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Disney’s Contemporary Resort is a wonderful hotel at the Walt Disney World Resort any time of the year. But during the holiday season, there are even more reasons to stay at this iconic WDW hotel.
This starts with the great Christmas decorations.
Contemporary Christmas Tree
Right in front of the hotel, you can see a beautiful Christmas tree.
If you’re not staying at Disney World and you take a bus into Disney World, you’ll see the Chrismas tree in front of the Contemporary.
It has the distinction of being the largest Christmas tree at Disney World! Here are some fun facts about the Christmas tree:
- 70 feet tall
- Over 33,000 pounds
- 1,200 individual branches
It is decorated with:
- 16,000 holiday lights
- 200 custom light-up ornaments
Contemporary Gingerbread Display
We’ve talked before about gingerbread displays at other Disney World hotels such as the Grand Floridian, the Boardwalk Resort, and the Beach and Yacht Club.
But the Contemporary Resort has a great gingerbread display, too! This is the thirteenth year there has been a gingerbread display at the Contemporary Resort.
It was inspired by the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights.
You can find this gingerbread display on the fourth floor of the Contemporary Resort (that’s where you’ll find the Grand Canyon Concourse and the Contempo Cafe).
Here are some fun facts about this gingerbread display:
- More than 17 feet tall
- More than 25 feet wide
- Made with:
- 1013 pounds of flour
- 613 pounds of sugar
- 51 pounds of chocolate
- 113 pounds of gingerbread spice
- More than 4,000 castle gingerbread bricks
- Has 13 Hidden Mickeys
- Has a 5-legged goat!
It really is a neat display you will enjoy seeing up close.
But that’s not the only reason to go visit the display. There are also sweet treats you can pick up there!
You can buy sweet treats like:
- Caramel Apple Cake with Gingerbread Streusel
- Santa Peppermint Hot Chocolate Tart
- Chocolate Hazelnut Log
- Linzer Cookie
- Pistachio Cranberry and Cherry Cake
- House-made Christmas Tree Butter Cookie
- Frozen Hot Cocoa (Alcoholic floater available)
- Winter Berry Freeze (Alcoholic floater available)
The gingerbread display is open each day from 9:30 AM to 9:30 PM.
Other Contemporary Christmas Decorations
The decorations don’t even stop here!
There are smaller Christmas trees throughout the resort.
There are Christmas wreaths and other Christmas decorations.
Even the gift shops are decorated for the holiday season.
Proximity to Magic Kingdom
Aside from the great Christmas decor, there is other bonus to staying at the Contemporary Resort during the holiday season. And that is your proximity to Magic Kingdom. You can easily walk to Magic Kingdom from the Contemporary Resort. Or you can take a monorail.
Magic Kingdom is absolutely gorgeous during the holiday season.
So it’s great you can get there easily!
Oh, and walking here is really nice if you are attending Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party – waiting for a bus after the party is a huge pain and it can take a long time to get back to your hotel.
Saving Money at the Contemporary Resort
If you would like to stay at the Contemporary Resort, then I am sure you would like to save money on your stay.
One way to do that is to stay at Bay Lake Tower. Bay Lake Tower is part of the Contemporary Resort, but is a separate building right beside it. You won’t have the monorail running through your hotel, but my family really loves staying there. It’s actually a shorter walk to Magic Kingdom. The rooms are nice, too, which you can see in our video of Bay Lake Tower.
The thing about Bay Lake Tower is that it is a Disney Vacation Club hotel, and some people may not realize you can still stay there even if you are not a DVC member. You can just rent points. We go over how to rent DVC points as a non-DVC member here. You actually save a lot of money by doing that versus booking a stay at the main building at Contemporary.
But if you do want to stay in the main building, we suggest booking your stay here. We have saved a lot of money booking through this website versus through Disney’s – and that is even taking into account our annual pass discount.