Contemporary Resort Review

I have to confess.  I am a Moderate Resort girl.  Values are too small and Deluxe are too expensive for my tastes.  I am quickly shedding that idea!

For the first part of our after Thanksgiving trip I decided to try out the Contemporary.  This was primarily due to the ability to walk to Magic Kingdom.  Yes, THAT was it only charm for me, at least when I booked it!

Driving up to the resort, my husband was regretting my decision immediately!  You have to go through the Magic Kingdom’s parking lot (well actually the booths where you pay to park) to get to Contemporary, and it was a madhouse!  Once he was convinced to go as far right as he could, he decided it wasn’t so bad after all. 

This time, as we checked in with the security guard at Contemporary, he handed us our paper parking pass.  There seems to be a bit of a discrepancy as to what Disney is doing with the paper parking passes.  I think this worked fairly well!

For us, the fact that the parking was convenient to the building was a plus, but we did try the valet parking on our first day, as there were no handicapped parking available.  (a big complaint at most Deluxe resorts.)  I LOVE the contemporary check in.  Ours went very smoothly.  In fact, check in is our worst nightmare at Disney.  It has been so long since one went completely smooth that I was so afraid it would be the same this time, I sent the husband and kids up to the gift shop to look around!

Since we always check in early, there is a good chance that our room will not be ready, even doing the online check in.  So, I wasn’t expecting it to be ready.  And I was right!  ….BUT…. our CM was able to find a room that WAS available! 

From what I had seen online I was not expecting much as far as view.  While it says Bay Lake view, I knew there was a total chance of getting a view of a top of a building or maybe even the side.  The CM said he had two rooms, one with a great view and one with a “meh” view and asked me which one I wanted.  I, of course, said the great view, please!

It took him all of two seconds to complete the transaction!  In fact it was so quick that I was able to catch my family before they got on the elevator, and we went straight to the 10^th floor!

Our Room!

Our room was fantastic!  The view was an absolute dream!  We could see Epcot (as well as the high fireworks at night), the Bay view was to die for (as well as the nighttime water pageant), and the pool was inviting!  Off in the distance we could see the I-drive Ferris Wheel thingy!  Which at night changed colors! 

The room itself was spacious.  I had doubts about it fitting a fifth person, but even with the sofa pulled out into a bed it was perfect!  In fact our ONLY complaint about the room was lack of storage space.  Yes, I KNOW it had two closets, but with five people it would have been nice to have at least five drawers.  The drawers they did have were not very deep.  They did not accommodate my packing cubes very well at all.  We did bring extra hangers so we survived…LOL!

Coffee Station

Sleeper Sofa

Closet 

Large TV

After unpacking, we (being me and the girls) took a stroll over to Magic Kingdom to activate our Military Salute tickets.  By this time it was around 3pm, and I saw the brilliance of my plan take shape!  First, the decision NOT to go to a park that day was perfect.  Magic Kingdom was a madhouse trying to get in!  Of course going through the baggage check just to get to the Will Call desk was crazy! I took my wallet and gave the girls my bag so they could go through it with my bag.  It was a good decision!  The line at Guest Services was VERY long!

After getting our tickets taken care of we took a leisurely stroll back to the Contemporary.  It took us a little less than 10 minutes.  (Right at seven minutes to walk to Magic Kingdom…the difference is it is downhill TO the park and uphill FROM the park!)

I was worried about the noise level staying at Contemporary.  With the noisy Chef Mickey just below us, and the noise from the Monorail going through the building I was afraid it would be bad.  This is where the genius of the design of the building comes in.  Standing at your door, the noise is a muffled hum. If you go over to the edge of the balcony area you heard it all loud and clear.  But standing back the 6 feet or so, at your door you could barely make out what was being heard.  Once the door was shut…it was quiet!  If you walked to your balcony, and opened the door, you could hear the boats, ferry and people playing in the pool.  At night you could hear the fireworks from Magic Kingdom (BOY could you hear them!) and the nighttime water pageant was fairly loud. 

The beds were totally comfortable.  I was pleasantly surprised!  Having just gotten a new bed at home that is super comfy, I was afraid that nothing would make me happy. 

The bathroom was wonderful!  I base that on the fact that the shower was one of the best ones on property!  I absolutely hated the sinks!  While they were stylish, they were useless!  We designated one sink as dry and one as wet.  The dry sink became our counter space.  The wet sink became our mess!  Flat sinks were not designed for kids to brush their teeth in!  Yuck…I’ll leave it at that!

Toilet area

Tub

Sink

The toilet enclosure seems to be an afterthought with a lot of wasted space, even with the barn door style doors.  I would have loved to see some of that space used for more storage. In the floor plans it does show that area as having an additional sink (which would be useful as long as it wasn't the same style of sink!)

Valet parking was nice, but truthfully, not for us.  Since you could see your car, and where it was parked, it was hard to wait the 15 minutes or so for them to retrieve it.  On Sunday morning we had not allowed for that extra time.  After that we just parked it ourselves.  Even though we were not always successful in getting a handicapped parking space, the regular parking was so close it didn't matter!  Of course, remembering to go to the car to get the wheelchair and stroller on our Magic Kingdom days was ...only somewhat problematic! 

I LOVED their food court!  We only ate there one time on our last day, breakfast, but it was so much smoother than other food courts on property!  Since we were having our five plus two others joining us for breakfast, it was difficult finding enough table space.  Once a CM saw us trying to make this work, she immediately solved the problem for us and made sure we had enough chairs/space.  When you order, they give you a menu.  You order from that, pick out your extras (like juice) and pay (or use your band) and they give you a pager.  A few minutes later your food is magically delivered to your seat.  Very similar to the way Be Our Guest lunch and breakfast are now done.  

Over all, it was a HIT with four of our five traveling party.  While my husband loved the size of the humongous TV, there was nothing else he really loved about the resort.