Just back last night. Stayed one week at CR Garden Wing, Garden View. We are HOOKED! Loved it!
Thanks to a response by WillCAD with the information about WIFI access, I was able to add it onto the 1st page here it is.
Contemporary has wi-fi available in limited areas of the resort:
Main Lobby
Tower Club 14th Floor Concierge Lounge
Outer Rim Bar
1st Floor Convention Center Lobby
2nd Floor Convention Center Lobby
Main Pool
It is not free; cost if $4.99 for the first 60 minutes, or $9.95 for 24 continuous hours. You'll need a credit card for payment, as the wi-fi is provided by an outside vendor and is available to anyone, whether staying at CR or not.
WiFi was spotty, at best, even in the lobby. Dh couldn't get it to stay connected. So he used the room connection when he needed to check email, etc.
Where did you see this notice of the age change for the boats? Is is for the Sea Raycers? We are going in September, and driving the boat is what my DS13 is most looking forward to on this trip.
I don't know about age changes or anything, but here's what the rule was when we rode on Mon. Kids have to be 12 years old and 5' tall to drive. DS is 12 and just barely 5', but they didn't measure or anything. Gave him and DD 15 both wristbands and away we went. Everytime we went by a Lake Patrol boat they did ask for wristbands. Also, they said that we were not allowed to use cameras while in the boats (we had 2 people per boat. kids droe, parents rode) but I will admit I broke the rule and snappeed a few photos! I will post later when I get them all uploaded.
I called the CR to book 2 rooms for the first week in February. I was told that all that was available were club rooms and there was one standard king room with Garden View. I booked the Garden View Room for my sister, niece and nephew and my husband and I booked the club room with a Magic Kingdom view.
We really wanted my sister and kids in the same building as us but since we are paying for their room we couldn't afford club rooms for both of us. Is it possible that they are truly sold out for that time period or do they open up rooms once the new rates come out in August?
I know when we first looked at bookin CR we weren't able to get all nights of our trip because a convention was booked (they arrived on Tue, we left Wed). As it got closer to our trip, they release some of those convention rooms when they weren't fully booked and we were able to get a room. That could be what's happening for you.
Is there still free newspaper delivery for the tower rooms?
I am interested to hear from people who received upgrades and if they checked in at home using the internet or waited until they got to the resort to check-in in person? Any advantage in terms of upgrades or just random selection? We'll be there August 4th!
The CM at check-in tried to upgradde us to a Tower room, but when she called to "the back" she was told there wasn't on available for our entire stay. I was not at all disappointed, since I hadn't asked or planned on such an upgrade.
The main pool, quiet pool, and slide were open last week when I was there. The kids splash play area was being worked on. It appeared that they were mostly laying patio tile and then it would be finished.
I saw many "suits" at the splash area one day and got a good look (no pics though, as we didn't have the camera with us). Overheard one of the Activities CMs say that the splash area was to open by the end of the month, same time as BLT, I think. Anyway--they had a ways to go as only about half was finished (but that half was working on the day I looked) Both pools and the slide were open diring our trip. It looked like a fun area.
Our Resort Report:
We got top CR about 12:00pm. We had a reservation for a Garden Wing, Garden View. I asked for 1st floor so we'd have a patio. The CM tried to get us into the tower, but wasn't able to. No big deal. They printed up our keys and took my cell # so they could text me the room # when it was ready. So we rode the monorail over to the Poly after looking around a bit. Then had some lunch. We went back by the desk around 1:30. We were all exhausted from not sleeping the night before ( I'd had 3 hrs of sleep) so I asked if anything was available yet. We took the offer of a 2nd floor room since we were so tired. It had a garden view overlooking the entrance to the canal leading to the water bridge, from Bay Lake to 7 Seas Lagoon. They were working on the rretaining wall so there was a green fence up down by the water to hide the excavation equipment, etc. We still could see out to the water, just at a distance. We didn't have the patio but I was not disappointed at all.
