Disney's CONTEMPORARY RESORT Information & Questions

[5Hfan]

The closer our trip gets, the less excited I am about Contemporary. I can't put my finger on it but, it just doesn't hold much appeal especially for Christmas. We are staying Non-club level TPV which looks like more of a parking lot view from pictures. I fear we are going to feel like we're in a subway or airport...

We stayed over Christmas last year, non CL TPV, and requested high floor away from Chef Mickey's, with the beds facing the MK. It didn't feel like a parking lot view to us, it was magical seeing MK the last thing before sleep and the first thing when you woke up! Youngest is here just staring...



The view over the water toward the GF


We drove and brought a tree, but even without one a strand of lights and stockings on the neat back lit tile feature were Christmasy.


and Christmas night, sitting on the balcony enjoying the fireworks after a great Disney and Christmas Day!





Now I will say if you are coming from someplace where you are used to a white, winter Christmas, it can be disconcerting!! But I've lived away from my childhood "Norman Rockwell" Colorado Mt snow Christmas for a long time now, so that no longer impacts my view of Christmasy.

 

[kmorlock]

We stayed over Christmas last year, non CL TPV, and requested high floor away from Chef Mickey's, with the beds facing the MK. It didn't feel like a parking lot view to us, it was magical seeing MK the last thing before sleep and the first thing when you woke up! Youngest is here just staring...

View attachment 136212

The view over the water toward the PolyView attachment 136215

We drove and brought a tree, but even without one a strand of lights and stockings on the neat back lit tile feature were Christmasy.
View attachment 136213

and Christmas night, sitting on the balcony enjoying the fireworks after a great Disney and Christmas Day!

View attachment 136216

View attachment 136217

Now I will say if you are coming from someplace where you are used to a white, winter Christmas, it can be disconcerting!! But I've lived away from my childhood "Norman Rockwell" Colorado Mt snow Christmas for a long time now, so that no longer impacts my view of Christmasy.

Those are some beautiful pics! I might be in for a better time than I thought after all.

 

[5Hfan]

I'm so excited! I booked the CR for the 2nd part of our stay in March. We're booked at POR for the first half and I wanted to pick something else for a change to end our trip. And I think after busing everywhere the walk and monorail will be awesome.


So... should I keep the 2nd location as a surprise?

That is a very fun surprise! We did that last year, the kids knew we were going to Disney, but not staying at the Contemporary. We arrived a few hours early for our Chef Mickey reservation, Dh took oldest, let him in on the secret, and went and checked in. I took the younger two and explored the gingerbread area and gift shop, bathroom break etc, until Dh texted me. Then took them up to see the view above the monorail, they were loving it, oohing and aahing and saying how awesome to stay there some day etc, all the while just thinking we were killing time until an ADR.

When oldest finally peeled away from looking at the monorail, used his magic band and opened the door behind us, it was beyond excitement! So much fun, a memory I'll never forget!

 

[mickeynut1]

Some aerial footage of yesterday's monorail/tow accident is located HERE. Here are some screen caps. from the video:

View attachment 136144

View attachment 136145

Thanks, KOOK .

Thanks everyone, I hope I like it more than I think as well. We will enjoy Disney no matter what.

Yes, you will .

Thanks @Quellman I'm going with my DS who will be 2.5 during our trip so it is a consideration. I priced it and it's about $400-500 more than my current reservation by renting points. I'm still thinking about it but not being in control of the reservation does I intimidate me. (Control freak here). Still, thinking about being able to see the fireworks from our room is very appealing and your post is making me think. I have about a month and a half to make up my mind (11month window)

Good luck with your decision .

We'll be there on Saturday. Can anyone there tell me if the tree is up yet? I know the gingerbread display is up.

I can't answer about the tree, but wanted to say I hope you have a great trip .

I'm so excited! I booked the CR for the 2nd part of our stay in March. We're booked at POR for the first half and I wanted to pick something else for a change to end our trip. And I think after busing everywhere the walk and monorail will be awesome.

So... should I keep the 2nd location as a surprise?

Sounds like a great surprise!

We stayed over Christmas last year, non CL TPV, and requested high floor away from Chef Mickey's, with the beds facing the MK. It didn't feel like a parking lot view to us, it was magical seeing MK the last thing before sleep and the first thing when you woke up! Youngest is here just staring...

View attachment 136212

The view over the water toward the GF
View attachment 136215

We drove and brought a tree, but even without one a strand of lights and stockings on the neat back lit tile feature were Christmasy.
View attachment 136213

and Christmas night, sitting on the balcony enjoying the fireworks after a great Disney and Christmas Day!

