Disney's CONTEMPORARY RESORT Information & Questions

[Deb & Bill]

Thanks so much for the response! Super, super helpful. I really appreciate it!

Glad I could help.

One more thing. There are two different types of two bedroom units - dedicated and lockoff. The dedicated is always a two bedroom unit and has two queen beds in the second bedroom. The lockoff is a combination of a one bedroom villa and a studio. So the second bedroom has a separate entrance and a kitchenette, but only one queen bed and one double sleeper sofa. There is a door (actually two doors, one on each side of the two units and both would need to be opened) between the units that can be left open or closed depending on how you want it.

 

[mateojr]

You stayed in my favorite view at WDW, so if you weren't crazy about that, maybe you'd like a view of MK better?

I'm not a fan of CM, but I think it's a great opportunity for picture taking with all the big characters. It's not really about the food, but more about the character interaction. I think it gets too loud and the food isn't the best, but everyone should try it once, especially with young children. Have you tried CA Grill? The view is amazing and I think the food is really good and they have a lot of wine for your mom

Do you like walking to MK? That's a huge benefit to staying at CR or BLT. Do you like a huge villa with two bathrooms? Then that's a huge benefit of a one bedroom at BLT. Do you like water activities? The marina and Sammy Duval have so many fun things to do and AllEars has a 20% off coupon!

Do you like arcades? They have a great one at CR. I love the pinball machines. Do you like going over to FW and WL or taking the monorail to Poly and GF? It's a breeze from CR!

@pixarmom is right about the lounge, it has a great view. I assume you stayed Atrium Club? I'm staying for the first time on the Tower Club level which is the 14th floor and I'll be posting a LIVE TR! I'll be very honest about my impressions so I hope you'll join me. I'll post the link here probably 9/4.


you know you are not alowed to share personal info WDWKOOK


When is your next trip after January?

 

[trishadono]

@WDWKOOK When you get back I am finally back on the rail!!!

BLT 1 br TPV for a family of 4 Jan 13-15th.

Yes dd is a senior(q from your live thread) and we haven't been as a family in 3 years!

Hoping for a discount on a gv cr room to stay on after. Fingers crossed!

My ds19 only request is to eat at Kona again. Boy that kid loved that food this summer

Also kook I highly recommend a Jan trip! It is great to get away and reconnect after the semester away from home.

The first semester is the hardest for both parents and kids. Your dd will be fine tho having such a great support system

 

[AaronInWI]

I've been searching thru the board for answer to this, but it's been a bit overwhelming so I'm giving up and throwing myself on your mercy:

I'd like to rent a two-bedroom villa in Bay Lake Tower for Oct. 2017 for my kid's 5th birthday. We need an extra bedroom because my 77-year-old mom will also be coming with us and she wants her own room. We'd like to have some kind of dinette so we can eat breakfast together in our room. Is it possible to rent a 2-bedroom via Disney or do you have to do it by renting some person's DVC points? I asked a travel agent and she told me that those rooms can't be booked until 11 months out and after reading some posts here, I'm wondering if I need to start researching the DVC-point rental option. I was looking at the option of just getting two rooms but it seemed like the 2-bedroom option might be cheaper (even at the rack rate).

Thanks in advance for your kind help! (And please excuse me if this has been asked a billion times before.)

@Deb & Bill already answered your question better than I ever could, but I'll tack on my own recent experience with reserving BLT as a non-DVC owner for our upcoming February trip. We had originally planned on reserving a lake view studio on a cash reservation through Disney. I kept checking their website every week or so all the way through late July, and there were always rooms available. We were finally ready to book at the end of July, and when I went to book there was no availability at BLT in any room category. We then turned to the rental market, and to make a long story short, we ended up renting points through a broker (I won't name them here since they are a competitor with a DIS sponsor), securing a 1-BR lake view for about the same as we would have paid for the cash reservation in a studio.

I've always been hesitant to rent points, because many (most?) brokers will require full payment upfront, and once you pay that money you either have to purchase your own travel insurance or risk losing all of that money if you are unable to make the trip. The broker we went through offers their own point protection plan, which gave me a little piece of mind. You have to pay for it, of course, and there are a few caveats to be aware of, but it does offer some level of insurance against losing everything in the event of an emergency. The one thing I really do not like, however, is that I have virtually no control over the reservation. If I want to add room requests, I have to contact the broker, who then contacts the person who owns the points, who then contacts Disney to add the request. I have to trust that the other two parties did what they needed to do. That's tough for someone like me. I will say this, though. Assuming everything goes well in February, this might be the route we end up taking from now on. The broker I worked with made everything a pretty smooth process.