The rooms are large. 4 of us (me, Dh, DD15 and DS12) fit comfortably, even with 4 suitcases. We used the dresser (two drawers near the desk area) and the 2 small drawers in the one closet to store most of our things. (I pack everything in ziploc bags because I am a little paranoid! LOL) We then put away the 2 bigger suitcases in the closet and left the 2 carryon bags on the floor, against the tv wall. They were not in the way at all. The kids flipped a coin and DS got the daybed. They were suppsed to swith 1/2 way thru the trip, but he decided to just stay there, so it must've been plenty comfortable. He had no troubles sleeping at night, for sure. We did have to get a blanket from housekeeping, but that was easy, as they were out in the hallway and just handed one over.
We didn't eat @ Cali grill of The Wave. We did have dinner at Che mickey's one night. Just walked up and there were no lines. Apparently there were many no-shows due to the rainy weather. Good for us! (Note--normally i book ADRs at resorts where we stay, but the swith to CR happed with less than 2 days til we arrived, so I was a little out of luck. I could've gotten on at The Wave, but CG and CMickey's were booked when we wanted them.) We had 2 breakfasts and a lunch and a dinner at the Contempo Cafe. It was ok. Nothing great, but not awful either. They did give us brreakfast one morning, even though we arrived after the 11am switch to lunch (we arried by 11:05). I thought that was nice. DH & I had the breakfast platter and it was good. The second time he had the BOunty PLatter and I had the Ham, Egg, & Cheddar sandwich. We couldn't wat it all, so DD got his french toast and DS got the other half of my sandwich. DS ate lunch one day but I forgot what he ordered. For dinner one evening DS order the Chicken Pasta Alfredo. It was pretty good. DD had the open-face Roast Beef Sandwich, which she said was very good, and DH had the Mahi-Mahi sandwich, which he enjoyed. For lunch on our last day DD had the salad w/ beef & feta cheese. I had the chicken ceasar (it was ok, but they put bread crumbs on top instead of croutons, which I didn't enjoy) DS had a burger and Dh had the pepperoni flatbread. They were both ok, according to them. The Black Forest Cupcake was a good dessert, but the Dos Leche Cupcake they had, while it looked great, was NOT very good, imo. Not that we needed dessert, because portions were huge. But it came with the meal on the dining plan. We did get fruitcups or something a time or two, instead of the desserts.
Pool was nice. I was there one morning and the lifeguard picked a cute little guy to 'open' the pool. She gave him a Sorcerer Mickey hat and gloves and had him spin around 3 times. She used her magic wand and the pool fountains andd slide magically turned on. I think it was 10am. It was cute and the parents got some grat photos. We tried to use the pool almost every day we were there, but we hadd the worst luck--it would always start raining as we arrived. That didn't stop us, though. We'll swim in a light rain. They only closed the pool one day for lightning, and that was a nasty storm! They close when lightning is within 6 miles, btw. We enjoyed both the quiet pool and the main pool. The quiet pool was much warmer. That's where the 4 cabanas are. They look great, but we never saw anyone using them. $190 for either the morning or the afternoon to rent them. That includes a stocked fridge, tv and dvd player and an attnedant. You could also get a massage in the cabana if you arranged it ahead of time, I guess.
On our last day we swam after checkout but before the ME bus came to get us. We used a locker to store my purse, etc and just let our clothes bag on a lounge chair. Then we used the pool locker room and shower to change. It was not great. The shower was very clean, but the shower was at about waist level. It was the hand-held typ and that's where it hooked on the wall. Also, the water was not very warm at all! But it worked. We managed to shower. In the bathrooms at the pool the water in the sinks didn't even work! lol fortunately the sink in the handicapped stall did work. Otherwise--ick!
