Disney's CONTEMPORARY RESORT Information & Questions

Just booked CR CL for our annual late winter trip.. Haven't stayed at CR since my 18yo was little.

Does the CR have a hot tub? I didn't see pictures
 
Just back from our first stay at this resort Aug 18-27th.

I have to say, we loved it!! We arrived at 4:20pm and our room was not ready. What??!? We are pretty patient, but this was unexpected, yet I kept my cool. :) . The CM was very nice, and got housekeeping on the phone to see what the holdup was. It took her about 30 minutes to get an answer. She asked us every question imaginable just to keep us engaged while she was on hold. You could tell she was trying hard to keep us happy. She ended up upgrading us from a GW standard view to a GW garden view, with patio, room 5110. It was an awesome location, we could see the lake and we were steps from the pool. Then she gave us 3 FP for our wait. We got to choose the park and day. They worked out great, and it was unexpected.

I was surprised to read in a previous post that the hallways were dirty, we found them to be spotless. There were many times when we left the room in the am and someone was vacuuming. Our room was fine too. There may have been some dust, I'm sure there was, but nothing that really stuck out as ewww. We did have to ask for restock of toiletries, since we actually use them and we were running out. The only thing we didn't like about the resort was the pool. It was OK, but we much prefer the GF pool. My kids (11&13) like the GF pool better than the famous stormalong bay. We do prefer the MK area over the Epcot area, so that could play a part in our preferences. We loved the decor, we didn't miss Mickey in our room, Stacey was enough :rotfl: The beds were comfortable, more so than YC and GF. That's something I was concerned about. Any questions?
 


This has been discussed at various times on this thread, but ultimately it comes down to personal preference. In my opinion, which is shared by a few others here, the Bay Lake view is actually the superior view. We were upgraded on a previous trip from a BL view to a TP view, and we turned it down because we like the BL view so much. However, there are plenty of others who find the TP view very magical and couldn't imagine staying at the CR with any other view.

We've never stayed at the CR (we're trying it for the first time next summer) and this is what I've seen as well. There are some that love the TPV and won't stay at the CR without it, while others love the serenity of BLV. The thing that gets me about the TPV is the parking lot below. While some people look over that with their eyes going directly to MK, I can't help but notice the cars parked below, taking a little away from that view (at least for me).

If the BLV is equally nice, but for different reasons, then I'll stick with it. I found some older threads that also addressed the view question and saw varying opinions. Thanks again!

I can't say from experience, but from pics I've seen from BLV rooms, I think you'll love it! :goodvibes

Ok CR fans, we will be at CR this December. We were WL refugees ha ha! Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but, I just can't get super excited about staying there. We have been to Poly, BLT, BCV, BWV, BWI, and VWL. Each had its' pros and cons. Proximity to MK is really the only upside to me. Am I wrong, or missing something that keeps the crowds coming? The will be my DH, DS9, and myself. DH is really excited but, I am just not this time around. I wanted theming and CR is just plain stark to me?

I know what you mean. We've never stayed at the CR, but are booked for a few nights next summer. I could never get excited about it as the theme/decor just never did anything for me, but the more I read about it and the more pics I looked at, the more excited I get to stay there. It is hard trying different resorts (especially when the theming isn't what you want), but you might feel differently after actually staying there. I found that out at the GF. I was determined that I'd never stay there after the "feeling" I always got when we would visit. After finally staying there, the GF is now one of my favorites. I'm not saying you will fall in love with the CR and not want to stay anywhere else, but for me, staying at a resort vs just visiting made a world of difference. I hope you have a nice stay.

Just booked tower room theme park view for 4/27/16-5/3/16!!!! So excited!!!

Enjoy the anticipation and planning :goodvibes.

I have been able to do online check-in and we are in garden wing - Garden View. I clicked ground floor and patio so fingers crossed. If I'm looking for a particular room i.e. the ones facing the lake should I give them a ring and if so does anyone know the number from the UK?

