Original Contemporary/MK view question

[disneydoug]

I just book a Magic Kingdom view from the original Contemporary tower. I know NOTHING about it. Please FLOOD us with info. Does one side of the roomlook DOWN through the center of the hotel while the other faces MK? What about fireworks view? What are the rooms and pools like? Thank you!!!

[faline]

We stayed in the Tower once with a Magic Kingdom view and it was wonderful! We were there in December and were able to watch the fireworks right from our balcony! The one dowside to the Magic Kingdom view side is that you get a fair amount of road noise on that side of the resort - not when you are inside the room but while you are on the balcony. We could see the Castle right from our bed!

I recall the room being a decent sized but also believe they have been refurbished since then.

When you exit your room, you enter a hallway on the Concourse side and yes, that hallway does look down over Chef Mickey's and/or the other things on that level.

There were two pools, as I recall. The main pool had recently been refurbished and was quite nice.

[Lynn J Mc]

My favorite resort and my favorite view! The only thing that I don't like about the room refurbishment is the sinks in the bathroom - they are big, square and flat. Difficult to drain. There is very little counter space now so we used one of the sinks for counter space! Other wise, the place is perfect. You can see the electric water parade from the room. What is better than watching the fireworks from your own room and not having to fight the crowd? And the monorail to the Magic Kingdom without having to go through buildings or the grounds? We've stayed at the Poly, Grand Floridian, Coronado Springs and Contemporary. It is our favorite. You will have a wonderful time.

[Ian]

I just love the Contemporary. It was the very first hotel I ever stayed in on Disney property and it's been my favorite ever since.

Tower rooms are awesome and have terrific views. There's something truly special about waking up and being able to look out your window and see the Castle.

[Daisy'sMom]

We stayed there on our honeymoon (ages ago). Loved it then, but now we love our money more;), we stay at the values.:mickey:

[BrerGnat]

Tower rooms are the BEST! We had an MK view tower room on the 10th floor, dead center, in 2009. It was AMAZING. Best money I've ever spent for a "view" (I'm not normally a "view" person, and usually book "standard view" when traveling). But, with that view, I was out on that balcony all the time! :thumbsup: I loved drinking my morning coffee out there. And the fireworks at night...it's really outstanding. You can turn your t.v. to a channel that plays the music from the show too, so it's like a private viewing.

I'd add a note to your reservation for a room:

"on the side furthest from Chef Mickey's, and as high up as possible"

This will help with road noise from the parking lot/buses below as well as noise from the Concourse, especially from Chef Mickey's, which can get quite loud during mealtimes and during cleanup between meals (clanking plates, vacuuming, etc).

You have to exit your room to look over the rail in the hallway to "see down" into the Concourse. That's also a cool view.

I love the Contemporary too. It's one of my favorites on property. It's my favorite "MK resort". Beach Club is tied, IMO.

If you really want, I can send you some pictures I took from our CR tower room balcony last year. PM me and send me your email if you want to see!

[disneydoug]

Thank you so much!!!!!

[Goofy4TheWorld]

You said FLOOD, so be careful what you ask for....

First, after staying this June in a MK View Room, I don’t think it is worth the money. However, you have made your decision, so I will try to share what I learned.

In my opinion, there isn’t a single “bad room” on the MK side of the Contemporary, in terms of floors, location or views. The view of MK will be essentially the same no matter the room. However, for me noise was plentiful from two sources. First, the ferry boats out on the Lagoon blow their horns constantly. You don’t really notice it much until you try to sleep. I am a very light sleeper and was kept up until 2am the first night with boat horns. A trip to the adult beverage department down on the fourth floor solved that problem after my second sleepless night in a row. The other noise came around 5am from the walkie-talkies of the Monorail CMs starting up the Monorail each morning. We never heard ANY noise from the Monorail itself, but each morning workers would do something down below that required lots of walkie-talkie communication, and they must all be deaf because the volume was so loud that I could make out every word that was being said (the adult beverage had wore off by 5am). We were on the 8th floor (three floors above the Monorail), on the Monorail platform side of the building, so that may have made it worse, but if you are a light sleeper, be aware.

The view of the fireworks from your balcony is a little odd IMO. I used to think that the Castle was basically facing the Contemporary, but it is not. It looks like the Castle is more square with the Grand Floridian, which means you will see the fireworks much more “from the side” than I was expecting. The music from the fireworks is played on your Contemporary room TV on channel 20 (a fantastic benefit). Another observation for me was the noise and percussion from the fireworks was much louder from our balcony than it was from on Main Street. I mean WAY LOUDER. You could feel the explosions in the air while on your balcony (followed by the melody of car alarms sounding). This caught us off-guard and scared the daylights out of our two year old the first night. For some reason the explosions seem muted down on Main Street. I will say that watching the fireworks from a balcony is a unique experience, and while you do miss some of the show not being in the park, it is a great way too watch it at least once.

As odd as it seems, my favorite part of the view was the fact that, if you look way off to your left on a clear morning, you can see Expedition Everest from your balcony.

The rooms are very large with plenty of space. However, the bathroom vanity area lacks a lot of storage space for your toiletry items to sit on. Also, the sinks are basically flat and take forever to drain. While the toilet is in a separate room, neither the vanity area door or the toilet area doors have locks (they are actually sliding doors). Another random thought that you might appreciate if you have young children is that the balcony doors have two locks: one down low at normal door-handle height, and a second lock at the top of the door, out of reach for young children.

The interior of the building is like the letter H. Each side has hallways for you to access your room, where your room will be on one side and the center “concourse” on the other. The center part of the “H” is the elevator shafts in the center of the building. There are four elevators, 3 on one side and 1 on the other. Be sure to not get confused about which way to turn if you get on the “fourth” elevator. I did, and while my son was at the pool with a DIRTY diaper, I was running down the Bay Lake side of the building in a FULL panic because my key wouldn’t work and I couldn’t remember my room number (a mouse-keeper saw my panic and helped me realize I was on the wrong side of the building.). The check-in desk and the exit to the bus stop and MK walking path is on the 1st floor. Chef Mickey’s, the (limited) food court, the gift shop, the general store, and the arcade are all of the fourth floor (the 2nd and 3rd floors are for business conventions). The fourth floor is what you see looking down from your interior hallway outside your room. You can get from the 1st to 4th floor via elevator or by riding two escalators. The Monorail platform is on a special 4½ floor that can ONLY be accessed by going to the fourth floor first, then taking the special “Monorail escalator” up to the Monorail platform, or if you have a stroller, there is a separate elevator that only takes you from the 4th floor up to the platform and back.

I didn’t care for being at a Disney resort with other people who were at a convention and “working”. I once rode the elevator shirtless and in my wet bathing suit (when going back to get swim diapers for DS2) with someone in a full suit and jacket and talking on their Bluetooth about the 4pm meeting on “consolidation efficiencies.” I felt pretty stupid. I prefer to be around only vacationers, not conventioneers.

The pool is nothing special. As long as it has water and chlorine I am happy. The center waterfall is fun with a little one.

The bus service is TERRIBLE. You will ALWAYS share a bus with the Poly, and you might share one with the GF too. The CR is the first to be picked up and the first to be dropped off, but it still stinks to pay that much money and have to share a bus with one or two other resorts. Just be prepared to wait forever and be standing room only for the Hollywood Studios bus if you are trying to make it to rope drop to ride TSM.

I paid the money for the CR thinking that the transportation advantage was going to be great with a 2 year old: I was wrong. The monorail was only nice when riding back from the MK, since we were the first to get off. Riding to the MK was terrible because we had to make 3 more stops before arriving at the MK. The monorail ride to EPCOT was stressful because you have to change Monorails at the TTC in order to get to EPCOT, and have to change trains AND make 3 stops when coming back from EPCOT. The walk to MK from the CR was nice first thing in the morning, but since the walking path was without any shade, it became a miserably hot walk in June during the middle of the day. However, it was SO SWEET to walk “home” after the fireworks show at MK. That was by far the biggest “plus” for me. I do want to throw out that much of my negative about transportation had a lot to do with the fact that I had a WILD and CRAZY 2 year old, who at times would go as far a to spit on other people on the bus/Monorail for attention.

So that’s my 2 cents or so. I hope you have a wonderful time and get your money’s worth!!!! If you want to know any more details, just ask!

[disneydoug]

thank you

[BrerGnat]

Everything that Goofy4theWorld mentioned, I noticed too, except the walkie talkie noise. I have no idea what that is all about. :confused:

HOWEVER, none of that stuff was troublesome to us at ALL. I think, perhaps, Goofy's "wild and crazy" 2 year old maybe skewed some perceptions a bit. A little stress can go a long way to exaggerating "inconveniences". I have TWO "wild and crazys" and our first couple little vacations with them when they were those ages...well, I have nothing good to say about those experiences. :blush:

If you are a light sleeper, I do recommend bringing some ear plugs. Not that the rooms are noisy (they aren't...in fact, they are some of the best soundproofed rooms I've ever stayed in at Disney), but the "boat horn" noise, along with the MK train whistle and the daytime castle shows (with fireworks) will prevent you from sleeping in, going to bed early, or napping if you don't have earplugs. I had earplugs. I also got very sick and spent 3 entire days holed up in my room at CR. I was able to sleep FINE during the daytime...with earplugs.

And yes, Goofy is right about the confusion when you get off the elevators. I think that happened to us EVERY time. We'd look left and right and try to remember which way our room was. It became a running joke during our trip.

The recommendation to NOT use the monorail to go TO the MK is a great one too. We figured that out on day one. WALK to MK. Monorail back from MK. Use the monorail to get to the Poly or GF. WALK home from MK after the fireworks, or whenever there is a sea of humanity waiting for the monorail.

Bus sharing happens at EVERY WDW deluxe resort. No way to get around that, unfortunately. We found the bus service at CR to be very good. Just know going in that you might make a couple stops en route to your destination. Plan for it.

As far as conventioners go, I just always feel bad for them that THEY have to work while I get to be on vacation. Must stink for them...:D

[Goofy4TheWorld]

I think, perhaps, Goofy's "wild and crazy" 2 year old maybe skewed some perceptions a bit.


No "think" about it... my son's behavior skewed my perception of the resort, WDW, laws of gravity and thermodynamics, and life in general. I questioned and critiqued everything about life those 8 miserable days.

I told my wife we wouldn't be back this decade, and now we are going back two more times in 2010. Our October trip will be without our DS2 though! :thedolls: (if you can keep a secret, it will be our "babymoon"!)

As far as the Contemporary, I was excited as I could be prior to my trip, but after experiencing the Contemporay, I think the Poly or Beach Club would have been a better fit for us, but that's just me.

PS: I can't belive I forgot to mention the train whistle! :train:

[disneydoug]

I appreciate everyone's perspective. it helps us. Beach Club is our favorite for many years. We have stayed in every resort except for CR and OKW. We are staying 3 nights at ASMo so that my 4 and 5 year olds can experience Andy's room. We will only be at CR for our last 2 nights. I will post a report and I THANK you all for the help.

[BIGDOG]

Never stayed at the CR what would you say is the best choice for the view of the castle from the list below:

Tower - Bay Lake View

Tower - Theme Park View

Standard Room - Atrium Club Level

Magic Kingdom® View - Atrium Club Level

Garden Wing - 1 Bedroom Suite

Garden Wing - Hospitality Suite

?????????????????????????????????

[BrerGnat]

Never stayed at the CR what would you say is the best choice for the view of the castle from the list below:

Tower - Bay Lake View

Tower - Theme Park View

Standard Room - Atrium Club Level

Magic Kingdom® View - Atrium Club Level

Garden Wing - 1 Bedroom Suite

Garden Wing - Hospitality Suite

?????????????????????????????????

The ONLY ones that will even have a view of the castle are:

Tower-Theme Park View

MK View-Atrium Club Level

The two suites are in the garden wing, which isn't even the tower. I don't like staying in the wing.

The others in the tower face Bay Lake, and you can't see any of the MK from those.

[DJBMER]

Approximately how far is the walk from the CR to the MK? Where in the MK does the walk take you to?

Thank you!

[BrerGnat]

Approximately how far is the walk from the CR to the MK? Where in the MK does the walk take you to?

Thank you!

Once you exit the Contemporary from the lobby...5-10 minutes, depending on your pace. It's no more than 1/2 mile, if even that. You will end up where the bus stops are. There is a sidewalk the entire way. It's DEFINITELY the way to go going TO the MK. Otherwise, you're looking at a 15-20 min ride on the monorail, since you have to make all the stops.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

Approximately how far is the walk from the CR to the MK? Where in the MK does the walk take you to?

Thank you!

The sidewalk starts right at the bus stop, which is on your right as SOON as you exit the lobby. The walking path follows the edge of the Contemporary parking lot exit road and then crosses the highway (World Dr.) and continues on a little piece, then walks right pass the MK bus stops. Right after you walk pass the busses, you blend into the people walking from the bus stops, and that puts you right at the main gate. The walking path literally runs directly underneath (or right beside) the Monorail tracks from the Contemporary right to the front gates of Magic Kingdom.

As said above, 10 minute walk if its hot or your not in any hurry, 5 minute walk if you are rushing to see the opening ceremonies or rushing to get back to the hotel to hit the sack!