LSUgirl07
07-14-2007, 07:05 PM
Well, we're back (sadly)! But this is this first time in....well...a LONG time that I didn't want to cry when driving out of those magical 47 square miles. Not because I don't love Disney World or because I was sick of it, but because I really felt like there was NOTHING that we missed out on. I really feel like we made the absolute most of this trip- we left no corner unturned in the parks, yet you could find us every afternoon swimming and relaxing / tanning / playing volleyball with the cute lifeguards :blush: at the Contemporary or Polynesian pool (yes, we pool hopped a couple days- but my parents were staying there!) Most of the time it was just me, my best friend, my sister, and her best friend while my parents were doing there own thing. Let me tell you...this was AWESOME! So much less stress and absolutely no fighting between family members because we each got to do whatever we wanted to do, but still meet up sometime during the day to share a meal, watch fireworks, etc.
The Resort- Contemporary
Room 4845 (Tower, on the 9th floor)....REQUEST THIS ROOM! All the way at the end of the hall, on the Magic Kingdom side. When we checked in the CM literally said...You can't be any closer to the Castle than that!
So understand, I have stayed at the Poly for pretty much every family vacation in the past 18 years. Trying a new resort was a scary thing for me. But the moment we pulled up to the Contemporary, I fell in love. There are definitely 2 very difference, distinct vibes between here and the Poly. The Contemp. had this whole *here's the monorail! Go! GO! GO!* feel to it. With such a great means of transportation right inside the lobby, it was hard not to want to just jump on it every time you passed the 4th floor on the elevator! The Poly has much more of a resort feel- like I could just stay there with out hitting any parks and still have an amazing vacation. That being said, I found that with just us four 18-22 years olds, I LOVED the Contemporary pool! Great fountains, hot tub, and there was MAYBE 15 other people there even in the middle of the day! (is it always like this?) At the Poly, even the 'quiet' pool was crowded. Other things about the Contemporary:
-The Food & Fun Center was awesome, and they even had refillable mugs that weren't YOAMD themed- they were resort specific I guess you could say! We visisted the newly remodled Captain Cook's...and well. I am certainly not impressed. The touch screen ordering was cool, but I wish they had more options! The Food and Fun Center had different options just like Cook's, but they still had 'regular' food too- chicken strips, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc.
-LOVE the shopping here! I loved the random fudge counter right in the middle if the gift shop haha. Also, I'm not big on arcades, but this one is awesome! Had to play a game of Mario Kart!
-I know some people say that this resort doesn't really have a 'family' feel, but I have to disagree. Even though Mickey Mouse isn't in your face 24/7 (which, honestly, isn't a bad thing) Even with the convention center and all the people with nametags (my dad was one of them!) I still felt a definite surge of Disney magic every where we went- but in a different way than the Poly. The monorail going through the lobby, Chef Mickey's, the lights in the trees out front- all very magical to me! Not to mentios watching Wishes from our balcony EVERY night!!!!!
PS- One more thing- I would only ever stay at the Contemporary if I was staying in the Tower. It is SO convenient to just hop on the elevator down to the food court, monorail, pool, etc. I could see how staying in a wing would be kind of a hassle at the end of a long day
Dining
If you saw one of my posts prior to this trip, you might have seen that we made NO ADR's for this trip. None. Nada. Did we starve? Did we wait in lines for hours on end for delicious meals? Absolutely not! We had a wonderful dinner at Kona Cafe :thumbsup: on our first night and really fun lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe on our last day in the parks! Now, we didn't just walk up, but we made those ADR's on the same day as the meals itself. We ate at Kona at 8:00, and 50's Prime Time at 11:30. And honestly, that was perfect for us. I think 2 sit down meals was enough for us- we loved all the CS we ate! Let's see....we had...
-Casey's Corner hot dogs/fries/corn dog nuggets
-Tusker House rotisserie chicken/mashed potatoes/turkey wrap & chowder
- Pinnochio Village Haus vegetable pizzas and turkey & bacon paninis....SO good!
- Main Street Bakery french toast and apple strudels...to die for
- Electric Umbrella chicken fingers! Yum!
- Captain Cook's chicken ceaser salads & terryaki noodle bowls
- Yakitori House shrimp tempura udon noodle bowl
- Fish & Chips from the UK!
