I had never stayed at a DVC resort before, and although I enjoyed the "exclusiveness" of it (some of it we were excluded from... such as the Top of the World lounge), I didn't find it very homey. It was very posh and felt upscale, but not really like home. I'd compare it to a country club, kind of. A contemporary country club.

Exterior Appearance

I think they did a good job of blending the new BLT with the thirty-year-old Contemporary Resort. It almost looks like they were constructed at the same time, which I suppose says more for the timeless structure of Disney's Contemporary Resort (who'd have thought?). It does bother me that the windows of BLT have a rather green tint, while those at the Contemporary are black. They also did not match the railing on the balconies.

I didn't really think the building had much curb appeal, though. Rachel and I both thought that it was much prettier looking up at it from the back side by the pool. It felt much more inviting... looking up at from the pool, you were in the circle. The building was surrounding you. From the outside, it was closed off... you were out of the loop. This could be metaphorical to the exclusiveness of it as a DVC resort.

Convenience

We didn't mind checking in at the Contemporary, however it did make baggage transfer difficult. They took our luggage for us and had to cart it from the Contemporary over to BLT. We didn't valet and parked our car over at BLT, so we could've just as easily taken our own bags to the room (especially since we had so little luggage). Instead, we had to wait on our luggage to be delivered to the room. That was $12 wasted.

The Skyway bridge was nice and surprisingly not congested at the time of fireworks. I noticed that sometimes you had to put your card in to cross, and other times you didn't. If you weren't a BLT guest and really wanted to get over there, you could just wait for a BLT guest to put the card in and sneak in behind.

The automatic doors to the Skyway bridge opened at you when going from BLT to the Contemporary, which was weird. I actually had to back up a few times to keep the automatic door from hitting me.

BLT was convenient to the bus stop. Unfortunately for us, our bus took forever to come. The other buses (not to DHS) showed up in good time, though. It's all luck. You can never predict it.

Pool

The pool was pretty neat. The zero-depth entry was nice. It wasn't that big, though. I never got to go down the slide because we went swimming after the lifeguards had left, but it looked like fun. I wasn't crazy about the design... I didn't dig the tiles. They reminded me of an 80's bathroom. I don't know... it was just a bit too opaque for me. Rachel thought it was cool, though.

There was only one hot tub, and though it was in a great location (right by the lake), it wasn't very big. Luckily for us, it was never crowded when we were down there. However, it would probably be much more crowded during peak season. I felt like the resort wasn't very full that weekend. I mean, we had gotten a reservation just two days before.

Room - Studio

The layout of the studio was a little weird. You walk in and you have a bathroom on the left and then on the right, there's a door, which I am assuming could be connected to a one-bedroom to make a two-bedroom unit. The next opening on the left is the bathroom vanity. Then right behind the bathroom vanity on the other wall is the kitchenette. I found it odd that the kitchen sink was right behind the bathroom sink.

The unit wasn't very big, but it didn't really matter for us because it was just a two-night stay and we didn't have much luggage. I don't know how comfortable we would've been on a week-long trip, though.

The pull-out couch was new and stiff. There was no bounce to it at all. At first, I thought I'd be just as good off sleeping on the floor, but by the morning, I had adjusted. I would compare it to a not-yet-fluffy futon.

The bed, however, was very comfortable. Very bouncy. Very soft. Very nice.

My biggest complaint was mirrors. There were only two mirrors in the unit - one in the living area and one in the bathroom/kitchen. They were both small and high. In order to get a full-body view, I had to stand on a chair. I really could've used a full-length mirror. I believe they sacrificed function for style with the bathroom mirror. I wish they had made it wider and lower, spanning more of the counter top.

Now, the vanity in the bathroom was very high. It was probably four feet off the ground. It really came up to me right below my chest (keep in mind I'm only five feet tall). I don't know how small children could use it.

I really wish there had been a double vanity... his and her sinks. That would've been nice.

The shower had great water pressure, but the water wasn't always hot. I took a shower really late at night (like 1 am or something) and had no problem with hot water, but Rachel took a shower in the morning - probably when everyone else was taking a shower - and said that she couldn't get the water hot enough (then again, she does like her water scorching hot, so the average person probably would've been okay).

The toilet had poop on the handle when we got there. That was pretty sick-nasty. And yes, it was poop, because it came off. We had to clean it off ourselves because after Rachel left a note for mousekeeping "Please... clean poop off toilet flusher (not ours... sick!)," it was still there (they did do everything else on her note, though). Perhaps they didn't know what a "flusher" is.

