DEC 12-19 stay at Contemporary. Just the facts.

[Neko]

DEC 12-19 Contemporary Resort Stay
My family of 4, two adults, 10yo and 7yo, stayed at the Contemporary Resort Dec 12-19 on the basic dining plan. I’ll be brief and get to the details. Firstly, it went by too fast! I’ll review the hotel, the dining, then other tidbits (like Toy Story Mania was the only wait of the whole trip, how we got picked to be the announcing family at Lights, Motors, Action, and so much more!)

The Contemporary Resort was great. I’ll put pictures on the appropriate board. We have stayed at Shades of Green twice in the past (04 and 08), so this was our first real Disney property. Obviously, walking to MK was super convenient, although no closer than walking from SOG to Poly for the monorail. The advantage at the CR; buses to DTD and DHS (we didn’t go to AK) was that they run every 20 min or so. At SOG it’s only once an hour, so you need to plan accordingly. Our room was garden view, south wing, 6226. It had a nice view of trees and the main CR tower. It was great to just step out the door, down one flight of stairs and be outside by the beach. The room was plenty big for 4 people and we always had housekeeping and fresh towels. It was very quiet as well. I don’t know if anyone was even around us. For the 7days there, we only heard footsteps above us once and voices in the hall once or twice, but very muted.

We swam in the pool the first day there, then we were too busy and then it was too cold! The pool was great, hot tub even better. The lifeguards were friendly and always attentively on the job, not wandering about looking out into space like some places we’ve been.

There’s always room for improvement, so here’s my list for the management: the sinks and the bathroom doors. I know everyone comments on the sinks and now I know why. There’s two flat square sinks and zero waist-height counter space. Whomever designed this has never traveled before. We of course used one sink and put all our stuff in the other. Also, whomever designed the sinks has never brushed child’s teeth. When they spit into the sink in the corner and it’s only head-height, it doesn’t go anywhere! There’s a reason sinks are bowl shaped—gravity needs to wash everything down! We also all kept stubbing our toes on the middle counter legs. Lastly, the non-locking, see-through bathroom doors. If someone is on the toilet, they need privacy from the person brushing their teeth. The frosted glass sliding door isn’t enough. ‘Nuff said.

Dining reviews. Most everywhere we ate was good. Some better than others. I’ll put pictures on the appropriate boards. Since we have a 10yo this year (9 last year so kids’ meal prices), we added everything up from last year’s trip with 3 adults and 1 child and decided it was about the same for the dining plan, so we’d try it. One major complaint was there were too many desserts. Why oh why can’t I substitute a side salad for yet another chocolate dessert? I love dessert but by the third day myself, DH, and even the kids were grossed out at the thought of having dessert with every meal.

Contempo café at CR: decent selection of sandwiches and kids’ food. I asked the food prep people if I could sub a salad instead of a dessert with my sandwich. It was a NO.

Chef Mickey’s at CR: ate here last day, have eaten here before so we knew what to expect. It was fine. Food was as expected, but the characters this time were really disoriented. They were constantly going back to their handlers and hopping around tables, missing many along the way. We were there an hour and 10 min and never saw Mickey. The table next to ours yelled at Minnie to come over and thank goodness or she would’ve missed our whole row. Since we’d been finished eating at least 20 min, we kept asking our server when he’d come around, she said, just stay there and wait and he’d be around again. As he was nowhere in sight, I told the table organizer person (who has the handheld computer table thing) when she came into our room, that we’d like to leave (as would the 3 other tables along our wall), but we were waiting for Mickey. Of course she wanted to turn the tables ASAP, so she got the handler from across the restaurant, who came to ask if we’d seen Mickey, how long we’d been there, etc. He very politely said to follow him and he would be happy to take a family picture for us. So our row of tables collected our things and followed him across the restaurant to the large separated room. We all stood in the hall by the kitchen service entrance and the handler took pics of us, so it all worked out fine.

Crystal Palace in MK: had the character lunch the first day. It was a good selection of salads, cold cuts and hot items. Character interaction was good and loved the flowered topiary animals at the entrance. Definitely eat here again.

Columbia Harbor House at MK: across the board pretty bad. I had Lighthouse sandwich, which I think they toast to mask the old bread. DH had AnchorsAweigh sandwich, which was fine, but not good by any means. 10yo had chicken nuggets, 7yo had PBJ pre-made sandwich, grapes and carrots. 7yo threw up within an hour of this dinner and he didn’t even eat any dessert! Oh yes, we were waiting for Spectromagic to start, it was lovely.