View attachment 136216

View attachment 136217

Now I will say if you are coming from someplace where you are used to a white, winter Christmas, it can be disconcerting!! But I've lived away from my childhood "Norman Rockwell" Colorado Mt snow Christmas for a long time now, so that no longer impacts my view of Christmasy.

Awesome pics! Looks like everyone had a great time .

Those are some beautiful pics! I might be in for a better time than I thought after all.

That is a very fun surprise! We did that last year, the kids knew we were going to Disney, but not staying at the Contemporary. We arrived a few hours early for our Chef Mickey reservation, Dh took oldest, let him in on the secret, and went and checked in. I took the younger two and explored the gingerbread area and gift shop, bathroom break etc, until Dh texted me. Then took them up to see the view above the monorail, they were loving it, oohing and aahing and saying how awesome to stay there some day etc, all the while just thinking we were killing time until an ADR.

When oldest finally peeled away from looking at the monorail, used his magic band and opened the door behind us, it was beyond excitement! So much fun, a memory I'll never forget!

What a great memory!

 

[PNO4TE]

Good afternoon ... I don't think I have been on here since before we left for our vacation! I wanted to say "THANK YOU!" to everyone who answered questions I might have had and to those who wished us a good vacation. It was terrific, and we really enjoyed our stay at BLT.

I don't have any additional pictures of our room since they look exactly like the ones already posted (HA lakeview studio #7614) but I did want to make a comment that might affect any others who book this for a mobility disabled family member. The shower is spacious and my husband loved being able to take his walker into that area to take long showers. However, there is no soap dish in the shower, nor are there any grab bars, other than on the door itself. We had to hang a plastic bag on his walker to hold soap and shampoo.

 

[jbharr1]

Booked CR GW for 5/3 thru 5/8. Celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary without the kids. First time at CR and booked mainly to be near MK. I've been thru the thread so I'm up to speed with the resort. Not nearly as complex as YC was for our last visit, which is nice.

 

[Melanie415]

Add me to the Log-o-Rail!
Staying at Bay Lake Towers in a 2 bedroom, Theme Park View villa, for 7 nights, October 16 thru 23!!


It will be Me, DH, DS(8th birthday) and DD(5) and my Mom. I haven't told my mom where we are staying. She thinks it will be a regular hotel room with her sleeping on the couch!

Then (hopefully) we will be moving on to Beach Club Villas for another 5 days.

 

[Quellman]

Thanks @Quellman I'm going with my DS who will be 2.5 during our trip so it is a consideration. I priced it and it's about $400-500 more than my current reservation by renting points. I'm still thinking about it but not being in control of the reservation does I intimidate me. (Control freak here). Still, thinking about being able to see the fireworks from our room is very appealing and your post is making me think. I have about a month and a half to make up my mind (11month window)

Good luck with your choice. It'll be a fun trip no matter what you decide!

 

[tandjr]

We have booked our trip for 11/4-11/12/16 to stay in the GW GV. I see on the website that king rooms are available but they can not be specifically booked. I called Disney and they said that there are no King rooms available in the GW or the Tower. Is this something I have to simply put in on a room request (which I did)? I'm just confused because I cannot find anywhere online to select the room type for the GW or Tower as far as bed selection.

 

[MrsSkellington]

What "flavor" toiletries are available in the CR right now?

I loved the grapefruit scent of 2013. I stayed at the GF in September and they had a Sea Salt scent instead.

What should I expect in Feb at the CR?

We were there 10/29-11/3 in the Garden Wing and had the sea salt. Blech.

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

Oh!! Sea Marine is my favorite!!!!

We always get it at the GF but the Poly had the Grapefruit this summer

 

[bmanwahoo]

We stayed at the Contemporary (Garden Wing, Garden View) from 11/14 to 11/21. It was our 3rd Disney trip but first ever stay at the Contemporary. This thread was INVALUABLE in helping us plan for our stay. So thanks to all of you that contributed - we felt like we knew so much about the Contemporary before ever setting foot there.

Some pros/cons, with the pros far outweighing the cons:

PROS:
- Location, location, location: we absolutely loved the ability to walk to/from Magic Kingdom, and the ability to monorail to/from Epcot

- Room requests were honored (high floor, close to transportation)
- Spacious room, no issues with housekeeping, everything restocked as expected
- Very helpful front desk (asked about transportation, fastpass +)
- One of the backlit mirror lights was out when we got there. We left a note on the bed for housekeeping, and it was fixed the next day.

