Disney's CONTEMPORARY RESORT Information & Questions

[21stamps]

Hey all! Just got back Wednesday from an 8 night stay and CR and I gotta say I really enjoyed. We stayed on the 7th floor near the end in a Bay Lake View and found next to no noise from the monorail or anything. We received big bottles of the amenities and extra toiletries as well as a 1L bottle of water. I personally think this might be due to the sulfur taste in the water (it didn't bother us a super huge amount but having that bottle of water for tea and coffee at night was wonderful!) We found our room so quiet we didn't hear our neighbours at all! The walk from MK was a sweet bonus as well. There was only one day where it seemed long but I was suffering from heat exhaustion and wasn't doing so well.

Thanks for reporting back! Glad you had a wonderful trip

 

[momof2halls]

We just returned home from our 9 night trip! We had an amazing trip. We booked a standard garden room, we requestes a ground/patio room. We arrived as planned at 8am and the room that was preassigned to us was not ready. We are touringplans subscribers and had placed a fax request, this was not honored or even mentioned at check-in. The cast member was quick to offer a ready room that was a ground/patio room and we accepted it as we were eager to get settled in and off to the parks.

The first 3 nights were very quiet with no real noise stating the 4th night we began hearing what we think was children running around the room both at bedtime between 10p-12a and morning between 7a-9a it was very evident they were in the room above us. It was not enough noise to complain about, but aroound night 6 my husband jokingly said he would like to go talk with the family upstairs. Other than this we never heard any other noise.

Everything in the room was as expected.

We had 2 days that we didnt go to the parks and were back in the room before 2pm and our room was not serviced by mousekeeping either day, we ended up going to the cast member room and requesting towels. This was not a big deal for us but i was surprised that by 2pm our room had not been touched.

Overall wonderful trip and we loved the Contemporary Resort. We look forward to our next trip and would definitely stay here again!

 

[Cluelyss]

We had 2 days that we didnt go to the parks and were back in the room before 2pm and our room was not serviced by mousekeeping either day, we ended up going to the cast member room and requesting towels. This was not a big deal for us but i was surprised that by 2pm our room had not been touched.

Overall wonderful trip and we loved the Contemporary Resort. We look forward to our next trip and would definitely stay here again!

We always come back to our room for a midday break after lunch, and many times housekeeping has not been in our room before then when we've stayed CR GW. I wonder if they start with the tower then move to the GW? Never had that issue at other resorts.

 

[WDWKOOK]

Thanks, wdwkook! We will be at CR 8/23-8/26.

I'll log your dates

Two more sleeps and we'll be checking in for our Tower TPV!!!

I hope you're having a magical time!

Returned home yesterday after 5 nights at CR, lake view tower room. Had a wonderful time with everything mostly as expected. The lacking Disney theme is and isn't a good thing but just the wife and I, both 20-something age, we didn't mind. 10th floor room, middle of the building, kept us isolated far enough from the noise below of Chef Mickey's and the monorail. Decent noise could be heard from adjacent room without thinking they were overly loud, but wasn't enough or during odd hours to lead to any complaint. All the little amenities some have referenced were indeed there (small bottles of everything from shampoo, conditioner, body wash, individually boxed toothbrush and makeup removal kits, etc) and a large bottle of water with a complimentary sign, replaced each day we had housekeeping. Even had a towel Mickey the last day with my wife's ears left on it.

Absolutely loved the convenience to MK (we timed a 7 minute walk from door to gate at a moderately fast pace) and the monorail being right there. Not quite as convenient to Epcot as I'd hoped due to the change at the TTC, but still more enjoyable (and surely faster in most cases) than a bus would be. Loved the convenience of everything within the resort being nearby; even the garden wing doesn't put you far from amenities. Biggest complaint was the elevators. While sometimes we'd be fortunate and get one right away, there were often waits that seemed to take an absurd amount of time or just elevators too full already.

Ultimately, CR will fall no worse than middle of the pack for us as we try a different resort come future visits (though our visits so far have been 6 years apart so not expecting it to be a quick sampling!). We'll probably look to a garden wing room if we choose to stay again in the future, largely to avoid the elevators.

