Florida Trip Report Part 1: Getting There, Poolside and Chef Mickey's

Florida Trip Report:

*  Travel Hacking a Trip to Florida
*  Vacation music video
*  Disney's Contemporary Resort Review
*  Hyatt Daytona Beach Review


Part 1: Getting There, Poolside and Chef Mickey's

We left on a Wednesday around 1:00 p.m. for Dallas Love Field airport. My two younger kids were at a church camp in the morning, and we picked them up and headed straight from there to the airport.

We parked at the Parking Spot and rode the shuttle to the main terminal.

My huband has TSA Precheck, but our entire family was ushered to the Precheck area. It's nice to not have to take off our shoes, and it's a much faster way to get through security.

We had time for the kids to burn off some energy at the airport play area before our flight.

We waited at the gate when it was close to boarding time so that we could board at the family boarding time (between A and B groups on Southwest). Our flight was delayed about 30 minutes due to the crew arriving late from another flight.

On the airplane:

After our 8-hour flight to Hawaii, this 2-hour flight was a piece of cake.

We love arriving at the Orlando Airport and riding on the monorail to the baggage claim.

We stopped for a few photos in the airport:

It was about 7:30 p.m. We decided to have dinner at the food court inside the airport. Did you know that there is a mall with shops and a large food court outside of the secured area? We only discovered this last October when we stayed at the Hyatt inside the airport. It's a big food court with lots of choices, and we figured that would be easier for dinner than schlepping the kids around for food after we got to our hotel.

Fish tank at the food court:

For our first night, we decided to save a few hundred dollars and stay at the Hyatt Place Orlando Airport instead of going directly to the Contemporary Resort. The Hyatt Place was free to us by using 5000 points. After dinner at the food court, we called the hotel to catch the shuttle. We only had to wait a minute before the shuttle met us in a specified place.

Our room looked the same as all the other Hyatt Place hotels. This hotel had double beds (instead of queen) and a cozy corner sleeper sofa. We were in bed before 9:00 p.m., but unfortunately the first night of sleeping all 5 of us in one room never goes well. I hardly slept at all.

We woke up the next morning and headed to the breakfast buffet before catching the shuttle back to the airport.

Once at the airport, we went to Disney's Magical Express area to catch the bus to the Contemporary Resort.

It wasn't very crowded. I've been here before when all the queues were completely full of people.

Our bus combined guests from the Contemporary, Wilderness Lodge, the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian. The Contemporary was the last stop, so it took about an hour to get there. The kids didn't mind since they could watch Mickey cartoons on the overhead screens.

We dressed the kids in their swimsuits so that we could hit the pool as soon as we arrived at the Contemporary after dropping our luggage off with bell services. But much to our surprise, our room was ready early when we checked in. We decided to head to our room to drop off our stuff before going to the pool. For more photos of the resort, see my review here.

Our room and patio:

Next, we headed to the pool. We met a few other families from our reunion group. We all went down the water slide a few times.

In the afternoon, there was a pool party with games.

At some point, we went over to the nearby Sand Bar for some lunch by the pool.

We were at the pool almost the whole day, and the kids were still disappointed to leave!

In the late afternoon, we had to go back to the room to shower and get ready for our dinner reservation at Chef Mickey's. Before heading there, we wanted to check out the 4th floor viewing area. It has a great view of the Magic Kingdom.

We also stopped at one of the gift shops inside to get some silly hats and Minnie ears.

Dinner at Chef Mickey's inside the Contemporary Resort was fabulous! I had only been there for breakfast in the past, but the desserts at dinner were fabulous. There was an entire dessert bar with lots of creative temptations, but this photo doesn't even do it justice.

The kids had a blast meeting 5 characters:

After dinner, Alyssa fell asleep in Daddy's arms. But the boys were still rarin' to go! So we took a ride on the monorail:

And then had a photo opp back at the Contemporary:

Roasting marshmallows was next. The resort provides marshmallows and sticks.

The boys and I decided to go back to the 4th floor deck for another view of the Magic Kingdom at sunset. We could have stayed up to watch the fireworks from here and also watch the Electric Water Pageant on the lake, but we wanted to be refreshed for a full day at the parks the next day.

Alyssa couldn't let go of her new ears while she was sleeping:

The boys slept with their new hats, too:

There is so much fun to be had at a Disney resort without even going into the park.

