Contemporary; tower vs. garden room

[mcst1010]

I am planning a trip to Disney in November and have a reservation at the contemporary. The kids are begging me to upgrade to the tower. I am on the fence about it. If I do upgrade, it will most likely be to the lake side. Just curious if anyone had any opinions.

 

[disney magic 06]

I'd g.o for the tower. Some of the garden rooms have no balcony

 

[harveyt0206]

Hubby and I have stayed in both the garden wing and the tower. Yes, the tower is pricier but in my opinion, it was money WELLLL spent. We actually upgraded to a MK view room and it was the best decision we ever made. Every night I would come back from the park and just sit on my balcony watching the "World" go by. I can't tell you how many times I cried over that silly view. I believe the price difference we paid between the lake view, which was our original reservation, and the Park view was maybe $150 total. I'm working off of memory, so I may be off a little bit. Now, the difference between the garden wing and the tower is much bigger.

As for the garden wing, even though we didn't have the great views that the tower offers, we still really enjoyed our stay there. The ability to walk to and and from Magic at the end of the night is so worth it.

Best of luck in making your decision. You are at Disney so you will have a wonderful trip no matter what you decide.

 

[bethymouse]

We simply can't afford the tower. The garden wing as I heard once before is like being a "step-child". It's far removed from all of the "action". Some folks like that, but others prefer the views of the fireworks from their own private balcony.

 

[MaryJaneP]

Garden View Rooms are awesome. Stayed in Garden Wing North (demolished for Bay Lake Tower) and twice in Garden Wing South. All times were great, South was with 3 kids. Yeah, we would have preferred Tower, but we couldn't afford it. Since we weren't in our room except to sleep, we partook of all the activities around us (walk to MK, view Wishes on the 4th floor concourse, watch EWP from dock). We even got to meet Peter Pan on the dock one night as he was getting ready for a fireworks cruise. We love garden wing rooms.

 

[KCKAS]

our family has stayed at both. when we upgraded to the mk view, we did it for our 10 year anniversary and with the 3 kids. the kids were 6,5, and 3 years old. we took advantage of the mk view and watched the fireworks almost every night. it was so amazing. our kids were bored with the fireworks after the 2nd night but my husband and i enjoyed watching the fireworks nightly as the kids went to bed early. we also enjoyed watching the boats, electrical water pageant, resort and park lights and christmas lights on our balcony with a drink. we were able to still feel like we were a part of everything even though we were in the room early to put the kids to bed. i remember it fondly. if i would enjoy the view because i had small kids and i would fully utilize it many nights, meaning the fireworks, i would do it. if i wasn't going to utilize it, i would go with the garden view which we were very happy with also. i think if i had the lake view in the tower and heard the fireworks going off, i would be kicking myself for not splurging on the other view.

 

[harveyt0206]

That is a great point. The upgrade is definitely not worth the money if you enjoy watching the fireworks on Main Street rather than from your balcony. The price of a MK view is normally way out of our budget, but we used a 40 % off deal, plus it was for my 40th birthday, so I used that as an excuse to upgrade. If this is your first stay at the Contemporary and you have already secured a Garden wing room, I say stick with it, especially if you are concerned with keeping your costs down, which most folks are in today's economy. You still have all the benefits of The Contemporary's location to MK and the monorail. Plus the room is exactly the same as what you find inside the tower. I think it just comes down to how much a balcony is worth to you, whether you spend enough time in the room to justify the price difference and what you feel comfortable with in the context of your personal finances. Two years ago hubby and I felt comfortable saying yes to an upgrade. This year, no way.

 

[zurgandfriend]

We have stay in both locations, the Bay Lake side and the garden wing. The tower is of course closer to all the action; restaurants, monorail, shops etc. The garden wing is cheaper but as stated most rooms don't have balconies. Also, due to boat traffic there can be a lot of noise with the rooms facing the water way between Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon. The rooms at the very end, that face Bay Lake are in my opinion the best, with a great view of the lake and the night time water pageant but are a 10-12 minute walk from the tower. The garden wing rooms are also closer to/easier to get to the pools. You have to discuss with the family what is more important to you and decide, I feel for you as I have the same discussion with my family every time we decide to stay in at the Contemporary. Good luck!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We stayed in the Garden Wing last summer and requested a first floor room so that we had a patio. I don't know if we just walk fast, but the walk to the tower for us was under 5 min and we were in an area pretty far from the tower. i.e. the walk was a non-issue for us. In any event, we'd do the Garden Wing again just to save $.

 

[muteki]

Garden wing was nice but our room was quite the haul to the main building. We were right at the end on the far-most building by the little canal that connects 7SL to bay lake.

 

[rob0519]

We have stayed in MK view rooms in the Tower and Bay Lake views in the Garden Wing. There really is nothing like sitting on the balcony looking over the Magic Kingdom and watching the ferry and monorails in constant motion. However, it is a splurge and the last two or three trips, I've begun to question if it is worth the kind of money CR is charging. The Garden Wing is basically the same room just not in the Tower. Yes, it is another 5 minutes of walking at the end of a long day, but you're actually closer to the pools and the dock than if you stay in the tower. I agree, if you are at the far end of the wing, it will seem like a very long walk to the main building.