Thank you for posting about your stay. This Tower elevators can get very crowded at peak times and makes for a lot of waiting.

So add us to the Log-O-Rail. CR TPV June 27 through 30. Second Honeymoon.

Yippee for a second honeymoon

Any pictures of the "refreshed" rooms at BLT? We will be there October 16-23 in a 2 bdrm TPV and I'm sure we will love it, refreshed or not! Still, hope they are done by the time we check in. We are moving to the BCV October 23-28 and they are under "refreshment" too. I think we are so lucky cuz we booked both places 11 months out b4 the refurbishments were announced.

Good question and maybe one has surfaced on the (DVC) BLT Room View thread?

Hey all! Just got back Wednesday from an 8 night stay and CR and I gotta say I really enjoyed. We stayed on the 7th floor near the end in a Bay Lake View and found next to no noise from the monorail or anything. We received big bottles of the amenities and extra toiletries as well as a 1L bottle of water. I personally think this might be due to the sulfur taste in the water (it didn't bother us a super huge amount but having that bottle of water for tea and coffee at night was wonderful!) We found our room so quiet we didn't hear our neighbours at all! The walk from MK was a sweet bonus as well. There was only one day where it seemed long but I was suffering from heat exhaustion and wasn't doing so well.

Sounds like you had a great trip and thanks for posting about it.

We just returned home from our 9 night trip! We had an amazing trip. We booked a standard garden room, we requestes a ground/patio room. We arrived as planned at 8am and the room that was preassigned to us was not ready. We are touringplans subscribers and had placed a fax request, this was not honored or even mentioned at check-in. The cast member was quick to offer a ready room that was a ground/patio room and we accepted it as we were eager to get settled in and off to the parks.

The first 3 nights were very quiet with no real noise stating the 4th night we began hearing what we think was children running around the room both at bedtime between 10p-12a and morning between 7a-9a it was very evident they were in the room above us. It was not enough noise to complain about, but aroound night 6 my husband jokingly said he would like to go talk with the family upstairs. Other than this we never heard any other noise.

Everything in the room was as expected.

We had 2 days that we didnt go to the parks and were back in the room before 2pm and our room was not serviced by mousekeeping either day, we ended up going to the cast member room and requesting towels. This was not a big deal for us but i was surprised that by 2pm our room had not been touched.

Overall wonderful trip and we loved the Contemporary Resort. We look forward to our next trip and would definitely stay here again!

Thank you for posting your honest TR

 

[Sona99]

Just back from our 3 day, 2 night stay at the CR for the first time.

Here are my thoughts:

Did the online check in so they were ready for us when we got there. Left our 2 bags at the Valet and got a slip for them - they don't take the bags to your room but when you are ready you can either pick them up yourself or call to have them delivered. We picked up.

Didn't get our room request - had requested a king bed but got two queens. That said, the room is still huge. Much more room than a regular hotel room. No Disney décor. Pictures of the rooms at the beginning of this thread are spot on. We were room 4506 - 9th floor overlooking the Bay.

The good: excellent room comfort, wonderful view, a free liter of water which was very nice. Tons of pillows - we were laughing about that. Two chairs and a little table on the balcony. Café is ok for snacking food, the Wave was great for breakfast. Staff all around excellent. Monorail!

The not so good but not really bad: shower is not built for two, the wait for the elevators was sometimes pretty long (and considering there are 5 of them you wouldn't think so!), Bay view is also over the pool so lots of screaming kid noise until they close (I think it was at 11), noise from the open interior of the hotel until the monorail stops running (not from the monorail itself but from the people).

Things we didn't do so no opinion: room service, ferry, swimming in the pool (we were just too tired), exercise room (I assume they have one), bus service (we used monorail or drove).


Also, we ate at the California Grill - SO EXCELLENT!!! I highly recommend it. We also watched Wishes from their balcony. That was nice but I wouldn't eat there just for that perk.

 

[epsmith921]

Returned a couple weeks ago from a 4 night stay at CR CL. We booked and paid for TPV CL and to our surprise were taken up to the 14th floor to room 4913.

