The NEW Disney's Contemporary Resort FAQ with PICTURES! (Feb 2008)

[Echo queen]

Does anyone know if the Olympiad Fitness Center is free for Contemporary Resort guests?

I know that the other deluxe resorts offer free membership to their resort guests, so I was just wondering if the Contemporary is the same.

Thanks!

Where is this located? thanks

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Where is this located? thanks

It's located on the 3rd floor of the Tower.

 

[LizAgna]

Are there microwaves in the rooms?

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Are there microwaves in the rooms?

No they are not, however you can use one at the Contempo Cafe.

 

[Sweet Pea UK]

Quote: It's been posted that the pool renovation is to finish in March, so yes they will be finished by the time you arrive

Are they just refinishing the pool? Or they redoing it completely.

Ooh - I'd like to know this too?

 

[skifast22]

I was there from 11/5 - 11/10, traveling alone on business. I had a South Wing room booked, and they upgraded me too! I'd only stayed at CR once, back in 1984 in the North Wing (RIP). Being in the Tower was quite a trip! I'd loved the CR ever since my first visit in '74 (we stayed at the Golf Resort and, later, the Poly, which I love as well), but my parents always wanted something "quieter." :-/

I LOVED the recent rehab. The rooms are now most comfortable. I'm not a fan of the overly-fussy decor of some of the other Deluxe Resorts (the Epcot ones, actually), and love the Contemporary's "new" look. They really did a nice job with the rehab and the decor. I have issues with the beautiful-but-unpractical bathrooms and the awkward location of the dresser drawers, but loved the comfy bed and free computer. I'd stay again in a heartbeat. In fact, I'll be returning late-March for a week to take advantage of the seven-for-four deal. The location can't be beat, and I even loved the lunch I had a the new restaurant, The Wave. Really cool bar/lounge there too. Tempo Grab 'n Go was adequate, but I realize that was temporary. And that "Monorail Tree" was waaaay cool - I want one!

SO, i'm curious...What room did you get with the 7-for4 deal? I'm wondering if theme park view is available with this special

 

[ChloroFiend]

SO, i'm curious...What room did you get with the 7-for4 deal? I'm wondering if theme park view is available with this special

It is. The morning that the promo hit, I called up and upgraded our honeymoon. We went from a 6-night stay in a garden wing, garden view room to 7 nights in an MK-View Tower room...and saved $300.

 

[skifast22]

That's incredible! Thanks for responding so quick. I have a trip booked for next Sept. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they'll extend the promotion. Hope you have a great honeymoon

 

[Buckeye Lurker]

We've been down the week before Christmas before, but have never been in a position to think of buying gifts for others while down there. This year we have a boat load of disney bonus dollars and would like to buy some gifts from people.

I know they will send your purchases back to the gift shop in your home hotel if you buy inside the park. (I think I read someplace that at the deluxe resorts they send the packages to your room, but that doesn't make a differnce to me.) What about gift wrap for your puchases? Do the shops offer a gift wrap service? We aren't going to be returning untilt he 24th evening and will be on a limted time table when we get home. It would be nice if we could get them wrapped.

Also, I know they will ship your purchases home for you, but it being the week before christmas I am hesitant to ship home actual Christmas presents. Has anyone tried disney shippng before? The week before chrimstas? I don't think taking the gifts home in luggage is a desirable option, but we will if we have to.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I know they will send your purchases back to the gift shop in your home hotel if you buy inside the park. (I think I read someplace that at the deluxe resorts they send the packages to your room, but that doesn't make a differnce to me.)

If you stay Club Level and have something sent back to your Resort it gets sent right to your room. However if you don't stay Club Level you pick it up at one of the stores in your Resort and at the Contemporary it would be at the Bay View Gifts store.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

I snapped this photo from the moving train around MK last Sat. afternoon, the 15th. It is not very good, but here goes!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

We've been down the week before Christmas before, but have never been in a position to think of buying gifts for others while down there. This year we have a boat load of disney bonus dollars and would like to buy some gifts from people.

I know they will send your purchases back to the gift shop in your home hotel if you buy inside the park. (I think I read someplace that at the deluxe resorts they send the packages to your room, but that doesn't make a differnce to me.) What about gift wrap for your puchases? Do the shops offer a gift wrap service? We aren't going to be returning untilt he 24th evening and will be on a limted time table when we get home. It would be nice if we could get them wrapped.

Also, I know they will ship your purchases home for you, but it being the week before christmas I am hesitant to ship home actual Christmas presents. Has anyone tried disney shippng before? The week before chrimstas? I don't think taking the gifts home in luggage is a desirable option, but we will if we have to.

