contemporary resort

[sag746]

I was checking resident hotel prices during the Flower and Garden Show in March of 2015. All prices seem acceptable for all hotel cheap, moderate and exclusive.
However, the Comtemporary is listed as $1200 per night for florida residents. Who pray tell can afford that? The Plaza and Waldorf in New York are much cheaper?

[cy1229]

You sure that wasn't a concierge level suite?

[wewantsdaredhead]

Yeah that must be some crazy presidential suite or something. Mary and I are staying there next week for the marathon for only $250 a night in the garden wing.

I'm pretty excited about that. First (and probably only) time staying there.

[Amy]

Yeah that must be some crazy presidential suite or something. Mary and I are staying there next week for the marathon for only $250 a night in the garden wing.

I'm pretty excited about that. First (and probably only) time staying there.

Is that a special marathon price? Take some photos ~ I would love to stay there at least once too ~ just because it seems like it would be cool!

[wewantsdaredhead]

Yeah that must be some crazy presidential suite or something. Mary and I are staying there next week for the marathon for only $250 a night in the garden wing.

I'm pretty excited about that. First (and probably only) time staying there.

Is that a special marathon price? Take some photos ~ I would love to stay there at least once too ~ just because it seems like it would be cool!

We got a deal through our run club. I will take lots of pics!!!! I'm pretty excited.

[theBIGyowski]

Wow...what a fantastic price you got there H!

An easy and relatively affordable way to stay there is to rent at Bay Lake Tower...you just have to get in super early since it fills up so quickly being right next to MK.

[cy1229]

Wow...what a fantastic price you got there H!

An easy and relatively affordable way to stay there is to rent at Bay Lake Tower...you just have to get in super early since it fills up so quickly being right next to MK.

By renting points?

We stayed at Bay Lake Tower in 2012. The condos are a lot smaller, especially the studios, than the other DVC properties, so keep that in mind. I don't know how a family of 4 could squeeze into a studio unless the kids were LITTLE. Like your kids little, BIGyowski.

[theBIGyowski]

yeah it was just DW and myself...so perfect for us

if we brought kids we would definitely need a 1 bedroom villa...which means we would be staying at Old Key West for a fraction of the price

[Belle1082]

Wow...what a fantastic price you got there H!

An easy and relatively affordable way to stay there is to rent at Bay Lake Tower...you just have to get in super early since it fills up so quickly being right next to MK.

We are hoping to rent DVC points to stay there next October. Looking for a 2 bedroom and one studio for a family of 10! Cannot wait!!! It would be amazing to be able to walk to MK, especially because we will have 4 children under the age of 6. Definitely easier to walk back for naps! Fingers crossed!!!

[theBIGyowski]

Wow...what a fantastic price you got there H!

An easy and relatively affordable way to stay there is to rent at Bay Lake Tower...you just have to get in super early since it fills up so quickly being right next to MK.

We are hoping to rent DVC points to stay there next October. Looking for a 2 bedroom and one studio for a family of 10! Cannot wait!!! It would be amazing to be able to walk to MK, especially because we will have 4 children under the age of 6. Definitely easier to walk back for naps! Fingers crossed!!!

Next October like 2015 or 2016? Looks like you'll need a boatload of points...so if it is this October I would try to jump on that fairly quick.

[cy1229]

Wow...what a fantastic price you got there H!

An easy and relatively affordable way to stay there is to rent at Bay Lake Tower...you just have to get in super early since it fills up so quickly being right next to MK.

We are hoping to rent DVC points to stay there next October. Looking for a 2 bedroom and one studio for a family of 10! Cannot wait!!! It would be amazing to be able to walk to MK, especially because we will have 4 children under the age of 6. Definitely easier to walk back for naps! Fingers crossed!!!

Allow me to share with you my experience with a similarly sized group and the same arrangement.

We had a group of nine: Hubby and me and our two teenaged girls; sister and her two school-aged kids, a boy and a girl; and my mom and stepdad. We had a dedicated 2-br villa and a studio. The difference between a dedicated 2 br and non-dedicated is that the dedicated second bedroom has two queen sized beds, while the non-dedicated is essentially a 1 BR connected to a studio that has a queen bed and a foldout sofa with kitchenette. It's important to note that while the dedicated 2BR is bigger, they're all on the second floor, so you won't have the great views you'd have on higher floors.

The studios in BLT are SMALL. The original plan was to have hubby, me, and our girls stay in the studio while my parents took the master suite in the 2 BR condo and my sister and her kids take the other bedroom. When my parents saw how small the studio was, they traded. So my hubby and I took the master, my sister and daughters took the two beds in the other bedroom, my nephew took the fold-out, and my very small for her age niece took the fold-out chair in the living room. An adult would not fit on this fold-out chair. Everyone then had their own reasonable sleeping space. My introvert younger daughter often retreated to the balcony off the master, though, because the living areas in the 2-BR are fairly small. The nice thing about the 2 BR was that there were three full bathrooms, so my sister and her 2 kids used the one attached to the second bedroom, my girls used the one off the main entry, and of course hubby and I used the master. Actually, I think my younger daughter used that one, too, because it's REALLY big. The master bathroom is disproportionately big compared to the rest of the space. We ate breakfast in the condo but we didn't eat all at once so we just rotated through using the dining table, which seats 4, and has a little ottoman that can be pulled up to the table for extra seating. The kitchen is a maximum 2-butt kitchen so you don't want to have more than 2 people preparing anything at one time.