- Chocolate eclair from La Boulangerie Patisserie...YUM!!
- Funnel Cake from America
- El Plate Del Nino *kids meal* from Mexico- loved the quesidilla!
- Wolfgang Puck Express....AWESOME food & service!
And I'm sure there was more, but all that I can remember at the moment. Moral of the story? You can still have amazing meals that AREN'T just hamburgers & chicken fingers from CS places- and at about 1/2 the price :D I only ate chicken fingers twice this trip! And they were delicious :tasty:, but I never felt like I was forced to eat them. I was pleasantly surprised with all the options that most CS places seemed to have!
Other Magical Moments
Well, I did not seem the Dream Team a single time in all 5 days we were in the parks. Go figure. But honestly, we didn't need them! We had so many other magical moments like:
-Riding in the front of the monorail x2 and getting co-pilates licences!
-Dancing to some ABBA cover band in the America pavillion
-Watching Illuminations/dancing in the pouring rain while everyone else was jammed, and I mean JAMMED into the nearest gift shop.
- Watching Emily (my best friend) and Catherine's faces (my sister's best friend) during Wishes!
-Realizing we were all tearing up :fworks:
-Riding the teacups. Simple, I know. But this ride really makes you feel 6 again. It was awesome!
-Getting to meet the Mad Hatter and Alice. They are SO fun! These were the only characters we took pictures with because we never felt like waiting in line for the others
-Seeing the extraordinarily long line for the Nemo Musical. I went all the way from the entrance of the theater all the way back into the middle of Chester & Hester's. Thank goodness nobody in our party wanted to see it haha!
-Getting to see everything through Emily's eyes, because she didn't remember anything from her last trip 8 years ago. I was so used to everything that I had kind of forgotten about all the details Disney puts into everything- it also made me realize I have a new goal for every trip. Every trip, I want to do a LEAST one new thing. Whether it be a ride, a resort, a meal, etc. Disney had started to seem a little redundant (if it's even possible :blush:) But now I realize it was because I was doing the same things over and over again. Something as simple as switching from my usual resort gave this trip so much more excitement because I didn't know what it was going to be like. Yes, it was a little scary, but I am so glad we did it.
I think that's the once piece of advice I would give- don't be afraid to try new things at Disney. After a few trips, it gets easy to stick with what you've always known. But trying new things (The Contemporary, Wolfgang Puck Express, Everest, really exploring all the Epcot countries to name a few for me) is what really made my trip memorable :mickey:
Oh, and Emily has decided we're taking another senior trip in 4 years...when we graduate from college :mickey: Let the planning begin!
-
The Resort- Contemporary
Room 4845 (Tower, on the 9th floor)....REQUEST THIS ROOM! All the way at the end of the hall, on the Magic Kingdom side. When we checked in the CM literally said...You can't be any closer to the Castle than that!
So understand, I have stayed at the Poly for pretty much every family vacation in the past 18 years. Trying a new resort was a scary thing for me. But the moment we pulled up to the Contemporary, I fell in love. There are definitely 2 very difference, distinct vibes between here and the Poly. The Contemp. had this whole *here's the monorail! Go! GO! GO!* feel to it. With such a great means of transportation right inside the lobby, it was hard not to want to just jump on it every time you passed the 4th floor on the elevator! The Poly has much more of a resort feel- like I could just stay there with out hitting any parks and still have an amazing vacation. That being said, I found that with just us four 18-22 years olds, I LOVED the Contemporary pool! Great fountains, hot tub, and there was MAYBE 15 other people there even in the middle of the day! (is it always like this?) At the Poly, even the 'quiet' pool was crowded. Other things about the Contemporary:
-The Food & Fun Center was awesome, and they even had refillable mugs that weren't YOAMD themed- they were resort specific I guess you could say! We visisted the newly remodled Captain Cook's...and well. I am certainly not impressed. The touch screen ordering was cool, but I wish they had more options! The Food and Fun Center had different options just like Cook's, but they still had 'regular' food too- chicken strips, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc.
-LOVE the shopping here! I loved the random fudge counter right in the middle if the gift shop haha. Also, I'm not big on arcades, but this one is awesome! Had to play a game of Mario Kart!
