There's A Great Big Beautiful TODAY!: The Resort Hop

Because we were going to be staying in WDW for 9 days, and we booked the trip only a month in advance, we weren’t able to find a resort that had room for our entire stay. This required us to switch resorts for the last third of our trip. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because not only were we upgrading to a better resort, it also allowed us to experience more of what WDW has to offer in terms of their DVC resorts.

So we packed up and said goodbye to Old Key West. I hope we get a chance to come back here again someday. Here are lots of pictures of the room and building we were in.

We left our bags with the baggage clerk and they sent them ahead to our next resort, Bay Lake Tower.

We decided to take the more scenic route, though. So we boarded the pontoon boat from OKW to Downtown Disney. Such a peaceful and relaxing way to get there.

We needed to buy a gift or ornament or something at Downtown Disney, so we took care of that. Because you can’t go directly from Downtown Disney to a park, we decided to just walk over to Saratoga Springs, the resort I stayed at with JP Troha and Joseph Byrd back in 2008 when we ran the Half Marathon. It’s a beautiful resort that is themed to the Saratoga Springs area in the Northeast US. Sorry I didn’t take any pictures.

We found a bus stop and waited on the bus to the Magic Kingdom. After arriving at the Magic Kingdom, we hopped on the Monorail and took it to Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

For those that do not know, Bay Lake Tower is the DVC part of the Contemporary. It is a completely separate building, but has a similar theme to the rooms. The two buildings are joined by a walkway.

Good news and bad news. Bad news was our room was not ready. Good news was this gave us a chance to walk around and to even go check out the Wilderness Lodge. So we walked back over to the Magic Kingdom and took the boat (Mermaid I) to the Wilderness Lodge.

Dock at the Wilderness Lodge.

I had never been here before, in all of my trips to WDW, so it was definitely on my list this trip. Such a nice resort!

Amazing lobby!

I know what you’re asking yourself. Yes, this is the same resort the Winslow’s stayed in when Family Matters had their Disney World episodes. Remember when all of the TGIF shows on ABC had their Disney World episodes? Good times.

Anyway, we got a few drinks from the pool bar and found a quiet spot on the 5th or 6th floor that overlooked the back and pool area. It was so relaxing.

We checked back in with the Contemporary front desk and found out that our room was ready! So we took the boat back to the Magic Kingdom and then walked over to Bay Lake Tower.

Here are the beautiful hallways.