The Contemporary Resort is one of the WDW hotels that opened at the same time as the Magic Kingdom back in October 1971. It is the Disney resort closest to the Magic Kingdom; within walking distance as a matter of fact. The
A-Frame design building is unique in that the track of the Magic Kingdom monorail look runs through just above the Grand Canyon Concourse on the 4th floor.
It took us about 10 minutes to drive from the Animal Kingdom to the Contemporary.
It was the first time I'd been there, other than a quick trip through it during a ride on the monorail back in 2004.
To be honest with you, I will probably only ever spend time at this resort as a visitor and not a guest. With room rates starting at more than $350 per night, for me, the cost is prohibitive for several reasons. But that's a subject for another blog post at another time. Let me get back to the tale of our lunch experience.
We parked in the lot outside Bay Lake Tower, the Disney Vacation Club wing of the resort, and took the elevator to the 5th floor. After a short walk across the Skyway bridge we were on the 4th floor of the Contemporary tower.
We checked in with the cast member at the front desk of the restaurant. We were given a blinking pager and told it would be a few minutes until our table was ready.
We were pointed toward a Photopass area to have some pictures taken as a memento of our visit.
Unfortunately at this point the headache that had bothered Brandi all day had gotten rather intense. She needed something to drink and a place to relax for a few minutes. We wandered across the concourse to the Outer Rim lounge.
We just sat and chilled for a few. Aria was all about her Nana and her Simba.
After about 15 minutes the pager went off and we headed to the restaurant for our lunch.
The "core five" of all the Disney characters (Walt's company was built on the shoulders of these animated pioneers) is the reason we booked this lunch. It was great to get a second "up close" encounter with them. But the buffet turned out to be worth the time as well. More on that is coming up.
From the moment we were shown to our table I could tell that the experience was going to be better than the character lunch at Hollywood & Vine the day before.
The theme for the restaurant was, of course, Mickey Mouse. The classic Mickeys were everywhere.
I really liked those incorporated into the back of the chairs.
As we waited for our waitress to come and take our drink order, Aria continued to be all about her Nana.
Our table was along the left wall of the dining area about 2 tables past the little alcove that led to the "backstage" kitchen area so the characters came to our table either just before or just after they took a break.
Now here's a quick review of our own personal character parade.
First to the table was Donald Duck. He signed Aria's autograph book and...
...at Aria's suggestion, posed with Paula.
Next to our table was Pluto. Two days earlier in the Magic Kingdom, Aria had seen Pluto but didn't like him very much.
As you can see from this picture she wasn't very enthusiastic about interacting with him this time either.
So he just signed her autograph book and I buddied up with Mickey's pal for a picture.
It was the little lady of the group that came by the table next. My grand daughter was delighted to see her new friend again.
I was at the buffet when Minnie came around but the pictures show that it was a happy reunion.
The next reunion would prove to be a little more interesting.
When "The Big Cheese" came to our table he started with a wave.
This time Mickey didn't talk to her so she seemed to be okay with him. She even posed for a picture and even let him close enough to get half a hug.
Then, of course, Papa had to get in on the act and amazingly, Mickey got a genuine Aria smile.
It's not much of a surprise that as far as I'm concerned the last character to come by was the best.
Aria wasn't overly excited about Goofy but I sure was. It had been over 5 years since me and "the goof" posed for a picture together on my 50th birthday trip.
Paula took this shot and managed to get not only me and Goofy but Brandi too. She also managed to get Aria's reaction to Goofy's silly antics.
The characters did a good job at making their way around the entire restaurant and giving each table plenty of attention.
Similar to the Disney Jr. characters at our DHS lunch, the Fab 5 occasionally would gather together and do a "celebration" dance. Not anything special but when it comes to the beloved characters, just a little bit of a show is always fun.
Now you'll notice there wasn't any pictures of James in that meet & greet section. That's because he was busy doing his best to empty the buffet. So now that I've shared our character experiences let's turn toward what was James' focus during our lunch, the food.
As I was doing some research for this post, I noticed that a lot of the online reviews for Chef Mickey's by the so called "Disney experts" have a very negative opinion of the food.
Now as a person who has a stomach about the size of my fist thanks to my surgery a few years ago, eating mass quantities at a buffet is not something I can do without severe discomfort and digestive consequences. So don't take my food experience at Chef Mickey's as any kind of guideline for what it will be like for you (unless you've had the same type of surgery).
While I only tried about 4 or 5 of the items, what I did have was very good. The kielbasa was delicious. The "mickeyroni & cheese" was good. The pasta was shaped like classic Mickey heads.
But out of the few foods I ate there are two that I really liked.
While not fancy and pretty common on the breakfast menus throughout Disney World the Mickey waffles are the best I've ever had. I may be easy to please when it comes to waffles but I loved these.
The other memorable food item was a small simple dessert called "Mickey Domes".
Modeled after the popular mouse ears hat, the dessert is a chocolate cream filled sandwich cookie topped with a half sphere of chocolate mousse and a pair of round dark chocolate candies. It was indescribably delicious.
Now I know that 3 of the 4 foods I mentioned happened to be shaped like Mickey Mouse but that's rather common in the Disney food world. I chose them because they looked and smelled good and they were.
Within the Disney Fan community it is an accepted conclusion that Chef Mickey's is the quintessential character meal in Walt Disney World.
Now that I've been there I would have to agree. Chef Mickey's is a character meal restaurant in Disney deluxe resort. That makes the standards it has to meet much higher than those in the moderate and value resorts and especially the parks. I found the food to be above average and the atmosphere to be unique. In addition, while your eating the monorail whizzes by overhead through the Grand Canyon Concourse of the Contemporary Resort. You can't get any cooler than that.
Our lunch was over but Brandi's headache continued. She needed to go back to, what Aria had come to refer to as "our new house" and rest. We were all tired from the activity of the past few days so we (Paula & I) agreed to go back and just chill at the house.
Aria, however, had a different idea, she wanted to go swimming. The heater in the private pool at our vacation home was not working right. It made the water too warm to make for an enjoyable swim.
So while James went into Kissimmee to get Brandi's Tahoe washed, Nana & Papa took our grand daughter to the community pool in our resort.
For me, this turned out to be one of the best times of the entire vacation. Paula didn't want to get in the water. So she sat on a lounge chair and watched Aria and me swim in the pool for about an hour or so.
We had a great time with just the water and a small pink bucket. We played until James came back to pick us up and take us back to the house.
We got changed and headed out to the Black Angus Steakhouse nearby for dinner. The restaurant is at the corner of West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway (Rt 192) and North Old Lake Wilson Road. It was James suggestion to have dinner there. It was a pretty nice place. The entrees were priced in the $15-$25 range and includes lots of choices other than steak.
After dinner we took a short drive down Bronson Memorial Highway to look at some of the local shops. The one James wanted to see was closed. After a brief stop at a Walgreens to pick up some incidentals, we headed back to the Windsor Hills resort.
By the time we got back it was after 9PM. Our 3rd day in Florida was over. We said our "good nights" and went to bed. The next day we would make a 1 hour trip east so 4 of the 5 people in our group could dip their toes into the Atlantic Ocean surf for the first time.
Coming Up in Part 10: Surf, Sand, and Sunburn and our visit to the Flower and Garden festival.
Bayview Gifts
So after our lunch, we decided it would be best to head on back to the vacation home. Later in the afternoon we would go out to dinner and then we would spend the evening just chilling at the house.
