In May 2021 I stayed in a Bay Lake Tower studio room at Disney’s Contemporary resort for 2 nights with Jenn from Fairest Run of All. If you’re looking for an overview of the Contemporary you can check out my complete guide here with tons of info, or my Contemporary resort review for opinions and thoughts on the resort – this post will just be about the studio room itself!
We had originally planned to arrive on May 4th, but then decided to extend the trip by 2 days. Instead of adding on at Pop Century, where he had 5 nights booked, I had some DVC points to use so I grabbed a studio at Bay Lake Tower. I’d only stayed there once before with a group of 8 people in a 2 bedroom villa, so this would be a good chance to check it out again!
We had done online check-in, but got a text message saying to see the front desk for room assignment. As it turns out, we were very lucky because they upgraded us from a lake view room to a theme park view room! We were given room 7718. It was a great location right near an elevator with an incredible view.
The room basics
In terms of layout, studios at the DVC resorts are pretty similar to standard rooms at the resorts except they’re a bit bigger and they have a small kitchen area. The Bay Lake Tower studio room is 339 square feet – for reference, you can compare that to a standard room at Pop Century which is 260 square feet.
Upon entering you find the bathroom directly to your right. If you go past that door, the next alcove on the right after that has the kitchen area. On the opposite side of these locations is an area with a connecting door and a closet that has an iron and safe inside. The closet is a pretty decent size, which was good for 2 girls who had a lot of Disney dresses with them!
Instead of 2 beds you have one queen size bed and a pull out sofa. Across from the bed is your typical dresser with TV, and across from the sofa you’ll find a table and two chairs. Keep going and you’ll hit the balcony, which also has two chairs and a little table – plus, if you have a theme park view room, the most amazing view you’ve seen (the lake view rooms are pretty beautiful too!).
Beds
The Bay Lake Tower studio room has your standard queen size bed which I slept in and found comfy. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about it but I’m not a bed connoisseur or anything. The other bed in the room is actually a pull out sofa, which Jenn used and says was perfectly fine. The real trick however was figuring out how to turn the sofa into a bed. I swear we looked at all the pictures and directions but for some reason we had a lot of difficulty! I’d blame it on jet lag but it’s only a two and a half hour flight from Pennsylvania. The good news is we did figure it out without having to call someone – hopefully if you’re staying in one of these rooms you catch on more quickly than we did!
Bathroom
The room has a standard bathroom, with a toilet and tub/shower combo. There is one sink that’s located inside of the bathroom (some of the resorts have rooms with sinks outside of the toilet/shower area, so one family member can get ready at the sink while another is showering). The good news is I found another “getting ready” spot that worked quite well so we could both make ourselves presentable without wasting too much time!
Kitchen area
The other “getting ready” spot I just mentioned was actually in the kitchen area. Tucked in the corner was some shelves with a surface, a mirror, and an outlet. So after brushing my teeth and using the bathroom I could head over there to do makeup, blow dry my hair, etc. In addition to that vanity type mirror area that was also a full length mirror in the kitchen. Bay Lake Tower studio rooms don’t have a full kitchen like the DVC villas, but they have more than the standard hotel rooms. In addition to a mini fridge and coffee maker you also have a microwave, toaster, utensils, plates, and those sorts of things.
Decor
The Contemporary resort is in the middle of a refurbishment project, which I think is very good because these rooms desperately need some themeing. This is one of the most boring looking rooms I’ve stayed at. If it wasn’t for the fantastic view from the balcony I would have been disappointed. The rooms at the Contemporary will be getting an Incredibles theme, and from the photos I’ve seen it looks like it’s done well and not over the top. This is much more interesting than the muted colors now and generic feeling “contemporary” art with Mickey.
Video tour of Bay Lake Tower studio room
Overall thoughts on the Bay Laker Tower studio room
I love the Contemporary for its location, but I’ve never loved the themeing here. I’m a big “theme” person so the rooms here have been a bit of a let-down in the past. However, this Bay Lake Tower studio room definitely made up for it with the theme park view. Disney was smart giving me an upgrade because I think I’d have to pay more for a theme park view if I stay here again because I just loved it so much. Even without the fireworks running while we visited there was just something so magical about that view. It was gorgeous at night and during the day. I was one of those people who always thought it wasn’t worth paying for – “how long would I really hang around to enjoy it?” or “I can just go to the outdoor public area if I want to see the view”. Having experienced it though it’s hard to put into words how awesome it feels seeing that castle in the morning and at night… at least for a die-hard Disney fan.
I think it’s a great choice for couples or 2 friends who are staying together because you get a decent amount of space without having to pay for a suite or villa. I think you could even do 3 adults in the room fairly comfortably if two of them didn’t mind sharing a bed. Parents and 2 kids would work well here too.
Contemporary is not often at the top of my list of places to stay just because I prefer the atmosphere at other resorts, but I know how they sucked me into booking a theme park view again sometime in the future. And I’ll be looking forward to seeing the new Incredibles theme!
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Have you stayed in a Bay Lake Tower studio room? How do you like it there?
You zoomed in on Cinderella Castle and my heart broke into a thousand pieces 😭😂