I am a local who has been going to WDW for a very long time. I have always been fascinated by the look of the Contemporary and I love how the monorail goes right through the hotel (I'm a monorail fan!). Ever since going to WDW as a kid I have wanted to stay over at the Contemporary, but it wasn't until my 40th birthday this year that I finally decided to save up and splurge for a few nights at the hotel.
This was the first time I've ever stayed "on property", but most of the things I've read and heard about WDW hotels is how clean they are and how nice the rooms look. And while the public areas at the CR were incredibly nice, I was shocked to see some of the problems in the room...especially for a "deluxe resort" and one at this high of a price level.
The marble bath was quite luxurious, but not much else was. Closet doors wouldn't close properly due to trouble with the hinges, lamp shades looked cheap and were dented or crooked, the plastic electrical outlet covers were loose and dangling from the wall, the Wi-Fi in the room only worked about half of the time, the bed was really hard and the springs in it were noisy, the mini-fridge worked intermittently, and there were other cosmetic issues as well. Furniture was also badly chipped or scuffed up, but that is the one thing I can kind of understand since this is a room that is going to see a lot of kids and children in it.
But the absolute WORST issue was that there was an area on one wall where there were multiple strips of paint (each about 3-5 inches in length) that had peeled completely off from the wall. This was in a prominent area and it could be seen anytime you were in the main room area and it was pretty much in your face every time you passed under it--it was just above the walkway arch, so we're not talking about something a little kid was able to do. I can't emphasize enough about what an eyesore this was and how cheap it made the room feel (especially on top of the other issues).
Additionally, housekeeping totally skipped us one day even though we were out of the room all day and we made absolutely sure not to have the 'privacy' tag on the door.
My wife and I are not picky or fussy and just one or two of these issues would not have bothered us much, but everything combined--especially with the peeled-away paint--really made me regret the amount of money we spent to stay here after saving for so long to do it.
Some people would say we should have complained during our trip, but my wife and I are not the kind of people who like to complain 'on the spot', because it takes us even more out of vacation mode than we already are when problems come up. The whole idea of being on vacation is to get away from problems, not having to deal with them. However, I did send comments to WDW since our return.
I so wanted to love my stay here and I did enjoy just being a room away from the monorail and I loved walking out and seeing the monorails come and go and I enjoyed looking down at the main concourse. However, that did not justify the price of the room, even taking the convenience of being so close to the parks and the cool factor of the monorail into account.
Should anyone be interested in my full review, it can be read here:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUser...ey_s_Contemporary_Resort-Orlando_Florida.html
This was the first time I've ever stayed "on property", but most of the things I've read and heard about WDW hotels is how clean they are and how nice the rooms look. And while the public areas at the CR were incredibly nice, I was shocked to see some of the problems in the room...especially for a "deluxe resort" and one at this high of a price level.
The marble bath was quite luxurious, but not much else was. Closet doors wouldn't close properly due to trouble with the hinges, lamp shades looked cheap and were dented or crooked, the plastic electrical outlet covers were loose and dangling from the wall, the Wi-Fi in the room only worked about half of the time, the bed was really hard and the springs in it were noisy, the mini-fridge worked intermittently, and there were other cosmetic issues as well. Furniture was also badly chipped or scuffed up, but that is the one thing I can kind of understand since this is a room that is going to see a lot of kids and children in it.
But the absolute WORST issue was that there was an area on one wall where there were multiple strips of paint (each about 3-5 inches in length) that had peeled completely off from the wall. This was in a prominent area and it could be seen anytime you were in the main room area and it was pretty much in your face every time you passed under it--it was just above the walkway arch, so we're not talking about something a little kid was able to do. I can't emphasize enough about what an eyesore this was and how cheap it made the room feel (especially on top of the other issues).
Additionally, housekeeping totally skipped us one day even though we were out of the room all day and we made absolutely sure not to have the 'privacy' tag on the door.
My wife and I are not picky or fussy and just one or two of these issues would not have bothered us much, but everything combined--especially with the peeled-away paint--really made me regret the amount of money we spent to stay here after saving for so long to do it.
Some people would say we should have complained during our trip, but my wife and I are not the kind of people who like to complain 'on the spot', because it takes us even more out of vacation mode than we already are when problems come up. The whole idea of being on vacation is to get away from problems, not having to deal with them. However, I did send comments to WDW since our return.
I so wanted to love my stay here and I did enjoy just being a room away from the monorail and I loved walking out and seeing the monorails come and go and I enjoyed looking down at the main concourse. However, that did not justify the price of the room, even taking the convenience of being so close to the parks and the cool factor of the monorail into account.
Should anyone be interested in my full review, it can be read here:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUser...ey_s_Contemporary_Resort-Orlando_Florida.html
