Featured Foto Friday - Aulani Recreation

Recreational activities abound at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa in Hawaii. Lounge chairs and kayaks in the morning hours await guests to come and enjoy them on the resort's shared lagoon at Ko Olina.  Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, guests have the opportunity to kayak out into open waters and enjoy!

Today in Disney Parks and Resorts History - Grand Californian Hotel Opens

January 2, 2001 – Disneyland – Anaheim, CA

The Disneyland Resort unveils its’ brand new Grand Californian Hotel, built on the former parking lot of Disneyland as the company has transformed the original Disney park into a multi-park, multi-day destination.  The new hotel features 2 full-service restaurants:  Storytellers Cafe & Napa Rose, and the Whitewater Snacks quick-service snack bar, as well as high-end rooms and service.  It is the company’s first domestic theme park located inside a Disney theme park – the all-new Disney’s California Adventure opening in February 2001, and features a private entrance directly from the hotel into the Condor Flats area of the theme park.   

Sunday Spotlight - Disney's Old Key West

Disney's Old Key West Resort_® first opened at Walt Disney World_® Resort on December 20, 1991.  It was the original Disney Vacation Club_® (DVC) timeshare property, and as such was originally named Disney’s Vacation Club Resort.  In January 1996 DVC expanded their timeshare offerings at the Walt Disney World Resort, and so the resort was renamed to Disney’s Old Key West Resort.  The resort is themed to celebrate the Conch Republic of Key West, Florida, and enjoys quite the laid-back feeling that a southern Florida provides.

The resort has a total of 761 villas, comprised of Deluxe Studios, 1-Bedroom, 2-Bedroom and 3-Bedroom Grand Villas.

• Deluxe Studios are 376 square feet and can accommodate up to four guests, plus one child under age 3 in a crib.  They include a kitchenette, two queen-size beds and a private porch or balcony.
• 1-Bedrooms are 942 square feet, and can accommodate up to five guests, plus one child under age 3 in a crib. They include a fully equipped kitchen, washer & dryer, king-size bed in the master bedroom, a queen-size sleeper sofa plus a sleeper chair in the living room, whirlpool tub in the bathroom, and a private porch or balcony.
• 2-Bedrooms are 1,333 square feet, and can accommodate up to nine guests, plus one child under 3 in a crib. They offer all that a 1-Bedroom has plus a second bedroom with 2 queen-size beds and a second full bathroom.
• 3-Bedroom Grand Villas are 2,375 square feet, and can accommodate up to 12 guests, plus one child under 3 in a crib. They offer all of the amenities of the 2-Bedroom, plus they include a third bedroom with 2 queen-size beds, a third full bathroom, a full dining room, additional private balcony and are two-story rooms.

As a DVC timeshare property, the villas are owned by members through DVC’s points-based system.  DVC maintains about 3-4% ownership of the total point allocation for each of their timeshare resorts, therefore rooms are available for rent year-round to non-members. 

The resort includes 1 feature pool and 3 leisure or “quiet” pools, a children’s pool, whirlpools, sauna, fitness center, Community Hall family recreation room, tennis courts, fishing, marina watercraft rentals, arcade and recreational activities.  It also features 1 table service restaurant:  Olivia’s Café serving breakfast lunch and dinner;  2 quick-service counter locations: Good’s Food to Go, and the Turtle Shack.  A bar is also on-site:  Gurgling Suitcase.

Disney’s Old Key West Resort_® is a Deluxe Villas level resort centrally located to the east of Epcot_® in the Downtown Disney_® area.  Convenient bus transportation will take guests to all parts of Walt Disney World_® Resort, and water taxis transport guests to and from Downtown Disney.

Featured Foto Friday - Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort

These fantastic hammocks await you at Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort, underneath some remarkable century-old oak trees.  They provide a perfect way to relax, either individually or with that special someone at your side.  

Sunday Spotlight - Disney's Port Orleans Resort

Disney's Port Orleans Resort_® first opened at Walt Disney World_® Resort as two separate resorts:  Disney’s Port Orleans Resort which opened on May 17, 1991 and Disney’s Dixie Landings Resort which opened on February 2, 1992.  On March 1, 2001 both resorts were merged together into one larger single resort, with the former Dixie Landings resort being rebranded as Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside, and the original Port Orleans Resort being rebranded as Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter.

