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For the first page of this review of Disney’s Contemporary Resort, click here.

PHOTO TOUR OF A ROOM AT DISNEY’S CONTEMPORARY RESORT

Note: Rooms here are being refurbed, reportedly to an Incredibles theme.

Rooms at Disney’s Contemporary Resort open from corridors–in all Tower rooms but 14th floor suites, the corridor is open to the A-Frame interior and thus to the child, monorail, or flirting noises from below. Higher rooms give better views and less noise.

Here’s the view into the room from the corridor.

As is common, the bath is on side and the closets on the other.

The closet side has the coffeemaker…

…with a mini-fridge, and some small storage shelves, below.

The closet has two parts, one with a luggage rack…

…and another with a safe, iron and ironing board, and what we will come to see as some sorely needed drawers.

Across the hall is the bath, with two sinks, a tub and shower that are not separated from the rest of the space…

…and a toilet in its own space.

The absence of a fully divided bath–with the sinks in one area and everything else in another–makes these rooms a little less handy for families.

The sinks are a bit of a design mystery as well.

Note the close up–a cool design, but the size and flat bottom means limited area to store toiletries, and also lousy drainage from the sink itself.

There’s some storage space under the sinks.

Deeper in the room you’ll find two queens on one side.

Here’s the beds from the back of the room.

A closer view of one of the queens.

The bedside table between the queens has storage.

Between the beds and the bath is a groovy L-shaped desk. Note that part of it rolls out, and can serve as a little dining or games table.

The part of the “L” that’s closest to the bed is also the dresser. Putting the dresser drawers here, rather than under the TV as is more common, allows for an arty treatment of that under-TV space (see below). But as a result, there’s not much room for these drawers–making the room overall short on drawer space. Moreover, they are inconveniently located.

On the other side of the room you’ll find the TV thingy, a very green hassock, and a couch.

The TV side from the back of the room.

Below the TV is a screen that lights with a switch, creating an interesting interpretation of a fireplace. It’s too big for a night light, and families everywhere wish it were drawers instead.

The couch …

…and flips into a bed. I measured this bed as 72 inches by 30 inches. With no end rails, in a pinch it can sleep a little longer than that. The cushion is 6 inches deep.

At the end of the room is a full-width balcony. Here’s a view from one of our rooms on the Bay Lake side of the Tower…

And here, on a less pretty day, is a balcony from a Magic Kingdom view room.

Some fireworks from the Magic Kingdom view:

Contemporary rooms are spacious, flexible and interesting. But a little too interesting. Design choices limit storage and privacy, making these rooms not quite as family friendly as some others at Disney World.

THE GARDEN WING AT DISNEY’S CONTEMPORARY RESORT

This review continues here.

TOPICS IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S CONTEMPORARY RESORT

• Overview and summary of Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• A photo-tour of a standard Tower room at the Contemporary Resort
• Details on the South Garden Wing of the Contemporary Resort
• The amenities at the Contemporary Resort
• Dining at the Contemporary Resort
• The pools at the Contemporary Resort, and
• More on theming and accommodations at the Contemporary Resort

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 160+ stays in them

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Chapter 8 of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit (now available on Kindle!) covers “Which Tickets to Buy and What to Budget.”

(I’ve previously published an introduction to the easy Guide, and discussed Chapter 1,  Chapter 2,  Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.)

Most first-timers do just fine with standard Magic Your Way tickets, with no add-ons. But we also cover the add-ons, their prices, and when and when not they might be useful.

Helping people sort out what to budget is much more complicated, as it varies by group size, ages, length of stay, timing within Disney’s price seasons, and, most importantly, which hotel price class. But we do our best…

We also present some thoughts on saving money–and on spending even more!

Click the link to find The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit on Amazon!

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Chapter 7 of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit (now available on Kindle!) covers “Where to Eat.”

(I’ve previously published an introduction to the easy Guide, and discussed Chapter 1,  Chapter 2,  Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.)

We cover a lot of ground in this chapter–how much fun dining is, how far in advance it needs to be booked, our recommendations both for families and for date nights, quick overviews of the counter service options, and detailed reviews of the table service venues.

There’s also an extensive discussion of the Dining Plan. The value of the Dining Plan has shifted a lot over the years I’ve been writing about Disney–from a no-brainer to something that predictably makes economic sense on average only for families with kids younger than ten who plan a lot of one-credit character meals.