We LOVED our giant balcony and the giant bathroom. We have an 18 month old and a 5 year old, and there was space for them for baths, both my husband and I could be in there with them. I also really liked the large closet we had since I could put all the luggage away in there. Though the 18 month old figured out the sliding doors and locked the (empty) safe.

The balcony railing was much higher than I thought it would be so that really eased my fears. (I previously posted in here that I am not a fan of heights).

We did bring a white noise machine for sleeping and wound up leaving it on all the time and heard nothing from outside our room.

We were able to sleep with the curtains open and kind of enjoy the ambience of the castle, etc.

I will say I didn't love the fact that the resort is busy as a hub and destination for dining. The express monorail was down for most of our trip so that made the resort monorail more crowded, etc. While we also liked being able to walk to MK, the walk itself isn't very scenic and I didn't love walking in right where the buses drop off. We are used to the Epcot area so the International Gateway entrance feels that much more special now.

We did like the room itself a ton, club level staff were great, and we definitely may stay at CR again. It just may be a bit too busy in the MK area for us in general.

Thanks to those on here answering questions and providing info. This thread is so useful when you haven't stayed before.

 

[Skywise]

Left our 2 bags at the Valet and got a slip for them - they don't take the bags to your room but when you are ready you can either pick them up yourself or call to have them delivered. We picked up.

I think this is standard for hotels anymore. Every place I've valet checked will give you the ticket and then you can call to have it brought up to the room. The only time they haven't is when I've checked in at the desk clerk and the desk clerk has rang up a bellboy who carried our stuff up with us and the bags never left our sight.

Didn't get our room request - had requested a king bed but got two queens. That said, the room is still huge. Much more room than a regular hotel room. No Disney décor. Pictures of the rooms at the beginning of this thread are spot on. We were room 4506 - 9th floor overlooking the Bay.

I had this happen to me with online checkin but on the reverse - Where I asked for queens and got a king. I was traveling with my sister and that was NOT gonna happen! I promptly went back downstairs and they were able to get me into another room.

Glad you had a good trip though!

 

[Koh1977]

Put in room requests for ground floor patio facing Bay Lake (booked Garden Wing Garden View room). Excited to stay in a different resort this time around and FINALLY at CR (even though it was me that changed resorts every time before).

Looking forward to a morning coffee on the patio with a view of the water before a long, busy day at the parks.

 

[Sona99]

Oh - one thing I would put in the "bad" category - no trash can liners. Our bathroom trash was just a simple square bin. Frankly put - sometimes an adult needs to put things in the trash that would benefit from a liner.

just sayin...

 

[epsmith921]

We experienced the same. We had diapers. I brought ziplocs and garbage bags with me knowing this, but still. Last trip we stayed at Boardwalk and they kept offering us things like trash bags, extra trash removal, etc.

I would love to bring my own diaper champ but that would make my luggage situation even more ridiculous!

 

[yaksack]

What is the difference between a dedicated 2br villa and a lock off 2br villa?

 

[BlueFairy]

Can someone point me to a recent picture of the CR bath products? Can't find them at the top of the thread.

 

[Dave006]

What is the difference between a dedicated 2br villa and a lock off 2br villa?

A "lock off" phrase in the room description means that there is an internal connecting door between a 1BR and an adjoining Studio to create a 2BR unit. A dedicated 2BR is one contiguous space.

Dave

 

[yaksack]

Are lock off rooms smaller? We are planning a trip for 5 in February 2017 and was looking for a room at the CR.

 

[WDW Freak]

Are lock off rooms smaller? We are planning a trip for 5 in February 2017 and was looking for a room at the CR.

A studio in the lock off configuration is a regular studio. It will have a kitchenette, 1 queen bed and a pull out sofa. The dedicated second bedroom will not have a kitchenette and 2 queen beds instead of the sofa. Although the studio isn't technically smaller, it's configuration makes it feel smaller. At least that's what I've heard. I've only ever stayed in a dedicated 2BR, which was wonderful.

 

[gioiamama]

Extended family is joining us for our stay in September. We were able to book a second 1br suite CL with FD from 9/6-9/10. The pixie dust was on our side the other night! We are beyond excited!

