An original Disney World hotel, the Contemporary Resort offers a spectacular view you can’t get anywhere else … but at what cost?
I first saw it in 1979.
Disney’s Contemporary Resort was still new then, sleek and gleaming in the Florida sun, selling a Tomorrowland-vision of the future that still seemed plausible. Surely by 2025 everyone will travel by monorail and be taking space shuttle vacations to the Disney park on the dark side of the moon, right?
Staying in my Papaw’s camper at Fort Wilderness, we rode past my dream hotel with the train running through it at least twice a day for a week, splashing about like peasants sailing to the New World, seeing a bright, shining vision of what our future could be.
I was soon to be 5 years old, and the Contemporary Resort was the pinnacle of the Disney experience in my little eyes; I knew that someday I’d get my chance.
Then, I grew up and had a family. Planning, coordinating, and paying for Disney trips became my responsibility. The Contemporary remained the white whale. It was hard to justify the extra expense, especially since we spent so little time in the hotel room anyway. We are a rope-drop-to-fireworks family even if – when the kids were little – we did have to go back to the hotel for nap breaks.
So, we tried different resorts – including a return to Fort Wilderness – and pined and wished and hoped for the day we could stay in the Contemporary.
Then last year, with our oldest in college and soon to leave the nest, we figured it was now or never.
We did it.
It was spectacular.
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The view from the top – or middle – of Disney’s most iconic hotel
We got a theme park view room in the resort’s upper third, roughly in the middle of the building. It was plenty high enough to give us a spectacular view of Bay Lake, the Grand Floridian and, of course, Magic Kingdom. In a way, I’m glad that I waited. I’m old enough now that I appreciated both the rarity of the experience and the quality of the view. I’m not sure the younger me would have fully processed it beyond, “Neat!”
We spend so much of our travel time in the course of our lives in pursuit of great views, whether it’s the Grand Canyon, the Eiffel Tower, or puffy white Florida clouds, laden with water that turns their bottoms dark blue floating over Bay Lake and casting shadows on the sun-soaked tourists below, but I wonder how much we truly appreciate the things we get to see. So much of our trips are about the journey and what we’re going to do next that the wonders of the world turn into items on a checklist.
There is another version of me who could have spent the afternoon on that balcony, watching the clouds and the endless loop of the monorail as the bright blue sky transformed into streaks of pinks, oranges, and reds and, finally, faded to black.
I could have sat there and watched the neon glow of excitement a few hundred yards away, waiting for the booming fireworks, the Electrical Water Pageant – a cheesy relic of my Disney past – and the mass chaos of crowds heading to the buses or the boats or the monorail at park close.
I could have watched, fending off the chill of the evening as the lights of the empty park twinkled only for me through the overnight hours until dawn came and a new day at Disney began.
I could have done all that, in theory, and it would have been a day well spent. But this was a Disney day and Disney days are far too rare. We had other adventures on the schedule.
But the view? It was its own adventure.
What can you see?
Obviously, the castle, most of Tomorrowland, and the other monorail resorts. I was surprised we could see the tops of the Tiki Room. You can also see Big Thunder, a bit of Haunted Mansion, some of Liberty Square and a bit of Storybook Circus. The view of the fireworks at night is spectacular, and you can play the music in your room to keep up. The resort view does provide an interesting perspective of just how far away the big boomers are from the castle. It makes me a little more impressed with how they’ve engineered the experience for viewers in the park.
The Contemporary Resort vs. other Disney resorts
I haven’t stayed in or visited all of the Disney resorts, but I’ve experienced more than my fair share to understand the program.
So, the question becomes: how does the Contemporary stack up? As one of the hotels on the monorail loop, the convenience really sets it apart. You exit the elevator, and the monorail access is right there. You can ride over to the Transportation and Ticket Center and switch rails to head to EPCOT. It’s incredibly convenient. It also makes it incredibly easy to pop over to the Polynesian or the Grand Floridian to enjoy additional amenities.
You can walk to Magic Kingdom in roughly as many steps as it takes to get to the Skyliner or bus stop of other – less expensive – Disney resorts.
In terms of the resort itself, it’s not dissimilar to other resorts. The restaurant options are like other deluxe-level Disney resorts. The pool area is good – not great – and the other amenities are fine. I find the interior vibe – even with the existence of the monorail passing through – a little cold in the faux futuristic way. Many of the other resorts on property – from Caribbean Beach to Port Orleans to the Polynesian – feel more like a vacation in my opinion. Being in the Contemporary proper is a little like being at a Disney corporate convention. It’s cool, but it lacks a certain passion.
Anything else? The rooms are small – due to the initial vision of design – but the bathroom shower is pretty spectacular.
The cost of the Contemporary Resort … is it worth it?
I’ve tracked Disney prices for going on two decades now and felt like we hit a pretty spectacular deal with a price near $600 a night. We got something a little better than the usual “save 25%” that Disney runs seasonally. I noodled around with pricing for late spring and early summer 2025. Main tower rooms with a theme park view are running in the range of $940 per night. Do NOT under any circumstances pay that price unless money is simply no object, and if that is the case, please send me some. The same room with the 25% discount promotion is right at $800.
Is it worth it? I wouldn’t pay $800 for a week to stay at the Contemporary and, in fact, I didn’t. We got the $600-ish rate for two nights and then transferred to a different Disney hotel. On the morning in question, we took our luggage down to the lobby, took advantage of the Disney complimentary luggage transfer, and took the monorail to EPCOT. In the early afternoon, I took the monorail back to the Contemporary, got the car, and drove to Caribbean Beach.
Disney delivered the luggage, and I took the Skyliner back to EPCOT.
It was pretty perfect and painless.
Still, I would say that yes, the Contemporary is worth it on a limited basis for a once-in-a-lifetime sort of deal.
We’re glad we did it. And if money was no object, we’d do it again.
But Disney has other and more affordable adventures. The same week I priced the Contemporary at $800, Animal Kingdom Lodge – with its superior vibes – has a Savanna view room for $620. That $180 a night difference can add up over the course of a vacation, and you get to wake up to giraffes! You don’t get to watch the sunrise over Magic Kingdom, but it’s a pretty good trade.
Port Orleans was $290 per night that week. The savings on hotel stay alone would cover another whole Disney vacation.
So, while I say the Contemporary is worth it for the view and convenience, having checked it off my bucket list, I’d spend my money someplace else and deal with riding the bus. And, for the record, I would not stay at the Contemporary with a non-theme park view. While it is more affordable and looking back out over the lake toward Fort Wilderness isn’t without merit, there are other Disney resort experiences that I would value more.
