For the second year running, we spent the majority of the month of January in Orlando in an effort to escape the winter blues and I have to say – I am loving what seems to be becoming a new little tradition of ours! January escapes are something I’m really enjoying. But I realised this week that even though our trip was several months ago, I never did get around to sharing it on my blog – so let’s remedy that, shall we?!
Hotel Dramas
Unfortunately this trip was not without hiccups so let’s dive straight into that first.
We had originally booked to stay at Caribbean Beach Resort for 3 weeks. This was the first Disney hotel we ever stayed at on our first trip and we loved it then, so we were excited to experience it again. This was also going to be the longest we’d stayed on site for and so we carefully chose a resort that would meet our neurodivergent families needs for such a long stay…with the calm and spacious pool at Caribbean Beach being one of the main factors in that decision.
Unfortunately we were informed with only two days notice (having booked a year in advance!) that the main pool at Caribbean Beach would be closed for the entirety of our stay. Obviously this threw a huge spanner in the works. Our kids need pool access on a holiday like this to help them to regulate, and we would never have booked such a long stay if we had known that the main pool would be out of use. We knew that the smaller pools wouldn’t meet their needs, and with only two days notice we had no option to cancel.
Our booking agents did their best to get the situation resolved with Disney and we were originally switched to Beach Club Resort, only to be told 12 hours later that they’d made a mistake and the pool was going to be closed there too! This meant that the time we had spent rearranging grocery and mobility device deliveries to a new resort was completely wasted.
We ended up having no idea where we going to be staying up until the evening before our flight, which made arranging those deliveries and our airport transfers super stressful at such short notice.
But the final result was that we were moved to The Contemporary Resort for our 3 week stay. Not somewhere we would have chosen, but it is a deluxe resort so it was considered an upgrade and we obviously wanted to make the best of it.
The Contemporary Resorts Pros & Cons
Unfortunately our stay at The Contemporary was far from perfect, and really not at all what we had planned on for this trip.
The reason we’d decided on a 3 week stay was so that we could alternate park days with resort pool days to help keep the kids regulated, but it soon became apparent that this was going to be tricky at The Contemporary.
The pool kept closing for maintenance without notice, and even when it was open – it really wasn’t the most entertaining or well themed of pools and our kids found it pretty dull.
I have to say that I also found the theming of the resort in general to be pretty cold and not really to my taste at all. We found the busy lobby to be very over stimulating due to the noise of the monorails and the very busy crowds getting on and off it all the time, and the quick service food court was way too small for such a large hotel in my opinion. The food there was the worst I’ve experienced on property.
As well as these little gripes, there were some much bigger problems too. The main one being that we had no working shower in our room. As a family of 5, this was very inconvenient. We let front desk know on numerous occasions and were repeatedly told it would it would be resolved, but it continued not to be. In the end it took 2 weeks for the shower to actually be repaired and useable. I find it shocking to be left without a working shower for 2 weeks at a Deluxe resort.
We had quite a few other problems too, but when I tried to take our issues to the management team they simply did not want to know. We were repeatedly promised callbacks from managers that never materialised, and eventually – after being left in the lobby to wait for a manager to become available for over an hour – we were fobbed off with the duty manager from a neighbouring hotel, Chelsea from The Grand Floridian, who honestly had the worst customer service skills I have ever encountered. She could not have cared less about any of the problems we experienced, and was cold and uncaring throughout our conversation. A very disappointing experience and one I would certainly have expected better of at a Disney Deluxe resort, particularly for guests who have paid for a 3 week stay.
Although there were some little highlights to our stay at The Contemporary such as the large and spacious room, the opportunity to utilise extra magic hours for Deluxe guests, the view of the Electrical Water Pageant from our balcony and the view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks from outside our front door – I would never choose to stay there again based on our poor experience of management and maintenance.
You can read my full review of Disney’s Contemporary Resort on my travel blog.
Our First DVC rental Experience
After our 3 week stay at The Contemporary, we had a 2 night stay booked at The Polynesian Resort which I had booked through Davids DVC Rentals.
