Contemporary or luxurious offsite accomodation?

[travelitis]

I would love opinions from anyone who has stayed in a garden wing room. We have an offsite timeshare that is much larger and nicer than the rooms at the Contemporary, but since we can get a room for $66/nt. we're thinking of trading the timeshare (easy to do) and staying at the Contemporary this time. Staying on the monorail is very appealing, and I've stayed in the tower but not the Garden Wings. For the Disney ambiance and convenience we'd be losing a 2 bed/3bath with full kitchen, w/d, home theater, and huge jacuzzi tub. The decor is also prettier in our timeshare and full breakfast buffet is included. However, this rate is so ridiculously low that it sounds like a great opportunity we might really regret not taking. Any opinions?

[CRCrazy]

Definitely go for the Contemporary! You must be going with Shades of Green to be able to get such a phenomenal deal! Do you have kids, or is it just you and your wife? We stayed in the CR with our three daughters(5, 11, 13) in March and had plenty of room, luckily none of them are shower/bathroom hogs, as long as they are clean, they're happy! You won't get a free breakfast buffet, but the dining choices at the Contemporary are superb! Chef Mickeys, California Grill, Concourse Steakhouse are renowned for their fun and great food. If you are looking for something less formal, the Food and Fun Center had great quick breakfasts for a fairly reasonable price. The arcade is huge, and my girls had a great time winding down playing air hockey with Geppetto and Foulfellow one morning during the Character Caravan! The convenience of the monorail can't be beat! After Spectromagic and Fantasy in the Sky, we left the MK with the hordes, lines for the Express Monorail and boats to the other resorts and the TTC were incredibly long, we ran up the ramp to the resort monorail - no line, and the train was right there - next stop Contemporary Resort! Less than three minutes from Main Street to our North Wing Room! You also get the pools, and the Electrical Water Pageant every night! You are immersed in the magic even when you are not in the parks, and NO DRIVING!!

[tkldisney]

I have stayed at the Contemporary and it is one of my favorites. You can walk to MK in about 5 min. Your on the monorail, which is great to get to Epcot, TTC & the reurn from MK is first stop. You have Chef Mickey's and Cal. Grill which are both great restraurants. Go up to 15th floor, get a glass of wine or whatever and go outside, watch the fireworks then just an elevator ride to your room. (who could ask for more) For the price it's not bad. You can take boat ride to Wilderness Lodge or Ft. Wilderness (Hoop-de-do) It has a great game room if you have children.
:earsboy:

[travelitis]

CRCrazy you are quick on the uptake. Yes, we have the SOG rate which is pretty incredible for CR. I called to get one night, but when we heard what the rate was, it really made us think. We have 3 kids: 4, 8, and 11. My husband and I really savor putting the kids in front of the home theater while we have a dip in the big tub, so that's the dilemna. Do we sacrifice our romantic time alone for that monorail? Another possibility is offering our timeshare to family so we can all spend Thanksgiving at Disney if we don't want to trade it or go a different week. I'm going to call tomorrow and try to hold the space. We can always cancel if the lack of privacy seems oppressive. I absolutely love Disney, but my husband likes leaving the parks at the end of the day and getting away from the mouse. I appreciate all the opinions on this I can get. Thanks!

[Humphrey1227]

IMHO, we love the CR! The garden rooms are identical to the tower rooms with the difference of the bathrooms & balcony's. But you sound like you are more interested in the timeshare.
I would decide between, which is more important mk & parks, wdw or being in a resort you obviously love? If your priority is parks then CR if not your timeshare!

Either way they sound like fabulous choices! Have a great vacation! :)

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

CR! Think of all the time you will save driving to and from the parks. Put the kids in one of the kids programs at the resort and have an evening with DH:D ! We have the $95 rate through SOG and think THAT is a bargain! You can hop over to the Poly and GF so easily for meals too. BUT, you must decide what you want out of the vacation. We just don't watch that much TV(except some of the Disney stations ;) ) while at WDW. When we go to the beach we stay ON the beach, to the Mt's, we stay IN the Mts, and to WDW we stay AT WDW. BUT, others like to get away from the main attraction and that is why there are too many choices;), to confuse! Good luck, I think you will enjoy whatever you do.:cool:

[Clover9990]

Originally posted by travelitis
My husband and I really savor putting the kids in front of the home theater while we have a dip in the big tub, so that's the dilemna. Do we sacrifice our romantic time alone for that monorail?

Is it really that hard for you to find "romantic time" for one another when you're at home? Can't you just put the kids in front of the TV at your house and take a romantic shower with your husband? I mean- if I were in your shoes, the answer would be very clear- go for the CR! You'll have the timeshare next year (or next time), but by fall of 2003, SoG is supposed to reopen, so you won't be getting that fabulous Contemporary discount any more! Let us know what you decide! :)

[gepetto]

We stayed in our in-laws Hilton GVC timeshare one Christmas. As nice as it was, I still prefer staying onsite. I hate Orlando traffic....especially during the holiday season trying to get to the parks takes forever.

