Stayed 5 nights for a business conference with the weekend before to enjoy the park. The rooms were updated, modern, and clean with an excellent bathroom. The Fireworks at the California Grill were nice and the food is good if they decide to give you a reservation. The remainder of the stay was far from magical though as the desk and concierge staff were less than impressive. The checkin process included a line of people in front of us complaining about their rooms and there appeared to be only 1 person working the desk. I was luckily in the main tower because of the conference, but it sounds like the other rooms are not great.

We bought park tickets through the concierge and this is where the problems started. We had a simple request for 2 passes and the process took about 20 minutes. Later, I get my hotel bill and the 5 separate charges to my credit card did not make any sense. After numerous calls to the Billing Dept, I found out that they had overcharged me by $200 on the final hotel bill. Their claim was that the concierge screwed it up and no one bothered to fix it.

Worse than that, I bought some drinks from the gift shop (huge rip-off) and I was overcharged there as well!!! They charged me $22 when it should have been $10 and the clerk didn't seem too worried, even though there was no one else in the store.

Overall, this hotel rips you off in its ridiculous prices and doesn't care about overcharging you. The room service prices are laughable, except you don't have any other options. When I responded to customer service, they sent me a long rambling voicemail about coaching their "cast members." Meanwhile, I spent hours reconciling their billing mistakes!

If you are spending your own money, you can find better value elsewhere.

Our stay at the Contemporary was to say the least - very dissapointing. God help thoses people who save for years to take their children here. Unfortunately when we arrived the foyer was under renovation. 3/4 of the foyer was fenced off and the ceiling was completely opened with the inner workings of the airconditioning and plumbing greeting us on arrival (not a Mickey to be seen and no sign about renovations). As we wandered around after check in trying to find the elevators we were perplexed at how unDisney and how the 'magic' that we were meant to be feeling was quickly dissapaiting from our faces. The room on the 4th floor was okay and a lot more 'modern' than the rest of the hotel. If you are expecting a minimalistic contemporary hotel you will be sorely dissapointed. The room is worn and obvious that thousands have been there before me. As we stepped out of our room the wood saw and nail gun noises from the new gift shop being made downstairs is really quite unprofessional. After a great time at Magic Kingdom and Mickeys not so scary halloween we made our way back to the room. With the most amazing fire works show going on we opened the verandah door and stood outside watching the show. When we all went back inside our daughter screamed at the 1000plus mosquitoes that had come into the room and were congregating on the roof of our room. Needless to say 1 hour later we moved rooms to a suite on the 14th floor via the staff lift........ The manager kindly told us the 'love bugs' only came out for a couple of weeks a year and did not bite......Looks like a mozzie ..walks like a mozzie.......

The suite was LARGE but still not 'modern' . You cannot help but notice the modern contemporary art on the walls just does not make an old room new. The view was fantastic over the whole of Disney and the mini bar area and dining table were great for congregating. But if you asked me to pay 1400US a night for it I would gag.......... The 500US for the standard twin room was too much.............
Room service was great and so were the staff. But then everyone is happy in Disney......The monorail is great for getting to the Kingdom and back especially after a late night of Mickey and treats!!

I really wished that when I rang they told me that they were renovating. Perhaps a reduced rate for the inconvenience?? Perhaps close during renovations?? And what about all the Disney characters when I get there?? Instead a stale old hotel lobby with poor reception Disney channel playing on a big screen in an obscure corner??

Contemporary - NO, magical -NO, Expensive - YES, Worth waiting 20years, child birth twice and travelling 20000klm with 2 kids under 7 screaming 'are we there yet'???,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

This is my all time fav Disney hotel. We own DVC but last year got married at Disney and decided to sell our points for 2 years to be able to afford our 6 week stay and stay in some nice hotels.

We probably enjoyed this hotel so much as we stayed concierge on the 14th, we were in heaven and didn't want to leave. The staff were great and anything we needed they sorted it out for us. The internet in the room was a bonus and it was great stepping out onto the balcony and watching wishes and being able to hear the music from the
tv.

We also stayed at the Floridian concierge and AKL but this was by far
the best, you can't beat the view.

I only hope we can afford to go back to this hotel soon and stay concierge as i'm now spoilt.

We love DisneyWorld, and like to stay at the deluxe resorts, especially the three on the monorail system. The Contemporary was a disappointment in many ways. The room was booked thru the Disney reservations, and no mention was made at the time of booking about construction activities. We had asked for a view of the park (and the nighttime fireworks) but no luck. We had a conceirge room with a view of Bay Lake - and an unattractive construction site complete with crane. The outside construction was ugly, but quiet. The lobby is also under construction, and the noise from that carried directly up the open interior to be quite noticable inside our room.
The decor in the Contemporary is low-key and modern for Disney; attractive and not theme-ish. The room was a good size, comparable to what we have had at the Polynesian. It has limited storage for clothes. The room had a computer that you could use to make requests from housekeeping, check times for the parks, or go online. There was no charge for the online access, although you had to sign-up again after 24 hours.
The bathroom has very modern, large square sinks which look cool, but take up all the room (tiny counter space in between) and don't drain well. They also tend to splash anything you manage to fit on the small vanity area. The doors to the bathroom, including the toilet area, are sliding glass doors, pretty neat.
The toilet flushes with alot of noise, but not enough efficency. On Saturday, when we were all needing to get ready for dinner, the toilet backed-up just short of overflow. It took approx 45 minutes and repeat calls to have someone come by, and he was only partially successful. He promised to come back soon, at which time we were in frantic mid-prep for dinner. He returned while we were out, and then the toilet seemed ok for the rest of the stay.
The concierge lounge was smallish and the offerings a bit less impressive than at the Polynesian or Grand Floridian, but the view of the Magic Kingdom is awesome.
The California Grill at the Contemporary is wonderful and a must-do for dining at Disney World. We finished eating just in time to go outside to their terrace and watch the fireworks over the castle.
A bonus for the Contemporary is that you can walk to the Magic Kingdom, about 10 minutes if you have kids with you. This can be quicker than the monorail.