I just wanted to mention that if you get a room you don't care for, you can always ask if a different one is available. It's not guaranteed the CM will be able to change it, but it never hurts to ask ;).

Apologies for not multi-quoting, I'll catch-up next week:). We had a lovely visit at CR this morning. We so enjoyed chatting with Randy, the former WL CL manager who is the Recreation Manager at CR/BLT. We ate at The Wave which was delicious. The buffet was as tasty as ever and I still highly recommend it. I think the price went up - again, it was $21.99 (rack rate lol). But, they do serve till 11:45 and it includes milk, juice, soda, coffee and tea so you can make a brunch of it;)

We have had a magical week and have been at GF since Sunday night. I posted all the amazing details on the GF thread earlier this week. Love CR though, especially much more sound-proofed rooms and being able to walk to MK.

AllEars is reporting a CR pool closure for Sep 8-10, however, the Recreation Manager was not aware of this closure and at this time, the pool isn't scheduled to close. I'll update if I learn otherwise.


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Current resort merchandise:
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Work is being done on both sides:
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Garden Wing Standard View:
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View from monorail by GF:
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Awesome pics, KOOK :thumbsup2.

Thanks for sharing about your trip as well as all of the great pics :goodvibes.

Hello all..
We are back from our trip which included stays at the CR and BC.

We arrived at CR on 8/14 and our room (GW SV) was not ready, so we headed to the Poly to have a quick lunch. Well, on this lunch, we were enchanted by the Poly, and wish we'd kept our reservation there regardless of the construction. Over lunch, we got buzzed that our room was ready. We actually got a kick out of the view, being able to see the monorail go by, but we were not enchanted with the room, to put it mildly.
First off, the hallways in the GW are claustrophobic. They are narrow, and the ceilings are low. DP is 6'4 and was uncomfortable. Secondly, the hallways in the GW needed vacuuming desperately. They were gross. We got to the room and it is lovely. It is appointed beautifully. But where was Mickey? As I feared, those cute yellow pillows are gone, leaving the room feeling bland and looking wildly unfinished. In addition, when you have beautiful dark wood furniture, you need to dust it well...and it wasn't I could have written my name in the headboard. Now, I'm sure you'll find dust at any resort, but the furniture here showed dust like woah. The desk chair was broken, as it almost collapsed when I sat on it. Also...no alarm clock. What? Yeah...no alarm clock. Weird. We thought the bathroom was great...until our last night. More on that later.
So, we looked at each other, and agreed we weren't feeling it. We went to the front desk and were brutally honest, saying that "We're just not happy." We were introduced to a wonderful manager named Mario, who worked with us for about 45 minutes. We asked to just go right to BC, where we knew we'd be happy, and where we were due to head in 5 days anyway. Mario called BC and YC....no availability. He called the Poly...no availability. He called the GF...no availability. We had no interest in the lodges, and asked about BWI..and he said that they never have availability because they're so small. So, he poked around in the CR computer, muttering that he had no real availability either. I stressed that I wasn't looking for a better view or an upgrade within the CR, we just weren't that happy with the resort, but apparently, it was our only option.
After poking and poking, Mario told us that of our 5 nights at the CR, if we could stick it out for 2 nights in the GW room he'd move us to the tower with a Bay Lake view for our last 3 nights. It wasn't really what we wanted, but we took it to experience the tower.
We got to that room, and guess what? We still weren't in love. The view was lovely, but to be honest, we kinda missed watching the monorail slide by. And this room was still very dusty, and we found an open DVC welcome packet, and crayons on the desk, the hairdryer plugged in on the desk, and ponchos hanging in the closet. Obviously the room wasn't completely cleaned before we got there, but we were glad to be at Disney, grateful for Mario's help, and glad to be able to say that we tried the CR. On our last night, whenever we turned on the faucet in the left sink in our bathroom, sewage would back up into the sink on the right..which we didn't notice until our toiletry bags and all the items inside were thoroughly soaked. We called the front desk, and their reply was that wasn't that awful....and they'll send someone up in the morning after we check out.
Ooook.