What I LOVED about BLT

BLT had some FANTASTIC views of Magic Kingdom. There were a lot of big windows and you could look out and see Cinderella's Castle and Space Mountain. We lucked out got an upgrade to a Lake View room with a theme park view and could pick out different attractions, such as the Astro Orbitor, Big Thunder Mountain, and TTA from our balcony. Being able to watch the fireworks with music from our room was also amazing.

Would I stay here again?

Absolutely. But it's not my first pick. My favorite resort is still the Grand Floridian. I just love the old-timey elegance of it.... BLT's "poshness" was pretty cool, but not my first-choice atmosphere. Rachel has already told us that the next time we come to WDW, she wants to stay at the Polynesian, so I suppose we'll be heading there next.

We walked back to BLT and got our bags together. We didn't have much stuff with us, so it was easy to pack.


Here's me reading my Unofficial Guide. xD






See how high the mirror is?

I woke up to someone else waking up around 7:30. I didn't feel like getting up from the not-so-comfy sofa bed. I was freezing because Rachel had stolen all of the covers and the air conditioner was set to 60 degrees.

I finally got up... to switch beds. Then I decided I'd get ready. I had to fight Mom and Rachel for mirror time.

But, I got ready before them, so I decided I'd go out on the balcony and admire the view.

The room numbers were a wee bit confusing at first... we were on the twelfth floor, yet our room number started with an 8. I found out that this is because the BLT rooms range from 7100-8599 because it is an addition to the Contemporary.








We thought it was odd that the vanity and the kitchenette were in the same "room."


Table already covered in our junk.

Now, for the view...

If you looked straight out the glass door, you saw...


But stand on the balcony and look just a little to your left, and....

A theme park view!!!




Tennis court below


Using zoom.


Using super zoom.









For us, the studio didn't work out that great. There was only one vanity with one small mirror (this room was also designed for tall people, and with the exception of my father, none of us are taller than 5'2"... I had to stand on my toes when using the vanity) and another small mirror in the living room. I didn't like how the vanity was enclosed by the kitchen... it made it very difficult to get by one another as we were preparing for the day.

Rachel and I slept on the pullout together. It was still pretty stiff. I suppose it will get a little softer as it is more used, but when I first laid down, I thought I'd be just as well off sleeping on the floor. However, when I woke up in the morning, I had gotten used to the stiff mattress (I actually prefer stiff mattresses, but this one had no bounce). I think because it was so stiff, we rolled around less in our sleep.

There was plenty of storage, though. We just lived out of our suitcases since it was only a two-night stay, but there were lots of drawers that we could unpack our belongings into if needed.

Now, I could totally see this layout working for us alright when Rachel and I were younger, but since we're old enough to be fixing our hair and make-up every morning, we had to fight over the vanity/mirror space. I think the designers focused a little too much on the appearance of the room, in turn sacrificing function. I really wish they had larger mirrors (no matter how "contemporary" the one looks), and a full-length mirror would be great. I also wish there had been two bathroom sinks in front of this larger mirror, and I would move the counter top down a good 4-6 inches. I'm only five feet tall, but the counter was only a few inches below my chest, which makes me wonder how families with small children would function.

Here's a diagram of the studio layout, courtesy of DVCNews.com



As you can see, the kitchenette and bathroom vanitiy are back-to-back, which was a little awkward.

The one-bedroom villa appears to have a better layout, though:



The two-bedroom is actually an adjoined studio/one-bedroom.

And, just for kicks, the lovely three-bedroom Grand Villa:



Ah, a stay in a Grand Villa with a Magic Kingdom view would be just magical.

Upon check-in, Dad was told that we could watch the fireworks from our balcony. This was exciting, and I wondered if we had by chance lucked out and ended up with a Magic Kingdom view.













Our room was in the north wing on the twelfth floor.


View from the window by the north wing elevators.




View from the hallway looking down onto the pool

Okay, so after riding Expedition Everest, we headed out of the park and drove to the Contemporary.











Bay Lake Tower is the newest Disney Vacation Club addition. It had actually opened just two weeks before our arrival. It is the first DVC resort with monorail access and has been highly anticipated.

We ended up here by luck. Our dad thought he was booking the Contemporary Tower, but realized that he had actually booked at the Contemporary's Bay Lake Tower. However, we were just as (if not more) excited by this.







Bay Lake Tower does not have its own "front desk." All BLT guests check-in at the Contemporary. Check-in was a bit confusing due to construction on the Contemporary's entrance. We had to go through the convention center to get to the front desk.






Kids can watch movies while their parents check-in