With the rest of our group of 7 leaving, my husband and I didn’t need the large Swan suite for the last night of our trip. So once we decided to downsize, I began looking at our options for Sunday, April 7th. Port Orleans French Quarter stood out to me among the available options primarily for two reasons. The first of these was that this was a Disney resort that I had never stayed at but had always heard good things about. And then the deciding factor was that I discovered that the Scat Cat Lounge at POFQ has free live entertainment (a jazz band) on the weekends, Friday through Sunday nights.
When choosing a room type, POFQ had several options. The least expensive option is their Standard view, which means the view from this room is of the parking lot. Then for about another $20 – $30/night you can upgrade to a Garden view room with a view of the resort’s garden/landscaping. Or for about another $50 – $60 more than the Standard view price, you could have a River view of the resort’s Sassagoula Riverfront or Pool view of their Doubloon Lagoon swimming pool. Then their most expensive room is one with a King size bed (instead of two queen size beds). This costs quite a bit more than the Standard room (nearly $100 more per night) and the room’s view could be anything from the parking lot to the swimming pool.
I decided to book a Garden view room and that is exactly the type of room we were assigned. Our Room #5132 was located on the ground floor of Building 5.
Building 5 is very close to the resort’s swimming pool, called Doubloon Lagoon, and a very short walk from the Main Building where the Lobby, their Quick Service restaurant (Sassagoula Floatworks), the Scat Cat Lounge & Cafe, and the bus stop are located. Also close by was the dock where you can catch a boat to Disney Springs or to their sister resort, Port Orleans Riverside. So I was quite pleased with our room’s central location. We were there for only one night so didn’t use the boat, bus, or pool but if we had wanted to, all of these things were quite close.
When we arrived at the resort by car we parked in the lot in front of Building 4 and then wheeled our overnight bags passed Building 4…
And on to Building 5…
Which is where we located our room, #5132…
And a view of our surroundings…
And also the view looking out our door…
So the Garden view was of the resort’s beautiful grounds and landscaping, which was quite nice.
Now let’s look inside…
Our room had two queen size beds…
In addition to the Mickey towels on our bed, housekeeping also left us these Mickey-shaped Mardi Gras beads on the table…
There were double sinks, large mirror, and a closet area behind a privacy curtain…
And then a very small bathroom with the toilet and shower/tub combo…
We had some time to kill, so did a little exploring around the grounds.
First we checked out the pool area, Doubloon Lagoon…
With its 51-foot-long snaking sea serpent slide named Scales…
Wow, he has a long tongue! Lol
Then we walked passed the pool to the Sassagoula River and found the boat dock where you can catch a boat to Disney Springs…
Our plan was to spend the rest of the day and evening at the resort so we didn’t use the boat service. It would have been a convenient option though if we had wanted to return to Disney Springs for the evening. I did use the boat during my stay at the Port Orleans Riverside resort a few years ago and I think it docked at the Marketplace Boat Dock in the area behind the Rainforest Cafe at Disney Springs.
But speaking of our evening, after spending a couple of hours enjoying the live entertainment at the Scat Cat Club Lounge, I took a few more photos during the walk back to our room. First the pretty fountain in front of the main building…
Then the alligator jazz band along the path to the pool…
And the Pool Jester…
We also saw that they were showing a movie on the lawn…
And with that we called it a night.
Having stayed at the other Port Orleans resort, Riverside, a few years ago, I would say that I preferred the French Quarter. Though the Riverside Mansion room I stayed in was very similar to this one at POFQ, I really liked the New Orleans theming and the smaller size of French Quarter.
And it’s hard to beat being able to get Mickey beignets from the French Quarter’s Scat Cat Lounge Cafe…
Taste of Disney 