I don't want this all to be negative. We loved the room size, the beds were very comfy, and the AC was amazing! We actually missed CR AC once we got to the BC. On our last night, we finally noticed an etching of Mickey in the shower curtain, but we would have liked to see a bit more in the room. The room itself was really nice, but nothing you couldn't get at a Sheraton or Marriott, and we were looking for a bit more theming at WDW.

We're glad to say we've stayed at CR, and glad to "check it off our list," but we likely won't be back.
We've learned that when we stray from the Epcot resort loop (BWI, YC, BC), we're just not happy. We've had lovely stays at the GF, and would love to try the Poly, and will do a "Bonus Night," or 2 there in the future, but our hearts are really at the Epcot loop.

Thanks for being a great thread, and being helpful with the questions I had when planning this trip!

I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Thanks for your review, Scott. I'm sorry you didn't care for the CR, but glad you tried it....now you know it's not a resort for you. We like trying different resorts and while we have enjoyed all of them so far, we do have a few that are absolute favorites that would be chosen over others. Hope your BC stay was magical :wizard:.
 
Just back from our first stay at this resort Aug 18-27th.

I have to say, we loved it!! We arrived at 4:20pm and our room was not ready. What??!? We are pretty patient, but this was unexpected, yet I kept my cool. :) . The CM was very nice, and got housekeeping on the phone to see what the holdup was. It took her about 30 minutes to get an answer. She asked us every question imaginable just to keep us engaged while she was on hold. You could tell she was trying hard to keep us happy. She ended up upgrading us from a GW standard view to a GW garden view, with patio, room 5110. It was an awesome location, we could see the lake and we were steps from the pool. Then she gave us 3 FP for our wait. We got to choose the park and day. They worked out great, and it was unexpected.

I was surprised to read in a previous post that the hallways were dirty, we found them to be spotless. There were many times when we left the room in the am and someone was vacuuming. Our room was fine too. There may have been some dust, I'm sure there was, but nothing that really stuck out as ewww. We did have to ask for restock of toiletries, since we actually use them and we were running out. The only thing we didn't like about the resort was the pool. It was OK, but we much prefer the GF pool. My kids (11&13) like the GF pool better than the famous stormalong bay. We do prefer the MK area over the Epcot area, so that could play a part in our preferences. We loved the decor, we didn't miss Mickey in our room, Stacey was enough :rotfl: The beds were comfortable, more so than YC and GF. That's something I was concerned about. Any questions?

Thanks for your review. Glad you had a great time and enjoyed the CR. I'm sorry your room wasn't ready so late in the afternoon, but kudos to the CM with the room upgrade and FPs :thumbsup2.
 


Hello all..
We are back from our trip which included stays at the CR and BC.