The only bad thing that happened during our trip occured at the pool. DD had just come off the slide and was walking thru the water to the steps across from the slide. She caught her toe on one of the new drain covers (thanks to the new law they all have to stick up and arre to-stubs) and sliced it open. It bled pretty badly so she went to lifeguard. He called another guard who came righht over with a towel and had her put her foot on that. She called her supervisor who came out. She couldn't tell how badd it was since it was bleeding badly but I said "let's clean it up and bandage/tape it up and she'll be fine." Apparrently they could bandage but had no tape so she offered to cal the Alpha Squad. I didn't know that meant EMT/Ambulance! So she called them and then we hadd all kinds of staff coming out! There were 6 CM's all the way up to the resort manager! We called off the ambulance, I got out my own First aidd tape and got her bandaged up. She could've gone back swimming since it had stopped bleeding and was wrapped tightly, but it hurt nad was almost time for us to go anyway so she passed. I noticed as we were leaving they had the pool staff cleaning up her blood droplets with a special spray. I will say the CMs were great about helping. They were happy to send her to urgent care via ambulance at their expense, and we were told so several times, by different CMs. We did have to refuse care
several times. DD's foot is fine, but that was quite a slice! Fortunately she had little walking to do that day, so all was well.
My thoughts:
We had the mugs and we didn't use them much. As a guest of the garden wing, it was a real pain to go in to refill them, unless we were going up to the 4th floor anyway. I think it would be great if they did like the waterparks do, and barcode the cups so they could have a refill station poolside or even in the garden wing. It would've been nice. It wasn't a huge deal, though.
The walk from the Garden Wing wasn't bad at all. It sounded far away when I was reading here, but it was not bad. It's completely covered, too.
THe CMs were great. We were greeted everyday everywhere we went. From housekeeping to the front desk and bell service, everyone was friendly.
Housekeeping was very good. I did tip, but the tips weren't always taken. They gave us plenty of towels when they saw that we'd gotten extra the first day and we always had an extra pile under the sink. I appreciated that.
We had some key/ticket difficulties. The CM made a mess, basically. I wasn't happy but we got it all worked out. For our troubles, the resort sent us flowers via Disney Florist. They were GORGEOUS! I took pics and will post. I kept the vase and really hated to leave those roses, but certainly couldnb't take them home on the plane.
The coffee bar was "out of coffee" one day. How does that happen? I was dissapointed in that. It happened our 2nd day and i never went back to Contemporary Grounds. Too bad.
Bus service was good. We took bus to DTD/waterpark, AK, and DS. There was a CM out at the bus stop every morning. They'd greet us and ask us where we were headed. One morning we'd just missed the DS bus. She said it's be 20-30 min for another, but it was less than 5. Other than that one day we never waited for a bus. I guess we had good timing. We walked to MK and came home via monorail each time. LOVED that! Monorail to EP was easy but took a while to get back since you have every stop on the resort loop. Still not a problem, as we were usually sitting.
Watched Wishes from the 4th floor lookout area on the roof. They had the sound there, too, and about 4-5 benches to sit. Thanks to the DVC CM who told us to head out there our 2st night. It's not the same as being in the park, but it was grreat! We saw the water parade go by (apparently there are 2, according to the CM at the bar on the 4th floor--Outer Rim. Maybe one goes to Bay Lake and the other to 7 Seas Lagoon? idk)
Beds--very comfortable. I was pleasantly surprised. The pillows were great, too, but tiny. Wish they were more like standard/queen size instead, but there were 10 total in our room so we were fine.
Oh yeah--I kept forgetting to ask. What does BVG stand for?? LOL we never figured that out.
I think that covers just about everything! Too much? LOL
Our stay is from Aug. 1-6, and this is our first trip to WDW as a family as well! 
GREAT report mdrob214! Holy cow thansk so much for posting about the raised drain covers in the pool, that is something that would happen to one of us...sorry your DD cut her toe, sounds nasty but what a trooper!
We will be sure to watch out for them. We stayed in the N wing years back, but do not remember such a cute pool opening happening -magic! We do plan on renting a mouse boat again, so thanks for posting the correct requirements...I saw something on Sammy Duvals page about being 16 and got worried . We will be there for a very short trip in 22 days, your report increased my excitement for sure!
YAY! Thanks so much for posting this!
