Ok, we think we’ve found a solid choice for a lounge or pool bar when choosing your next Disney hotel stay WITHOUT costing you a fortune!

We’ve visited several lounge and pool bars around Disney World lately with some being clear winners with returning fan-favorite menu items but most of the time these have been at some of the most expensive Disney World hotels. So where do you choose to stay (and eat) if you’re looking to stick to a budget and are traveling with kids that really would prefer more pool time over spending hours in the Disney World parks? We think we’ve found a great compromise for you!

This restaurant is a pool bar and lounge at Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort. Mardi Grogs Pool Bar is located just outside of the main feature pool called, Doubloon Lagoon.

It’s inspired by the vibrance of the Big Easy with swinging jazzy tunes filling the air and some bright purples, greens, and golds to help you feel like you’re part of a big celebration while visiting.

Atmosphere

The lounge features a long, full bar area with bar stool seating…

… and a few outdoor patio lounger seats and cushions to help you feel like you’re meeting in someone’s backyard.

Nearby, there’s additional seating for umbrella-covered tables that are just beyond the restaurant’s walls and connect to the pool deck beyond the iron gates bordering the pool.

Menu

This restaurant is mainly a pool bar with extensive drink menus for cocktails, frozen concoctions, liquid libations, and a few beers and wines…

… but there’s also a limited selection of light bites like sandwiches to enjoy keeping you from having to get out and walk through the lobby to order food!

Eats

After browsing the menu we made our final selections on what we’d like to try out for this visit. We opted to order the All That Jazz and Bull Frog Brew drinks, and snack on the Chicken Salad Sandwich for our meal.

We thought it all looked pretty filling when you put it all together, but it was time to start digging in! We started with the All That Jazz drink first. This beauty is made of layered blends of the Gata-Melon Juice, Front Porch Freeze, and the Nola Cola and costs $16 if served in a regular cup or would cost you $21 if served in a souvenir Hurricane Glass. For this visit, we decided to stick with the regular cup version.

Let us preface this by saying we took our first sip of this drink through a straw so we were hit with all three layers of frozen goodness at once and it was delicious. All three of the layers have a very heavy helping of pineapple juice to them so you’ll taste that most prominently, but it’s a natural juice taste and not overly sweet. The Front Porch Freeze layer has a more citrusy orange flavor mixed with the pineapple juice and it’s rounded out by the smoothness of the bayou silver rum. The purple layer is the Nola Cola with Captain Morgan spiced rum pineapple and desert pear that Disney has been releasing quite a few drinks with lately.

It works on its own as a sweet frozen drink but we really enjoyed it mixed with the other flavors here and made us think of the night blossom at Disney’s Animal Kingdom when we tasted it (just with more pineapple flavor). The Gata-Melon Juice layer is (once again) MORE pineapple but this one is blended with a softer coconut and monin banana flavor which helped cut down on the pineapple becoming too much for this drink.

Then it was time to move on to the Bull Frog Brew! This delectable drink is made of Minute Maid® Premium Lemonade, Green Apple, and Kiwi and costs $5.49!

The most prominent flavor of this drink is sour. It packs quite a pucker punch! Between the lemonade, green apple, and kiwi flavors there’s very little sweetness to this drink but it works for the combination.

If you’re careful and really looking for each individual flavor you can taste them each but if you’re just sipping to enjoy it they blend together harmoniously to create a powerful fruity beverage. We likened this to a grown-up sour capri-sun and was our favorite of the two drinks, even without the alcohol! We think your kids would LOVE this one but we caution you on trying theirs because they may not get it back once YOU’VE tried it!

Since we’d already had a chance to wet our whistle a bit it was time to take a dive into the Chicken Salad Sandwich. This sandwich is made of chicken salad filling between multi-grain slices of bread accompanied by a slice of tomato and lettuce and served with a bag of chips (with your choice of the available flavors) for $12.29.

The sandwich itself is served in a container that has been refrigerated so it’s served cold with all of the accompaniments and comes precut in half.

Our server allowed us to choose our flavor of chips from what was available for the day so we opted for regular Lay’s Potato Chips. These are fairly standard run-of-the-mill potato chips which we enjoyed but…

… the sandwich was the star of the show! The multigrain bread was a nice change from a standard white sliced bread sandwich which added an interesting texture against the creamy chicken salad. For the filling itself, it was very much a recipe you could expect from your favorite aunt who brings chicken salad to your family get-together. Not only did it have the shredded chicken drenched in the creamy mayo, but it also had all the cut fruits like grapes and apples along with the slivers of almonds mixed in with the chopped veggies to give it an extra juicy flavor and crunch.

If you’re not someone who enjoys a runny chicken salad sandwich or just really needs more of a mayo and mustard ratio for chicken salad to be enjoyable then you probably wouldn’t like this version but we would encourage you to give it a try because we really loved it!

Overall

Overall this pool bar has a relaxing but jazzy vibe and the outdoor seating helps lend a hand to a more laid-back atmosphere.

Although the menu options are limited, they’re effective for this restaurant. We would choose to eat here again when visiting based on this experience.

Nosh or Not?

We would recommend you stop by for a quick bite if…

• You’re looking for a super quick meal. Most of the meal options will come prepackaged for you making the time between ordering to actually chowing down on your food minimal.
• You’re not super picky. The options here are limited, but effective for someone who’s not super picky about what comes on their plate.
• You don’t need a lot to fill up. The sandwich we bought was just the sandwich and the fixings with a prepackaged side so if a smaller meal can fill you up, this is worth taking a look into.

You might want to mosey on by if…

• You’re really hungry! This is made for a quick light meal stop and not a lot of accompanying sides. If you’re looking for a heavier meal, you’ll probably want to head inside the hotel’s full quick service for that.
• You’re not a sandwich fan. Since most of the menu offerings are prepackaged sandwiches are super quick and easy to pull out and serve. If a sandwich doesn’t quite hit the spot for you, you’ll probably do better lining up another place to grub.
• You’re looking for a hot meal. Fast and easy is the name of the game with this restaurant so if you’re looking for a heated-up cooked meal, this is definitely not your spot.

We’ve reviewed HUNDREDS of meals, snacks, and drinks around Disney World so be sure to check out the links below to browse more of our reviews from other Disney World restaurants!

REVIEW: Disney Just Took One of Our Absolute FAVORITE Meals and Made It BETTER! 😍

What’s your favorite thing to order at Mardi Grogs? Have you ever dined here before? Leave us your reviews in the comments below!