It was our first time renting DVC points and I was a little nervous about it, but the whole process was so smooth and it was the ideal way to experience a Deluxe resort for a fraction of the usual cost.
Our room was wonderful with a view of Magic Kingdom that allowed me to fall asleep staring at the illuminated castle every evening…absolute magic. The resort itself was stunning, and the pool was everything that I had wished for The Contemporary to be – the activities around the resort were so fun, the quick service food was wonderful and the Cast Members were so helpful. The Polynesian Resort restored my faith in Deluxe resorts after our disastrous experience at The Contemporary, and we had a wonderful time.
I will try to make use of DVC rentals on all future trips from now on.
Highs & Lows Of Visiting Orlando In January
We love visiting in January as it’s such a great time of year for lower crowds, and in 2024 we found the weather to be pretty perfect for us. Yes it was cooler in the mornings and evenings, but the daytimes were a perfect temperature and the lack of sweltering heat and constant rain meant our kids were much more regulated and able to enjoy the park days more.
2025’s January weather was a little more unpredictable though and for our first 2 weeks, the rain came heavy and often and the park was blisteringly cold every day – so much so that we needed to wear double layers to keep warm!
However, luckily on our last week things turned around, and we enjoyed days full of warm sunshine that was the perfect temp and constantly dry days which I’m so grateful for.
The weather wouldn’t put me off visiting in January again though, I would just go more prepared with better clothing for all eventualities next time.
What We Loved This Trip
*Experiencing a more relaxed pace and not feeling pressured to see and do it all
*New dining experiences at 1900 Park Fare and Garden Grill, as well as revisiting some favourites like Tusker House and Space 220.
*Evening magic hours at Epcot and Magic Kingdom for Deluxe guests – we’re not morning people so late evenings were perfect for us!
*Spending time in the parks with our friends who were visiting at the same time, and being convinced to try some bigger rides that we usually avoid! I will still 100% avoid Expedition Everest in future but my kids all loved it!
*My sons first experience of making a droid at droid depot which he loved
What I’d Do Differently
I feel like it’s taken us 3 trips to get here, but this trip was honestly very enjoyable and I feel that we’ve finally got the balance right between cramming lots in and still enjoying plenty of down time.
The only issues we really had were on days that some of the kids were feeling especially tired and achey, when others were raring to go but I don’t think there’s really much we can do to resolve that.
I’m not sure I’d have changed how we did anything this time, apart from perhaps booking a longer stay through DVC rentals as we loved our time at The Polynesian and I wish we’d spent more of our time there.
Special Stand Out Moments
*My son is a huge fan of Indiana Jones so one of my favourite moments of all was after watching the Indiana Jones show when he waited back at the end to wave to Indiana, who unexpectedly called us all down to the stage area. My son ended up having a private meeting with Indiana who chatted to him about his stunts and took a photo with him, but that wasn’t all! After realising what a huge fan he was, Indiana gifted my son his stunt gloves! The look of pure joy on Tyne’s face is one I’ll never forget. A truly magical moment and one that I will always hold in my heart.
*Doing the Fireworks Seats & Treats Dessert Party at Magic Kingdom – my children have always struggled to stand for long periods of time in crowded areas to watch the fireworks, but I absolutely love the fireworks so doing this enabled me to sit down with a perfect view of the castle while they were occupied with sweets and drinks. It was absolute perfection and I’m so glad we did it!
*My youngest celebrated their 9th birthday during our trip so we celebrated with a special birthday dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table which was such a lovely experience and the perfect way to celebrate our little Princess fan.
*After an unfortunate situation arose at Chef Mickeys which was upsetting for my son, the cast members went above and beyond to make things right by surprising him with a private meeting with Donald Duck and a gifted Donald cuddly toy. Again he was absolutely blown away, and I’m so grateful to the cast member who went out of her way to fix his upset.
All in all, it was a trip to remember for a lot of reasons and although we do sadly plan to take a little break from our Orlando trips for a while…I’m already excited to be able to start planning a return trip one day. Hopefully we won’t need to stay away for too long!