We arrived at CR on 8/14 and our room (GW SV) was not ready, so we headed to the Poly to have a quick lunch. Well, on this lunch, we were enchanted by the Poly, and wish we'd kept our reservation there regardless of the construction. Over lunch, we got buzzed that our room was ready. We actually got a kick out of the view, being able to see the monorail go by, but we were not enchanted with the room, to put it mildly.
First off, the hallways in the GW are claustrophobic. They are narrow, and the ceilings are low. DP is 6'4 and was uncomfortable. Secondly, the hallways in the GW needed vacuuming desperately. They were gross. We got to the room and it is lovely. It is appointed beautifully. But where was Mickey? As I feared, those cute yellow pillows are gone, leaving the room feeling bland and looking wildly unfinished. In addition, when you have beautiful dark wood furniture, you need to dust it well...and it wasn't I could have written my name in the headboard. Now, I'm sure you'll find dust at any resort, but the furniture here showed dust like woah. The desk chair was broken, as it almost collapsed when I sat on it. Also...no alarm clock. What? Yeah...no alarm clock. Weird. We thought the bathroom was great...until our last night. More on that later.
So, we looked at each other, and agreed we weren't feeling it. We went to the front desk and were brutally honest, saying that "We're just not happy." We were introduced to a wonderful manager named Mario, who worked with us for about 45 minutes. We asked to just go right to BC, where we knew we'd be happy, and where we were due to head in 5 days anyway. Mario called BC and YC....no availability. He called the Poly...no availability. He called the GF...no availability. We had no interest in the lodges, and asked about BWI..and he said that they never have availability because they're so small. So, he poked around in the CR computer, muttering that he had no real availability either. I stressed that I wasn't looking for a better view or an upgrade within the CR, we just weren't that happy with the resort, but apparently, it was our only option.
After poking and poking, Mario told us that of our 5 nights at the CR, if we could stick it out for 2 nights in the GW room he'd move us to the tower with a Bay Lake view for our last 3 nights. It wasn't really what we wanted, but we took it to experience the tower.
We got to that room, and guess what? We still weren't in love. The view was lovely, but to be honest, we kinda missed watching the monorail slide by. And this room was still very dusty, and we found an open DVC welcome packet, and crayons on the desk, the hairdryer plugged in on the desk, and ponchos hanging in the closet. Obviously the room wasn't completely cleaned before we got there, but we were glad to be at Disney, grateful for Mario's help, and glad to be able to say that we tried the CR. On our last night, whenever we turned on the faucet in the left sink in our bathroom, sewage would back up into the sink on the right..which we didn't notice until our toiletry bags and all the items inside were thoroughly soaked. We called the front desk, and their reply was that wasn't that awful....and they'll send someone up in the morning after we check out.
Ooook.

I don't want this all to be negative. We loved the room size, the beds were very comfy, and the AC was amazing! We actually missed CR AC once we got to the BC. On our last night, we finally noticed an etching of Mickey in the shower curtain, but we would have liked to see a bit more in the room. The room itself was really nice, but nothing you couldn't get at a Sheraton or Marriott, and we were looking for a bit more theming at WDW.

We're glad to say we've stayed at CR, and glad to "check it off our list," but we likely won't be back.
We've learned that when we stray from the Epcot resort loop (BWI, YC, BC), we're just not happy. We've had lovely stays at the GF, and would love to try the Poly, and will do a "Bonus Night," or 2 there in the future, but our hearts are really at the Epcot loop.

Thanks for being a great thread, and being helpful with the questions I had when planning this trip!

I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Hi Scott...
Sorry to hear that you weren't wowed by CR and totally understand the feeling of just wanting out - that was us at the Poly and I highly doubt we'll ever return there either.
 
Hi Scott...
Sorry to hear that you weren't wowed by CR and totally understand the feeling of just wanting out - that was us at the Poly and I highly doubt we'll ever return there either.
I hear ya!

We stayed there last month and I was really disappointed in most of the stay..especially Hawaii building.
 
I hear ya!

We stayed there last month and I was really disappointed in most of the stay..especially Hawaii building.

Definitely agree and to be honest we actually felt like CL there was a joke compared to all our other club stays in Disney. Club level at CR on the other hand....definitely no complaints :).
 
We check in on 9/7 at BLT. This is a 20th wedding anniv trip with NO KIDS :yay:Very excited!! This will be our 3rd stay at BLT. Normally, we do have our kids so we stay in a villa with full kitchen. This time we are just in a studio. I'm wondering about food availability from the CR store. I need some kind of quick protein to start my day. I normally eat Greek yogurt or an egg. Does anyone know if the store carries hard-boiled eggs or yogurt? I know they have raw eggs but I do not think I will have any way of cooking them in the studio. TIA!
 