The resort is themed to invoke the bustling river life of the old South and the “gay paree” of the American Frontier – New Orleans.  The French Quarter portion was designed to resemble the French Quarter’s style and architecture, while the Riverside section was designed to invoke both southern plantations in the Magnolia Bend section, and bayou dwellings further up the river in the Alligator Bayou section.  The Sassagoula River connects both portions of the resort with other waterways of Walt Disney World_®, and provides nice boat transportation to the Downtown Disney_® Area. 

Disney’s Port Orleans Resort features a total of 3,056 guest rooms, with 1,008 rooms found in the French Quarter; 1,024 rooms found in Riverside and 1,024 found in Magnolia Bend.  About 500 rooms throughout the Magnolia Bend section of Riverside were recently refurbished as “Royal Rooms” with a princess-inspired theme. 

The resort includes 2 themed feature pools:  Ol’ Man Island with a rustic saw-mill theme; and Doubloon Lagoon with a sea-serpent themed slide.  Additionally there are multiple quiet pools located throughout the resort.  Other recreation includes children’s playgrounds; the “Fishin’ Hole” where guests can rent cane poles and bait for some old-time catch & release fishing; a marina for watercraft rentals; bicycles & surrey bike rentals; horse-drawn carriage rides in the evenings; and video game arcades.

The resort features 1 table service restaurant:  Boatwright’s Dining Hall; and includes 2 quick-service restaurants: Riverside Mill Food Court and Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory; as well as 2 lounge/bar locations: River Roost, Muddy Rivers and Scat Cat’s Club.

Disney’s Port Orleans Resort_® is a moderate level resort located in the Downtown Disney_® area.  Convenient boat transportation will take guests directly to Downtown Disney_®, as well as bus transportation to all other parts of Walt Disney World_® Resort.  The resort is classified as a Moderate level resort, and most rooms will accommodate up to 4 guests; however rooms in Alligator Bayou will accommodate up to 5 guests, as they include a trundle bed, which makes Disney’s Port Orleans Resort a great option for many families.

Sunday Spotlight - Disney's Wilderness Lodge

Disney's Wilderness Lodge_®  first opened at Walt Disney World_® Resort on May 28, 1994.  Themed to invoke the Pacific Northwest, and inspired by the great National Park lodges from the turn of the 20th century, the “Lodge”  is an architectural masterpiece honoring American craftsmanship and artistry, and celebrating the majesty of the unspoiled wilderness. It was designed by famed architect Peter Dominick (who also designed Walt Disney World_® Resort’s other great lodge - Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge_®; as well as Disneyland_® Resort’s awe-inspiring Disney’s Grand Californian_® Hotel & Spa); and pays homage to ancient Native American cultures and the American pioneering spirit through authentic décor and genuine artifacts on display throughout the lodge. 

Awed and impressed are the feelings you’ll have from your first steps inside the Lodge’s stunning 7-story lobby, with its 82 foot tall fireplace representing the various layers of rock strata of the Grand Canyon, to the hand-carved multi-story totem poles. 

Disney's Wilderness Lodge_® features 727 guest rooms, offering wildlife, nature and Native American themes.  Honeymoon suites feature marble whirlpool tubs;  many rooms feature bunk-beds for families with small children.  Larger 1 and 2 bedroom suites are also available.

Outside be sure to look for the bubbling spring flowing from the lobby, and tumbling over a sparkling waterfall towards the swimming pool, and continuing on into Bay Lake.  Nearby you’ll find Fire Rock Geyser, designed with Yellowstone National Park’s “Old Faithful” in mind, sending plumes of water up to 120 feet in the air every hour. 

Disney's Wilderness Lodge_® features 2 table service restaurants:  Whispering Canyon Café and Artist Point; and includes one quick-service restaurant: Roaring Fork; as well as 2 lounge/bar locations: Territory Lounge and Trout Pass. 

Disney’s Wilderness Lodge_® is a deluxe level resort located in the Magic Kingdom area.  Convenient boat transportation will take guests directly to Magic Kingdom Park_®, as well as bus transportation to all other parts of Walt Disney World_® Resort.  