There are other reasons to get the Dining Plan besides saving money, and we cover all the reasons, and all the plans, in the chapter.

Chapter 7 ends with detailed reviews of all the table service venues.  See above for some examples.

One of the things most surprising to first timers is the how much fun dining at Disney World can be, and a close second is how far in advance some of the most fun venues sell out.  But Chapter 7 of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit has you covered!

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One of my best sources let me know this morning that Cinderella’s Royal Table will be closed for rehab from January 5 through March 6, 2015.

The best alternative, if you are going to Epcot, is Akershus, with buckets of princesses–but usually not Cinderella (and thanks, KE, for reminding me to note this). Next best, or the best option if Epcot is not in your plans, is dinner at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian with Cinderella and her family.

Another option–and thanks, Jacob!!–is the princess breakfast and brunch at Citricos at the Grand Floridian, added temporarily while Cinderella’s Royal Table is down.

I’ll post more as I learn more!

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The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, a combined roller coaster and dark ride, opened at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in late May 2014 and I had a chance to ride it in June. It’s a hoot, and definitely worth a FastPass+!

I visited on a moderately busy mid-June Wednesday afternoon, and waits were 90 minutes the whole time I was in the park.

With this long a wait, much of the queue is in the unprotected sun. The sign below is from a cast member indicating the end of the line, which snaked down the rail past Winnie the Pooh.

There’s some fun stuff to play with later in the line, and if you arrive well before park open and march straight to the ride, it’s worth the shorter wait you’ll find then, but at any other time of the day, use FastPass+, even though you will miss some of this play.

Once you are inside, the queue is more comfortable.

You then enter mine train cars that seat two across, a little tightly for bigger and taller folk.

Up the hill (see the image at the top of the page) and swoop around–more smoothly, and with a higher impression of speed, than I had thought the ride would have…

…then into the Seven Dwarfs’ mine itself, with some of the best audio-animatronics Disney has ever done–overwhelming my photography skills…

…another swoop…

…and then keep your eyes sharp to the right for a two-part suprise ending.

The whole thing goes by pretty quickly–I clocked it a two minutes and 30 seconds.  It seemed quite popular with those I rode with–and I loved it.

But it’ll be interesting to see what happens after the summer crowds and “gotta ride the new ride” crowds are done.  It’s a fun roller coaster, but not much of one, and the animatronic bits are excellently executed, but pretty brief.

It’ll either resonate strongly and become a classic about mid-way between Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, or it’ll fall between two stools–not enough of a roller coaster for coaster fans, and not enough of a dark ride for Snow White fans. My guess is the former, but we’ll see…

Here’s the details from our book:

Have you ridden it yet? What do you think?

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Chapter 6 of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit (now available on Kindle!) covers “How to Spend Your Time.”

(I’ve previously published an introduction to the easy Guide, and discussed Chapter 1,  Chapter 2,  Chapter 3, Chapter 4, and Chapter 5.)

Chapter 6 is the heart of The easy Guide, as it covers why people actually come to Walt Disney World–the four theme parks. At about a hundred pages it’s also the longest chapter, accounting for more than a third of the book.

After the usual introductory stuff, Chapter 6 begins with an overview of FastPass+. FastPass+ (and My Disney Experience, covered in Chapter 9) is the heart of Disney’s brand new attempt to make visits less burdensome, and if well-strategized works really well for first-timers. A key contribution we make in Chapter 6 is delivering those strategies.

After that we cover the principles of designing an itinerary, and then give some example integrated multi-day itineraries. Because we know not everyone can use them as is–or even at all–we then cover each park overall and review each ride in the parks, so that those who need to can pick and choose from among them. Our reviews are very brief, and meant not to tell the whole story of each ride, but rather just enough to guide people to or away from them.

At the end of the Chapter are the Cheat sheets, one for each park.  These include maps (better printed from here, by the way) and step by step touring plans designed so that people who can’t use the integrated itineraries presented earlier in the chapter can put together their own visits quickly and easily.

There’s a bit of redundancy between the Cheat Sheets and some of the earlier material in the chapter–which is purposeful, as we wanted the Cheat Sheets to stand on their own, so that you could tear them out and use them in the parks without having to pull the book along with you.

Of course you could instead simply take the Kindle edition along with you on your phone, and thus avoid tearing our book up!

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