Art of Animation vs Port Orleans Riverside

[Sheriff]

We currently have 2 weeks in a royal room at Port Orleans booked (simply because there were no standard rooms available at POR we aren’t too fussed on the theming), but are considering changing to an Art of Animation little mermaid room. This would save us just over £1000 for the 2 weeks. I’m just looking for any opinions from people who have stayed onsite if the difference is that considerable? We don’t have children, have never stayed onsite and would have the dining plan. Thanks!

[YLL]

Theming aside (POR is much nicer for adults in my opinion), at Art of Animation you would only get "free breakfast" (in reality it's 1 quick service credit per day, you can use it for breakfast, lunch or dinner). At POR you would get the free quick service dining plan. In both cases you would have to pay to upgrade to the regular dining plan, and it will be much more expensive to do that at AoA.

[Sheriff]

Thanks for replying. We currently have the free QS dining plan included with the POR booking and after factoring paying for QS at AoA it is still coming in at just over £1000 cheaper. We have never visited either resort so I’m trying to work out if the resort/room alone will be significantly different for that price.

[sotagals]

For £1000 it would be a no-brainer for me. I'd be changed to AOA before you could say Mickey...

We've stayed at both and there wasn't that much difference. More kids maybe at AOA and the pools were busier. Plus great fun theming.

POR is a bit more relaxing and sophisticated.

[Alwaysdisley]

I love that you can get the boat to Disney Springs from POR, a bit of variety from the buses and it feels quite central to all of the parks. Is that with £1000, I’m not sure!

[Sheriff]

Thanks for the replies! I think for the money AoA it is, still looks a fab resort.

[teachx]

Originally Posted by Sheriff

Thanks for the replies! I think for the money AoA it is, still looks a fab resort.

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Also to bear in mind if youre going next year, or after summer this year that you will have another transport option from there as the Skyliner has a station at AoA/Pop which you could use to get to HS and Epcot

[Apricota]

AoA is great and £1000 better value. That’s a lot.

[OB1LukeLucas]

I’ve stayed in both for a night and loved them.
AOA is full on Disney theme, I absolutely loved the Little Mermaid Room and really enjoyed all the theming in the other areas around the resort. I really liked the food hall it had such a nice feel to it, even had proper plates & cutlery-we have previously stayed in Movies and Music so we were really impressed. The pool area is great. I like the fact that the bus stop for the park has only one pick up and the parks are organised with their own fenced queue area. Only down side I could think is the trek back to the Little Mermaid rooms might feel very long after a long day at the park-minor niggle!
POR is just beautiful, I definitely felt like I was staying in a ‘better’ resort. It’s just so green and lovely, not as heavily Disney themed. The whole resort just had a great feel and I liked the boat to Disney Springs. We were only in a standard room not a royal room so you would definitely get the Disney feel. I found the food at Riverside to be different too, more choice compared to the values. I really enjoyed eating there but I think I liked the feel of AOA better for some reason. We were next to a quiet pool in Alligator Bayou but enjoyed the themed pool with the slide. The whole resort is fab but it’s big and has a few bus stops around the different areas-no specific queue so a bit of a free for all, this would be my only niggle against it. A huge plus point for me is that you could walk along to French Quarter which has another great pool area and it has some great different food choices too. We stayed there for 2 weeks last year and absolutely loved it.
Hope this is a little bit of help, for me personally I would probably go on the price. I honestly would be delighted to stay at any of them again.

[scoobydooby]

I’d try and keep checking for a different room at POR that’s cheaper. For 1k I’d switch, but I also much prefer POR. The premium you’re paying for your room is really the issue.