Sunday Spotlight - Disney's Art of Animation Resort

Disney's Art of Animation Resort®, an all-new resort located at Walt Disney World® Resort, premiered on May 31, 2012 with the first of four phases opening on that date.  It is located on the site once planned for the expansion of Disney’s POP Century Resort®, but plans for that continued construction were abandoned following the attacks of September 11, 2001.  It is the first new value-level resort built since Disney’s POP Century Resort first opened in 2003.

The resort is comprised of 4 sections, representing Disney’s classic animated films “The Little Mermaid”, “The Lion King”, and Disney*PIXAR films, “Finding Nemo” and “Cars”.   Each section is decorated and themed with its’ own oversized icons – such as the various car characters from the Cars films, super-sized coral from Finding Nemo, gigantic clam shells, pride rocks and many more.  In a change from the other value-level resorts, the Art of Animation is designed with rooms having interior doors and sealed hallways rather than exterior doors.  Emergency staircases are done in the same exterior fashion as the other value-level resorts (and are themed with coverings such as giant pride rocks, coral, or super-sized dock pilings).


Disney's Art of Animation Resort® features a total of 1,984 guest rooms, comprised of 1,120 Family Suites and 864 traditional rooms.  The majority of the rooms accommodate up to 6 guests whereas the traditional rooms accommodate up to 4 guests, plus one child under 3 in a crib.  The Family Suites have a queen-size bed, plus two double sleeper / pull-down beds, a small kitchenette, plus a full bathroom and a half-bath.  All of the regular rooms have either 2 double beds or 1 king-sized bed.

The resort includes a themed pool, “The Big Blue”, a quick-service food court:  Landscape of Flavors; and lounges, poolside snack bar, The Drop Off Pool Bar and in-room pizza  delivery service. 

Disney’s Art of Animation Resort® is a value level resort located in the southern portion of Walt Disney World, in the ESPN Wide World of Sports® area.  Convenient bus transportation will take guests to all other parts of the Walt Disney World® Resort.   

Walt Disney World Firsts

It Was a Week Full of “Firsts” – and Oh-So TRIPPY…

We just got home a couple of days ago from another terrific and memorable trip to Walt Disney World.  Was I sad to leave?  Always.  But as I tell me kids time and time again, all good things come to end.  And so yes, this trip ended as well, and we had to come home once again.  Was it nice to sleep in my own bed again?  You bet.  I always love sleeping in my own bed again after being gone.  There’s just something about sleeping in your own bed, you know?

Despite all of the dozens of times that I have been to Walt Disney World (and yes, it’s close to five dozen times), this trip was full of quite a few “firsts” for us – both collectively as a family, and for me personally as an individual. 

• Driving my own car at Walt Disney World was – in a word – trippy.   I have driven rental cars all over the place multiple times there, but never before had I driven my own Jeep there.  Growing up in Southern California, driving to Disneyland was no big deal… but driving to Florida?!?  Something we had never, ever done before.  You have to understand that long car rides… just not something we’ve done much of since the kids were very little.  It’s true our kids have visited 26 states, but most of those trips were taken when they were a lot younger.  Thinking about it, they’ve been on planes nearly as many times as I’ve been to Walt Disney World.
• My oldest son was part of the driving crew!  Yikes.  He drove about 6 hours on the way down to Florida, and about 6 hours on the way home.  Again, in a word… trippy.
• We spent a lot of time in the pools… I mean a LOT of time.  We were there just about every single day.  This is so not like us.  While we enjoy the occasional dip, we are just not pool people.  And spending hours at the pool – at Walt Disney World – has just never been something we’ve done.  Sure a dip here, maybe there, once or twice during a visit – but never every single day – until now.  Very trippy.
• We enjoyed a pool-side movie.  Fancy that.  I’ve talked about them here in my blog previously, and told many people about them – but we’ve never experienced one for ourselves.  We watched “Finding Nemo” while enjoying the pool at Kidani Village.  Huh.  Trippy. 
• Not going into the theme parks, of course, meant no theme park meals.  We planned to avoid the theme parks all along – but we also ended up not planning any table service meals at all.  So NO ADR’s for this trip.  That was different.  Kinda trippy.    We did end up going to BOMA, thanks to a mix-up on the resort’s part and the subsequent “we messed up” gift card, but we didn’t plan that in advance.  I did arrange a reservation for us 2 days in advance – but again – trippy, since the typical long-term “ADVANCED” in ADR was absent.  Most people don’t make ADR’s 2 days in advance. 
• We did not buy souvenirs on this trip.  No pins.  Nothing.  We’ve been so often, there really was no need to bring more of the same old crap home.  While I was pleased to see some new resort-specific merchandise in the shops, there really was nothing that made me say “I’ve GOT to have that.”  So the wallet stayed in the pocket, and came home no worse for the wear.   Trippy.  I almost always come home with something.
• We enjoyed many of the same “free” or “nearly free” things that I have been talking about in my semi-regular “Saturday Savers” posts.  

