Contemporary or polynesian with toddler at Christmas

JonT36

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Which resort would be better at Christmas time with a 2 and 1 year old. Going to do magic kingdom 3 times, then Epcot a few nights and animal kingdom. Are both resorts decorated?

thanks
 
I should have been more clear just the season...late November or early December
 


Contemporary would be a little easier to stay at since you can walk to MK. It also has more Christmas decorations than the Polynesian. The Poly has separate buildings and is more spread out than the CR.
 
Your walk to the MK from the CR is easier than waiting on the monorail or a boat to get to the MK from the Polynesian. All the resorts are decorated at the holiday time.
 
Which resort would be better at Christmas time with a 2 and 1 year old. Going to do magic kingdom 3 times, then Epcot a few nights and animal kingdom. Are both resorts decorated?

thanks

Both resorts are nicely decorated and while they aren't as decorated as other resorts, they are still festive. The Poly is our favorite resort overall, but we had our first CR stay this past December and I really liked it. The CR is within walking distance to MK and the TTC is the 1st stop leaving CR on the monorail, at which time you'd transfer to the Epcot monorail. From the Poly, MK is the 2nd stop and the TTC is the 4th stop; however, you can walk to the TTC from the Poly (about a 5-7 min walk) to catch the Epcot monorail. This is a little more convenient than from the CR because it saves you from having to transfer monorails at the TTC. Good luck with your decision, but I don't think you can go wrong with either as they are both great resorts.
 
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By next Christmas.... there just might be a walkway from the GF to MK, and from what I hear the Poly is walkable from the GF, so it may be a further walk than the CR, but you still may be able to walk to MK from the Poly by then.
 
Having just spent Dec 31-Jan 5 at WDW with our DS, DDIL and DGSalmost3 and DGS16 months, I would share that transportation time and ease trumped everything else. For that reason alone, I would choose CR if I were to travel with similar ages again. It was a great trip! But when a little one needs a nap, and can't manage to fall asleep in the stroller, or needs a break and "down time," getting back to the room as simply and quickly as possible is in everyone's best interest!!
 
I'm going to say Poly, part of it is because I love the theme but I love the location. The Poly is a short walk to the monorail for Epcot, you have the monorail ( and boats ) to MK and you can walk to GF for the Gingerbread House. With the completion of the bridge from GF to MK, you could essentially make the walk all the way to the MK if you wanted.
 
Actually we decided on bay lake tower 2 bedroom or 2 deluxe studio rooms at poly around the same price. Would that alter what suggestions anyone said?
 
I would go with the BLT 2 bedroom. I stayed in one in Nov and loved it. There are 3 bathrooms and a W/D, plus the living space while babies are napping or if they have a night where they’re in bed early and the adults are still up. It’s a quick 5 min walk on the bridge to the contemporary (can also watch the fireworks from there). It’s an even shorter walk to the MK than the contemporary, and it has its own security so that is much faster on the walkway.
 
Actually we decided on bay lake tower 2 bedroom or 2 deluxe studio rooms at poly around the same price. Would that alter what suggestions anyone said?

Yes, that makes a big difference - the two bedroom villa at BLT is vastly superior to two studios at the Poly. You get two bedrooms, a living room, three bathrooms, your own washer/dryer and a full kitchen You also get a lot of living space and will all be together.. All that and able to walk to the MK in less than 10 minutes!!! We just stayed at BLT last Dec and just loved the BLT 2 bedroom!
Contrast that to: At the Poly you will have 2 full bathrooms and two additional 1/2 baths, two bedrooms and two small kitchenettes. The two studios may or may not be close together.
 
It might be too cold to swim...so the pool might not matter. If youre doing 3 days in MK then without a doubt Contemporary! its nice to be able to just walk across to MK if you want to. And FYI after fireworks the lines for the monorail and buses are crazy....again, its nice to have the option to walk across. :)
 
It might be too cold to swim...so the pool might not matter. If youre doing 3 days in MK then without a doubt Contemporary! its nice to be able to just walk across to MK if you want to. And FYI after fireworks the lines for the monorail and buses are crazy....again, its nice to have the option to walk across. :)

we stayed at the poly during the christmas season with our toddler and really liked it. but i vote CR too, because of the walking path.

one evening we had dinner at a restaurant in the contemporary and went to catch the monorail back to the poly. we didn’t realize there was a christmas party in MK, and that the park had closed to regular guests around the same time as our dinner ended. we waited an incredible amount of time to get on a monorail. it was horrible. the benefit of the walking path during the christmas season, when there are parties every couple days, would make staging at CR worth it to me, regardless of room type.
 
we stayed at the poly during the christmas season with our toddler and really liked it. but i vote CR too, because of the walking path.

one evening we had dinner at a restaurant in the contemporary and went to catch the monorail back to the poly. we didn’t realize there was a christmas party in MK, and that the park had closed to regular guests around the same time as our dinner ended. we waited an incredible amount of time to get on a monorail. it was horrible. the benefit of the walking path during the christmas season, when there are parties every couple days, would make staging at CR worth it to me, regardless of room type.
I had a similar experience on the 1st Xmas party night. We decided to try a different QS for dinner on our last night, and thought how fun we’ll take the monorail and will be easy. I forgot MK closed early and there were mobs of people on the monorail leaving the park. There weren’t many people getting on at the contemporary but we had to wait probably 3 monorails before we could squeeze in. There were 6 of us and we all just jumped in whatever car we could fit into.
 

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