Also have childhood dream of staying at Contemporary, and tried to get the family to stay at Bay Lake Towers this trip. We are at Beach Club Villas instead, which is wonderful.
On our last day last year, we came back from Magic Kingdom in the afternoon by taking the monorail and walking back through Epcot, stopping to do Spaceship Earth on the way. Not the most efficient route, but was very fun.
Wilderness Lodge is an MK resort not an AK resort.
Same here. We’re EPCOT fans, and it usually doesn’t take all day to do what we want at MK, so we’ve used the EPCOT to MK by monorail option several times. The reverse is also true if we happen to do a late morning or lunchtime arrival at MK by bus with plans to wrap up the day at EPCOT with dinner and fireworks.
Right! I keep forgetting that Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge are NOT the same thing! 
I’m curious why you didn’t stay at Bay Lake Towers. Did you ultimately decide against, or did you have trouble obtaining a DVC rental?
I guess it is worth mentioning that we actually will have our car when we go, so taking the buses isn’t necessary in our case. While we kind of like the idea of just leaving behind our car and relying on Disney transportation, there will definitely be cases where it just makes sense for us to drive instead…not QUITE leaving it all behind.
My wife and I talked about this last night more, and she’s mostly sold on the idea of Bay Lake Tower. She specifically doesn’t really like the “Beach House” feel…in her words, it doesn’t feel Disney-ish enough to her. If she were to pick something other than Bay Lake Tower or Contemporary, her second choice was Wilderness Lodge or Animal Kingdom Lodge.
It is a sign of a couple in love to be so on the same page about it, but it was good to discuss it more and affirm our original thoughts. She also reminded me of some of the other reasons we decided on Bay Lake Tower, which I kind of had forgotten about. Like, just going to the Contempo Cafe (or whatever the Quick Service place is at the Contemporary…which according to some of the food vlogs she watches, is one of the top Quick Service places on Disney property) and being able to eat while watching the Monorail running. Or having a direct view of the nighttime light show on the Lake (not to mention the fireworks).
The only thing I wish is that we could stay actually in the Contemporary tower itself…but that really puts us outside our price range…not to mention, losing out on the 1 bedroom option.
Have you thought about split stay? Not sure your length of stay… but I also want to stay st contemporary and also an Epcot resort. Might be fun as an anniversary trip!
We talked about it. Neither of us are too keen on the idea, though.
We went through our Disney travel agent and she was actually able to get us BCV or Bay Lake when we booked. (We didn’t use points, just booked it like any other hotel room).
It really came down to the fact that it’s so easy to get to Hollywood and Epcot, and we are spending 3 days at those parks vs. 2 days at MK. We stayed at BCV during our last trip two years ago, and if we came back from a park in the afternoon, we really enjoyed taking a walk at night to Epcot. Now that we are here, we are also planning to do evening magic hours at Epcot on Tuesday after MK (which will make 4 days at Epcot/HS in the end).
Granted, last night, while waiting for a bus after MK closed, I really regretted not being able to walk back!
I saw your note about your wife not thinking BCV was very “Disney” feel, and I laughed as that was my kids’ reaction when we checked in two years ago for the first time. (We had stayed at only Value resorts before). They moaned and moaned that hotel was “too fancy”. They got over it after we walked to Epcot for dinner and we showed them Stormalong Bay!
That is one thing we were weighing when talking about this. It seemed reasonable to suggest that Epcot would become your “food court” in a way if you stay at the Epcot resorts. Which is valid. But when we sat and figured out exactly where we’d likely want to eat, it wasn’t as advantageous as we originally thought.
I do recall those days when we were on Disney property (Dixie Landings, aka Port Orleans Riverside) for our honeymoon. The trip back on the buses was a killer, especially since it usually meant standing on the bus since they were so crowded!
Ironically, it seems the MOST Disney-ish resorts on Disney property are the value resorts! The Art of Animation resort, for example, ranks high on our list of resorts to consider in general simply because of how Disney it seems! But this trip is a bit of a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Not sure if we’ll ever end up back on Disney property again or not, so we’re deciding to live it up.
D’Aww. That’s adorable.
we stayed at Epcot and used the monorail to MK a few times for the experience. It was easier in the late afternoon/evening than the one time we tried in the morning. What I didnt factor in was the line of people at TTC when we had to switch to the MK monorail. so the one morning I thought would be a casual trip over turned to be more stressful than anticipated to make a specific FPP. That’s all I’d suggest being aware of.
Great advice. I am hoping to go from BC to the Grand Floridian using the monorail through Epcot and MK. I am excited to do it, but will make sure to plan plenty of time.
We are choosing to stay at the Contemporary for our upcoming trip. We’ll do the Garden View rooms. We are choosing this in the hope that we’ll have more days without the car-walk to MK, monorail to EPCOT. We have loved staying in the Boardwalk area when we are going to the Food & Wine fest.
I keep second guessing as well. It’s always been my dream to stay at the AKL, but during the time we are going, it just doesn’t make sense. This trip is not a resort focused trip, we’ll be ripe dropping most days, not sitting on our balcony watching the animals stroll by. I’m glad you guys are one the same page-it’s helpful! Sometimes DH throws a curveball at me when I’m trip planning!
I have wondered about that. Was this during a busy time period?
I also wonder about the tendency for general guests leaving and coming to use the resort monorail. We’ve done it…when the line for the normal monorail is long, we’ll use the resort monorail to get to/from MK. But the poor folks paying good money to have a resort monorail sometimes can’t get on because it has filled with non-resort guests!
We went April 6-13, so a week or 2 after the peak of spring break. Regardles of when we go back, I don’t see us using the monorail with transfer at TTC, to get to MK in the morning from an epcot resort.
Will also be interesting once they build and open the new hotel at the front of Epcot. I’m sure that will make the monorail from Epcot even more crowded, regardless of time of day