We check in on 9/7 at BLT. This is a 20th wedding anniv trip with NO KIDS :yay:Very excited!! This will be our 3rd stay at BLT. Normally, we do have our kids so we stay in a villa with full kitchen. This time we are just in a studio. I'm wondering about food availability from the CR store. I need some kind of quick protein to start my day. I normally eat Greek yogurt or an egg. Does anyone know if the store carries hard-boiled eggs or yogurt? I know they have raw eggs but I do not think I will have any way of cooking them in the studio. TIA!

I can't answer your questions about the food, but wanted to say I hope you have a great anniversary trip :goodvibes.
 
I can't answer your questions about the food, but wanted to say I hope you have a great anniversary trip :goodvibes.

Thank you so much!!! I am terribly excited and nervous all at the same time. We've not been completely kid-free for even a night in 13 years :rolleyes: ANd our kids are pretty unhappy with us that we are going to Disney without them.

I remember you from the Poly thread when we were planning our trip there for this past December! I did not know you were a CR fan too :teeth:
 
Thank you so much!!! I am terribly excited and nervous all at the same time. We've not been completely kid-free for even a night in 13 years :rolleyes: ANd our kids are pretty unhappy with us that we are going to Disney without them.

Trust me, they will get over it. Have a great anniversary trip! I think EVERY couple should experience WDW without the kids. It truly is awesome!
 
Thank you so much!!! I am terribly excited and nervous all at the same time. We've not been completely kid-free for even a night in 13 years :rolleyes: ANd our kids are pretty unhappy with us that we are going to Disney without them.

I remember you from the Poly thread when we were planning our trip there for this past December! I did not know you were a CR fan too :teeth:

You will have a great time! As dansdad posted, the kids will get over it ;). But, maybe that would be a great excuse to plan another trip with the kids ::yes::.

I'm not an official CR fan yet....lol. We've never stayed at the CR, but are booked for a few nights next summer (before transferring to the Poly :laughing:). The CR never really appealed to us, but after reading more about it and looking at lots of pics, I'm excited to give try it :goodvibes.
 
Club level at CR on the other hand....definitely no complaints :).
Hi- my parents are staying CL at CR on the Bay Lake side (Atrium level). I never thought about it before, but how far is the walk to the lounge from the furthest BLV room?

They get around fine but are elderly. Should I make any requests for them?
 
Just booked CR CL for our annual late winter trip.. Haven't stayed at CR since my 18yo was little.

Does the CR have a hot tub? I didn't see pictures
There are 2! Look at an above picture of the main pool and you can see them. The 2 circles kinda incorporated into the pool area. One has fountains coming up around it and the other closer to where the slide is.

I love cr pool area!! Lots of room on the beach and the smaller pool is usually empty and warmer water! Atrium Club is fun too! DD20 fav!

EnjoY
 
Hi- my parents are staying CL at CR on the Bay Lake side (Atrium level). I never thought about it before, but how far is the walk to the lounge from the furthest BLV room?

They get around fine but are elderly. Should I make any requests for them?
We had one of the rooms 2nd from the farthest end. It was fine for us but why not say close to lounge to be safe.

Its not too bad though because the halls are quiet and spacious.
 
Thank you so much!!! I am terribly excited and nervous all at the same time. We've not been completely kid-free for even a night in 13 years :rolleyes: ANd our kids are pretty unhappy with us that we are going to Disney without them.

I remember you from the Poly thread when we were planning our trip there for this past December! I did not know you were a CR fan too :teeth:
I agree! Your kids will be fine!

Don't be surprised though that you miss them! That's ok! Soon you will be an empty-nester like many of us and connecting with dh is very important:)

Have a great time!
 
I'm wondering about food availability from the CR store. I need some kind of quick protein to start my day. I normally eat Greek yogurt or an egg. Does anyone know if the store carries hard-boiled eggs or yogurt? I know they have raw eggs but I do not think I will have any way of cooking them in the studio. TIA!
I don't remember yogurt, but then again I wasn't looking for it. There are recipes online for how to make scrabbled eggs in the microwave. You may want to try it at home first but it can be an option!
 

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