We took our daughter over to the Tri-Circle D Ranch at Ft. Wilderness to check out the horses. Sadly she was 3 inches too tall to be able to ride the ponies, despite being within the age and weight range.  Sigh.  The tears only lasted a few moments, and then she was happy to at least be able to pet them.  

In the Cars section of Art of Animation

The new DVC resort under construction

 I took the family over to explore new resorts that they had not yet seen - such as the all-new Art of Animation Resort and the Yacht and Beach Clubs - and from a distance we saw the progress being made on the new DVC resort, the Villas at the Grand Floridian, currently under construction.  Kinda trippy doing things with them, that I’ve done numerous times before on my various solo research trips.

• We did NOT sit and watch Stacy!  
• We did watch "I Love Lucy" - in fact numerous times, as it was requested by my daughter numerous times as we scrolled through the on-screen listings menu.  Anytime she saw it, she would shout out for Lucy! (I love that girl... she loves Lucy almost as much as her daddy does.)  Sitting and watching television while at Walt Disney World has never happened before... except to sit and watch Stacy. 

• We enjoyed the Kitchen Sink at Beaches & Cream at Disney's Beach Club.  Finished it, too (well, we did leave some melted ice cream mixed with about 7 or 8 cherries in the bottom that my son kept calling primordial soup… but otherwise, we finished that monstrosity!)   If you’ve never experienced it for yourself, or if you’ve never even heard of the Kitchen Sink… let me elaborate just a bit for you.  It’s 8 scoops of ice cream, topped with EVERY kind of topping they have, plus a whole can – yes, I said it – a WHOLE CAN of whipped cream.  It’s ghastly – yet fun – in a trippy sort of way.  The toppings alone amazed me.  The menu made it seem like just the standard liquid topping variety – but OH NO – there were cake bits, brownie pieces, pieces of candy bars, bananas, pineapple, candied fruit, nuts, and probably an entire jar of cherries, since each of my three kids had at least 6 to 7 cherries apiece (plus those 7 or 8 left in the bottom of the dish).  Crazy.  Fun.  DEFINITELY memorable.  But not something that we need to do again. 

• We enjoyed spending some time (albeit just an hour or so) with friends from another state, who checked in while were at the World!  In the same resort that we had just checked out that morning no less! (Long story short but due to a relatively last-minute change of plans, we had to change resorts for the last couple of nights of our trip - but it was a blessing in disguise because the original plans would have had us leaving WDW 2 days prior to Mark & Julie's arrival... this way we got to visit with them after all!).  Prior to checking out we were joking that they might even end up with "OUR" room at Kidani Village (sadly, no dice, they ended up on the OTHER end of the savannah). Encounters like that do seem to make the famous (and often famously maligned Sherman Brothers song from that iconic Fantasyland attraction ring true - it IS a small world after all!).  

• We got to watch Wishes from the Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower! Not being BLT point owners, and not having stayed at that resort - we have not had the usually exclusive pleasure of experienced this perk previously.  But since it was made available for a "limited time" to any DVC owner staying on points at any DVC resort, we decided to head on over and see if we could get in and watch from there.  Knowing the Top of the World has limited space, we weren't sure if we would get in or not, but tried anyway.  We were told guests could arrive as early as 6pm, but Wishes wasn't until 10pm.  No way were we going to sit over there for that long.  We arrived at 9pm, and figured if we couldn't get in, we'd simply ride the Monorail over to the Polynesian and watch from the beach (something else we've never done).  But we got in with no problem.  All told, when the fireworks began - the Lounge was probably little more than half full - so there was no need to stress about it at all.  Other nights it might have been more crowded - but our night - not at all.  A big bonus right there!  As a show, Wishes, to me, is very stale and needs to be replaced (especially after watching two different far-superior fireworks presentations at Disneyland in the years since Wishes was first rolled out, and were created after Wishes by the same dude who created Wishes in the first place... it's time Steve Davison to put your fireworks focus back on Walt Disney World!) - but I digress, enough to say that it was fun to experience it from a new vantage point - especially to see how truly far behind the Magic Kingdom the shells are actually shot up from.  The show does lose a LOT in the translation when not watching it from within the confines of the Magic Kingdom - BUT it was fresh and new watching it from the 16th floor of Bay Lake Tower.  Despite being stale to me, it was a great final night bit of fun for all of us. 