Next up: A day at the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

Hotel Review: Hyatt Place Daytona Beach

My family recently returned from a week-long vacation in Florida. We stayed 3 nights at Disney's Contemporary Resort (see my review here) as part of a group reunion. When planning this trip, we wanted to keep our costs down because we need to save up for a few bigger vacations we are eying for the future. Rather than just fly home after 3 days in Florida, I decided to look at hotels in the area where we could stay for free on points. I had over 70,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points that I had earned from opening a Chase Ink credit card last year. Those points can transfer to Hilton, Hyatt and IHG (Holiday Inn).

Hyatt points go farther than the other chains, and when I searched Hyatts nearby Orlando the Hyatt Place Daytona Beach caught my eye. The rooms sleep 6, and the hotel is located directly on the beach about an hour away from Orlando. We used 12,000 points per night to stay here for free.

The Hyatt Place Daytona Beach is actually located south of Daytona Beach in Daytona Beach Shores. That may not seem significant, but I believe it is a little less crowded than Daytona Beach proper. (Note: This was our third stay in a Hyatt Place. Our first time staying at this brand was in Las Vegas on the way back from Hawaii, and we also stayed at the Hyatt Place Orlando Airport on our late arrival night at the beginning of this trip.)

Hyatt Place Daytona Beach

The hotel had free parking in front and in the back of the hotel after getting a parking permit at check-in. The lot was small and full, but we always found a spot. The hotel offered overflow parking across the street behind a souvenir store.

All of the rooms offer either partial ocean view (on the side of the hotel) or full oceanfront view (the back of the hotel). We were lucky at check-in and received an upgrade to a full oceanfront view.

Our room looked like the standard Hyatt Place room with two queen beds and a cozy corner sleeper sofa.

This is a close-up of the cozy corner sleeper sofa (taken from the Orlando location since I forgot to take a close-up at the Daytona Beach location).

The best thing about our room was the view! We were on the 4th floor, room #411. This photo was taken on a Sunday afternoon when we first arrived. As you can see, the beach was not very crowded.

And this was our view each morning...a beautiful sunrise over the ocean.

The hotel has a free breakfast...standard breakfast fare with breads, pastries, donuts, cereal, oatmeal, fruit, etc. The signature dish is egg sandwiches. (These photos are from the breakfast at the Orlando location, but the Daytona Beach location was identical).

The hotel has a small offering of other food available 24/7 for purchase, as well as an ice cream freezer and an outdoor tiki bar by the pool. There was free water available from dispensers near the pool.

The pool was refreshing and not very crowded. My kids enjoyed going to the pool before and after our beach outings. There was also a small whirlpool hot tub.

The beach is just down the stairs from the pool. There is a shower right by the entrance. The hotel has pool towels but does not permit the towels to leave the premises for the beach. We brought our own beach towels, but by the second day we realized we didn't really need them because the sand brushed so easily off us and we could shower and use the hotel pool towels on our way to our room.

Across the street from the hotel is a Denny's, Subway, Dairy Queen and Red Lobster. We ate at the Subway for lunch one day (with Dairy Queen for dessert). There is also a souvenir store right across the street that sells boogie boards, skim boards, sand buckets. etc. A grocery store is just down the street.

Food trucks and ice cream trucks drove along the beach. We also ventured out for dinner nearby and found two great seafood restaurants within a 5-minute drive.

The beach behind the hotel goes on forever. Or 20 miles. It is lined with hotels and condos that all look the same from the back.

We loved our stay at this hotel and really have no complaints! The room was large enough for my entire family of 5, free breakfast is a great perk, but the location is the best! It's on such a lovely stretch of beach. There is nothing fancy about the hotel or any of the nearby hotels and condos we saw in this area, but the Hyatt Daytona Beach was perfect for the rest of our week in Florida.

During our stay, we did the following nearby activities in addition to the pool and beach:

*  Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
*  Marine Science Center
*  Angell and Phelps Chocolate Factory Tour
*  Midway Airboat Ride 
*  Daytona Magic Shop

Other activities in the area we didn't have time to do:
*  Daytona Speedway Tour
*  Daytona Beach Pier
*  Daytona Lagoon Water Park and Go-Karts 
*  Ponce Inlet Water Sports 
*  Museum of Arts and Sciences
*  St. Augustine (historical city 1 hour north)
*  Kennedy Space Center (1 hour south)
*  Silver Springs (1 hour west)

Your experience at this hotel may vary if you go during March, since I hear Spring Break is crazy crowded at Daytona Beach and I imagine some of that craziness spills down to Daytona Beach Shores.

