Thank you all for your questions! I can't wait to get to some of these posts about Walt Disney World and our latest trip! One topic that came up a lot was questions about our Disney Vacation Club membership. I am super excited to write about that and am planning on putting out that post next week.
For today, I wanted to "review" our experience at Walt Disney's Bay Lake Tower which is the Disney Vacation Club part of the Contemporary Resort shown below.
The Contemporary is an iconic Disney hotel. It's often seen in commercials and a toy replica of it is even sold in gift shops as part of the Monorail play set (the monorail runs through this resort that can take you to Magic Kingdom or to the Ticket Center which is a connecting monorail to Epcot). We were really excited to stay here and experience it.
Before becoming DVC members we did a tour with Disney (which I recommend!). One of the model rooms was Bay Lake and I remember telling Josh I did not like it. Other resorts' rooms were so themed... Animal Kingdom, Old Key West, Wilderness Lodge... they were exciting and beautiful and so detailed! BL, however, was just modern. I'm not a fan of modern design but Josh is so he liked it. We walked away from that room thinking the most appealing thing was monorail access and the 10 minute walk into Magic Kingdom.
Because this was our 4th trip as parents, we knew Magic Kingdom was king and we knew how difficult and stressful it can be to unpack tots, fold strollers, and load on and off buses. Because of this we wanted to try Bay Lake so we could walk to MK (where we knew we'd spend the most time) and monorail to Epcot (where we knew we'd spend the next longest amount of time).
I have to say, the walking to Magic Kingdom was as wonderful as I thought it'd be! I was spoiled to that walk very, very quickly and after one day of being back on buses I was ready to have another MK day just to avoid bus transportation (which isn't bad at all, but walking is a piece of cake!). One thing we could do we never have done was stay late at MK that first night for Extra Magic Hours. J & E were awake for the Electrical Parade and J held strong through Wishes and then we walked around the park with the boys asleep in the stroller and had a little "date" eating cinnamon rolls, croissants, shopping and talking. It was wonderful! Had we gotten on a bus, we would have had to wake up a kid and it would have been really difficult 1) dealing with them at 11:45pm 2) getting them back to sleep 3) enduring the ride home if they were cranky while also feeling bad for causing a ruckus for others. Instead of the stress, we simply left at 11:45 and walked home and slipped both boys into bed. Easy peasy and WONDERFUL.
So what about monorail access? The monorail wasn't as dreamy as I thought it'd be but it was still better than buses. Getting the monorail was kind of tricky. There's only one elevator and it's packed with strollers so when it's crowded (and keep in mind that in September it's really not that crowded) you'd have to wait a few rounds for an elevator. Getting on and off the monorail was easy and again, not having to fold up our stroller was great! We got to the TTC and switched to the Epcot monorail. From there it was easy! The real trouble came going home from Epcot. We waited for a monorail as long as we would have waited for a bus, but bright side: our kids had guaranteed seats and the stroller didn't have to be folded. There were a lot of delays on the way back and then we switched monorails to go back to the resort. More delays while they moved tracks for another monorail (including being stalled over Bay Lake which left me horrified - weird phobia, I know) and then we found out the Contemporary was not the first stop. Our second night coming back Josh figured out it would be smarter to switch at the TTC from Epcot monorail to MK monorail and walk home instead of the the resort monorail. This might have not saved us time, but it was less stressful. If you do this, be aware of MK hours. If it's EMH at Epcot, MK may be closed and the monorail may not be running.
Also a note regarding travel... we hated buses so much we decided that our afternoon in Hollywood Studios would come after a morning in Epcot so we monorailed to Epcot and then walked past Boardwalk/Beachclub and took the 1.3 mile trail to Hollywood Studios. That night we left around 8 to be back in plenty of time for Epcot closing and walked back to Epcot to monorail back to MK and walk to BL. Dramatic? Maybe. But buses at night are the worst. If you're looking to escape buses, I really recommend this plan. ;)
So enough about transportation! Let's talk resort! We stayed in a studio with a Bay Lake view. We had a queen sized bed for us and our love seat pulled out into a full sized bed for the kiddos. All DVC studios have kitchenettes, but this was our first experience with a kitchenette that had 3 walls around it thus making it like it's own little true kitchen. I really liked that. I also liked the lighting in the kitchen and used the mirror there for getting ready while Josh used the bathroom.
Speaking of which, I did not photograph the bathroom, but in other DVC resorts we've stayed at (Saratoga Springs, Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom -- Kadanai and Jambo Houses), the bathroom sinks have been outside the shower/toilet room and have had a lot of counter space. This bathroom was a standard shower/toilet/sink room with a very minimal amount of sink space. I really didn't like this.