You got an incredible rate at CR. :)

[eeyore0062]

We LOVED our Garden Wing accomodations! We were in room 6317 with a beautiful view of Bay Lake. We could lie in bed at night and watch the Electrical Light Pageant, and in the mornings, all of the water fowl would line up on the water's edge like they were on the payroll! And talk about CONVENIENCE! It just can't be beat. We found all of the CM's very accomodating, and friendly. I would definitely choose Contemporary over staying anywhere offsite, if money weren't an issue!

[DisneyVirginia]

CR Garden Wing!!! Love it!! And your rate is FABULOUS!!!!

Have to admit, given your husband's preferences, CR will be much more an adventure and lasting impression for your kids than for him. Romantic time might require either an additional room (even if not for the whole vacation) or use of the Mouseketeer Club House (babysitting).

You may want to consider faxing a preference for the North Wing instead of the South Wing. It is closer to the Magic Kingdom. In addition to taking the monorail, you can walk to that park--shorter walk from North Wing.

I go through SoG too, even for my Grand Floridian vacation next week ($189/night overflow). SoG has the best deals!!!!

[Clover9990]

Originally posted by DisneyVirginia


I go through SoG too, even for my Grand Floridian vacation next week ($189/night overflow). SoG has the best deals!!!!

Can you please tell me more about this? Did you get bumped to the Grand Floridian because all of the SoG Contemporary's rooms were booked? If not, how did you get ressies at GF through SoG? And how come you had to pay $189/night...isn't it like $66/night or so through SoG? Thanks in advance, and sorry for all the questions!! :p

[travelitis]

SoG rates are dependant on rank. The higher the rank the higher the rate because you make more money.

There have been many good and helpful opinions rendered, and we thank you for the responses. We're going to hold the space at the CR then give it some long, hard thought. We'll definately do the 1st nt. there. After we thought we'd decided to stay there the whole time, I had some small pangs of regret because the creature comforts we'd miss. I used to be a stay-onsite only kind of gal, but we really preferred having the space and luxury of accomodation over luxury of location and Disney ambiance last time. That being said, there's a reason I loved staying onsite, and I don't want to stay 1 nt. then kick myself for not staying the whole time. This sounds like we're leaning toward the timeshare, but we're really leaning toward CR. Maybe we'll also tell the kids about the 1st night instead of keeping it a secret and see what their reaction is.

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

Clover, what DisneyVirginia got was a SOG OVERFLOW rate. The rooms at the CR are for those that book the SOG, well since it is closed they are bumping everyone to the North Garden Wing. The rates for this are dependant on sponsors rank. SOG overflow rates are available to most ANY resort and the rates are the same regardless of rank. We have always taken overflow rates to the various resorts. These rates are closer to "code rates". We only booked SOG as we wanted to try CR wing for the low price. Last summer overflow rates to moderates were $99 and in Dec we got a woodsview room for $119(plus tax) at WL. :)

[Clover9990]

Thanks for the replies. I knew the rates were based on rank, but $189 seemed like a big difference from $70. My DH is an E-5, BTW, so we just make the cutoff for the lower rate.

So I can get any Disney resort with a SoG discount? The price just changes depending on the resort we're staying at (except for the Contemporary, which stays at the flat rate)? How would I find out what these prices are? I'd love to stay at the GF, Beach Club, WL, or Poly sometime! Staying off season is perfect for us to get the lower rates, anyhow, since we live only 2 hours from WDW.

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

You can only get these "overflow" rates by calling SOG and asking for them:D ! It varies depending on the resort and the season. The mousesavers resort page has some of the rates on it, but it does depend on availibility too. We LOVE Overflow rates, but you can only get them so many months out, I don't think you can do it a year out. We have got them 3 months out and 3 weeks out, no problem! Good luck!
Oh, if you do a search for username "Firstno" there may be some threads with helpful info on this.

[travelitis]

Clover, my husband is an E5, too. This is the one time it's a perk to be a lower rank, huh? ;) Next time we go to Disney, though, he's not planning on being able to make that cut-off.

About our jacuzzi tub vs. monorail dilemna -- Because of my arthritis (I'm very young to have it) I may need surgery on both hips prior our trip, and that tub gives significant pain relief. I didn't want to get into that, but it's not all about romance. I really do love the Disney ambiance and don't mean to give the impression I think little of their resorts.

[Clover9990]

Ah, yes! My DH is in the same boat as yours- he's looking to be a recruiter, and will automatically get E-6 for that. Even if not, he's eligible to go to BNOC, but I'm not ready for him to go away to school again! ;)

I'm so sorry to hear about your pain. :( I can imagine how those Jacuzzi jets must feel so soothing to aching muscles/joints/bones. Do you think you could compromise and split your stay between your timeshare and the CR, to get the best of both worlds?

[travelitis]

How funny! My husband did the whole recruiter package, but he turned it down in favor of going TAR. He's taking all the correspondence classes he can and working hard toward E6. He's Navy, what branch is your husband?

We definitely are staying at CR our first night, but we might make it 2 and move our timeshare back another day. We also might give our timeshare to family and stay at CR the whole time. Which sounds better depends on the time of day. Wish we had more days of leave, but since we just took a cruise in June I can't complain. We weren't charged for the days when my mother passed away in Feb. or we wouldn't be able to take this trip.