-I know some people say that this resort doesn't really have a 'family' feel, but I have to disagree. Even though Mickey Mouse isn't in your face 24/7 (which, honestly, isn't a bad thing) Even with the convention center and all the people with nametags (my dad was one of them!) I still felt a definite surge of Disney magic every where we went- but in a different way than the Poly. The monorail going through the lobby, Chef Mickey's, the lights in the trees out front- all very magical to me! Not to mentios watching Wishes from our balcony EVERY night!!!!!
PS- One more thing- I would only ever stay at the Contemporary if I was staying in the Tower. It is SO convenient to just hop on the elevator down to the food court, monorail, pool, etc. I could see how staying in a wing would be kind of a hassle at the end of a long day
Dining
If you saw one of my posts prior to this trip, you might have seen that we made NO ADR's for this trip. None. Nada. Did we starve? Did we wait in lines for hours on end for delicious meals? Absolutely not! We had a wonderful dinner at Kona Cafe :thumbsup: on our first night and really fun lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe on our last day in the parks! Now, we didn't just walk up, but we made those ADR's on the same day as the meals itself. We ate at Kona at 8:00, and 50's Prime Time at 11:30. And honestly, that was perfect for us. I think 2 sit down meals was enough for us- we loved all the CS we ate! Let's see....we had...
-Casey's Corner hot dogs/fries/corn dog nuggets
-Tusker House rotisserie chicken/mashed potatoes/turkey wrap & chowder
- Pinnochio Village Haus vegetable pizzas and turkey & bacon paninis....SO good!
- Main Street Bakery french toast and apple strudels...to die for
- Electric Umbrella chicken fingers! Yum!
- Captain Cook's chicken ceaser salads & terryaki noodle bowls
- Yakitori House shrimp tempura udon noodle bowl
- Fish & Chips from the UK!
- Chocolate eclair from La Boulangerie Patisserie...YUM!!
- Funnel Cake from America
- El Plate Del Nino *kids meal* from Mexico- loved the quesidilla!
- Wolfgang Puck Express....AWESOME food & service!
And I'm sure there was more, but all that I can remember at the moment. Moral of the story? You can still have amazing meals that AREN'T just hamburgers & chicken fingers from CS places- and at about 1/2 the price :D I only ate chicken fingers twice this trip! And they were delicious :tasty:, but I never felt like I was forced to eat them. I was pleasantly surprised with all the options that most CS places seemed to have!
Other Magical Moments
Well, I did not seem the Dream Team a single time in all 5 days we were in the parks. Go figure. But honestly, we didn't need them! We had so many other magical moments like:
-Riding in the front of the monorail x2 and getting co-pilates licences!
-Dancing to some ABBA cover band in the America pavillion
-Watching Illuminations/dancing in the pouring rain while everyone else was jammed, and I mean JAMMED into the nearest gift shop.
- Watching Emily (my best friend) and Catherine's faces (my sister's best friend) during Wishes!
-Realizing we were all tearing up :fworks:
-Riding the teacups. Simple, I know. But this ride really makes you feel 6 again. It was awesome!
-Getting to meet the Mad Hatter and Alice. They are SO fun! These were the only characters we took pictures with because we never felt like waiting in line for the others
-Seeing the extraordinarily long line for the Nemo Musical. I went all the way from the entrance of the theater all the way back into the middle of Chester & Hester's. Thank goodness nobody in our party wanted to see it haha!
-Getting to see everything through Emily's eyes, because she didn't remember anything from her last trip 8 years ago. I was so used to everything that I had kind of forgotten about all the details Disney puts into everything- it also made me realize I have a new goal for every trip. Every trip, I want to do a LEAST one new thing. Whether it be a ride, a resort, a meal, etc. Disney had started to seem a little redundant (if it's even possible :blush:) But now I realize it was because I was doing the same things over and over again. Something as simple as switching from my usual resort gave this trip so much more excitement because I didn't know what it was going to be like. Yes, it was a little scary, but I am so glad we did it.
I think that's the once piece of advice I would give- don't be afraid to try new things at Disney. After a few trips, it gets easy to stick with what you've always known. But trying new things (The Contemporary, Wolfgang Puck Express, Everest, really exploring all the Epcot countries to name a few for me) is what really made my trip memorable :mickey:
Oh, and Emily has decided we're taking another senior trip in 4 years...when we graduate from college :mickey: Let the planning begin!
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