CONS:
- Room wasn't ready until 3:45 pm. We arrived around 10:30 am and of course weren't expecting it to be ready then. We did figure it would be ready by the 3pm check-in time. We checked in on things a couple different times but they weren't able to give us any exact information. The last time we inquired (about 3:15 pm) they did give us each a general FP + to be used 1 day, 1 time at any park (we chose Hollywood Studios - extra ride on Toy Story)
- Sinks. As mentioned on here numerous times, they are lousy. Don't drain well at all, and with the double sinks, there wasn't much storage space at all for toiletries. We ended up using one of the sinks for storage.
- No clock in the room. Just seemed odd - anytime we wanted to know what time it was, we had to find a phone and look at it.
- Refrigerator wasn't working when we got there. Found it to be unplugged. Odd.
- Only mug refill area was at Contempo Cafe. It would've been nice to be able to fill them at the pool.

We loved our stay at the Contemporary and would stay there again in a heartbeat.

 

[ClareH37]

Stupid question alert - re. the fire exits/stairwell at the end of the building towards the MK, am I right in thinking you can go out there and watch Wishes? If you do, can you get back in afterwards or do the doors lock automatically behind you? Thanks

 

[mickeynut1]

Good afternoon ... I don't think I have been on here since before we left for our vacation! I wanted to say "THANK YOU!" to everyone who answered questions I might have had and to those who wished us a good vacation. It was terrific, and we really enjoyed our stay at BLT.

Glad you had a great trip!

Booked CR GW for 5/3 thru 5/8. Celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary without the kids. First time at CR and booked mainly to be near MK. I've been thru the thread so I'm up to speed with the resort. Not nearly as complex as YC was for our last visit, which is nice.

Hope you have a great anniversary trip .

Add me to the Log-o-Rail!
Staying at Bay Lake Towers in a 2 bedroom, Theme Park View villa, for 7 nights, October 16 thru 23!!


It will be Me, DH, DS(8th birthday) and DD(5) and my Mom. I haven't told my mom where we are staying. She thinks it will be a regular hotel room with her sleeping on the couch!

Then (hopefully) we will be moving on to Beach Club Villas for another 5 days.

Sounds like a great trip in the works! Enjoy the planning .

We have booked our trip for 11/4-11/12/16 to stay in the GW GV. I see on the website that king rooms are available but they can not be specifically booked. I called Disney and they said that there are no King rooms available in the GW or the Tower. Is this something I have to simply put in on a room request (which I did)? I'm just confused because I cannot find anywhere online to select the room type for the GW or Tower as far as bed selection.

Congrats on booking the CR for your next trip. I can't answer about the king beds, but hopefully others will be able to help .

We stayed at the Contemporary (Garden Wing, Garden View) from 11/14 to 11/21. It was our 3rd Disney trip but first ever stay at the Contemporary. This thread was INVALUABLE in helping us plan for our stay. So thanks to all of you that contributed - we felt like we knew so much about the Contemporary before ever setting foot there.

Some pros/cons, with the pros far outweighing the cons:

PROS:
- Location, location, location: we absolutely loved the ability to walk to/from Magic Kingdom, and the ability to monorail to/from Epcot

- Room requests were honored (high floor, close to transportation)
- Spacious room, no issues with housekeeping, everything restocked as expected
- Very helpful front desk (asked about transportation, fastpass +)
- One of the backlit mirror lights was out when we got there. We left a note on the bed for housekeeping, and it was fixed the next day.

CONS:
- Room wasn't ready until 3:45 pm. We arrived around 10:30 am and of course weren't expecting it to be ready then. We did figure it would be ready by the 3pm check-in time. We checked in on things a couple different times but they weren't able to give us any exact information. The last time we inquired (about 3:15 pm) they did give us each a general FP + to be used 1 day, 1 time at any park (we chose Hollywood Studios - extra ride on Toy Story)
- Sinks. As mentioned on here numerous times, they are lousy. Don't drain well at all, and with the double sinks, there wasn't much storage space at all for toiletries. We ended up using one of the sinks for storage.
- No clock in the room. Just seemed odd - anytime we wanted to know what time it was, we had to find a phone and look at it.
- Refrigerator wasn't working when we got there. Found it to be unplugged. Odd.
- Only mug refill area was at Contempo Cafe. It would've been nice to be able to fill them at the pool.

We loved our stay at the Contemporary and would stay there again in a heartbeat.