 

[gioiamama]

Just home from an incredible stay in a 1bd Bay Lake View Tower Club suite. The Contemporary continues to be perfect for our multi-generational trips with the convenience of the walkway to Magic Kingdom and monorail for Epcot.
Wait times were manageable throughout the parks and the Disney app is key to securing fast passes after the initial 3 are used. I believe we used 7 one day!
Mark and Susan in the Tower Club are amazing and I can't say enough about how well they worked to make our vacation a vacation.
We were sprinkled with pixie dust everywhere we went. CMs who just "get" what it means to brighten a guests day. Had a great conversation waiting for the Boo to you Parade with a MK park manager and she said that they take on a great responsibility when we choose to vacation at Disney. It's the little things that continue to make it the most magical place on earth!
FYI -- liter bottles were in our room daily and bottled water for parks available on request from the club room.
Feel free to ask away!

 

[rcraw45425]

Just home from an incredible stay in a 1bd Bay Lake View Tower Club suite. The Contemporary continues to be perfect for our multi-generational trips with the convenience of the walkway to Magic Kingdom and monorail for Epcot.
Wait times were manageable throughout the parks and the Disney app is key to securing fast passes after the initial 3 are used. I believe we used 7 one day!
Mark and Susan in the Tower Club are amazing and I can't say enough about how well they worked to make our vacation a vacation.
We were sprinkled with pixie dust everywhere we went. CMs who just "get" what it means to brighten a guests day. Had a great conversation waiting for the Boo to you Parade with a MK park manager and she said that they take on a great responsibility when we choose to vacation at Disney. It's the little things that continue to make it the most magical place on earth!
FYI -- liter bottles were in our room daily and bottled water for parks available on request from the club room.
Feel free to ask away!

Just curious, are the Tower Club CM's still stocking the suite fridges daily? We stayed in a 1 bedroom TPV several years ago and it was so nice to have water and sodas in there each day.

 

[gioiamama]

Just curious, are the Tower Club CM's still stocking the suite fridges daily? We stayed in a 1 bedroom TPV several years ago and it was so nice to have water and sodas in there each day.

Now that you ask I remember that they did stock with soda last year. Only water this year. I'm sure they would do it if you asked!

 

[Laundress]

Joining in. Please add me to the Log-o-Rail. Thank you everyone for so much wonderful info. Our first stay at CR Atrium level will be March 26th.
Only one night.... before we sail on the Dream.

 

[browneyedplanner]

Question for everyone...is Chef Mickey a good place to start off our trip? We will be driving to Orlando from southern Florida and when we get there, we figured we could use the pool, take a monorail ride around to kill some time, and then do an early dinner at CM. The boys will be 7 and 4 when we go and they have no clue we are going! Any tips and pointers would be greatly appreciated Thanks!

 

[trishadono]

Question for everyone...is Chef Mickey a good place to start off our trip? We will be driving to Orlando from southern Florida and when we get there, we figured we could use the pool, take a monorail ride around to kill some time, and then do an early dinner at CM. The boys will be 7 and 4 when we go and they have no clue we are going! Any tips and pointers would be greatly appreciated Thanks!

Do your kids like to spend an hour at a restaurant? My ds hating restaurants until about age 18, lol.

Do they like characters? At that age even ds did. dd loves everything.

If you don't plan on buying park tickets that day riding the monorail or a boat would be fun for all. Make sure to watch the water pageant or wishes that night too!

During the week if have time boat over to WL and explore. Its a very fun boy kind of place. The lobby is very cool!

Have fun planning!

 

[browneyedplanner]

Do your kids like to spend an hour at a restaurant? My ds hating restaurants until about age 18, lol.

Do they like characters? At that age even ds did. dd loves everything.

If you don't plan on buying park tickets that day riding the monorail or a boat would be fun for all. Make sure to watch the water pageant or wishes that night too!

During the week if have time boat over to WL and explore. Its a very fun boy kind of place. The lobby is very cool!

Have fun planning!

Thanks so much! My little one will probably not sit the whole time, but they both will absolutely love the characters (which is why we thought about it in the first place). We are only there for a couple of days so it will be a quick trip for us. We are doing another character meal in the morning as well. I just thought it would be a great way to start off the trip - meeting the one and only Mickey Mouse!

How is the food there for dinner?

 

[trishadono]

Thanks so much! My little one will probably not sit the whole time, but they both will absolutely love the characters (which is why we thought about it in the first place). We are only there for a couple of days so it will be a quick trip for us. We are doing another character meal in the morning as well. I just thought it would be a great way to start off the trip - meeting the one and only Mickey Mouse!