The rooms were nice enough, but BL seemed less "kempt" than other resorts we've stayed at. The shower had some rust in it and our toilet paper holder was broken. I know this sounds like little nit-picky things and it really is, but when you're a DVC member you buy into a property. We own at Saratoga Springs and so every year we pay dues that go into the upkeep of the resort. When we stay there I like to see things pristine because this is my "property" and knowing it's well-kempt makes me proud to be an owner. I don't own at BL, but knew I would have been annoyed with the quality of our room if I did especially considering it is the most recent DVC property build (that's opened) and should still be in really good shape.
Our Bay Lake view was great! So was our balcony. Very roomy and the kids and I played their one morning. We were on the second floor so we had a clear view of the beach and the lake. The first night Josh and I watched the water pageant go by and as you can see in the above photo, we had a great view.
Overall the room was comfortable and met our needs. I did find that BL had more storage than other resorts and since I unpack and move in, I liked that. And like I said, I loved the kitchen and the walking is AMAZING. We also had a great experience with the Community Hall in the resort and enjoyed spending time coloring there and playing with toys. The cast member there was also super friendly!
And the pool at Bay Lake is great! There is a Mickey shaped splash pad. My kids were neutral on that, but LOVED the pool! We took a morning (after eating at Chef Mickey's) to just swim and relax. The pool is 0-entry which is perfect for independent toddlers. The pool also has a handicapped water slide my boys enjoyed using and a BIG water slide they loved! The big slide is about 3 stories tall. My oldest and I went up. He is 3 and is a great swimmer when in a life jacket. The life guard told me I could go down first and catch him so that was the plan. I was disappointed BL didn't have a life guard stationed at the top of the slide because when we got up there I had no idea how to go first and guarantee he'd get down and I didn't want to send him first because I didn't know how fast he'd go. Fortunately a Dad came up with his daughters who were older and they offered to send J down after me. He LOVED the slide and did great. Going forward we knew both parents would have to be involved in the slide process so one would hold E and let him go down the handicap slide and then the other would give the signal and send J down. Finally E lost his patience and we decided to let him go too. He is FEARLESS in the water and is determined to swim even though he can't. He did great with it! We spent almost an hour taking turns going up with them and sending them down that slide. I was really happy with the BL pool.
(We did not visit the Contemporary pool.)
In the photo above you see a bridge behind me. The bridge connects floor 5 of BLT to floor 4 of the Contemporary. It was a short walk from our room to floor 4 which is were all the "action" happens at the Contemporary. About 5 minutes.
At floor 4 you have Chef Mickeys, Contempo Cafe, monorail elevator access, and 2 gift shops (1 toy, 1 everything else) and a small "market" shop. The toy store runs through the middle of the giant floor and I didn't like that. While it looks neat, it's difficult to see around and of course it's the first thing your kids see and they want to go in every single time. I just wished it all would have been more open.
Contempo Cafe was pretty delicious! We had their flatbread pizzas, sandwiches, and some pasta. The flatbread pizzas were our favorite and the sandwiches we got were our least favorite.
We did eat at Chef Mickeys and I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be. Our meal was $100 (2 adults, 1 child, 1 free infant + tip) and the food was not good. I felt excited to have biscuits and gravy but the gravy was just greasy. The eggs tasted powdered. The bacon was bland. Minnie's pizza was yummy, but the Pinterest copy cat recipe I've made was just as good! Overall I was disappointed in the food. We weren't there for the food though; we were there for Mickey! We've eaten at Crystal Palace, Hollywood & Vine and Garden Grille and I felt like the characters spent more time with us at those places than here. They blazed through. I know they were busy, but because we've had better character dining experiences, this one left us feeling very "meh." Also our kids didn't eat ANYTHING because they were too preoccupied with watching characters. At other places you don't see them while you eat all the time but because Chef Mickey's is so small, they're constantly in your line of sight. Food for thought.
My last thought on the Contemporary is regarding the cast members. We actually talked about this later in the week and were glad the other noticed so we didn't feel crazy. At ALL the resorts we've stayed at while at Disney (including non-DVC) the cast has been incredible. They're friendly, outgoing, interested in you, and overly helpful. At Contemporary they came off more like hotel staff. Josh went looking for the airport check in one night and they could not have been less helpful if they tried. We had to call the front desk twice for various reasons and the cast was not warm. We also discussed this with the DVC cast member in Community Hall at BL who said she had noticed this about BL too and had worked at other resorts (Wilderness for example) where it was not this way.
Our theory is this... There are a TON of conference rooms at BLT. We saw a TON of business men while there. This is a business hotel on Disney property and while it's still Disney, it's much more like a normal hotel than any other place we've stayed. Some people might like that, but we did not. We didn't hate it, we just felt like we missed out on some of that extra Disney magic we love.
So all in all, Bay Lake Tower had it's appeal. The walk to MK makes me want to stay there every time... But that's about it. Despite how appealing that is, I don't think we'll stay at Bay Lake again. Our favorite is still Wilderness Lodge (review coming) and even though you can't walk to MK from WL, you can boat and that's not too shabby!
So there you have it! I hope this helps! Feel free to ask any questions!
