ask for a corner room with the double windows, grab some fresh beignets while they are hot, and you will really feel like you booked in a boutique hotel in N'awlins. 8)

The Contemporary has its charms, too, but if you can get great rates at French Quarter, you are scoring one of the best values at WDW.

Whatever you decide, have fun on that trip. Happy Planning! :D

[JennyAnne]

Gosh, now I'm wondering if I want to split our stay in May. We're there for seven nights (Sunday night to Saturday night) and taking a day off from the parks on Thursday. DH is golfing that day...I could move us over there while he's golfing. Might be something to think about. I had thought about it last year but then they closed the resort indefinitely so I didn't worry much about it. Hmmm.....what to do?

[MargaretJ]

JennyAnne just my opinion but since this is your hubby's first trip to Disney I would seriously consider Port Orleans French Quarter. I agree with Moley that it is one of the prettiest resorts Disney has & the only reason we stopped staying there was the size of the slide. As my son got older he wanted a bigger & more daring slide. The other Moderate Resorts are VERY large & you could be miles from the recreation or restaurant areas - might put a damper on how your hubby feels about the visit. PO-FQ only has 7 buildings so no matter where your room is it will be an easy walk to anywhere in the resort. The boat ride to Downtown Disney is awesome & the buses to the resorts stop here first - no standing usually. The only downside I see is no sit down restaurant anymore but that may not be a big deal to you. Good luck in deciding.

[JennyAnne]

Thanks Margaret! I'll throw it out there to DH and see what he thinks. We had planned on staying in the "preferred" section of CBR, which ends up being the same as a king room at POFQ, and puts us into either Martinique or Trinidad North. We also picked CBR because this is our 3rd anniversary trip and CBR's theming is similar to our honeymoon location of St. Lucia. But POFQ is smaller, and the boat would be fun too! And everything is new. Maybe I'll throw the pros and cons out there to Jer and let him decide. :D That takes the decision off my shoulders. :lol:

Thanks again for the tips Margaret!!

[MissBianca]

And, JennyAnne, Margaret missed an important point for your hubby! POFQ is quite close to three of the golf courses!

[Joe]

This will open while we are there, great news for the folks that really love that resort. It is one that we have not been to or through, so we'll have to stop in and take a look.

[MargaretJ]

Oh MissB you are right I forgot the Golf Courses!

I found this picture of the refurbished room. It looks very nice.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/resorts/roomsDetail?id=PortOrleansFrenchQuarterResortGuest RoomsListingPage

[AliKat]

It's official, we have our room booked for POFQ for our March trip. We're so lucky that it opens the same day we arrive--we'll be the "First" to stay in the refurbished rooms! YAHOO! :joyDance:

[BetsyAnn]

Cool AliKat -- what fun! Have a benet for me! :D

[Moley]

See if you can get building Four, corner room near the food court. Pretty view and you have an easy walk to the pool, the bus stop and the main building.

[LisaS]

Does anyone know how extensive the renovations were? Was it just the room refurbishment (the new pix look beautiful) or were they taking care of the common areas? We stayed at FQ back in 94, but have since visited just to see if we wanted to go back. I thought that the entire resort was looking a little long in the tooth, and would be interested to hear of additional renovations beyond the rooms. The theme is great and it is a nice compact resort, so those are certainly plusses, but to me, it was just looking tired - anyone with any details on the common areas?

LisaS

[JennyAnne]

Lisa, where did you see pictures of the renovated rooms? I would love to check them out!

Thanks!

[LisaS]

JennyAnne

MargaretJ put a link in her last post in this thread - on my computer is appears as the last post on page 1 of this group of messages!! It looks great!!

Lisa

[cshore]

Either building 4 or 5, across from the hot tub. We stayed in 5 last time and had a "perfect" location. Karen from YMJ took care of everything for us, and so quickly too. We were booked at POR.

MargaretJ, thanks for the link for the pictures. The rooms look great!! I can't wait!!!

[JennyAnne]

Thanks for the direction Lisa...I get lost at times!! :D

MargaretJ...thanks for the link! I'm off to check them out now!

[MargaretJ]

LisaS I don't know how extensive the rehab of the entire resort was but I do know that they redid the Food Court about 18months ago. That was definitely something that needed to be done. I heard they completely redid the rooms - bathrooms included. Just looking at my old pictures I can tell that they put in completely new beds & carpet & looks like maybe new bathroom floors. I am anxious to see this resort again.

[LisaS]

Margaret - whoever is going in March better take a lot of pictures! Of the rooms and the grounds!! The rooms really look nice and you're right - it appears to be a total rehab - let's hope they spruced up the other areas as well!! Until I know for sure, I'm sticking to the CSR (which I love even though it gets somewhat of a bad rap!!)

Lisa

[LimeGreenCheri]

We changed our reservation from CSR to PO FQ and I'm so excited! My kids really like the looks of the pool and I'm thinking that the shorter slide will be much better for DS. I also like the idea of a smaller resort. We'll still be transferring over to Pop Century at the end of the week though. I couldn't talk the kids out of that! :roll: