Got back today from riverside after 14 nights! Some things I noticed that have come up:
1. They have half n half for coffee. They close the dispensers some time between 10:30 and 11, but they have both milk and half n half at the bakery and will put it in your coffee for you
2. We were jealous of the dinner choices and freestyle machines at FQ, but riverside has better desserts.
3. Murphy bed extremely comfortable for DS8 who is 56"
4. Towels for quiet pools are available 24 hrs in the laundry rooms. Quiet pools are open 24 hrs.
5. Transportation to parks were great. 10 day tickets, all 4 parks, never waited even 5 minutes for a bus. Got to South depot at times ranging from 7:15-10:00 am.
6. ETA signs at south depot were extremely accurate (at least within 5 minutes of arrival, as we never experienced even that long of a wait).
7. Room stayed nicely chilled all night long. We kept the ceiling fan on.
8. Nice to see the wheel turning for 4-5 days. We noticed it started turning after it rained a lot and the water level in the river was noticeably higher.
9. Bus service from parks was ok. Max wait was 15 min. Three times we jumped from a long riverside line to an empty FQ bus. First time we started walking from the FQ bus stop to hike to riverside when we saw the internal shuttle coming so turned back to take it. 2nd time we walked to POR. The third time the bus picked us up at the HS stop for FQ, then drove 10 feet to the POR stop. But by jumping on at the FQ station we got seats.
10. Don't like that they moved the DS dock for the PO boats all the way behind where rainforest is (last time we stayed it was still near t- rex). We planned to stay at DS for dinner after typhoon lagoon as bus went there anyway, but long walk to dock convinced us to just take bus to PO for dinner.
11. No towel animals. Once out of 13 nights they took the time to arrange kids stuffed friends cutely on beds. On arrival there were 6 towels in the room. Every day after towel count was 3 or 4.
12. They kept on forgetting to leave a top sheet for Murphy bed.
13. Food court was understaffed (this was a reoccurring theme everywhere and everyday).
14. We booked preferred and requested 1st floor, quiet location away from parking. We had 1806. Great room! Very quiet, close to handicap ramp (we mentioned strollers on request and didn't think of asking to be near ramp). also extremely short walk to quiet pool by going past ice machine (on map it looks like a much longer walk around building to quiet pool and ramp).
15. On arrival, 2nd stop on dme (FQ was first). Arrived just under 90 from getting off plane. No room text so waited 15 min on line for front desk. Room was ready and package with room number was sitting there waiting. We booked military rate though and asked for military id, so that could be why no text.
16. Departure was a little rough. Dme was almost 10 min early and we barely made it. Problem was I couldn't find anyone to get our bags from bell services for over 5 min. Bus came while bell hop was in room looking for our 5 bags (which took a few min to find). DW told driver where I was and he was agitated I wasn't there. He was about to turn away from DW when CM came with our bags. I grabbed them from CM and ran for bus. I realized after the bus left that in rush to catch bus I forgot to tip bell services. We were the last stop so we went direct to mco. Plenty of time for dinner at airport before flight.