Hi ya! :wave: I had my dream-stay in a MK room at the Contemporary last December. I'm pasting my review of that hotel that I submitted to Allearsnet.com when everything was still fresh in my brain. Do I think it's worth it? I'd stay there again...but I also know to expect that I'll be doing my own cleaning if I want a truly clean room aside from making a bed and having clean towels. The location is what you pay for. Oh yeah. The location is key. Anywhoo, here ya go:
We stayed in the tower with the Magic Kingdom view, 6th floor, room 4236 from Nov.30 thru Dec.9. We had only ever stayed at Pop Century prior to this stay so we had really high hopes for a pretty different overall experience.
When we arrived at the resort at about 5:30pm we were checked in very quickly. I asked for the highest room I could get but still landed on the 6th floor (the lowest floor with guest rooms in the tower). The first thing we noticed in the room was the view. We all ran straight out to the balcony to take it in. Seeing the Magic Kingdom from our own private retreat and hearing the occasional whistle from the train or the toot of the ferry boat was so neat. When we started looking around our room is when the ick started. The room was pretty dusty. One of the bed skirts was hanging halfway off the bed and was pooled up on the floor next to the bed. It looked like Mousekeeping didn't like vacuuming close to the furniture at all. There was all sorts of bits of stuff all over the floor near the beds. The toilet looked like the previous guest(s) had been sick but Mousekeeping didn't bother to really clean out the rim of the bowl. There was crud on the potty-room walls and sliding door. Ew. Also, the previous guests missed a pair of ladies undergarments when packing up to leave. I promptly thru those into the trash. I looked under the bathroom vanity only once. It was pretty dusty under there. That's when I decided that looking too close was s-u-c-k-i-n-g the magic out of this room that I was paying $444 a night for. We took note of everything we wanted cleaned up, called down to the front desk, and asked that it be cleaned while we were out to dinner at Epcot. When we returned everything was taken care of as requested. Kudos to the powers-that-be for that.
The location of the Contemporary can't be beat. You're smack-dab in the middle of all the action. When we were in our room and moving about we would open the sliding door and keep it that way so we could always hear the happenings from the world outside. We spent a few evenings on our balcony eating flatbread pizzas (from the Tempo-Grab-n-Go, soooo yummy) and watching fireworks. That was awesome. No, they do not actually pipe the music to Wishes thru all the tvs in the hotel as we were previously told. That was a minor disappointment. Walking to and from the Magic Kingdom was awesome. It's such a quick little jaunt. The monorail service was wonderful making runs to other monorail resorts and Epcot so convenient.
Elevators. **sigh** We were on the 6th floor. In the mornings and evenings the elevators are insane. It was particularly stressful trying to get to places we had reservations for and were limited on time when the elevators were busy. Because we were on the 6th floor needing to get to the 4th (or 1st depending on if we needed a monorail, bus, or the walking path to MK) all elevators going down would fill up with other guests from higher floors also going down. Some mornings we would have to wait 4 or 5 elevators just to find one that had enough room to wedge our 4 bodies into for the short ride. I can't imagine the miseries of families with strollers or wheelchairs. One morning we caught an elevator going up. We then went all the way to the top and stopped on every floor coming back down. We got in but it was sad to see so many people be as disappointed as we were each time a full elevator opened up and had to wait for the next. I don't know how or if there could be a solution to the elevator issues. They'd need more elevators, at least twice what they have. Where would they put them, tho?
The Tempo-Grab-n-Go (temporary quick service area) was very efficient for something so small and temporary. We fell in love with the flatbread pizzas. Those are so much better than the icky pre-made frozen pizzas we had last trip at Pop. The selections were pretty good for such a small space. Kudos to the folks who made this otherwise aggravating situation during the remodel transition into one that was more than just bearable. Something to note: the Contemporary is NOT selling the refillable mugs while they are using the temporary counter service place. We were told they didn't think it fair to sell the mugs when they don't have the fountains, etc. for people to refill their drinks around the clock like other resorts. The Concourse Steakhouse was pretty good, too. As always, Chef Mickeys was a perenial favorite. Love it!
Mousekeeping was okay. Nothing outstanding. I think the overall cleanliness of the room was actually better at Pop Century. We tipped pretty good with hand-made, nice, Disney-themed thank you cards every day. No towel animals or anything special. Stuffed animals were set neatly on the pillows. Nothing whimsical or fun. Bummer.
I second what another guest's comments stated about air circulation for the little refridgerator. Whenever we were in our room we tried to keep the cabinet doors open to give the fridge some air circulation. It just didn't cool very well without the doors open.
There is very, very little storage in the room. There were 2 drawers between the bed and desk and 2 more small ones in one closet. We stored our empty suitcases between the bed closest to the sliding door and the curtains on the side. The vanity / sink configuration gave very little counter-space. We did as others have before us and laid a towel down in one sink to use as vanity space rather than a sink.
Laundry facilities. Or lack there-of. The only guest laundry room in the resort was on the 2nd floor of the south wing building. It was quite a jaunt to haul our laundry over. There were very few machines: only 6 washers and 6 dryers. The dryers were terrible. They didn't dry very well at all. When staying at Pop we usually could dry most loads with one 30 minute run thru the machines. At the Contemporary we had to restart machines 2 and 3 times. This eats a lot of time and money. $2 and 30 minutes each cycle. That adds up. I think maybe it's an air circulation issue. The entire laundry room turned into one huge hot-box when you got all the dryers running. After laundry we had to shower and refresh from all the sweating from being in that room. We tried holding the door open so the cooler hallway air could get in. Laundry was horrible. I wish Disney could find or provide optional laundry services such as wash-dry-fold in addition to the dry-cleaning options. I'd pay good money to not have to do laundry!
The new shop in the concourse is fun. I was so relieved it was open by the time we arrived. I don't find it all intrusive. This shop is mostly kids stuff, toys, pins, and stationary. Fun stuff for a fun-looking store.
Overall, the Contemporary was pretty cool. I love contemporary architecture and decor. I think the tower building definitely shows its age, tho. While in the big shop on the Bay Lake side of the building we were looking at the windows behind the display areas. There are huge open gaps between the glass and framing where whatever caulk or other material had either pulled away or rusted thru. The building is 35+ years old. It shows in some places that probably most people wouldn't think to look. We were disappointed in the details and lack of attention to them. It's not what we expected of a deluxe Disney resort. The elevators were extremely frustrating. The Mousekeeping and cleanliness were a huge let-down. For the money we paid for our room we really did expect more. I don't feel like that is unreasonable at all. Cleanliness is very basic. We've stayed in far less expensive hotels in our travels that were far better cared for. The location and transportation conveniences were wonderful. The proximity and views of the Magic Kingdom were incredible. That's the biggest plus to this resort. The location and view are pretty much the only perks I would recommend to family and friends. It needs to be important enough to make all the other negatives tolerable.