 

[cinderkelly]

My son and I have been home for about a week from our fantastic CR stay. We were there for 5 nights and had a main tower TP view room. Everything was spectacular!

The good definitely outweighs the bad:
*Can't beat the view from the TP view rooms! So amazing!
* the beds were super comfy and the pillows were the best pillows of any hotel I have stayed at anywhere
* front desk cast members were very friendly and helpful when I was charged a TS credit at a QS place in MK I was able to get it fixed without issue
* very large and very clean room
* huge TV
* large shower gel and toothbrush "kits" as previously reported. I left a $5 daily tip for mousekeeping and received (2) 1L bottles of water every day which was great considering an average bottle of water on the parks is $3
* dinner at California Grill was delicious and our server Mike was fantastic
*Proximity to MK was awesome either walking ( 10 min average for us) or via monorail. We never had any issues either catching a bus or with the monorail

The not as good:
* a few cast members in Contempo Cafe were less than friendly
* elevators could be a bit slow and usually pretty packed
* we had a connecting room and could hear the excited kids next door pretty clearly on a couple of mornings but the noise didn't last long so it wasn't a total bother.

Overall I have only great things to say and very great memories from our stay here. the lack of Disney theming didn't bother us at all with all the "good stuff" we thought about the resort.

Our view from room 4741

 

[WDWKOOK]

View attachment 173872 Just back from our 3 day, 2 night stay at the CR for the first time.

Here are my thoughts:

Did the online check in so they were ready for us when we got there. Left our 2 bags at the Valet and got a slip for them - they don't take the bags to your room but when you are ready you can either pick them up yourself or call to have them delivered. We picked up.

Didn't get our room request - had requested a king bed but got two queens. That said, the room is still huge. Much more room than a regular hotel room. No Disney décor. Pictures of the rooms at the beginning of this thread are spot on. We were room 4506 - 9th floor overlooking the Bay.

The good: excellent room comfort, wonderful view, a free liter of water which was very nice. Tons of pillows - we were laughing about that. Two chairs and a little table on the balcony. Café is ok for snacking food, the Wave was great for breakfast. Staff all around excellent. Monorail!

The not so good but not really bad: shower is not built for two, the wait for the elevators was sometimes pretty long (and considering there are 5 of them you wouldn't think so!), Bay view is also over the pool so lots of screaming kid noise until they close (I think it was at 11), noise from the open interior of the hotel until the monorail stops running (not from the monorail itself but from the people).

Things we didn't do so no opinion: room service, ferry, swimming in the pool (we were just too tired), exercise room (I assume they have one), bus service (we used monorail or drove).


Also, we ate at the California Grill - SO EXCELLENT!!! I highly recommend it. We also watched Wishes from their balcony. That was nice but I wouldn't eat there just for that perk.

Thank you, @Sona99 for posting about your recent stay

Returned a couple weeks ago from a 4 night stay at CR CL. We booked and paid for TPV CL and to our surprise were taken up to the 14th floor to room 4913.

We LOVED our giant balcony and the giant bathroom. We have an 18 month old and a 5 year old, and there was space for them for baths, both my husband and I could be in there with them. I also really liked the large closet we had since I could put all the luggage away in there. Though the 18 month old figured out the sliding doors and locked the (empty) safe.

The balcony railing was much higher than I thought it would be so that really eased my fears. (I previously posted in here that I am not a fan of heights).

We did bring a white noise machine for sleeping and wound up leaving it on all the time and heard nothing from outside our room.

We were able to sleep with the curtains open and kind of enjoy the ambience of the castle, etc.

I will say I didn't love the fact that the resort is busy as a hub and destination for dining. The express monorail was down for most of our trip so that made the resort monorail more crowded, etc. While we also liked being able to walk to MK, the walk itself isn't very scenic and I didn't love walking in right where the buses drop off. We are used to the Epcot area so the International Gateway entrance feels that much more special now.

We did like the room itself a ton, club level staff were great, and we definitely may stay at CR again. It just may be a bit too busy in the MK area for us in general.

Thanks to those on here answering questions and providing info. This thread is so useful when you haven't stayed before.

Very nice upgrade to the Tower Club. If you book a CL room in the future, would you specifically book Tower Club Vs. Atrium Club next time?