How is the food there for dinner?

Sorry we were always busy riding rides or swimming and we didn't do character meals when they were little. The menus will be on disney site and on allears.net.
http://allears.net/dining/menu/chef-mickeys/dinner
You may want to check to see if anything "looks good".

Came back to add that this link:

http://allears.net/dining/menu

is great to have stored in your phone. You can look for your families favorites while waiting in lines etc.

 

[browneyedplanner]

Sorry we were always busy riding rides or swimming and we didn't do character meals when they were little. The menus will be on disney site and on allears.net.
http://allears.net/dining/menu/chef-mickeys/dinner
You may want to check to see if anything "looks good".

Came back to add that this link:

http://allears.net/dining/menu

is great to have stored in your phone. You can look for your families favorites while waiting in lines etc.

Thanks so much - I've looked at the menu and I guess technically it looks/sounds good....just wondering about other people's experiences with the taste and quality of it (Also, I guess we are truly there for the characters and not so much the food so perhaps my question is a silly one!)

 

[Cluelyss]

Question for everyone...is Chef Mickey a good place to start off our trip? We will be driving to Orlando from southern Florida and when we get there, we figured we could use the pool, take a monorail ride around to kill some time, and then do an early dinner at CM. The boys will be 7 and 4 when we go and they have no clue we are going! Any tips and pointers would be greatly appreciated Thanks!

This is exactly how we started out first trip! Dinner with the fab 5 was a perfect kickstart!!! The food is not great, IMO, but that's not what you're paying for!! Have a great trip!

 

[browneyedplanner]

This is exactly how we started out first trip! Dinner with the fab 5 was a perfect kickstart!!! The food is not great, IMO, but that's not what you're paying for!! Have a great trip!

Perfect, that's what I needed to know Thank you!!

 

[dreamseeker9]

Quick update - my father is recovering from back surgery that was delayed a few weeks because his surgeon was out of town. So we will only be staying at the Contemporary for 1 night, 9/20. But I'm still excited to stay here, see HalloWishes from our TPV room, and eat breakfast at The Wave!

When I called to change our reservation, the CM reminded me about monorail modifications. I'm hoping they aren't too disruptive, as we were planning to use the monorail for the MK and EPCOT.

I leave tomorrow!!! First one night at POR, then 3 nights at AKL, all solo, then my parents join me for the final night at Contemporary! Woohoo!

 

[cassidy57]

Hello I am booked in a garden view garden wing room in December. I hope you post lots of information in regards to your thoughts on the room. Have a great trip!

 

[Gryhndmom]

Quick update - my father is recovering from back surgery that was delayed a few weeks because his surgeon was out of town. So we will only be staying at the Contemporary for 1 night, 9/20. But I'm still excited to stay here, see HalloWishes from our TPV room, and eat breakfast at The Wave!

When I called to change our reservation, the CM reminded me about monorail modifications. I'm hoping they aren't too disruptive, as we were planning to use the monorail for the MK and EPCOT.

I leave tomorrow!!! First one night at POR, then 3 nights at AKL, all solo, then my parents join me for the final night at Contemporary! Woohoo!

Have a great time at CR...we are on the final 30 day Disney countdown! Did CM say what are the monorail modifications ?

 

[MinMou]

Thanks so much! My little one will probably not sit the whole time, but they both will absolutely love the characters (which is why we thought about it in the first place). We are only there for a couple of days so it will be a quick trip for us. We are doing another character meal in the morning as well. I just thought it would be a great way to start off the trip - meeting the one and only Mickey Mouse!

How is the food there for dinner?

My son is not great in restaurants, but he did fine at the character meals we took him to at Disneyland. We did a character dinner at Goofy's Kitchen the night we arrived, and that's when it clicked with him about where we were. While we were waiting in line, he kept pointing at Goofy and wanting to run up to him!
We also did an early breakfast with characters, so we could use the special line to get into the park, because I was worried about him being overwhelmed if we were in a crowd.

Our son was 2, and I figured that the most magical part for him would be meeting the characters that he was already familiar with. Your boys are older, so they will have a better idea of what to expect, but I think having a chance to meet characters without going into the park is a great way to start your vacation. There is a reason that Chef Mickey's is so popular, and I doubt it's the food.

 

[WDWKOOK]

I'll be back to multi-quote soon, but in the meantime, I've completed my TR which starts HERE. PAGE 17 has my TRIP SUMMARY/ASSESSMENT.​