Thanks for your review! Glad you had a great time and would return the CR .

Stupid question alert - re. the fire exits/stairwell at the end of the building towards the MK, am I right in thinking you can go out there and watch Wishes? If you do, can you get back in afterwards or do the doors lock automatically behind you? Thanks

I think you can get back in, but I might be thinking of something else so I'm not 100% sure. Hopefully others will be able to answer for sure .

 

[Sammyjo199]

We have booked our trip for 11/4-11/12/16 to stay in the GW GV. I see on the website that king rooms are available but they can not be specifically booked. I called Disney and they said that there are no King rooms available in the GW or the Tower. Is this something I have to simply put in on a room request (which I did)? I'm just confused because I cannot find anywhere online to select the room type for the GW or Tower as far as bed selection.

I can't answer this but I was told I could get a king room at garden wing but it wasn't guaranteed. I did put that as my only request through the phone and didn't check anything else off dieing online check in. I'd love to know if this isn't possible

 

[Tropics]

Does anyone know more about the Bay Cove pool closure? It looks like it closes the day I get there! wah!!! We're staying BLT February 1-9. We're bringing a couple of younger cousins for a 'once in a lifetime' trip. We purposefully picked this resort because we anticipated construction at WL. I know it doesn't ruin my whole vacation but since I only just found this out. I'm kinda bummed out for now.

I guess the best we can hope for is a late start to construction? Anyone have any experience with this? Did other deluxe resort pool refurbs start on time?

Kind words and constructive thoughts only, please.

I'm curious as well. We arrive Feb 22 so there's no getting around this. After so much planning we rented points and got a TPV room that make up for a trip that we had to cancel at the last minute last year. Does this also mean that the only place for mug refills will be Contempo Cafe? I'm not happy about this.

 

[bltman]

We stayed at the Contemporary (Garden Wing, Garden View) from 11/14 to 11/21. It was our 3rd Disney trip but first ever stay at the Contemporary.

We were just there from 16th to 21st (Spent 14th and 15th at Universal), also our first time at CR but out 3rd visit. I loved how quiet garden wing was compared to the main building but the walk was still manageable to get our breakfast at contempo cafe in the morning. I also like how spacious the rooms feel. Walk to MK is so easy. Transportation to Epcot is pretty good too. Agree with all your pros and cons (same room readiness issue), though my daughter is short so the sinks were good for her. After night #2 we asked the front desk for a clock so my kids would know what time it was (daughter woke us all up thinking it was morning at 5:50am - only positive was that we made front of rope drop for Soarin that morning). Took them about 45 mins to get get the clock to us.

We have now stayed at CR, WL and BWI. Of the 3, I liked CR the best, then BWI and then WL (though I think my wife liked WL the best). The ability to walk to the parks is a prime consideration for me,

 

[WDWKOOK]

I'm so excited! I booked the CR for the 2nd part of our stay in March. We're booked at POR for the first half and I wanted to pick something else for a change to end our trip. And I think after busing everywhere the walk and monorail will be awesome.

So... should I keep the 2nd location as a surprise?

What did you end up deciding? Where do they think they're staying?

We stayed over Christmas last year, non CL TPV, and requested high floor away from Chef Mickey's, with the beds facing the MK. It didn't feel like a parking lot view to us, it was magical seeing MK the last thing before sleep and the first thing when you woke up! Youngest is here just staring...

...And Olaf, too

Thank you for posting your cute photos. I love how you made your room extra magical.

Good afternoon ... I don't think I have been on here since before we left for our vacation! I wanted to say "THANK YOU!" to everyone who answered questions I might have had and to those who wished us a good vacation. It was terrific, and we really enjoyed our stay at BLT.

I don't have any additional pictures of our room since they look exactly like the ones already posted (HA lakeview studio #7614) but I did want to make a comment that might affect any others who book this for a mobility disabled family member. The shower is spacious and my husband loved being able to take his walker into that area to take long showers. However, there is no soap dish in the shower, nor are there any grab bars, other than on the door itself. We had to hang a plastic bag on his walker to hold soap and shampoo.

Welcome home and thanks for letting everyone know about the HA BLT shower. Do they still sell soap on a rope?!

Booked CR GW for 5/3 thru 5/8. Celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary without the kids. First time at CR and booked mainly to be near MK. I've been thru the thread so I'm up to speed with the resort. Not nearly as complex as YC was for our last visit, which is nice.