• We went in JULY.  For any of you following along who have ever read any comments I have made on the DIS, or any other online spot I may have commented… we do NOT like the heat and humidity of Florida in the Summer time.  I have avoided it like the plague – until this year.  When we realized that this 10 day period of the summer was pretty much the ONLY time during the entire summer that all five of us would be “home” at the same time – and not off on some Scout, Church or other outing.  So way back in February we decided that the only way to protect that time – and give us the much-desired family time that we needed – was to effectively get “out of dodge” and enjoy our timeshare.  That way none of us would be tempted to respond to the various text messages, phone calls, Facebook posts or Tweets that would come around saying – “COME…. Do this, that or whatever else....”  By being 900 miles away from all of that – we could have that coveted family time.  It was a wise choice.  We enjoyed spending time together, reconnecting, being silly, playing games and just hangin’ out together.  Very, very trippy.  I highly recommend taking your own family doing something similar – especially when the busy-ness of the teen years creep in and overtake your household!  With one super active teen, one getting more and more active all-the-time teen, one slightly busy pre-teen and two busy parents – we must SCHEDULE this kind of time in order to capture it – at all.  Otherwise this friend, that friend, this activity or that activity WILL overtake one or more family member each and every week. 

It’s crazy – but it will all change in just two short years when our eldest leaves for college – followed a couple of years later by our middle son, and then it will all come crashing down in just a few short years when the last of the kids is off on her way to college.  It’s very trippy how all those years ago when the boys were but wee ones people would exhort us to “enjoy this time while it lasts” – we were so full of ourselves thinking it would last longer than it actually does.  And here we are – with a son driving us to Walt Disney World, getting ready to start his Junior year of high school and the college information keeps coming in the mail each and every week.   Trippy is definitely an understatement for the week that we experienced – but even more appropriate for the short 16 years that have literally flown by.  Now to start figuring out which week will be the “one week” next summer so that we can hopefully do it all again…

Until next time,

Sunday Spotlight - Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa_® first opened at the Disneyland_® Resort on February 8, 2001 along with Disney’s newest domestic theme park, Disney California Adventure Park.  The resort shares a boundary with the theme park, and can actually be considered to be “inside” the theme park.   It is the only hotel at the Disneyland_® Resort with a wing featuring Disney Vacation Club_® villas, opened in September 2009; as well as the only hotel at the resort designed and built by the Walt Disney Company. 

This AAA Four Diamond hotel was designed by famed architect Peter Dominick (the same architect who designed Disney’s Wilderness Lodge_® and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge_® at Walt Disney World_®), and was designed in the Craftsman styling of the Arts and Crafts movement in California during the early 20^th century.  The design incorporates wide sweeping roofs, projecting beams, exaggerated braces and an earth tone color palette.  The hotel’s sweeping six story lobby is an architectural masterpiece, which features a massive fireplace reminiscent of the oversized fireplaces of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, located in Northern California.     

Like other grand hotels within the Disney resort family, guests are both awed and impressed upon first entry into the hotel.  A sweeping porte cachere staffed with courteous bellmen greets each arriving vehicle.  The entry door is a grand wooden frame surrounding hand-cut stained glass with images representing the state of California. 

The hotel features 750 traditional guest rooms, and is the only hotel at the Disneyland_® Resort with a wing featuring 50 Disney Vacation Club_® villas, added to the hotel in September 2009; as well as the only hotel at the resort designed and built by the Walt Disney Company.  Many of the rooms and villas have views looking directly into Disney California Adventure_® Park, or overlooking the Downtown Disney District.  A highlight of the hotel is the private entrance in to Disney California Adventure_® Park, available only to guests of the three resort hotels of the Disneyland_® Resort.