Hotel Review: Disney's Contemporary Resort

When I was a child, my family vacationed at Disney World in Florida several times. I remember riding the monorail around the lake to get to the Magic Kingdom and riding through the Contemporary Resort. I asked my mom why we didn't stay there, and she said only rich people stay there. The Contemporary Resort is one of the two original hotels at Disney World (along with the Polynesian). It has a very interesting history--watch the video of its construction on this webpage.

As a grownup and with my own family, I have visited Disney World many times and have stayed at eight of the on-site resorts. But I never thought about staying at the Contemporary until a group reunion picked this hotel for our event. Disney offered us deeply discounted rooms in the Garden Wing of the hotel (which are the rooms in the 3-story buildings near the pool/lake in the photo below). We decided to join the event and check out a new (to us) Disney resort.

Photo by Tom Bricker

We rode the Magical Express bus from the airport, which dropped us off at the lobby. As we got off the bus, a cast member with an iPad came up to us and asked if we were the Powell family. I have no idea now she knew that, since there were about 5 other families that got off the bus with us. Hmmmm.........

The entire hotel has a modern, minimalistic sleek design, and the lobby was no exception.

Our kids watched Mickey Mouse cartoons while we fixed some info on our Magic Bands.

We were assigned to room #5153, which is on the first floor of the South Garden Wing. On the photo below, the room is located near the red star. During the online check-in process, I had requested a first-floor patio room since the upper levels in the garden wing do not have balconies.

This was our room, with two queen-size beds and a sofa that converts into a twin bed.

The sofa at night:

The rooms at the Contemporary are some of the largest rooms in all of Walt Disney World (along with the rooms at the Polynesian).

Desk area:

The modern bathroom:

Hallway near the door with two closets and a refrigerator:

Outside, we had a patio with chairs:

Immediately in front of us was the parking lot. To our left was a small waterway. The monorail passed right near our room.

Back in the main A-frame tower building of the Contemporary, the 4th floor is where all the action is. There is an outdoor viewing area that has a great view of the Magic Kingdom. We watched fireworks here one night.

The monorails enter the hotel right above our heads. It's so quiet!

The 4th floor also has two gifts shops, an arcade, a quick-service restaurant and Chef Mickey's restaurant (a character buffet).

 A view of Chef Mickey's, Contempo Cafe (quick-service) and the monorail.

Photo by Disney Photo Snapper

 
The resort has several activities, including marshmallow roasting in the evenings:

Behind the hotel is the main pool, with two large sections and a water slide.

The resort has an organized pool party every afternoon with hula-hooping and other pool games.

This game involved diving for small toys:

There is also a "quiet" bullseye pool that goes to 5 feet in depth. This was never crowded.

So what did we think of the Contemporary Resort? Overall, we loved it! Here is a breakdown:

What we loved:

*  Location, location, location!!! We loved seeing the Magic Kingdom from the resort. It took only 12 minutes on the monorail to get to the Magic Kingdom, and about 2-3 minutes to get back. When you have young kids who are exhausted after a full day at the Magic Kingdom, the proximity of this hotel from the park is priceless.

*  Big, quiet rooms that sleep 5 people (yay for hotels that fit 5!!!)

* We could see the fireworks from our patio (through the trees)

* View of the Electric Water Pageant (light show on the lake)

* Fun, entertaining pool area

* Convenient to Epcot (via monorail transfer)

* Covered walkways from the main building to the garden wing (it rained on and off during our stay, and we didn't have to get wet)

* Did I mention we loved the location?!?!?

What we didn't love:

* The decor/atmosphere....we found the modern theme to be a bit sterile for our taste. But this is totally subjective. I prefer the festive atmosphere of the Wilderness Lodge and the Caribbean Beach.

* The bathroom sinks had no counter space (so we didn't use one of our sinks and instead used it as a counter).

* The quick-service restaurant did not have enough seats...people frequently had to stand to wait for a table.

So as you can see, not much we didn't love. We would stay here again in a heartbeat (with a discount), but without a discount we are totally happy at some of the less expensive resorts inside Disney World. I'm so glad we had the chance to experience the Contemporary Resort on this recent trip.

Have you stayed at the Contemporary Resort? What did you think?