Put in room requests for ground floor patio facing Bay Lake (booked Garden Wing Garden View room). Excited to stay in a different resort this time around and FINALLY at CR (even though it was me that changed resorts every time before).

Looking forward to a morning coffee on the patio with a view of the water before a long, busy day at the parks.

I hope your requests come through. We once had a GW/GV ground floor room and the view and access to the beach is amazing. The canal view rooms also have great water views.

Oh - one thing I would put in the "bad" category - no trash can liners. Our bathroom trash was just a simple square bin. Frankly put - sometimes an adult needs to put things in the trash that would benefit from a liner.

just sayin...

This seems like yet another "staple," like the clocks, that are being removed from the rooms? They used to put in a clear liner with several others attached to the side for future use. I can't believe it's sanitary without them

Can someone point me to a recent picture of the CR bath products? Can't find them at the top of the thread.

The newest toiletries were posted several pages back by @kcpinwdw. CR seems currently to be the only Deluxe resort (beta testing?) putting these former "suite toiletries" into every room along with free daily bottled water.

Extended family is joining us for our stay in September. We were able to book a second 1br suite CL with FD from 9/6-9/10. The pixie dust was on our side the other night! We are beyond excited!

Yippee!!

My son and I have been home for about a week from our fantastic CR stay. We were there for 5 nights and had a main tower TP view room. Everything was spectacular!

The good definitely outweighs the bad:
*Can't beat the view from the TP view rooms! So amazing!
* the beds were super comfy and the pillows were the best pillows of any hotel I have stayed at anywhere
* front desk cast members were very friendly and helpful when I was charged a TS credit at a QS place in MK I was able to get it fixed without issue
* very large and very clean room
* huge TV
* large shower gel and toothbrush "kits" as previously reported. I left a $5 daily tip for mousekeeping and received (2) 1L bottles of water every day which was great considering an average bottle of water on the parks is $3
* dinner at California Grill was delicious and our server Mike was fantastic
*Proximity to MK was awesome either walking ( 10 min average for us) or via monorail. We never had any issues either catching a bus or with the monorail

The not as good:
* a few cast members in Contempo Cafe were less than friendly
* elevators could be a bit slow and usually pretty packed
* we had a connecting room and could hear the excited kids next door pretty clearly on a couple of mornings but the noise didn't last long so it wasn't a total bother.

Overall I have only great things to say and very great memories from our stay here. the lack of Disney theming didn't bother us at all with all the "good stuff" we thought about the resort.

Our view from room 4741

Thank you for posting about your stay with your DS. It's helpful for people to read both the pros and cons.

 

[epsmith921]

Very nice upgrade to the Tower Club. If you book a CL room in the future, would you specifically book Tower Club Vs. Atrium Club next time?

I'm not sure. If we were to stay there again, it's possible. Though the price was quite heavy to me even for the atrium level that I did book (I went back and checked after I posted to be sure).

I was expecting the two shallow sinks like I see in all the pictures and we got light wood, a bright and huge bathroom, and the giant balcony. We left the curtains open and essentially used the MK and seven seas lagoon as our nightlight.

I'd have to look at the prices when deciding. I might make spreadsheets of all the options and differences in pricing so we know if we're willing to pay $40 extra per night for a certain view and that sort of thing. I think staying there again I would at least ask about getting back to Tower Club and see the price comparison to other options. The room is important to me though, and the room was quite nice

 

[ErinF]

We just returned home last night from our trip. We stayed in a garden view room in the garden wing (#5310) for 4 nights as part of a triple split stay. It was the last leg of our trip and felt so luxurious when coming from CBR and POR, our first two legs. We had stayed in a tower room 2 years ago, but garden wing was just as nice, and like most people say, pretty peaceful and quiet. The TVs have been upgraded since 2 years ago, ours was huge! And we did receive those complimentary toiletries as seen in the pictures above. The 1L water bottles were a really nice addition, too. Out of the 4 nights, we received 1 bottle twice, 2 bottles once, and one day they didn't give us any.

We love the Contemporary and would definitely stay again if the budget allows. I've felt very fortunate to have stayed here for 2 trips in a row!