Mama Melrose at DHS: had the Fantasmic package. Food was good, but so heavy for 4p in the afternoon, we all barely ate half of it. We had 3 appetizers as part of the dining package and then the pasta and dessert. The desserts (except for kids’ ice cream) we had packaged to eat at Fantasmic. Again, major food wastage. We were done in plenty of time for Fantasmic, the server was good.

1900 Park Fare Supercalifrag….whatever….breakfast buffet at Grand Floridian: made last reservation possible, 11:05, on MK early opening day. Went to MK at 8. Spent some quality time on rides with NO wait….I rode Buzz 3 times while kids and DH went on Space MTN at rope drop. Then headed to Grand Floridian. When we followed the greeter to our table, it was one right inside the doors where people were entering and exiting. It also had a high chair for our 7yo. DH and I cringed at being directly in front of the main entrance/exit, so we asked for another table. The seater looked panicked (she was very young) and started hemming and hawing. We scanned the dining room and saw one in the middle of the restaurant with one side of booth seating. I asked for that and she said this is your table, not sure what to do, so she then led us over to the open table. The head mistress gal, who made announcements about people’s birthdays and directed the seaters, came up to us and told our seater nastily, “you are looking for table # 47 and it’s right over there”, and pushed the poor gal towards it. We said it had a high chair and we’d rather not sit by the door. She told the seater to change out the chair and scurried off. We stood there a minute not budging, as we were definitely the last seating, there wasn’t someone coming in after us to throw off their system, so she led us to the table that was open in the middle of the dining room. At that point, experience with their seating system paid off for us, as it was really no big deal where we sat as the dining room emptied, some parties stayed later, some ate and ran. There was a table of 10 next to us that was finished eating when we got there, but was still there when we left. As for the food and characters, it was good, as to be expected. The made to order omelet station puts this above Chef Mickey’s. We’d go back here before Chef Mickey’s.

EPCOT: went to EPCOT two days, so here’s the run-down. Had counter service at Morrocco, Mexico’s outside restaurant, and France’s Boulangerie Patisserie. All good. One HUGE TIP is knowing that when there is no children’s menu choices, they aren’t as restricted; they can order off the adult/regular menu. At Boul Pat in France there isn’t a specific kids’ menu, so 7yo got a ham and cheese sandwich, drink and dessert (large choc chip cookie) for the child’s CS credit. Sandwich was big enough that both kids could have split it. Tangerine Café in Morrocco (conveniently next to France, so we got kids’ meals at Boul Pat and adults’ platters here) both adults got Shwarma platters. I was so stuffed, I had to skip the baklava…..although I ate everything on the plate. I think for the CS credit, it’s a great meal, meat, hummus, couscous, bread. We’ve travelled all around the world (the real world, not just DW!) and yet thought it was good, not just good compared to other WDW park food.

EPCOT: TS at Le Cellier. Ate last dinner here, so we were really stuffed from the big meals all week. We tried to have a lighter lunch, knowing we’d be doing steak for dinner. Two adults and 10yo all got the New York Strip. All were very good. Of course if we weren’t on the dining plan, I would think twice about buying 10yo steak knowing she would only eat half of it. DH and I got the gratin potatoes, very yummy, 10yo got fries. If we were paying cash, 10yo and I could have split one steak (I could only eat half as well) dinner and get a veggie or salad side with it. 10yo had S’Mores dessert, which was incredible, look for pic on dining board. I had the apple tart, good as it was not too sweet.

DTD: CS at Cookes of Dublin by Raglan Road. Cookes was good, even picky 10yo liked it. All 3 adult meals got fish and chips. Not greasy, big piece of fish, yummy. 7yo had chicken and chips, which was a large piece of actual chicken, not nuggets of questionable origin. Nice you can get a fruit cup for a dessert, so we got that with our meal.

DTD: TS at Wolfgang Puck. Not very good. Food was really mediocre. We had 4:30 ressie as we went to Cirque after, which started at 6. Not very crowded at all, but filled up as we left at 5:30. Got a nice window table and watched it rain over the lake, very pretty. DH had spinach salad, which he said was fine. I had pumpkin ravioli which was tasty, but heavier than I thought it would be (pasta was cut very thick) and barely warm. It was cold around the edges, but I didn’t send it back, as the whole meal took a while to get there, I was concerned we wouldn’t have enough time to eat. 10 yo got the pizza Magherita, which she only ate a few slices of. She was stuffed from an earlier snack. So sad to waste almost an entire pizza. I tasted some of hers and while it tasted fine, it was very greasy. I don’t think I had a pre-conceived high expectation for this restaurant that was not met. I think for whatever reason, the kitchen didn’t put out it’s best product at that time.