The location of BLT is AMAZING. The decor is nice and contemporary, but much more "adult" in its feel and less "Disney." I have some photos on my trip report from 2012 which you can access here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=8335 But I don't think I would stay here again. Maybe, if I was traveling with young kids, I would, because they would be so close to the Magic Kingdom and that would be good. Walking back and forth across the bridge to the Contemporary to catch the Monorail wasn't any big deal. No farther than any other resort walk to the bus stop.

At the end of a long, tiring day, though, the walk from the MK to BLT seemed like 132094871023987 miles. That's a slight exaggeration, but it wasn't nearly as easy as the walk to the park. Naturally.

So maybe with all your little ones it won't seem as crowded as it did with our older kids, but I did want to share how it worked for us.

I hope you're able to book at this resort if it's the best option for you! It's always exciting to be planning a vacation to Disney.

[theBIGyowski]

Allow me to share with you my experience with a similarly sized group and the same arrangement.

...

I have to agree with you 100%.

It's funny how DW and I ended up at BLT in the first place. We decided back in 2011 to book a last minute 9-day trip to WDW...due to our lives and plans changing because of the tornado outbreak on April 27th, 2011. As you can imagine...booking a 9-day vacation only a month out isn't easy when looking for DVC points to rent. There were no resorts that could allocate a studio room for us on such short notice...so we were left with the option of doing a split stay. We could do a number of things:
Offsite/DVC
DVC/Offsite
Disney/DVC
DVC/Disney
DVC/DVC

We weighed all of our options and decided to go with the DVC/DVC split. We knew we wanted to stay at OKW since it was the most affordable and one of the easiest to book. After that, we knew we wanted to stay at the BWV to be at Epcot. But...the days we wanted were not available. So we tried BCV...and same result...nothing. Total bummer since we knew we would be spending at least half of our time at Epcot. Then we noticed that BLT had a water view studio open for the 2 nights we needed...and we figured we could use one of those as an easy way to be at MK for rope drop. So we booked our first 6 nights at OKW and the last two at BLT. That way we would be able to enjoy our incredible vacation early on...then feel like we got an "upgrade" on our last few days while taking advantage of the proximity to MK and the Monorail. This allowed us to make a breakfast ADR for Kona Cafe on our last morning as well...something I highly suggest. It also made it easy to do the Monorail Crawl on one of our nights there.

Anyhoo...

All that said...we more than likely won't stay at BLT again unless we are doing a 80% MK trip with young kids. The amount of time you save is great only if you are going to MK. Even the trip to Epcot via the Monorail isn't all that fast because you have to walk to the main Contemporary building...then wait on the Monorail...then ride it to TTC...then get off and switch over to the Epcot line...then ride that to Epcot. In the end...it's not much faster than staying at any other resort and taking the bus to Epcot. The studio we were in was very small and had a very odd layout compared to every other DVC studio we've stayed in. We are glad we did it...because of the perks that came with it for a newlywed couple...but we won't miss it if we never stay there again.

[Belle1082]

Thanks for all of the helpful input everyone! We are already looking into renting these points for October 2015, with the hopes that it will work out. BLT really would be a good place for us to stay. I have a 6 month old - who will be 15 months when we go. My sister will have a 6 year old, 3 year old and a 5 month old as well in October. So we will have some VERY young kiddos along for the ride. With going back and forth for naps, etc - being able to walk back and forth from MK and also not having to wait for or ride a bus with everyone will be super helpful too.
Our hope for the 2 bedroom will be that my husband and I will have the master bedroom and have a pack n play for our little one. And then my sister will have the other bedroom with with her husband and two kids in the beds and then their little one with a pack n play as well.
Then my parents will have the studio - which is okay if it is small because they will be hanging out in our two bedroom for the majority of the time anyways. I definitely agree that it isn't the most themed resort or my perfect idea for a place to stay, but with our little ones at this point, it would be really nice to stay so close to MK. Plus, my nephew loves riding the monorail, so it will be nice to be close to that as well, even if we there isn't a straight shot to EPCOT or anything.
As we get older, I'm sure we will change it up but for now I think this is the best bet for our family. Fingers crossed it all works out!

We've stayed in the two bedroom at OKW and that was great as well. Such a huge space -- just a bummer to be so far away.

Exciting none the less to start a countdown and be able to take my son on his very first disney trip (not in my belly....I found out I was pregnant the day before we left for DW in the fall of 2013 go figure! )

[cy1229]

The villas all have one pack-n-play, so you'll only need to bring one between the two families. Keep that in mind.

The cousins will want to sleep together in the living room. Like camping out. And I say let them. But I don't have to deal with their crankiness the next day, either.

The other fun thing about BLT is that the pool is nice. It's not huge, but it's nice, and it has a water slide that's big, but not enormous. You'll be able to play with your toddler and your sister's kids will be able to go down the slide and be "caught" at the bottom. Fun times ahead!

I hope you're able to get the points you need to pull this off.

[theBIGyowski]

Yeah...BLT sounds perfect for you, Belle!

It will be nice to have Chef Mickey's just a short walk away...and you should have no problems getting ADRs for October.

It's so nice that renting DVC is an option for families like yours who would otherwise spend an extra $2,000-$4,000 on accommodations alone to bring everyone to WDW.

If we end up being able to take a big family trip down to WDW in 2016...we're hoping we can stay at either BWV or BCV to be within walking distance of Epcot and to get those great pools.