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See the main interior of the Royal Guest Room in our full review.

Disney’s Port Orleans Resort Riverside Royal Guest Room Review

When you stay at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort Riverside, you have several choices for accommodations.  The resort is divided into two sections, Alligator Bayou and Magnolia Bend.  Alligator Bayou takes you to a rustic Louisiana delta setting.  In contrast to Alligator Bayou, the other part of the Port Orleans Resort Riverside is Magnolia Bend.  It is set to look like plantation style mansions.  Nestled within Magnolia Bend, you’ll find the Royal Guest Rooms of Port Orleans Resort Riverside.

We have a post dedicated to our Port Orleans Riverside Resort review, so this post will focus really on just the Royal Guest Rooms.  We did have Anna and Elsa with us on this trip, so you’ll get the perspective of an 8 and 5-year-old on the Royal Guest Room too!

What is the Royal Guest Room?

At its core, the Royal Guest Room at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort Riverside is a royalty themed room.  Some would say it’s the princess room and we get why they would say that.  Yes, there are pictures of princesses all over the walls.  However, that is about it.  The rest of the rooms theming is about royalty, in our opinion.  There are even silhouettes of the princes on the walls.

You get higher end touches and theming that makes it feel like an upgraded room.  The Royal Guest Room isn’t what you might imagine with frilly princess stuff and an ocean of pink or purple everywhere.  It’s regal and more refined.  It’s also less gaudy and over the top than you would think.

Where are the Royal Guest Rooms Located in Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort?

As we said before the royal guest rooms are in the Magnolia Bend section of the resort.  We put a map of the resort below.  You can see the two buildings of Magnolia Bend colored in purple.  These are the two buildings that house the Royal Guest Rooms within Port Orleans Resort Riverside.

As you can see, the distance from the Royal Guest Rooms to the main resort lobby is not bad.  We walked the property and found the longest walk from the Royal Guest Rooms to be around 8 minutes.  If you book a water view room and it’s only a 3-4-minute walk.

The location of the Royal Guest Rooms is very similar (walking time wise) to the preferred rooms available in the Alligator Bayou section of Port Orleans Riverside.  Overall, we’d consider them pretty convenient for a large sprawling resort like Disney’s Port Orleans Resort Riverside.

In the map you can also see that there is one pool tucked between the two buildings.  We found this pool to not be very busy.  It’s a good-sized pool when you compare it to the other leisure pools on the property.  Excluding the main feature pool Ol’ Man Island, of course.

Different Room Views are Available with the Royal Guest Rooms

The Royal Guest Rooms come with the four different views that are available throughout Disney’s Port Orleans Resort Riverside.  You can get a standard, garden, pool and river view.  The river view rooms will give you a view of the river that separates the main hotel building from the Magnolia Bend section of the resort.

If you book any of the garden, pool or river view rooms you will get a room that is slightly closer to the main lobby of the resort.  However, we’re only talking a few minutes of walking time closer.

The Royal Guest Room costs you more than a standard room in Port Orleans Riverside.  How much more will depend on the view you pick.  The standard view Royal Guest Room will run you around $60 per night more than a normal standard room.  Book the garden, pool or river view rooms and it will be around $70 per night more.  Over the course of a 6-night stay, you’re looking at $350-450 more for your trip.  That’s more than one additional night’s stay at the resort.

If you don’t generally book standard rooms, then the cost difference of upgrading from a pool view, river view or preferred room is significantly less.  We’re talking only $20-30 per day.  That may make the bump in price worth it, depending on your situation.

The Décor of the Royal Guest Room

The Living Space

Okay, we get it.  Enough of the generalities, you want to talk specifics!

Like we said earlier, the Royal Guest Room at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort Riverside is not just for princesses.

The touches of princesses around the room are generally muted and work well within the overall theme of the room.  Princess Tiana (from The Princess and the Frog) is the centerpiece of the room, since it is a southern themed resort.  You’ll find a large portrait of her on the wall, along with a “handwritten” letter from her on the desk.  It’s laminated into the table, so unfortunately your little princesses can’t take it with them if they are smitten with her.  While we call her the centerpiece of the room, its very muted and works well with the overall theming.

The furnishings of the room all have elegant dark wood tones to them, with gold accents worked thought the furnishings.  The drapery in the front window is well done, with similar gold and blue tones that tie in well with the carpet and wood of the room.

The thing that Anna and Elsa loved the most were the headboards on the beds.  The fact that you can turn on your own little fireworks show was a huge hit.  Our first night in the room, Anna and Elsa probably sat there hitting the fireworks button 20 times in a row.  When we got in bed for the night and the room was dark, they had to do it again repeatedly.  You can see what the headboards look like in the dark below.

One thing we rarely see mentioned in other reviews is the wallpaper that runs along the top of the room’s walls.  It’s not just regular wallpaper, rather it features characters that are important to several Disney princesses.  As you can see in the picture, you have Chip from Beauty and the Beast, along with Jaq and Gus carrying Cinderella’s glass slipper.  There are other characters to be found in the wallpaper, so make sure you look around.

