BLT questions

[mom3sonstt]

I have booked a friend of mine and her daughter in a studio at BLT for their upcoming vacation. I have never stayed there, or even visited the Contemporary so I am pretty clueless about that resort.

I was able to get her in a studio with a lake view.

The CM at DVC that I booked it with new they were first-time visitors and not DVC members. But she told me that they would be able to use the Top of the World lounge (is that the correct name) to watch the fireworks. I thought that the lounge was only for DVC members. Or is it for anybody staying at BLT on points? I wouldn't want to tell them that they can go up there only for them to be turned away because they arent members.

How do you get to the monorail from the towers. Do you have to go down to the first floor and over to the main building of the Contemporary? I know the monorail runs through the contemporary, I assume the loading platform is in there?

How about if you just want to walk over to the Magic Kingdom - about how far is that walk....not in minutes please since everyone has their own pace - but is it the length of Main Street, or Space Mountain to the toontown train station, or.....

Does anybody know about the renovation of the sinks. I had heard that the "bathroom" sink was in the kitchen, but that renovations were being made to move/add a sink to the bathroom side. Do you know how that is coming along?

 

[chalee94]

But she told me that they would be able to use the Top of the World lounge (is that the correct name) to watch the fireworks. I thought that the lounge was only for DVC members. Or is it for anybody staying at BLT on points? I wouldn't want to tell them that they can go up there only for them to be turned away because they arent members.

the rules are always changing. i wouldn't trust the CM. they should ask to see if they can go up to the TOTW but understand that it may be for DVC only. (when i was there, they only asked for the room key...recently, they have asked to see the DVC member card...no telling what the policy will be tomorrow.)

How do you get to the monorail from the towers. Do you have to go down to the first floor and over to the main building of the Contemporary? I know the monorail runs through the contemporary, I assume the loading platform is in there?

there is a 5th floor walkway from the BLT to the contemporary. i believe it matches up to the same floor the monorail is on in the contemporary.

How about if you just want to walk over to the Magic Kingdom - about how far is that walk....not in minutes please since everyone has their own pace - but is it the length of Main Street, or Space Mountain to the toontown train station, or.....

hard to say - walking to the MK is almost always faster than the monorail, though. there is a map here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2397445

edited to add: looking at google maps, i'd guess that the walk from the front of BLT to the front gate of the MK is slightly longer than the walk from the front gate of MK to "it's a small world."

 

[Harlemgirl720]

Its less than a 10 minute walk from BLT to the Magic Kingdom. They just have to walk out of the lobby of BLT and there is a walkway.

The bridge from BLT to Contemporary is on the 5th floor of BLT. When they get across to Contemporary, they will be at the back where the gift shop and grocery store is located. To get to the monorail, they can either take the escalator or elevator up one level. Its pretty simple so they won't get lost.

As for the TOTWL, they have to show their room key but I am not sure if it will say DVC member on it if they are using your points. I don't see why it shouldn't.

 

[Havana]

We just got back last weekend from a stay at BLT and showed our room key and DVC member card to the front desk person to go to the TOTW lounge. My room key did not say DVC member on it, but my DH card did.
We were in a studio, and the sink is now in the bathroom.

 

[mom3sonstt]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I will tell her about the Lounge, but warn her to have a back-up plan in case for some reason she can't go up.

Glad to hear at least some of the studios have the sink moved. That looked like an awkward set up. Especially since I would normally be making coffee while DH is getting ready - shaving, brushing his teeth, etc and that doesn't seem a convenient lay out

 

[Harlemgirl720]

I did forget to mention that the studio I was in sink was in the bathroom. I had to check. I keep my room keys. My card and my son's said DDP DVC on them. So I hope that because they are on your points, it should say DVC on their cards.

 

[spiceycat]

this is hard to answer - on my trips just showing my key (ID) card for me.

that say if they are refused - then just go to the 15th floor (north side) and watch out of the elevators. (no music here)
some wv have a side view of the mk - so they might get one of these.

It is definitely faster to walk to the MK than to take the monrail. the monrail has to go to CR, TTC, Polyn, GF then finally the MK. this can take it a good 25 minutes - sometimes more.

now for the monrail to TTC to go to Epcot - then yes the 5th floor - SOUTH wing near the elevators is the way to get on the walkway.
if they want a first floor way - they can go in the back entrance to CR and take the elevators to its 4th floor then you change to escalators for the monrail.

sorry can't say about the bathrooms - won't be back to BLT until next year.

 

[K9pal]

Although we are DVC members, our room key did not indicate that when we stayed at BLT in May. We went up to the Top of the World twice - one time, they just looked at our room key. Second time, they scanned it (maybe to see if we were staying on points?).

 

[disprincessatheart]

All of the studios are supposed to have the sinks moved by now. There are plenty of signs directing them to the monorail and mk walkway. Let them know if they can't or don't want to do top of the world they can watch wishes from the 4th floor viewing platform at the contemporary. A couple of other things they might like to know- there is a movie outside every night on the grass between cont and Blt. It's free and the schedule is in the checkin packet. the Blt pool can get crowded mid day. On one of our stays we chose to use the contemporary pool instead and it was empty! Other than then splash pad for our toddler at Blt, we found them to be equally nice so they aren't missing anything if they use the contemporary pools instead.

 

[JenSop]

When we stayed, they looked at DVC membership cards before letting people go up to TOTWL.

It's a very short walk to MK from BLT. That was the best part of staying there.