PARK INFO:
Fantasmic. Our first time seeing it, just never found the time before. It was great. Getting there 1 hr before was plenty, only 4 other people total in the reserved section when we got there. At 1 hour, open seating was ½ full. Within 20 min (about 40 min before), reserved was half full and reg. seating mostly full. It was a chilly night in Dec, about 65, and we got sprayed the entire time, so not just damp, but wet….check wind direction before sitting down. We even put on our rain jackets.

Lights. Motors. Action. We got picked to be the special family of the day. We announced the start of it, but more importantly, got special director style chairs with BACKS on them! We had seen it before and thought it was fun. Earlier in the day myself and DS were waiting for the Power Rangers to arrive. DD and DH went to pin trade the gal at the entrance to LMA. They were chatting away when DH comes over and asks if it’s okay if we’re the special family of the day! He told the gal he had to check with me first, how sweet. I had to wait with DS for Power Rangers, so DH and DD went with the gal and got a special pass to present right before show time. It was so cool to arrive when the stadium was almost full, walk right down in front and have them open the special seating area just for us. Of course they were the best seats in the house! Did I mention the chairs had backs???? That was by far the best part!

Toy Story Mania. Got to the Studios 20 min before park opening, thinking we’d try to sprint for TSM ahead of the crowd….uh, nope! When got to the gate, the front of the crowd was already passing the hat it looked like. We debated to fastpass or line, then FP. Of course, I’d read all the DIS info, but was still shocked at the crowd ahead of us. We stood in line, 40 min, rode, then got FP for 1:30ish. At 1:30 FP were gone and line said 60 min, but I peeked inside and it wasn’t very long, barely half way through the room.

Splash Mountain. DD wore her favorite baseball cap on the ride and lost it doing down the flume. Poor gal. Others kept their hats and I didn’t think about it at the time. At the end of the ride, we told the person at the podium, who said to call lost and found at the end of the day….didn’t give us the number, just ignored us then. She was very cold and unconcerned about it, geesh! We asked the person at the end of the exit line about the hat also, he was very nice and gave us directions to lost and found. The gal at lost and found told us, they drain the ride everynight by the filter and dig out everything that was collected for the day. She said even if it wasn’t torn to bits from the filter, it would be in such nasty condition, you wouldn’t want it back. She was very nice to DD who was sad from losing her hat. We never got it back. Lesson learned.

Spectromagic. Hadn’t seen it before, just never fit it in. Glad we watched it. At least 2 of us did. After eating at Columbia Harbor house for dinner, we found a great spot at the picture spot on the end of the bridge to Liberty Square. Good spot if you’ve seen the stage show from the front and don’t care if you see it again, but want to see the castle light up. After castle lit up, DS7 puked. DH took him back to the hotel. We told the guy roping off the area for the parade, and within 2 min, a guy was there to clean it up, took out a whole cleaning system from the garbage can nearby, who knew? He poured powder on it, swept that up, sprayed the area with cleanser, swept it, then another round of sanitizer wiped off with a towel. It was spotless. So, within 5 min, it was completely gone without a trace. I was profusely apologizing to the people around us, who were not budging their spot for the parade, but tried to stand back from the puke. We were all impressed with the speed and efficiency they cleaned it up, they obviously deal with this all the time.

EPCOT. –Kim Possible Missions. Soooooooo much fun. We all had the best time and did just about every country possible over a 2 day period. It was more fun seeing adults my parents age (70ish) doing it and having fun.

EPCOT—getting pics with Santa AND Mrs. Claus. Very nice.

EPCOT—Mission Space. Never been on it before, kids were too small, so we’ve always skipped it. We tried the easy version and I was about 5 secs from puking when thankfully it stopped. DH is in the Navy and has an iron stomach from heavy seas on the ship and he was also close to being ill. We obviously don’t have what it takes for the more intense version. Space Mtn. doesn’t affect us at all, but this was terrible. Kids thought it was great, weren’t negatively affected at all.

MK early opening. I can’t express how much you can get done with early opening at some of the parks. We got so many rides done in the few hours we were at MK early opening. We could leisurely go through stores and wait for characters without worrying about what the wait time would be for a ride if we lingered.

In our opinion, the parks were busier than the same time last year when we went. Walk-on was the best though, still possible. Literally, getting to BTMRR walk on, get off, walk back through, get onto the ride with open seats, 3 times over. Same for Buzz. DH and kids went on Space Mtn....I didn't feel like it, so I went on Buzz 3 times, just walking around to get on....me and 2 teenage boys were the ONLY people on the ride!

Besides TSMania, we never waited more than 10 min for anything. If it said 20 min, we skipped it or FP for a later time.

LASTLY, we went non-stop for the whole week and it went by too fast. There’s still so much to see. Thanks to everyone here at the DISBOARDS who so kindly answered all our questions. You all are the best! Thanks!