Contemporary Resort - Worth the Extra for the Tower?

[mmbrad02]

Don't ask me why, but of all the Deluxe resorts it has always been a dream of mine to stay at the Contemporary. As you can see with my signature, we have been more Value/Moderate people, but this year we are tagging along on a conference with my DH and while it's not on Disney, we are looking at a couple of nights on site. Since it's a short stay, I thought this would be a good opportunity to make my dreams come true The most affordable option is a Garden Wing Standard View. For $159 a night more, we can do a Bay Lake view in the Tower. Ideally this is truly what I want, but the practical side of me thinks of how the difference could pay for our meals and so forth. Just wanted a perspective from anyone who has stayed here - would you spring the extra for the main Tower?

 

[DLgal]

For me. yes, it's totally worth it to be in the tower. I have done the garden wing twice and it feels like a completely different hotel over there. I will only stay in the tower from now on. I am a fan of "all under one roof" hotels and having to walk outside to a satellite building especially in Florida weather, is not my idea of deluxe. I hated that about the GF and it's why I won't stay at the Poly either. It is so much nicer to have everything you need in the same building.

Plus, honestly, I found the garden wing dark and dingy. The Windows of our rooms were so dirty we couldn't see outside. No balcony makes the rooms feel very closed in. The elevators smelled awful and the stairwells were worse. Just an overall downgraded experience vs. the Tower rooms.

 

[Amanda999]

I definitely would for $159/nt difference.

(Its been a dream of mine since a kid - 1975 visit - to stay in a tower room. We mostly stay mod/value too. The upcharge for us for a tower bldg room is $300/nt - we're booked for garden bldg in August, 3 nights, convention rate. Its not worth $900 more to me for 3 nights - we have a 16 day total trip - but for $159 I would for sure go tower.) FWIW People do say garden bldg is much quieter (b/c Chef Mickeys is loud).

 

[CinderellaDream]

I will preface my statement by saying that I LOVE the Contemporary. We've stayed in the tower twice but have not tried the garden wing yet. One word of caution though...the tower rooms (especially on lower floors) can be VERY noisy with all of the commotion at Chef Mickey's. We may have been more sensitive because we had an infant at the time and naps were difficult. However, with that said, I would stay there every trip if it was in the budget! The location cannot be beat.

 

[Kerrijo]

Yes to the tower! The garden rooms do not feel the same at all, and you will still be wanting to check off the Contemporary on your wish list if you don't do it this time around

 

[DISNEY1975]

I will say, Ive never stayed in a garden wing room...mostly because when I have stayed at the Contemp, they were all booked and Tower was only available.

But....I always rent a car and always have parked in front of the garden wing. Walking to the main building takes 10 seconds. All rooms are the same, garden wing vs tower. At the Poly, 95% of the rooms are in a building separate from the GCH (main building). Grand Floridian too. It is no big deal to me to walk to the main building and for the price difference between garden wing and tower, I would pick the garden wing in a second. What you will miss is the loudness of Chef Mickeys guests, the music from Chef Mickeys playing from 7am - 10pm ish. ("Celebrate" still rings through my brain from time to time) and seeing the monorail when you hang over the railings. All of this can only be seen and heard when you leave the room. The room is the same in both locations and you can easily leave your room in the GW, go to the tower and see/hear it.

Save the $$$ and do special things!

 

[Poohsmommi]

Tower Theme Park View - 100% yes!

 

[cutigerlady]

If your dream is to stay at the Contemporary, then I would think a tower room is a must. I’ve stayed in both and enjoyed both, but I didn’t find the garden wing memorable. If I stayed in the GW again, I would request a patio room because I did miss not having a balcony.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

If it's your dream to stay in the Tower and you can afford it, I would do it. I've stayed in both the tower and the garden wing and I actually prefer the garden wing (I've found the elevators in the tower can get really congested). I would just request a high floor to try to avoid the Chef Mickey's noise.

 

[mkb3]

I've never stayed in the Tower, but have in a Garden room. The Garden Room was nice, but it didn't feel "Disney" to me. You could have told me I was at a Marriott and would have believed you. The walk from the Garden Wing to the Main Lobby is about 10-15 minutes and I'm in shape.

 

[DISNEY1975]

I've never stayed in the Tower, but have in a Garden room. The Garden Room was nice, but it didn't feel "Disney" to me. You could have told me I was at a Marriott and would have believed you. The walk from the Garden Wing to the Main Lobby is about 10-15 minutes and I'm in shape.