I've not had to send packages home from WDW this close to Christmas so I can't really say if the timing would work out. However, we DID learn an important lesson about shipping packages home. If you ship items directly from a store (ie. World of Disney) home it's pretty pricey and not very fast. Towards the end of our Contemporary stay last December we realized we had a lot more souveniers than we originally had thought and needed to ship stuff home. What to do??? We called the front desk and they suggested we haul all the stuff we needed to ship down to the business services desk in the Convention Center building. We shipped 3 good sized boxes home via FedEx ground and they arrived within 3 or 4 days. Also, it cost a LOT less than shipping direct from the stores. This past May when we stayed at POFQ we took a taxi over to the Contemporary and shipped a big box of presents home again. It works very well. If time were an issue I'm sure you can upgrade the service to a 2nd day or overnite service since it's FedEx. On a sidenote, I'm also personally very fond of FedEx. I used to work for a satellite phone rental/sales company that shipped a dozen or so packages with valuable equipment daily. I never had a package lost or late. I have found FedEx to be oober reliable in my dealings with them.

Have fun!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

SO, i'm curious...What room did you get with the 7-for4 deal? I'm wondering if theme park view is available with this special

We got the tower with MK view with the special also! We are staying Jan.23rd thru Feb.1st...9 nights. I called within a day or so of the special being released and was quite shocked to get the promo for this room. Needless to say, we're absolutely giddy with excitement. This will be our 2nd stay at CR with this view. WoooHoooooo!!! I hope the special gets extended and you can get it, too.

 

[nbodyhome]

I was at the Contempo Cafe opening day (but I've been at Disney so much I've not had a chance to post photos - and putting up Super Soap Weekend photos took way too much time!). I plan to be back at the CR tomorrow anyway, so I'll be doing full CR photos then.

CR Fan had asked about the Outer Rim - if this isn't posted yet, they should be already started (I will check tomorrow) and I was told that it'd not be open until July.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

CR Fan had asked about the Outer Rim - if this isn't posted yet, they should be already started (I will check tomorrow) and I was told that it'd not be open until July.

Wow I am surprised to hear the Outer Rim won't be done until July, because it does not seem like a huge space that needs to take forever to be built.

 

[Buckeye Lurker]

My kids want to do the autograph books this year. My recollection is that most of the shops we saw in the resorts stocked them. Anyone know for sure if they are stocked at the CR, and what price? Would we be better off just buying off of ebay?

TYIA

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

My kids want to do the autograph books this year. My recollection is that most of the shops we saw in the resorts stocked them. Anyone know for sure if they are stocked at the CR, and what price? Would we be better off just buying off of ebay?

TYIA

They are sold in the Fantasia store and Bay View Gifts store, however the only thing I don't remember is how much they cost.

 

[pbkahn]

All,
I apologize if this has already been asked and answered; however, my ability to search this thread is apparently non-existent. Anyway, I am wondering if anyone has connected a USB hub to the one available USB port on the in_room computer. I want to be able to transfer pictures/video from one device to another (i.e. from the camera to larger storage device). Has anyone successfully pulled this off?

I will be trying it when we get there beginning on Dec 6th.

TIA,
Peter

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

All,
I apologize if this has already been asked and answered; however, my ability to search this thread is apparently non-existent. Anyway, I am wondering if anyone has connected a USB hub to the one available USB port on the in_room computer. I want to be able to transfer pictures/video from one device to another (i.e. from the camera to larger storage device). Has anyone successfully pulled this off?

I will be trying it when we get there beginning on Dec 6th.

TIA,
Peter

I believe there is a USB port somehwere on the side of the monitor, however I am not sure if anyone has been able to do what you want to do.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

All,
I apologize if this has already been asked and answered; however, my ability to search this thread is apparently non-existent. Anyway, I am wondering if anyone has connected a USB hub to the one available USB port on the in_room computer. I want to be able to transfer pictures/video from one device to another (i.e. from the camera to larger storage device). Has anyone successfully pulled this off?

I will be trying it when we get there beginning on Dec 6th.

TIA,
Peter

We took our laptop last December so we did our transferring with it. I've given what you're thinking some thought because we store all our pics on an external drive. However, my biggest fear in connecting my external drive to the room computer is any additional risk for viruses, etc. that could cause me to lose my entire drive. For that reason I still elect to bring my own laptop that I have the peace of mind knowing is well protected. As cheap as the high capacity SD cards have been getting I may just invest in a handful more of them. That way I can skip bringing my external drive which makes my carry-on gear a lot lighter and more compact. Just my thoughts. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing USB ports on the in-rooms, tho.


Have fun!!!