Calling all Contemporary fans

[ChewyStriker]

We're leaning toward booking a garden wing standard room at the Contemporary for our next trip for my son's 4th birthday in May.

Thinking is we'll be mostly at Epcot and MK and my son LOVES the monorail.

We usually rent points and do a DVC for our May trip as we stay a week and like to have separate rooms, but we're thinking we may go this route instead for the little one.

Can you give me the pros and cons for the resort? What's great about it and not so great? We've only been there for Chef Mickey's and that's about it.

Thanks!:mickey:

[wdwfansince75]

We love the Contemporary....as you can tell from the signature.
Pros....
Location....a short walk or monorail ride from/to MK...and a relatively short monorail to/fm EPCOT, our two favorite parks....also convenient to Ft. Wilderness...and finally, convenient car parking, allowing you to use your own car to go to AK and DHS....In my opinion, the best resort for us uncurable park hoppers.
Atmosphere....less hectic than Poly, less pretensious than GF, but large rooms....suggest you ask for a King and sleeper sofa....gives a little more room. Note that they do have suites.
Convenient and not usually crowded pool and playground
Great resturants.
Good shopping, and game room on concourse level.
Convenient and hospitable poolside bar, with great hot dogs, and really cold beer. Great poolside service.
Lest I forget...Location!

Cons....will forever miss the Food and Fun Center...Of course, I still miss the Top of the World, and the Concourse Buffeteria!
Shares buses to AK and DHS with Poly and GF (but is first stop).
And finally, more expensive than Shades of Green!
Pool can be open late, and sometimes, loud.
(As you can see, I am struggling to find Con's.

[KylesMom]

Nicely summed up, wdwfansince75!

Although CR is out of our reach financially these days, we were able to stay at this wonderful resort on two separate occasions - once in the North Wing (no longer there) and once in the South Wing.

Our absolute #1 "pro" was to be able to walk back to our room late in the evening without having to worry about buses, or boats, or monorails. It's always such a peaceful walk, with the monorail gliding overhead and the CR lights glistening.

We love the CR gift shops! I'm assuming the relocated "Food & Fun Center" will be open by May - they always had terrific grill food. Chef Mickey's is there for an early breakfast or a fun dinner before venturing to MK for the evening . . .

The rooms are HUGE compared to the other on-site properties we've stayed at.

The Electric Light parade is right outside on the water. You can watch Wishes from the 4th floor observation deck if you don't want to venture far. The pool has never seemed over-crowded, and there are plenty of water mice & Suntrackers to rent. A hot dog from Casey's is a quick walk away . . . :D To see Space Mountain & the Castle, all you need to do is go around to the front of the resort . . .

I gotta be honest - I really can't think of much in the negative department about this resort, either! On occassion we had poor mousekeeping, a few less than courteous neighbors, and they don't have balconies you can hang out on, but that's about it! :mickey:

[KODABEAR]

We especially like the walkway to Magic Kingdom. We find it so easy to go back to the room to relax then return for more adventures!:walk:

[Mackflava99]

I echo the posts above- i only stayed once but loved it--

[Lynn J Mc]

This is my favorite resort - we've stayed here about 10 times in the garden wings and the tower. I agree with all of the above. One of the things my niece enjoyed about the North Garden wing which is gone, is we had a ground floor room and she made friends with lots of ducks. They would almost come in the room with her. That year the kids meals all came with a pack of crackers and she would save all of hers to bring back to the ducks. As soon as they heard our patio door open they were in her lap. And the EWP is great. I highly recommend watching Wishes from the resort. We also have much more luck riding in the front of the monorail when we are staying there. Don't know why. I personnally don't like walking back from the park as I am tired and the CR is the first monorail stop and I just love the monorail. Have fun.

[javamama]

I started staying there as a little kid in the '70's w/my parents. It was so cool then, we always stayed in the tower, so we could watch the parade at night, and my parents loved the view of the MK, plus the monorail was so neat to us as kids(and even now it still is at 36). We loved the fact that we could go down to the pool, and our parents could watch us from the room(balcony when we were older), we also like taking the ride on the monorail alone when we were older, the ameneties at a deluxe resort really made the trip "classy" back in the 70's and 80's, and now a days it's still a classy resort, we still eat there everytime we go, we stay at the Poly though, because they have a Suite that can hold our large party. One of my best memories is taking out a water sprite w/my dad, and running out of gas and hitching a ride back to the CR on the garbage boat, after we saw a water mocasin in Bay Lake:eek: My dad jumped so high, so fast back into the boat:giggle:

[threeh]

I've only stayed once, but I'm looking forward to staying at the new DVC. As other posters have said the walkway to MK is great, the views are super cool. I just love the whole feel of the 4th floor concourse. I do miss the steakhouse, that was one of the best meals I've had. There is also the marina and pool, lots to do!!
:mickey: