Disney's CONTEMPORARY RESORT Information & Questions

First post, but longtime reader...

My wife and I will be staying at the Contemporary soon. I was planning on doing massages at the Olympiad Fitness Center but I called Disney to schedule and they said it was closed and that if we wanted massages, we would have to go to The Grand Floridian. Has anyone been there recently that can confirm this?
 


First post, but longtime reader...

My wife and I will be staying at the Contemporary soon. I was planning on doing massages at the Olympiad Fitness Center but I called Disney to schedule and they said it was closed and that if we wanted massages, we would have to go to The Grand Floridian. Has anyone been there recently that can confirm this?

Stayed at BLT but i had a massage at Senses located at GF and it was marvelous ! David was my masseuse and I can highly recommend. If you are a DVC member there is a discount.
 
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Is there a good resource on travel to/from CR and each of the parks? We are staying in CR (Feb/Mar) and I would like to start making touring plans. I have seen the general "plan on 1.5 hours transit" warnings everywhere, but wondered the best place to get CR specific guidelines. I know CR to MK is a 10 minute walk. But I would like to get an idea of how long via monorail to MK, how long to EPCOT, etc... I'm sure there is a good resource for this, but I have not found it. Thanks!
 
Are toiletries like soap and shampoo provided in the GW?

Yep! Shampoo, conditioner, lotion, body wash, bar of hand soap, bar of face soap, plus shower caps and a tooth kit (with brush, paste and floss)!

You will receive the exact same toiletries as any regular CR Tower room. Biggest differences in staying in the GW is the much lower cost, a slightly longer walk, and a more generic hotel room type view.

Dave
 


Is there a good resource on travel to/from CR and each of the parks? We are staying in CR (Feb/Mar) and I would like to start making touring plans. I have seen the general "plan on 1.5 hours transit" warnings everywhere, but wondered the best place to get CR specific guidelines. I know CR to MK is a 10 minute walk. But I would like to get an idea of how long via monorail to MK, how long to EPCOT, etc... I'm sure there is a good resource for this, but I have not found it. Thanks!
You could try the WDW Transportation Wizard at Our Laughing Place here. It has been around for quite a while (as you can tell just by the design), and there are certainly some questions about its accuracy, but it could give you a general idea of "will it take me 15 minutes or 2 hours".
http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/aspx/twiz.aspx
There is also a thread in the DIS Travel forums here related to how to navigate WDW. You could ask your question there as well.
 
Is there a good resource on travel to/from CR and each of the parks? We are staying in CR (Feb/Mar) and I would like to start making touring plans. I have seen the general "plan on 1.5 hours transit" warnings everywhere, but wondered the best place to get CR specific guidelines. I know CR to MK is a 10 minute walk. But I would like to get an idea of how long via monorail to MK, how long to EPCOT, etc... I'm sure there is a good resource for this, but I have not found it. Thanks!

The 1.5hr estimate is given for good reason. There is so much unpredictability when traveling from place to place in Disney. You could wait two minutes for a bus to DHS, or 30. You could be on a monorail that gets stuck, etc. You also need to account for time going through security, walking to a dinner reservation, etc.

Case in point...we recently stayed at BC. We were unaware of the construction taking place on the bus stop. Because of that, the bus stop was relocated. It took us much longer than usual to get to the new bus stop, especially because we weren't quite sure where we were going. By the time we got to the stop, there were at least 100 people waiting for buses. Of course there is no line, so when a bus pulled up everyone was trying to get on. We had to wait a long time for a bus going to our location that wasn't full when it arrived. From the time we left our room until the time we walked into the gates at MK it was about an hour.

We will be renting a car for all future trips. That is the only real way to have a better estimate of arrival times.
 
We are at BLT now. There is a publix "behind " WDW. We have done the right turn lane out of CR/BLT even though there is a marked through arrow indicating don't turn right. A CM told us a few years ago that the arrow was there to keep guests From taking a right turn out of resort since it is Disney back roads and employee parking etc. We went to the publix Sunday after checking in and took the back roads. There are no signs saying "guests" can't drive there and have not been stopped.

Great information, @Gryhndmom:)

Concerning the PUblix. When you came back to the BLT where do you take a left to get back into the parking lot. The light has a no left turn sign so I would go up and make a uturn everytime. Seemed weird.

Bumping your question, @skateshome.

We are booked! Garden Level Standard for late August 2017! Hoping for a room discount and if so we may upgrade to Tower Lake View. This will be our first deluxe stay with the kids (dh and I did Wilderness Lodge for our honeymoon) and first time for all of us at a monorail resort. We're all so excited!

Welcome to the thread, @cheryterese!

Just to clarify, the Garden Wing isn't a level, it's a separate wing from the Tower. So if you were to upgrade, you'd be upgrading from the least expensive to the most expensive non-Club Level standard room booking.

There should definitely be some sort of discount that you'll be able to use for 8/17 or at a minimum, Free Dining, though a room discount is a better deal with a Deluxe booking.

Or you could just look at this great post here on DIS...

http://disboards.com/threads/list-of-halloween-activities-by-resorts.3550980/

Dave

Great link. Thanks for all your helpful replies to my Resort threads, @Dave006:)

First post, but longtime reader...

My wife and I will be staying at the Contemporary soon. I was planning on doing massages at the Olympiad Fitness Center but I called Disney to schedule and they said it was closed and that if we wanted massages, we would have to go to The Grand Floridian. Has anyone been there recently that can confirm this?

:welcome: to the DIS and the CR/BLT thread, @Doc Mickey!

That's odd. I was in the Olympiad gym last month and there was no indication the massages were no longer being offered. I know that WL stopped offering massages due to the DVC construction there. Is it possible the CM confused Sturdy Branches with the Olympiad? They are still showing them as available on the Disney website. Did you call this number to try booking?

Scheduling an Appointment

Appointments are strongly recommended. Please call (407) WDW-SPAS or (407) 939-7727



Are toiletries like soap and shampoo provided in the GW?

In addition to large Spa H2O toiletries, also unique to CR is bottled water and coffee creamer which is provided daily.

Is there a good resource on travel to/from CR and each of the parks? We are staying in CR (Feb/Mar) and I would like to start making touring plans. I have seen the general "plan on 1.5 hours transit" warnings everywhere, but wondered the best place to get CR specific guidelines. I know CR to MK is a 10 minute walk. But I would like to get an idea of how long via monorail to MK, how long to EPCOT, etc... I'm sure there is a good resource for this, but I have not found it. Thanks!

In addition to the Transportation Wizard that was mentioned that will give you apx. times, there's also general information in the TRANSPORTATION chapter of the thread HERE.
 
Concerning the PUblix. When you came back to the BLT where do you take a left to get back into the parking lot. The light has a no left turn sign so I would go up and make a uturn everytime. Seemed weird.

We did have to go up a little ways and make a U turn to get back to BLT....
 
How did I never know this thread was here? Must be because I rarely stray to the resorts board and this one must not be on the front page when I head over! LOL

We are once again returning to one of our favorite resorts next year! We are December 5 of 2017- 15th Atrium Level before we board the DCL :)
 
How comfortable are the chair bed things in the BLT? Going to have my mom sleeping in one and want to make sure she'll be okay.
 
Sorry to bug you guys with this. I looked at the room # map that is at the beginning of this thread but it was very blurry for me. Does anyone have a link or one I can download? I would love to have this handy when the room is assigned, I did online check in. Thank you, it is appreciated!
 
Other than walking to the MK, the easiest and quickest way to get to the other parks is to take a cab. There are always cabs waiting outside the hotel.
 
Sorry to bug you guys with this. I looked at the room # map that is at the beginning of this thread but it was very blurry for me. Does anyone have a link or one I can download? I would love to have this handy when the room is assigned, I did online check in. Thank you, it is appreciated!
Try the Room Finder on Touringplans.com
 
How comfortable are the chair bed things in the BLT? Going to have my mom sleeping in one and want to make sure she'll be okay.
My son loves it. It isn't very wide tho. He is 6' and fit fine but likes small spaces.

I would like it too but there is no way my MIL would fit or be comfortable.

I would show her a video or pic of it and ask.
 
Question about garden wing... I think we are staying in the south wing??? A friend of mine made the ressies.. girls at work trip- woohoo!
Anyway, is there a floor or side or view that any of you prefer? And why?
Thanks for any input, none of us has stayed here before.
 
LOVED our stay on rented DVC points (from a disBoards member) at BLT! We stayed in a 2 bedroom TPV. We checked in at 7, went to MK and came back at 4pm. Unfortunately, our room wasn't ready. Kind of an inconvenience because we had a ressie at Chef Mickeys at 5:30. The lady at check in was so nice, without a complaint from us she apologized and explained it was a housekeeping issue and offered to comp our dinner. Our room was ready an hour later at 5.
Sure enough, we received a $395 credit for our CM dinner, including the $100 bday cake I ordered! We ended up on the 8th floor (was hoping for higher) but it was right in the middle for a perfect view of the MK and nightly fireworks. Loved our 7 nights there!
 

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