The hotel features 2 table service restaurants:  Storyteller’s Café and Napa Rose; and includes one quick-service restaurant: White Water Snacks; as well as 2 lounge/bar locations:  Hearthstone Lounge near the lobby, and Napa Rose Lounge adjacent to the Napa Rose restaurant.  The Mandara Spa is a full service, 4,000 square foot fully equipped workout facility and spa with massage service and saunas.  Pinocchio’s Workshop is a staffed children’s activity center.  The hotel features 3 pools and 2 hot tubs, as well as a 20,000 square foot Convention Center.

For more information and to reserve your next vacation, contact me at 855.776.1733 or via my websites:  www.neverlandadventurestravel.com or www.neverlandadventurescruises.com.  Be sure to follow me on Twitter, like my page on Facebook, and circle me on Google+.

Sunday Spotlight - Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas

Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas_® first opened at Walt Disney World_® Resort on May 1, 2009 as a Disney Vacation Club® (DVC) addition to the original resort.  The resort is known alternately as Kidani Village, and both complements and pays homage to the original resort now known alternately Jambo House.  While not physically connected, both Kidani Village and Jambo House are connected and face each other through the shared Sunset Savannah which lies between the two structures.

Like other DVC resorts located at or next to their Disney Deluxe level counterpart, the resort shares amenities with Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge®.

Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas_® features 493 villas comprised of Deluxe Studios, 1-Bedroom, 2-Bedroom and 3-Bedroom Grand Villas.

• Deluxe Studios are 316 square feet and can accommodate up to 4 guests, plus 1 child under age 3 in a crib.  They include a kitchenette, 2 queen-size beds and a private porch or balcony.
• 1-Bedrooms are 710 square feet, and can accommodate up to 5 guests, plus 1 child under age 3 in a crib. They include a fully equipped kitchen, washer & dryer, king-size bed in the master bedroom, a queen-size sleeper sofa plus a sleeper chair in the living room, whirlpool tub in the master bathroom, a 2^nd full bathroom, and a private porch or balcony.
• 2-Bedrooms are 1,173 square feet, and can accommodate up to 9 guests, plus 1 child under 3 in a crib. They offer all that a 1-Bedroom has plus a 2^nd bedroom with 2 queen-size beds and a 3^rd full bathroom.
• 3-Bedroom Grand Villas are 2,201 square feet, and can accommodate up to 12 guests, plus 1 child under 3 in a crib. They offer all of the amenities of the 2-Bedroom, plus they include a 3^rd  bedroom with 2 queen-size beds, a 4^th full bathroom, a full dining room, additional private balcony and are 2-story rooms.

The resort includes 1 feature pool:  Uwanga Camp with waterslide, and  a water play area: Samawati Springs; it also includes access to Jambo House’s feature pool:  Uzima Springs with waterslide;  fitness center;  basketball court; tennis;  shuffleboard; charcoal grilles;  a Community Hall family recreation room; an arcade and other assorted recreational activities including Disney movies after dark.  Simba’s Cubhouse provides supervised activities for children during the evenings on a fee basis.

The resort features 2 table service restaurants:  Jiko and Boma: Flavors of Africa.  It also features 1 quick-service restaurant: The Mara; as well as a lounge/bar location: Cape Town Lounge and Victoria Falls Lounge. 

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas_® is a deluxe villas level resort located just to the west of Disney’s Animal Kingdom_® Park.  Convenient bus transportation will take guests to all other parts of Walt Disney World_® Resort. 


For more information and to reserve your next vacation, contact me at 855.776.1733 or via my websites:  www.neverlandadventurestravel.com or www.neverlandadventurescruises.com.  Be sure to follow me on Twitter, like my page on Facebook, and circle me on Google+.

Sunday Spotlight - Disney's Contemporary Resort

Disney's Contemporary Resort_® opened at Walt Disney World_® Resort on October 1, 1971 – it is one of the two original resort hotels on the property.  It’s A-frame stylings make it one of the most recognizable structures in all of Walt Disney World_® Resort, and was the first hotel ever to have a sleek, futuristic monorail gliding through its’ central atrium.

