My Stay at the Contemporary and Polynesian Resorts

Hey everyone. Today I'm going to talk about my stay at resorts during the recent trip I took to WDW. We stayed at The Contemporary Resort (Bay Lake Tower) for the first part of the trip, and the Polynesian-Village Resort for the rest. This will just be some of the highlights of the trip.

The lobby was still decorated for Christmas when we were there. There was garland, wreaths, a Christmas tree, and a menorah.

View from Bay Lake Tower Skybridge

Over on the Grand Canyon Concourse was a gingerbread "Frozen" display.

Nemo cameo as a sand bucket

Christmas Tree at Bay Lake Tower

The room we had was nice. It was on the sixth floor by the elevator, so we just had to go down one floor to access the sky-bridge to the main resort. I didn't take any pictures of the rooms during my trip. We ate at Top of The World for dinner our first night. It's on the 16th floor of Bay Lake Tower and basically serves appetizers and drinks. It was usually very quiet since it was only open to guests staying at Bay Lake Tower. Now any member of Disney's Vacation Club can go up there, so it was pretty crowded. The lounge isn't very big so we were lucky to get a table.We had a few small plates; a cheese plate, steak flatbread, and  pulled pork sliders. Everything was very good. Of course the main draw is the huge observation deck overlooking the Magic Kingdom during Wishes.

After the fireworks we took the monorail to visit the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. I wanted to see their gingerbread house display and Christmas decorations.

The display was really nice, but a little smaller than I expected. We walk around the resort for a little while, it really is a beautiful resort. Later in the week we were able to go back to see some friends of ours who were staying at the DVC units

The fountain in the lobby of the DVC units. I'm sure P.R. Travers would hate this. If you don't get my reference you probably haven't seen "Saving Mr. Banks".

Lobby fountain from above

Our friends view of the Polynesian-Village Resort.

Inside the units are beautiful. I didn't take any room pics again, especially since it wasn't our room. I would love to stay there sometime but it's very pricey. Plus I really like Bay Lake Tower. The first day stood out as far as the resorts go because we didn't have park tickets the first day.  

They were also right by the monorail. Lucky!

 Another resort highlight was eating at The California Grill on top of The Contemporary Resort, which is one of my favorites. I got my usual pork two ways with pork belly and pork loin and a side of polenta.

Here's a picture I took when we ate at The California Grill. It was so clear out that we could see Spaceship Earth at Epcot in the distance. Unfortunately my pics of it were pretty blurry.

Spaceship Earth in the center of the photo

Now on to the other resort. I was excited to stay at The Polynesian-Village Resort. It was our first time staying there since 2005. The Hawaiian touch is there from the moment you arrive and receive leis.

The water fountain outside the lobby, similar to the huge fountain that used to be in the middle of the lobby.

We stayed in the Tuvalu building on the third floor. The nice thing about the third floor is that the rooms have a balcony. We were also right next to the outdoor staircase so we could enter our room very easily. The rooms were redone recently and were really nice. We ate in the food court the first day. I had Thai coconut meatballs which were very good.

Map of the resort in the lobby

The Christmas decorations were still up

I love the feel of the resort. The torches everywhere, the white sandy beaches. Our room was near Luau Cove which we could see a little of from the stairs outside of our floor. Transportation to the parks was quick and easy. We would walk to the Transportation and Ticket Center to take the monorail over to Epcot rather than taking the resort monorail around a full loop. The walk was made a bit more difficult because the quiet pool is closed for renovation which blocked off the middle of the walkway paths.

Fountain at the entrance from the monorail platform

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights

What's up everyone? I recently took a trip to WDW and went to Disney's Hollywood Studios for the final year of The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. That's right... January 6, 2016 was the final time the lights will ever shine across The Streets of America. So here are some photos that I've taken of the lights so they can live on.

In honor of the 20th anniversary, this Tinkerbell light was added. This was the best pic I could get of it.

 

 

Here are a few blurry pictures of the lights I took throughout the last few years. They were mostly the same with a few subtle changes.

 

Of course the best part of the lights was the "dancing" portion. Every 20 minutes or so the lights would dance in-sync with Christmas music. I can't capture that in pictures, so here are a few videos I took: 

I hope you enjoyed my little tribute to the light show. I'm going to miss them, but it sounds like great things are on their way to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Will you miss the lights? Are you looking forward to what's coming next? Comment below!