Day 1, Part 2: Port Orleans Riverside
Date: August 15, 2010
Location: Port Orleans Riverside
The Cast:
DM: Me, Darth Macho, Celebrating Our 12th Anniversary. (Belatedly)
DW: Dear Wife, The Queen, Celebrating Our 12th Anniversary. (Belatedly)
DD1: Princess, 9yo, Celebrating 1st Visit (That she'll remember. She was just 2yo on her actual first visit.)
DD2: Princess, 6yo, Celebrating 1st Visit (She was born mysteriously 9 months after our last visit…)
Checking In
After arriving at Port Orleans Riverside via Magical Express, we happily entered the lobby and proceeded to the on-line check-in counter, which again saved us some waiting time. The kids, of course, planted themselves right in front of the lobby TV to watch cartoons, while I found out that our room would be 8562 in Magnolia Terrace, which some may recognize as one of the Mansions. We also received our Anniversary buttons, and we finally got the low down on the whole "Celebrations" thing, which I didn't realize was the theme for everyone in WDW this year. (Later we'd get 1st visit buttons for the kids, on which DD1 wrote "That I'll remember" since she was only 2 on our first visit.) After we were done at the desk, we nosed around the lobby area to get a feel for the layout of the main building and to soak in the décor, which we all agreed was delightful. Our room was ready, but our stomachs were starting to feel grumbly, so we headed down to The Riverside Mill Food Court for our lunch...
Lunch
The cafeteria seemed huge at first, but as we would come to find out, it was almost always busy, and was a mob scene during peak hours. Despite the chaos, we were almost always able to get our food in a timely fashion (as soon as the kids decided from which station they wanted to order.) I think the biggest jams were getting the refrigerated drinks, as the line was often longer than for the food as people tried to get bottled drinks out of a cold case while holding the door with their elbow and balancing their food and drinks on a tray with their other hand. The fountain sodas were a little better because you had a place for your tray, but the ice machines were always laboring to spit ice and the place was crowded and messy despite a valiant effort to keep it orderly by the cast members. Despite all that, we ate at Riverside Mill several times and always found a place to sit. We got four refillable mugs, two yellow for the kids, red for DW (she's a redhead) and black for me (my favorite color.) We used these a lot while hanging at the resort, especially for the free water. Lunch was pretty good too, I had roast beef w/blue cheese on a ciabatta roll, DW got a kid's burger, DD1 got mac and cheese, and DD2 got chicken nuggets. We paid cash for this meal in order to save a quick service on our food plan for later in the week. We sat by window near the big wheel and the kids were fascinated when I explained to them that the water was what moved the wheel and the huge gears. They thought it was the other way around for some reason. Anyway, after lunch, we decided to go find our room...
Finding Our Room
Our room was in Magnolia Terrace, which was just beyond Ol' Man Island, but being new to the place, we set off in the wrong direction and started walking towards the boat dock and down river, but soon we found a bridge to cross over, and a convenient road sign put us back on track. Our building was fronted by a gazebo which we thought was a good omen. You see, DW and I have a tradition since I proposed to her in one in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and then had several wedding photos taken inside one that was on the peir outside our wedding reception hall, but I digress. Point is, the gazebos have a special meaning for us, so wealways make it a point to take a picture inside any gazebo we find if we can manage it.
The room was a standard view on the first floor, tucked away inside a corner, but it was worth saving a few bucks over a water view which we'd probably never get to see anyway, so we were happy enough with the room location.
One funny note about the room, is that we were always certain to find it easily because right above the door mechanism, a previous guest had placed a sticker of Chip and Dale, and from then on, our room came to be known as "The Chip and Dale Suite."
Inside the room was rather standard too, nothing too fancy, but just right for our needs, and the décor was nice. I liked the painting of the riverboat. The bathroom, admittedly, was pretty small, but the sinks located separately from the bath and toilet proved convenient. The curtain providing privacy at the sinks proved to be a week long source of entertainment for the girls and the occasional nuisance when I was trying to get them ready for parks or for bed, and they were playing with the curtain like it was some sort of stage.
One gripe about the room was that a previous guest had spilled something red, which at first we feared was blood, and later decided was nail polish, on the sink, wall and floor, and apparently no attempt was made by the housekeepers or maintenance to clean it up. It's hard to really gripe when we made no effort to report it either, so shame on us.
After poking around our room and seeing that our luggage hadn't arrived yet, we decided to put on some sunscreen and go explore the grounds. But since I have some chores to do I'll have to continue in another post. Sorry.
If you have any questions about details I haven't provided please ask!
Meanwhile, stay tuned for Day 1, Part 3: Exploring Port Orleans
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