Contemp Garden Wing: opinions please!!

[3TinksandPeter]

We just booked a quick 2 night stay in a Garden Wing room at CR for my DD's 13th bday It will be our first visit to CR! We are big fans of YC and BC, but got a great rate on the Garden Wing, and thought the location would be awesome since we will also be doing MNSSHP for the first time

Please give me your thoughts, opinions, recent experiences with the GW at CR - I have read some negative things about the distance away from the main bldg, the sterile feel, etc. Is the walk into MK much different from GW than the main Tower? Do you feel removed from the "magic" when you are in the separate GW building? I trust my fellow Disers - give me your honest opinions! TIA

 

[trishadono]

We just booked a quick 2 night stay in a Garden Wing room at CR for my DD's 13th bday It will be our first visit to CR! We are big fans of YC and BC, but got a great rate on the Garden Wing, and thought the location would be awesome since we will also be doing MNSSHP for the first time

Please give me your thoughts, opinions, recent experiences with the GW at CR - I have read some negative things about the distance away from the main bldg, the sterile feel, etc. Is the walk into MK much different from GW than the main Tower? Do you feel removed from the "magic" when you are in the separate GW building? I trust my fellow Disers - give me your honest opinions! TIA

You will love it
We have stayed as a family at over 40 disney resorts in the last 18 years. We had stayed at CR MkV and Atrium club MKV and yet last weekend dh and I spent one night in the garden wing for our anniversary without the kids.

The location is great. It is really close to main building. It is wonderful to be at a monorail hotel, be able to see the castle from your hotel AND be able to see your hotel from MK is priceless.

Also my hard to please son had his 14bday there and loved the theming

The walk to MK is only a few steps more than from main building, but is much closer to pool and marina. The boat ride to WL is a nice way to relax. I love to explore WL lobby and shop because theming is about opposite of CR.

The pools and hot tubs at CR are not crowded either. The pool out by the water is usually pretty warm too. I prefer this area vs the crowds at poly and GF .

I think a great choice for price.
.

 

[tluvstink]

We stayed in a garden wing room Thanksgiving week 2010 and loved it! Even though it was a busy week the it was very quiet. The walk to the main building was easy so no issues there.

We requested, and received, a ground floor room so we had a patio We also had view of the pool and Bay Lake and could watch the EWP from our room.

I would stay there again without hesitation!

Terri

 

[3TinksandPeter]

Thank you both for the positive feedback! What room requests would you recommend? I know the ground floor has the patio, and upper floors do not have balconies, right? Is the ground floor noisier - do you hear people above you? Also, is it helpful to ask for a room closer to the main building? Thanks again everyone for the input!

 

[tluvstink]

Your right, the upper floors do not have a balcony. I forget our room number but we had a room in the middle of the first floor with a great view. My DDs (14 & 17 at the time) used our patio door to go to and from the pool.
We could refill our mugs at the pool bar so that was another convenience.

I did not hear anyone above or around us while in the room. It was seriously quiet! Mousekeeping did a great job so no complaints there either.

We went to the Contempo Cafe for breakfast twice and it was great. I hope to try lunch or dinner there one day. Oh they have really good cupcakes too

On a side note we found our selves cancelling our ADR for Rose & Crown one day and was unable to rebook anything over the phone that was convenient to CR. (We were calling from EPCOT and it was TG week so things were busy and I totally understood)

When we made it back to the CR I stopped at the desk hoping they could find anything at a monorail resort and they got us into Chef Mickey's that evening around 6:00 Now I know dinner at CM has it's haters but we were beyond thrilled!

Sorry for rambling but I loved our stay and was worried that I would feel like I missed something by not staying in the tower.

Terri

 

[WsPrincess]

We loved it. Actually I think we enjoyed it as much if not more than our MK view Atrium Club room in the tower. We also had a patio and it was perfect. So close to the pool and boats. Also, we never had to wait for an elevator (which was great since the tower had a conference and it was a mess with strollers). The walk to MK is awesome.

We would stay there again in a heartbeat.

 

[fairestoneofall]

we stayed there December 2011. our room was pretty far from the tower, but it wasn't any further than when we'd stayed at GF, CBR, CSR, Pop, etc. the walk to MK was wonderful!!

we requested a ground floor room. we had an infant and wanted to be able to sit on the patio if he were sleeping. we also upgraded to Garden View. i'd definitely recommend this because you could end up looking at the parking lot otherwise. that upgrade was worth it. we had a gorgeous view of Bay Lake. the water pageant was right outside our room each night. and we could easily walk out of the patio door and hit the beach area.

even though our room was one of the furthest from the tower, i'd request it again if i could.

 

[beebeeryan]

I'm not sure if there was anybody else in the entire Garden Wing when we stayed there in August 2011, because we never heard a sound and rarely even saw other people. We loved it and the extra distance on the walk to MK is totally negligible, a few more steps really. It was much quieter than the Tower, which is very noisy. I'd request a ground floor for the patio as extra usable space.

 

[3TinksandPeter]

So reassuring to hear all this positive feedback! I hadn't thought about avoiding the elevator wait that I've heard may sometimes be an issue with the tower - that's a plus . And it sounds like we should request a ground floor room for the patio and easy exit it provides. Thanks so much everyone!! Getting really excited to spend my sweet DD's bday there. Now I just have to wait another 106 days

 

[cheesemouse]

Hi - We have stayed in a garden wing room before and found it to be quite nice actually. We have also stayed in a tower room. The 1st floor rooms have patios but the 2nd & 3rd floor rooms do NOT have balconies. I really recommend requesting a 1st floor room, near the main building. The walk to the main building is really not a big deal. Sure, if you get the farthest room, it's a little bit of a walk but nothing compared to some of the other more spread out resorts. The walk to MK is the same for both I believe. The price difference is HUGE for a garden wing versus tower room and really, I don't think it's worth the difference. The rooms are the same size, same decor. Garden wing rooms are very close to the pool and laundry and beach. They are obviously farther from the monorail, restaurants, and shops. Don't worry...I think you'll like your stay.

 

[3TinksandPeter]

Thank you Cheesemouse! The significantly lower rate offered on the GW puts the CR within our reach. We probably could not do it otherwise. So to hear that there is not a great difference between the GW and Tower is wonderful!