In this review I will cover both the resort’s refurbished public spaces as well our room, which had been re-themed to Pixar’s The Incredibles.
Let’s begin with the lobby…
I love the colorful monorail mural in the sitting area…
And I liked the “Tomorrowland-like” artwork on the walls…
I also enjoyed the floral decorations…
Overall I was quite impressed with what they did to this very important area of the resort. After all, the lobby is the first impression that a guest has of a hotel and this one now gives me “cool” vibes thanks to the new furniture, artwork, and especially the lighting…
They transformed what I considered to be a very lackluster lobby to one worthy of a Disney deluxe resort. BRAVO!
Beyond the new look of the lobby, the cool updates continued into the elevators…
So the Main Tower A-frame building of the Contemporary Resort has 14 stories, but because there is no 13th floor, the top is Floor #15. The lobby, the relatively new restaurant, Steakhouse 71, and Contemporary Grounds (the Joffrey’s coffee bar) are on the 1st floor and then the 2nd floor has the check-in desk for the resort’s signature restaurant, California Grill, located on the top floor. Once you check-in for your reservation you will be accompanied by a castmember in a special elevator which takes you up to the 15th floor restaurant. The lobby elevators only go up as far as the 11th floor unless you are a Club Level guest. To get to either of the Club Level floors (12th and 14th) you must touch your (Club Level) room key or Magic Band to the pad located just above the elevator buttons. But I digress, so now getting back to the 2nd floor. It is here that you will also find the Convention Center meeting rooms. Then the 3rd floor I believe has the Fitness Center as well as some administrative offices. The 4th floor (known as the Grand Canyon Concourse) is probably the resort’s busiest as it is here that you will find its quick service restaurant, Contempo Cafe, and the very popular character meal restaurant, Chef Mickey’s…
Then on the other side of Chef Mickey’s is a bar/lounge called the Outer Rim…
Though they have a full bar here, I don’t believe they have any food available. But you could probably get food to-go from the Contempo Cafe and eat it at the lounge along with your choice of beverage from the Outer Rim.
Also on the 4th floor are the gift/souvenir shops, Bayview Gifts and Fantasia …
And the beautiful windows which start on the 4th floor and span 9 floors…
Looking out these windows you can see Bay Lake Tower (the resort’s DVC property) and beyond that is Bay Lake.
Another 9 story (90 ft.) fixture that starts on the 4th floor is the ceramic mural designed by Mary Blair…
It is on the 4th floor that you also go through security and take the escalator or elevator up to the monorail platform…because, in case you didn’t know, the monorails actually go right through the hotel on one side of the 5th floor. The resort monorail (shown on the left below) stops there for guests to board before moving on to the Transportation and Ticket Center, the Polynesian, the Grand Floridian and then the Magic Kingdom to complete the loop.
Now on to the rooms, which for the standard (non-Club Level) rooms are located on Floors 5 – 11. Here’s a map…
Though I had stayed in the Garden wing of the resort three times over the last 20 years (most recently in 2019), this was the first time I splurged for a more expensive Tower room. And since I knew it would be my last Disney trip for a few years, I splurged even further and booked a Theme Park View room thanks to a very nice discount. On the map shown above the room numbers on the Magic Kingdom side (Theme Park View) of the resort end with 25 – 48, with 25 being closer to the Garden wing and 48 being closest to the Magic Kingdom. We were lucky to be assigned to Room 4544, which was on the 9th floor.
So let’s move on to the 9th floor. First some photos of the new carpeting and artwork in the hallways…
Our room had two queen size beds plus a pull-out sofa…
The tv was mounted on the wall above the sofa…
The Incredibles theming could be found throughout the room. From the decorative pillows…
To the wall behind the coffee and ice bucket station…
To the closet…
The inside of the drawer…
The curtains…
And even the toilet room…
One slight break from the Incredibles was the monorail and Main Tower of the Contemporary imprinted onto the mirror of the bathroom…
Not being a big fan of the Incredibles I was not super enthused about the new theming but it was fine.
I was though super enthused about the “Incredible” view from our spacious balcony…
Here are a few of the many photos I took…
I never got tired of this view. But as beautiful as it was during the daytime, it was even more spectacular at night.
And then being able to watch the Magic Kingdom’s fireworks show from the comfort of my own room (or at least the balcony of my room) was a dream come true…
Something I didn’t know at the time but I have since heard about is that they play the music from the show on one of the channels on your tv. So if I’m lucky enough to stay in a Contemporary Resort Theme Park View room again someday I will be sure to use that tip. However, given that the current price of this room is nearly twice as much as I paid, this could very well have been a once in a lifetime experience.
So that just leaves my overall thoughts regarding this stay at the Contemporary resort. First of all, a few of the positives:
- I like how they have updated the lobby.
- I liked the location of our room. The higher floor made the fact that the Theme Park View room also overlooks the resort’s parking lot less noticeable. I also enjoyed being on the side closest to Magic Kingdom.
- I like that they made changes to the bathroom sinks. They still have two sinks but now have a lot more counter space.
Here is a photo of the bathroom from my last stay at the Contemporary in 2019…
4. Though The Incredibles is not my favorite Pixar movie, I still considered the new theming an improvement over the room decor during my last stay. I thought it was pretty boring…
For my only negative, although I feel it’s a significant one, I want to point out the inconvenient bathroom situation. I so wish that (like many of the other DeLuxe resorts) the sinks were located outside of the bathroom area with the tub/shower and toilet. This would make it so much easier for multiple people to get ready in the morning.
Taste of Disney 