The resort features a modernistic design, fitting in very well with nearby Tomorrowland in Magic Kingdom_® Park.  The central core of the design is a great, atrium – known as the Grand Canyon Concourse - with glass on two ends, and guest rooms on the other sides gently moving inward, closer to the top.

Disney's Contemporary Resort_® features 655 guest rooms, and features some of the largest standard guest rooms on the property.  All rooms can accommodate up to 5 guests plus a child under 3 in a crib, featuring 2 queen-size beds plus a day bed, or a king-size bed plus a day bed – and they all have a large bathroom.

The resort includes 1 feature pool  with waterslide and 1 quiet pool;  a children’s pool and water play area; poolside cabana rentals; white sand beach for sunbathing;  marina for watercraft rentals; fitness center;  an arcade and other assorted recreational activities including Disney movies in the evenings.

The resort features 3 table service restaurants:  California Grill, The Wave and Chef Mickey’s – and Chef Mickey’s features both a breakfast and dinner Character Dining experience daily. It also features 1 quick-service restaurant: Contempo Cafe; as well as 3 lounge/bar locations: Contempo Grounds, Outer Rim and The Sand Bar. 

Disney’s Contemporary Resort_® is a deluxe level resort located between the shores of the man-made Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake, across the water from Magic Kingdom_® Park, just a short monorail or boat ride away. The Transportation & Ticket Center is located just next door to the resort, where guests can easily transfer to the Epcot_® monorail line as well.  

Convenient bus transportation will take guests to all other parts of Walt Disney World_® Resort.  

Sunday Spotlight - Disney's Boardwalk Villas

Disney's Boardwalk Villas® first opened at Walt Disney World® Resort on July 1, 1996, opening the same days as its’ sister resort, Disney’s Boardwalk Inn® – which together make up the more commonly called Disney’s Boardwalk Resort®.  The resort is themed after the famed boardwalks of Atlantic City and Ocean City in New Jersey of the 1920’s – 1940’s.  It was the 2nd Disney Vacation Club® (DVC) timeshare resort to open at the Walt Disney World® Resort.

Disney's Boardwalk Villas® features 527 villas comprised of Deluxe Studios, 1-Bedroom, 2-Bedroom and 3-Bedroom Grand Villas.

• Deluxe Studios are 412 square feet and can accommodate up to 4 guests, plus 1 child under age 3 in a crib.  They include a kitchenette, 2 queen-size beds and a private porch or balcony.
• 1-Bedrooms are 814 square feet, and can accommodate up to 5 guests, plus 1 child under age 3 in a crib. They include a fully equipped kitchen, washer & dryer, king-size bed in the master bedroom, a queen-size sleeper sofa plus a sleeper chair in the living room, whirlpool tub in the bathroom, and a private porch or balcony. 
• 2-Bedrooms are 1,226 square feet, and can accommodate up to 9 guests, plus one child under 3 in a crib. They offer all that a 1-Bedroom has plus a second bedroom with 2 queen-size beds and a 2nd full bathroom.
• 3-Bedroom Grand Villas are 2,113 square feet, and can accommodate up to 12 guests, plus 1 child under 3 in a crib. They offer all of the amenities of the 2-Bedroom, plus they include a third bedroom with 2 queen-size beds, a third full bathroom, a full dining room, additional private balcony and are 2-story rooms.

The resort includes 1 feature pool: Luna Park Pool, with its’ roller coaster inspired waterslide, the “Keister Coaster”; plus 2 quiet pools;  a children’s pool and water play area; fishing; tennis; fitness center;  an arcade and other assorted recreational activities including Disney movies in the evenings.

The resort features 4 table service restaurants:  Flying Fish Café, Big River Grille & Brewing Works, Kouzzina by Cat Cora_® and ESPN Club. It also features 1 quick-service restaurant: Boardwalk Bakery; as well as Seasshore Sweets, which serves ice cream and other sweets; plus there are poolside /bars and room service.

Disney’s Boardwalk Villas® is located on the shores of Crescent Lake near the International Gateway entrance to Epcot®, across the water from Disney's Yacht Club Resort® and Disney's Beach Club Resort®, and just a short walk or boat ride away from Disney’s Hollywood Studios®. Convenient bus transportation will take guests to all other parts of Walt Disney World® Resort.