We're just back from a 4 night stay at the Contemporary... so I wanted to give you guys some info/thoughts since you all were so helpful before we left
Check in was a breeze. I've read horror stories.
We walked in and were greeted by the gentleman who was stationed by the front door, he walked us to the front desk, and our room was ready when we got there at 11:00 am. The front desk staff couldn't have been nicer. The man at the door was there every day, greeting guests, directing them, handing out stickers to the kids and answering questions and the line at the front desk never seemed long when we passed through.
Room - I booked the cheapest room they have - garden wing standard view with a discounted pin code and I was fully prepared to be staring at the parking lot or a brick wall. Much to my surprise, we were upgraded (without asking) to the a 6th floor Tower room with a Bay Lake view.
It was all the way at the end of the building, basically above Chef Mickey's. It was great to be in the tower, close to the monorail and less of a walk to MK.
Now...had I paid rack rate of $350/night, or if this was a "once in a lifetime" type of trip, I may have had an issue with both the construction noise AND the Chef Mickey's noise from that room location. And I swear I'm not one of those picky, everything has to be perfect at Disney type of people we've stayed at AKL during the construction and am not easily bothered. But I can confidently tell you that the staff at Chef Mickeys starts setting up at 5:30 am, and the first round of Celebrate is at 7:30 am.
The music and the construction were both much louder than I expected it to be. (They should re-name it Echo Canyon Concourse
) We discovered that turning the A/C fan to high instead of auto generated "white noise" just loud enough to drown it out...plus we were exhausted! And honestly, since I paid for a parking lot view in the back building, it was still fine with me! Hakuna Matata!
The
much hated sinks didnt bother me either mostly because I invested $1.00 in one of those pocket toiletry storage thingys that hang over the shower bar I just hung it on the outside of the shower and it held everything we needed. And I plugged my flat-iron for my hair on the counter above the fridge to warm up, then just moved it when I was ready to use it.
Other storage - we unpacked our clothes into the drawers my son and husband had a drawer each the ones on the side of the bed near the computer. I slid the computer and chair down away from the bed and moved the side part of the desk (on wheels) into the corner next to the TV to give us a little more room to get into those drawers. I used the small drawers in the closet and we were fine. But were a small family and this was a quick trip. Our
mouse-keepers were wonderful. The room was always made up early, and she left a towel swan for us one day. Another day, we came back to the room to find the TV on and my sons stuffed Rex (from Toy Story) holding the remote on the bed. He thought that was hilarious.
Contempo - no one I spoke to would commit to a time that it's opening. "In a few months" or "by the end of the year" was the most specific I could get out of anyone. I did see some actual progress though - there is tile on the floor (covered to protect it, but I saw them putting it down), there are cabinet-type things going in that appear to be the things that hold the cash registers. There's beige striped wallpaper up on the back wall everything was mostly all neutral colors and dark woods similar to the rooms. And where are the pictures you ask?? Sorry
I warned you before I left
Im not good about pictures. But I promise, there was actual progress since the last pictures that were posted, so Im sure theyll finish
eventually
Tempo Grab and Go - For us, even with the amount of time we spent in the parks, having such a small quick service selection with a fairly picky child was an issue. We normally eat breakfast at the resort every day (except for 1 character breakfast), so having a choice of only scrambled eggs as a hot breakfast was not good for us. I heard lots of complaints, mostly from families and kids. And I realize its a temporary location, but the size and the way its set up is very conducive to people bumping into each other with trays. Also, Ive done
DDP before, so I know how it works. But based on my many years of experience in customer service, you cannot assume that customers know the drill and the staff should be able to respond with something other than a deer-in-the-headlights stare and barking about selecting from the badly marked kids corner. I guess Im spoiled Im used to The Mara at Animal Kingdom Lodge with has a great selection and fabulous knowledgeable staff. I hope that the new permanent installation is more along the lines of what Ive experienced there. I felt kind of bad for the people that had their first DDP quick service experience there it was not good.
Unfortunately it was a quick trip, so we were in the parks most of the time and did not set foot outside near the pool, dock, beach, etc. My son was dying to go jump in the fountain play area, and the hot tub in the middle of the pool looked great, but we just never got there.
All in all, we really enjoyed our stay there, and will consider it again - once Contempo is open and running. The location is FABULOUS cant beat it. We spent 2 of our 5 days at Magic Kingdom and 1 at Epcot, so having the monorail right there was terrific. We also loved being able to watch the fireworks from the 4th floor patio. I liked the décor even though Im at Disney, I like to be able to go back to my room at the end of a day at the parks and kind of escape from the whole cartoon-ish Mickey Mouse feel. So this (and AKL) fit the bill perfectly. It was like going to a higher end Manhattan hotel and not something campy and over-themed.
If anyone has any specific questions, fire away.
There dosent seem to be any place to do that anymore...too bad..
My husband will not be happy for the amount we are paying per night.