Congratulations on booking! I'll add your dates to the Log-o-Rail

Add me to the Log-o-Rail!
Staying at Bay Lake Towers in a 2 bedroom, Theme Park View villa, for 7 nights, October 16 thru 23!!


It will be Me, DH, DS(8th birthday) and DD(5) and my Mom. I haven't told my mom where we are staying. She thinks it will be a regular hotel room with her sleeping on the couch!

Then (hopefully) we will be moving on to Beach Club Villas for another 5 days.

Your mom is going to be SUPER surprised, and relieved to have her own bed and bath.

We have booked our trip for 11/4-11/12/16 to stay in the GW GV. I see on the website that king rooms are available but they can not be specifically booked. I called Disney and they said that there are no King rooms available in the GW or the Tower. Is this something I have to simply put in on a room request (which I did)? I'm just confused because I cannot find anywhere online to select the room type for the GW or Tower as far as bed selection.

Welcome and I'll log your dates. The only way to guarantee a GW King is to book one of the Deluxe rooms which all have a king bed and queen sleeper. In the Tower, you can book a Tower Club Level king, but not online. Other than those options, you can request one, but it can't be guaranteed.

We stayed at the Contemporary (Garden Wing, Garden View) from 11/14 to 11/21. It was our 3rd Disney trip but first ever stay at the Contemporary. This thread was INVALUABLE in helping us plan for our stay. So thanks to all of you that contributed - we felt like we knew so much about the Contemporary before ever setting foot there.

Some pros/cons, with the pros far outweighing the cons:

PROS:
- Location, location, location: we absolutely loved the ability to walk to/from Magic Kingdom, and the ability to monorail to/from Epcot

- Room requests were honored (high floor, close to transportation)
- Spacious room, no issues with housekeeping, everything restocked as expected
- Very helpful front desk (asked about transportation, fastpass +)
- One of the backlit mirror lights was out when we got there. We left a note on the bed for housekeeping, and it was fixed the next day.

CONS:
- Room wasn't ready until 3:45 pm. We arrived around 10:30 am and of course weren't expecting it to be ready then. We did figure it would be ready by the 3pm check-in time. We checked in on things a couple different times but they weren't able to give us any exact information. The last time we inquired (about 3:15 pm) they did give us each a general FP + to be used 1 day, 1 time at any park (we chose Hollywood Studios - extra ride on Toy Story)
- Sinks. As mentioned on here numerous times, they are lousy. Don't drain well at all, and with the double sinks, there wasn't much storage space at all for toiletries. We ended up using one of the sinks for storage.
- No clock in the room. Just seemed odd - anytime we wanted to know what time it was, we had to find a phone and look at it.
- Refrigerator wasn't working when we got there. Found it to be unplugged. Odd.
- Only mug refill area was at Contempo Cafe. It would've been nice to be able to fill them at the pool.

We loved our stay at the Contemporary and would stay there again in a heartbeat.

Thank you for posting a great summary of the pros and cons. Now you can help others plan their stays at CR

Stupid question alert - re. the fire exits/stairwell at the end of the building towards the MK, am I right in thinking you can go out there and watch Wishes? If you do, can you get back in afterwards or do the doors lock automatically behind you? Thanks

Did I miss it or did you not post about your recent stay at WL?

The fire escape doors are locked from the outside. You would need to prop it open or have someone let you back in to return (expeditiously) to your room.

We were just there from 16th to 21st (Spent 14th and 15th at Universal), also our first time at CR but out 3rd visit. I loved how quiet garden wing was compared to the main building but the walk was still manageable to get our breakfast at contempo cafe in the morning. I also like how spacious the rooms feel. Walk to MK is so easy. Transportation to Epcot is pretty good too. Agree with all your pros and cons (same room readiness issue), though my daughter is short so the sinks were good for her. After night #2 we asked the front desk for a clock so my kids would know what time it was (daughter woke us all up thinking it was morning at 5:50am - only positive was that we made front of rope drop for Soarin that morning). Took them about 45 mins to get get the clock to us.

We have now stayed at CR, WL and BWI. Of the 3, I liked CR the best, then BWI and then WL (though I think my wife liked WL the best). The ability to walk to the parks is a prime consideration for me,

So you didn't have a clock either? This is a strange phenomenon. Thank you for posting about your stay and I wonder where you'll stay next time?

 

[Skywise]

So uh... no Christmas Wreath decorations on the main window again?

 

[WDWKOOK]

So uh... no Christmas Wreath decorations on the main window again?

WL was the last to get decorated this year, but it's all done. Is the wreath still not up?