For those of your that have to work while on vacation, like Mike, the table and chairs worked well for this.  Other than constantly having to clean all our previous days stuff off of it, there was plenty of room to spread out.  Mike could easily use his laptop and have something to drink while leaving room for others at the table.  The chairs were comfortable and allowed him to sit for prolonged periods of time, while not stiffening up.

We love the Mickey hidden inside the light fixture above the table.  You can see it in the view below.

There are some other nice touches that we’ve left out here so we let you have some surprises while enjoying the room.  Nothing big, but just make sure you look at the carpet and the walls.

On the amenities side, you have all the normal moderate level resort items.  There aren’t any extra perks that you get beyond the theming of the room.

The rooms are the same size as other standard rooms in the resort.  You don’t get additional space by staying in the Royal Guest Rooms.  You also lose the ability to sleep 5 people that you can get by staying over in Alligator Bayou at Port Orleans Riverside.

One thing we were disappointed in were the linens.  In other reviews we have seen, the beds featured quilted comforters, bed scarves and gold decorative bed pillows.  However, it appears that was all discontinued in 2017.  Now all you get are some pretty generic while linens.  They were all perfectly fine, just not as regal feeling as we have seen in other pictures.

The Sink and Bath Area

The gold and wood tones carry over to the bath area.  The blue countertop on the sink was a great way to tie it into the carpet of the living area.

Making the sink faucets look like Genie’s lamp from Aladdin is a touch that we really appreciated.  Anna and Elsa were kind of ho-hum about it since it’s just a faucet.  We should have taken a more close up picture of the faucets, but that was a big fail on our part!  Maybe next time.

The wallpaper along the top of the sink area walls is something to check out too.  We won’t spoil it with more pictures, but there are other characters of importance to Disney princesses featured in it.

Another elegant touch in the Royal Guest Room is the chair rail and wainscoting in the sink area.  Not a big deal, but just one more of the little touches that make the room feel a little more special.  In fairness, this is not unique to the Royal Guest Rooms at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort Riverside.  The standard rooms have this décor in other pictures we’ve seen.

The sink area was a good-sized space to us.  We were able to stow our luggage under the hangers in the closet area.  We don’t generally hang too many clothes up, unless we have nice dresses or slacks and shirts for a nice meal.  The area under the sink was an easy place to access and put away curling irons, a blow dryer and the like.

We also found the curtain that can separate the living area from the sink area. very helpful for early mornings and bed time.  This allowed us to use the sinks while not lighting up the living room.  It gave whoever was showering and changing clothes a real feel of privacy.  The curtain is nice in that it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the room.  Having a big set of doors there would disrupt the feel of the Royal Guest Room.  Again, this is how all the Port Orleans Riverside rooms are, but it was a better touch nonetheless.  The color and pattern of the curtain matched with the drapes in the front windows.

The shower and toilet area of the Royal Guest Room is typical Disney size.  That’s code for small, if you didn’t catch it.  They still do the job though.  The gold shower curtain (which we know you can barely see) continues the theme of the room, keeping it all tied together.

Are the Royal Guest Rooms Worth It?

Now that we stayed here, we feel like the Royal Guest Rooms are definitely a good value.  Especially if you have girls who are into princesses.  It probably helps if they are younger girls, but we can definitely see the desire to stay there from Anna and Elsa as they get older.  Both of them said they would like to stay here again.  Partly because they loved the rooms, but they also really liked the resort too.

We wouldn’t say this room is a no-go for those with boys though.  Again, the princess theming is very muted.  This room is about refinement and regal accommodations.  We’d be surprised to see boys just hate this room.  And boys like fireworks, right?  Mike does, so we assume that hasn’t changed in 40 years.  They can sit there and set off the headboard fireworks show too!

We view this room as a great spot for adults also.  If you’re on a romantic getaway, this room would be perfect for that.  Now, could you stay at the Grand Floridian or some other deluxe resort?  Sure.  But if you’re trying to keep costs under control, this room may fit the bill.  We’d suggest getting a river view, but that is certainly optional.  You’re in the more romantic side of Port Orleans Riverside, in our opinion.  The only bad thing is you can’t get a room with a king-sized bed.  Only the two queen beds are available.

Now, this isn’t a place we would come to repeatedly.  But for a once in a lifetime trip to make your kid’s day, the Royal Guest Room definitely fits the bill.  Come to Disney a lot?  Stay here one time and experience it, but feel free to find other resorts to try.

Wrapping Up

Alright, there you have it.  Disney’s Port Orleans Resort Riverside Royal Guest Rooms certainly have something for almost everyone.  It can up the experience level of your vacation without going too crazy on resort costs.  We think that kids and adults alike will enjoy this room.  When you combine it with the overall greatness of the Port Orleans Resort Riverside theming, it makes the room even better.  If you’re looking for something that isn’t just your standard experience, you should definitely check this room out.

We hope you enjoyed our review of Royal Guest Rooms at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort Riverside.  If you did, we’d appreciate it if you would share the post with others.  We’re always grateful when others spread the word on our blog.  We try to make it simple, just use the social sharing buttons on this page.

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