10 - 15 minutes ??? Im not in shape and it took me probably 30 seconds to walk from the parking area to the main building. I cant imagine, even from the farthest point taking any more than 2 minutes.







Last year I stayed at the YC. Came out back lobby exit, walked past the expansive pool area, past the entire Beach Club, past a beachy area all the way to Epcot and it took 4 minutes.

 

[Summer2018]

Don't ask me why, but of all the Deluxe resorts it has always been a dream of mine to stay at the Contemporary. As you can see with my signature, we have been more Value/Moderate people, but this year we are tagging along on a conference with my DH and while it's not on Disney, we are looking at a couple of nights on site. Since it's a short stay, I thought this would be a good opportunity to make my dreams come true The most affordable option is a Garden Wing Standard View. For $159 a night more, we can do a Bay Lake view in the Tower. Ideally this is truly what I want, but the practical side of me thinks of how the difference could pay for our meals and so forth. Just wanted a perspective from anyone who has stayed here - would you spring the extra for the main Tower?

YES.

We were upgraded to a high Bay Lake tower room on our last trip. The view is breathtaking. Honestly, TPV is actually parking lot view with the castle off in the distance.

I have so many photos of the view from our room at all times of the day. It was a major highlight of our trip.

Oh, and we had no elevator issues. Our only problem was the monorail being constantly broken down.

 

[mkb3]

Disney1975 wanna race? ha

No way it takes 2 minutes to walk from a far down Garden Room to the main lobby. From the entrance of the Garden Wing to the Lobby yes, but there are only a handful GW rooms that close.

 

[DISNEY1975]

Disney1975 wanna race? ha

No way it takes 2 minutes to walk from a far down Garden Room to the main lobby. From the entrance of the Garden Wing to the Lobby yes, but there are only a handful GW rooms that close.

Ha! Normally I would not want to race anyone, but if it really takes you 10 - 15 minutes to walk from the GW to the main building, then yes, I would love to race you!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Disney1975 wanna race? ha

No way it takes 2 minutes to walk from a far down Garden Room to the main lobby. From the entrance of the Garden Wing to the Lobby yes, but there are only a handful GW rooms that close.

Ha! Normally I would not want to race anyone, but if it really takes you 10 - 15 minutes to walk from the GW to the main building, then yes, I would love to race you!

I'm in! We stayed on the far side of the garden wing and I actually loved the walk along the water to the tower. I would much rather walk from the garden wing to the tower than wait for those tower elevators! Trying to get into one got cut throat on our last trip there and there is no line so even if you are the one pressing the button, there's no guarantee you're getting on the next elevator. That, to me, is one of the biggest "cons" of staying in the tower.

 

[ChimCher-ee]

I booked a Garden room as part of my trip last year. I called in April/May to see if there were any specials. As it turned out, I was upgraded to a Tower room, park view, for the same price! It was amazing! I didn't experience any noise, either. Only problem was people on a nearby balcony smoking outside. Yuck.

That said, I still want to try the Garden Wing and have booked it for two nights of my next trip.

 

[DISNEY1975]

I'm in! We stayed on the far side of the garden wing and I actually loved the walk along the water to the tower.

How long did it take you to walk to the main building?

 

[Cotillard]

For a first visit, yes. Definitely. If not, you will wish you were in the tower, I am sure.

 

[Mitre10]

I think you should upgrade if it's a dream of yours. We had a garden room booked, and I'm sure it would have been great, but we were magically upgraded to a bay lake tower room and it was AMAZING! We were down on the end and saw MK each time we stepped out the door, and stepped out to view the fireworks each night. I loved it. No issues with the elevator or noise (we were quite a ways from Chef Mickey's though).

 

[disneyvoice]

The Contemporary was the first deluxe my DH and I stayed at after having only stayed at Values in the past. We decided staying at CR was only worth it if it stayed in the tower - for us the garden wing just didn't feel like we were actually staying at the CR. So I make our reservation on MDE but it seems to just freeze when I try to check out. Nothing seems to work. I call WDW and, sure enough, somehow another person booked the room even though it was still showing up in my cart. It was the last theme park view in the tower (I really wanted a theme park view). Of course there were still CL theme park view rooms available. We splurged. It was awesome. I will warn you that one you start down the deluxe resort path it is hard to go back. Not that we haven't been able to do it - our last stay in January was at ASMu and we had a great time. But it is REAL easy to get used to deluxe.

Side note - although we loved CR we decided that CL isn't really our thing. It was nice but we just aren't at the resort enough to enjoy the food, we tended to be at the parks when food was served.