Welcome to this month’s Blogorail Orange Loop. Today we are sharing kid reviews of Disney Resorts.
Bay Lake Tower Review from a Teen
The Bay Lake Tower is a modern, 16 story resort at Walt Disney World which connects to The Contemporary resort. It is a DVC (Disney Vacation Club) property, but non-DVC members can stay there as well. It is conveniently connected to the Contemporary by a skywalk, which makes it easy to get good food. This also makes it easy to get to the Monorail, which, for those who prefer riding to walking, can take you to the Magic Kingdom, as well as the other Magic Kingdom resorts (Excluding Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness.) The monorail also takes you to Epcot, through a connecting monorail. I will give more specifics on each of these points later in the post.
Rooms at the Bay Lake Tower.
Favorite Thing about Bay Lake Tower-Proximity to Magic Kingdom
My favorite thing about The Bay Lake Tower is how easy it is to get to Magic Kingdom. While one could choose to walk across the skywalk to The Contemporary and board the Monorail to Magic Kingdom, it is much easier to walk there from The Bay Lake Tower. The walk can be made in 10-15 minutes, as opposed to about a 30 minute Monorail ride. The way over is, on normal days, not crowded, and is much less cramped than a Monorail ride. However, for those of you who don’t want to walk over, the Monorail is still an excellent way to get over (even though some of the time the Monorail will be so full you’ll be standing whether you like it or not.)
2nd Great Benefit-Food Choices
Another thing which is convenient about the walkway to the Contemporary, is that it makes getting food very easy. The Contemporary has several great food options. My family and I always eat at the Contempo Cafe. It is, in our opinion, the best quick-service place on Disney property. It has the widest selection of foods out of the many places at which we have eaten. For lunch they serve pasta, burgers, a wide variety of sandwiches, salads, flatbreads, pot roast, and a salmon filet. vFor breakfast they have oatmeal, grits, the famous Mickey Mouse waffles, several breakfast sandwiches, french toast, the bounty platter (basically every breakfast food put onto one plate), and the Contempo Express (a yogurt parfait.)v The Contempo Cafe also has cupcakes, fruits, sushi (mmm sushi), and a large variety of wraps.v The Contemporary has other dining options, which are the California Grill and Chef Mickeys. Chef Mickey’s is a character breakfast buffet, which also serves lunch and dinner. California Grill is a restaurant on the top floor of the Contemporary. It is a sit-down restaurant and has a dress code.
The Contempo Cafe at The Contemporary Resort.
Benefit #3-Movies
At The Bay Lake Tower, if you or your family are tired or not feeling well, you can check out one of The Bay Lake Tower’s movies. They have, if some are not checked out, every Disney and Pixar movie. They have most of Disney’s live action movies, including ones from The Disney Channel. They also have a few non-Disney movies, but most of their selection is Disney. If you want Dreamworks or Universal movies, you’re out of luck.
Benefit #4-Bay Lake Pool
Another great thing about The Bay Lake Tower, is their pool. On hotter days, if you or your family don’t want to go out, then you can wait for the temperatures to drop by the pool. They also have poolside games such as Disney Trivia.
The pool at The Bay Lake Tower
Benefit #5-Boat rentals at The Contemporary
Another thing you can do on hot days is go over near The Contemporary’s pool and rent one of their boats. Their boats come in different sizes and you can steer them around the Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon. If you do choose to drive it onto Seven Seas Lagoon, you can get an excellent view of the Magic Kingdom and the new Polynesian Village Bungalows.
In summary, this resort has it all: proximity to Magic Kingdom, easy access to excellent food, a huge selection of movies, boats for rent, and an excellent pool. All of that makes it one of our favorite places to stay. You should definitely consider staying at The Bay Lake Tower on your next visit to Walt Disney World.
check out the other great posts from the Blogorail!
Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail Orange | Kid Reviews | Disney Resorts Loop:
- 1st Stop – Disney Mamas | Pirate Rooms at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
- 2nd Stop – Heidi’s Head | Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside
- 3rd Stop – Crafting to Disney| Disney’s Pop Century Resort
- 4th Stop – Family Travel Escapades | Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- 5th Stop – This Roller Coaster Called Life | Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
Great review! Ashley and I spent a few nights there a few years ago (thanks to the generosity of Melissa and her hubby). We loved it! It was so neat to be able to watch the fireworks at the MK from our deck! And, I agree – it was really neat to be able to walk to the Magic Kingdom too.
I have never had the Magic Kingdom view, but the lake view is good too! We like Bay Lake and The Beach Club where we are now!
Excellent review. We stayed at Bay Lake Tower over Spring Break this year and it was perfect. My 6-year old says “its one of his top 3 Disney hotels”, which is high praise coming from him! The walk-way to MK makes it so wonderful!
Thanks Lin. Noah and I really love it. Our other favorite is The Beach Club where we are now.
Great review, really enjoyed reading it. The food sounds fabulous at the Contempo Café, we all want Mickey Mouse waffles now!
Thanks! My son actually wrote this. I wrote another Bay Lake Tower review. Should have linked it. We love the Mickey waffles and most all of their food! Walking to Magic Kingdom is great too!
We haven’t stayed at Bay Lake Towers, but we have stayed in the Contemporary. It is such a great location, and I wish we could afford to stay in that area all the time!
We haven’t stayed at The Contemporary, but have stayed in Bay Lake Tower a lot. Only the last couple of years have we been able to hardly go anywhere and we bought DVC, or we wouldn’t be able to stay there. We like Beach Club and Bay Lake.
This is one of my favorite resorts for hanging out. Perfect for kids!
I agree Mary! We just got back from there and Noah loves it. We have checked out about all of their movies and eaten about all of the food at the Contempo Cafe.