Step inside a royal room at Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside

Updated 1/14/24: A room tour of a Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside – taking a look inside these princess themed rooms:

I have now stayed in a Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside 3 times, and I find it really magical each time. First of all, I absolutely love the Port Orleans Riverside resort.  It’s special to us because it’s where we spent our honeymoon, and it’s also just beautiful.

Most recently I stayed there with some friends. We had connecting rooms, and my one friend and I were in room 9506. This was on the ground floor of the resort and facing towards the parking lot. Although a parking lot isn’t always the prettiest view, there are still lots of trees and greenery around. It’s also a pretty quiet place.

The “story” behind these rooms is that Princess Tiana owns the place, and all the other princesses came to visit.  And in order to help decorate the rooms, the princesses left Tiana mementos.  There’s a cute letter explaining all of this from Tiana – a “copy” of the letter is painted onto the table, but you can also get your own paper copy to keep if you visit check-in.

The room basics

As a moderate resort, the rooms at Port Orleans Rivereside are a bit bigger than the value resorts. They’re 314 square feet, which is a much more comfortable size when you’re sharing a room with family or friends. You have the main room area with 2 queen beds, as well as a table and chair plus the TV and drawers.

The mini fridge is built into the drawers, so you’ll find it in there over on the left side. The coffee maker is on top of the drawers by the TV. To the left of that whole setup you have a small bench – or should I say, the foot stool from Beauty and the Beast!

 From there you head to the bathroom area, which has the 2 sinks separate from the toilet/shower. There’s a decent amount of space over here, and to the right you’ll find more clothing storage. You also have a shower/tub combo here (not just a standing shower like some of the other resorts).

Beds

In the main area you have 2 queen sized beds. Unlike many of the moderate rooms now, this one does not have a 5th pull down sleeper – so it will only hold up to 4 people. The beds are comfy, but the real fun of the beds is the headboard!

Above your bed you’ll find a pretty scene from the bayou with trees and flowers – and Tiana’s “evening star” shining bright above. It’s beautiful enough on it’s own, but the button next to the bed has a truly magical surprise. When you press the button the headboard lights up, creating a small “fireworks” show!

Bathroom

In the bathroom area you have the sinks separate from the toilet/shower/tub. This is always nice when you have multiple people getting ready in the morning. There’s a decent amount of counter space, plus you have a small ledge just above the counter to store toiletries. There are two mirrors, one over each sink, as opposed to one large mirror.

Over on the side you’ll find hangers and room to hang some clothing. There’s also an ironing board in case you’re one of those people who actually irons their clothes on vacation!

Decor

The Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside definitely live up to their name. The room is fairly opulently decorated – there are lots of fancy curtains, a nice lamp piece, regal looking chairs… you certainly get a feel of elegance and royalty here!

The beauty and excitement of this room is all in the details. While Tiana is your host, many of your other favorite princesses have brought some of their mementos to help furnish and decorate the room.

And really, a picture is worth a thousand words in this case, so I want to share some of the coolest details that we found there:

Jasmine left a “flying” carpet for a rug:

Not to mention the magic lamp faucet in the sink:

You’ll find the foot stool from Beauty and the Beast:

Cinderella has donated some coat hooks with her carriage:

And Ariel, not surprisingly, has left her mark on the shower curtain – you’ll notice a dinglehopper and a snarfblatt in there!

The Princesses adorn the walls themselves too.  Since it’s Tiana’s place she does have the largest portrait, but all of her princess friends are featured too (Snow White, Jasmine, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, and Rapunzel all have smaller portraits on one wall.

Even the princes get a nod with some side-view silhouettes.

Though since they are Tiana’s Royal Rooms, she gets the biggest portrait here!

There used to be a small detail I really liked in these rooms which they have since removed. For one reason or another, Disney has been getting rid of bedspreads or bed runners in most of their rooms (I think it makes the rooms look a little too stark and you miss out on an opportunity for fun themeing, but that’s another discussion!). The bedrunner that used to be here had different princess crowns.  It was fun looking at them and trying to figure out which crown belonged to whom!

Video tour of a Royal Room

Overall thoughts on the Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside

I really love the Royal Rooms and I feel like enough people don’t know about them. If you have kids who love princesses, I have a feeling they will be completely delighted here! The themeing is so good and there are so many Disney princess Easter eggs around the room.

Perhaps it’s because Riverside in general sometimes gets a bad reputation for being too big and inconvenient. However, most of the times I’ve stayed there I’ve not found it to be a problem at all. The Royal Rooms are in a building that is conveniently located – not too far from the main building, one of the bus stops, the main pool and a smaller pool.

I really enjoy the moderate resorts because you get more space than the value rooms, which can make a big difference if you’ve got more than 2 people in a room. While they are more spread out, that often means more privacy and less noise. Of course, if you’re comparing it to a deluxe resort it’s no real contest. I love the additional space of the deluxes and especially the balcony you get there.

I really hope Disney doesn’t change or get rid of the Royal Rooms (like what sadly happened to the Pirate Rooms over at Caribbean Beach). If anything they have the opportunity to add more fun themeing and touches. Perhaps Anna and Elsa have something to contribute? (Just don’t let Elsa touch the A/C, I don’t need it to be freezing in there!).

Have you stayed at a Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside before?