[Clover9990]

Wow- how uncanny! What is TAR- I can't remember for the life of me??? My DH is National Guard, but he's only part time (one weekend a month/2 weeks every summer). He's looking for a full time slot, but those are hard to come by around here for his MOS (45 Bravo).

I'm so sorry to hear about your mom. :( :( I'm glad the Navy was good to you guys and didn't penalize your DH with leave days for your mom's passing. My DH has 2 weeks of paid vacation this year, so we'll probably stretch it out to a few 3 and 4 day vacations- they seem to work much better for us than taking a "lump sum" vacation- last year, when my DH did that, his father wound up having his 5th heart attack while we were at (you're not gonna believe this) the Magic Kingdom! Talk about the magic getting halted in its tracks! (Luckily, his dad is OK now, thanks to stints in his arteries.)

[js]

hi travelitis, how about getting 2 connecting rooms at Contemporary so you have extra bathroom, tv and seperate room for kids for sleeping. You can stay in your room (with open door) with light on, windows open and tv on, while kids are sleeping. For $66 per night, I would opt for 2 rooms on monorail resort. :)

[travelitis]

What a terrible piece of news to get while on vacation! I'm glad that his father recovered and is doing well.

Thanks for all the very helpful points of view and ideas that helped us sort this out. We've decided to do 1st 2nts at CR then go to our timeshare which is only 2 mi. from WDW. My husband is already sick of hearing about Disney, so 2 nts. on site is all I'm going to get out of him, but that will be a great surprise for the kids. He's resistant to the idea of having just a room, because we always stay in larger places. The other part of that was looking at transportation times. Because I travel with an ECV, the buses take longer because I end up waiting for accessible ones. There are times I can get from the timeshare to a park in less time than from CR using Disney transport. Thirdly, it was brought to my attention that NASA is a greater priority than WDW for my boys. Little do they know we're planning to send them both to Space Camp. We'll get a nice injection of WDW magic to kick off our trip, though and end up with what we think is the best of both worlds.

TAR is training, administration, and retention or recruitment. It means you're doing paperwork, and lots of it. For each person deployed there's a package of paperwork, and he does that. He was very busy after Sept. 11, and was on the list to go to an sea, but his C.O. requested he be kept at the base. He also does advancements, service records, I.D. cards, reservist's pay, etc. There aren't a lot of these contracts available, so he felt fortunate to get accepted.

[DisneyVirginia]

Clover and Travelitis--just want to confirm SoG overflow rates at Disney properties are available only when SoG is sold out. Those particular rates are independent of the rank or GS level of the eligible person making the reservation. DH and I are dual-income, one private sector and one working for DoD. I usually wait to make overflow ressies until SoG confirms they have no rooms. Of course, this year I outwitted myself, because if I had known, I would have grabbed the CR special, even though my SoG rate at GF is very good. And I'm getting excited as it draws very near--woohoo!

One of the best features of overflow is the ability to get as many as three rooms at a time at the overflow rate. The other bennie is that over the years, depending upon what is offered, you can stay at almost any resort around the world at significantly reduced rates. That is how I have managed to stay at the deluxe hotels, without DH objection. (Well, not much objection.)

The SoG drawback is that overflow is sometimes comprised of slim pickings--if tourism business is very good, the range and depth of the SoG discounts are nothing special. When one asks for overflow, there are sometimes offerings for just about all of the Disney hotels, and sometimes for just a few.

SoG also helps with off-site specials--but as of now, I've not tried off-site through SoG.

Well, that's my WDW experience!

Still think CR at $66/night is way cool!!!!! Travelitis, your solution to split the stay is great--everyone wins. I hope you and yours have a MAGICAL time. And best of luck and God bless you as you work throught the arthritis!

DisneyVirginia

[DisneyVirginia]

Clover and Travelitis--just want to confirm SoG overflow rates at Disney properties are available only when SoG is sold out. Those particular rates are independent of the rank or GS level of the eligible person making the reservation. DH and I are dual-income, one private sector and one working for DoD. I usually wait to make overflow ressies until SoG confirms they have no rooms. Of course, this year I outwitted myself, because if I had known, I would have grabbed the CR special, even though my SoG rate at GF is very good. And I'm getting excited as it draws very near--woohoo!

One of the best features of overflow is the ability to get as many as three rooms at a time at the overflow rate. The other bennie is that over the years, depending upon what is offered, you can stay at almost any resort around the world at significantly reduced rates. That is how I have managed to stay at the deluxe hotels, without DH objection. (Well, not much objection.)

The SoG drawback is that overflow is sometimes comprised of slim pickings--if tourism business is very good, the range and depth of the SoG discounts are nothing special. When one asks for overflow, there are sometimes offerings for just about all of the Disney hotels, and sometimes for just a few.

SoG also helps with off-site specials--but as of now, I've not tried off-site through SoG.

Well, that's my WDW experience!

Still think CR at $66/night is way cool!!!!! Travelitis, your solution to split the stay is great--everyone wins. I hope you and yours have a MAGICAL time. And best of luck and God bless you as you work throught the arthritis!

DisneyVirginia