If you have a little princess in your family, then the Port Orleans Riverside resort “Royal Room” may be just what you need on your next Disney vacation.
We checked into Port Orleans with a standard room booking on my daughter’s seventh birthday. When the cast member pulled up our information, she made a fuss with my daughter about her birthday and then told us she’d be right back. Within a couple of minutes, she came back with a Mickey balloon for Carolyn, and she told us that Tiana wanted us to stay in a special room for Carolyn’s birthday. With a little unexpected birthday pixie dust we were upgraded to a Royal Room in Oak Manor. The cast member then handed Carolyn a scroll, “royal mail”, that she could keep, and it was a letter welcoming us to the Royal Rooms from Tiana.
The Royal Rooms are located in the mansion area of Port Orleans Riverside, in the Oak Manor and Parterre Place Mansion buildings. Our room in Oak Manor was considered a garden view and was just steps away from the bridge that connects the mansion grounds to the main lobby/pool/bus stop area of POR. We were equally close to the East Depot bus stop. Additionally, we were only 5 rooms away from the Oak Manor area pool.
This room was well appointed with very clever Disney princess theming. The 2 queen beds had princess themed fabric bed scarves that were also used for the curtains. The bed frames themselves were quite magical. The headboards each contained a mural as tall as the room and it lit up at the touch of a button (that you could access while in bed) to a Princess and the Frog bayou scene with starlight and fireworks fibre optic lights.
The coat rack was a wooden carving of Cinderella’s coach. The overhead light had Mickey details in the metal work. The luggage bench /footstool was made to look like Sultan, the footstool dog from beauty and the Beast. There was a carpet detail to match ‘carpet’ from Aladdin. Additionally there were Prince and Princess portraits on the walls.
Even the bathroom was not overlooked with this theming. The sink faucets were genie lamps and the shower curtains were made from subtle Little Mermaid themed fabrics. An adorable Cinderella mouse wallpaper border surrounded the room, and even the fixtures for the switch plates and towel bars were fancy. Speaking of fancy the table and 2 chairs also had a bit of fanciness to them, and the table top included the same ‘royal mail’ letter that my daughter received upon check in.
All the little details together added up to quite a magical experience for our family. We all (even my 10 year old son) loved this room. It was so charming; it made me happy and feel special just being in the room. These rooms cost a little bit more, but if you want a special room experience for your child, it is worth checking out.
Learn more about the Walt Disney World Resorts and contact Destinations in Florida to help you book your perfect resort.
Suzanne Manning is a working mother of 2 from Buffalo NY and would live in Cinderella’s Castle if they let her.
Oh, and garden view on the other side of those rooms (stil close to the pool) is listed as 9063-9070 (1st) and 9263-9270 (2nd). Higher numbers are closer to the bridge on that side of the building. (9070 and 9270)
I think the Oak Manner rooms facing the pool are numbers 9075-9094 on the first floor and 9275-9294 on the second floor. I cannot verify it, but another website shows views from different rooms and that was the numbers they had listed. The lower numbers on each floor were closer to the bridge. Higher were closer to the parking lot.
Hello Kristin! Thank you for this wonderful review of the Royal Rooms. Very helpful. Our son wants to stay in these for his birthday next November and we are trying to work on our room request. We were wondering if you remembered your room number? We very much want to be near the bridge to the main building and it sounds like you were right there. Thank you in advance!
Sadly, I don’t remember our room number :(
Hi Tina,
I wrote this review and if I recall correctly, we were in Oak Manor, room 9059, first floor, super close to quiet pool, and very close to bridge to main building. Perfect location for this resort! Enjoy your trip- its a lovely resort.