I enjoyed the vacation at the BLT for one reason, I could walk to the Magic Kingdom. I wake early and love to stay all day at the parks. My family doesn't. They sleep in, take it easy and when they are tired they go back to the resort. When that happened, I would hit the Magic Kingdom because it was a 5 minute walk away. The BLT theming is non existent. Very sterile. The lobby could be any high end apartment complex or office building. The rooms are nice but nothing unique. No food court. No special touches. Nice hotel in a great location.
In real estate, they say it’s location, location, location. For the Bay Lake Tower (BLT) it’s true. The best thing about the BLT is the location. You are less than a 5 minute walk to Magic Kingdom. That is huge! I took advantage of it many times. Many evenings, my wife and son were done for the day. I’d walk over to MK for the last few hours and it was awesome. However, there is no food court. You have to use the Contemporary for all food and drinks. Kind of a pain for coffee in the morning. The BLT theming is nonexistent. The lobby is super small with no Disney touches. Nice lobby for and an upscale office building but not for a Disney Resort. Rooms are a little small and pool is OK. My son loves it. My wife and I are not as in love. I would much rather the Polynesian.
DVC member and Bay Lake is one of our two home resorts. It can't be beat for location and quality. Rooms are larger than any other resorts and you walk to MK and take monorail to Epcot right from hotel. Pools are great as are water front activities, afternoon craft activities and after hours movies etc. The Contempo Cafe is user friendly and even more so now that they got rid of the ordering kiosks. Love this resort. Have stayed there in Bay Lake Towers over a dozen times and have never had an issue. Oh by the way check out the Top of the World lounge which is on top of the Bay Lake building and for use by DVC members and family only!
I own at Bay Lake Tower and it is one of my favorite places to stay at Disney World. The rooms at the front of the tower have views of Magic Kingdom (MK) and the fireworks. Even some that aren't listed as MK view. If the park isn't framed in the middle of the window, it isn't considered a Magic Kingdom view. That doesn't mean you won't be able to step out on the balcony and watch the fireworks. If your room is at the back of the resort facing the lovely lake, and you are at the resort at Firework time... take that elevator ride to the roof bar and watch the fireworks from up there. They pipe the music in too. You can rent boats at dock and drive around one of the biggest lakes on property. The little personal boats are great fun. Monorail right next door in the main building for easy MK or EPCOT access. MK is also a short walk away if you are feeling energetic. The one bedroom rooms have 2 bathrooms. The two bedroom rooms have 3 bathrooms. Plenty of space for everyone, with a contemporary decor. There is a community hall with activity and games, check the schedule they give you at check-in. This resorts location also makes it easy to resort hop to the other monorail resorts for dining or to just check out the atmosphere.
I stayed in a one bedroom villa and thought it was amazing. The details they put into the room are amazing and even the views from the cheaper side were amazing as well. The one problem I had with it was the soundproofing of the walls. I heard everything that happened outside of the hotel and it was not pleasant. Would highly recommend this resort and I am glad that I bought into this resort.
We spent a week at the BLT in a two bedroom unit. There were 8 of us and it was spacious, contemporary and very very comfortable. It was my grandchildren's first trip to Disney World and we enjoyed everything from breakfast with the characters at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary, to dinner with the Princesses at Cinderella's Castle. The pool was fun and when we come back again, we won't bother going to one of the water parks, because the pool was all we needed. We had a beautiful view of the Magic Kingdom and watched the fireworks display from our unit some nights. Every night, I went to sleep watching Cinderella's Castle change colors. What a wonderful trip. We are trying to book another for next year. I highly recommend the Bay Lake Tower.
We had a 2 bedroom suite at the Bay Lake Towers. We had a group of 9. It had plenty of room and bathrooms! We were a group with grandma, grandkids, boyfriends, girlfriend so needed a space where we would all not be "sharing" too much and this worked perfectly! It also had a laundry unit so made grandma happy. We had a lake view on an upper floor and the view was gorgeous! The table in the kitchen worked perfect for games for the younger ones and snacks. We all really enjoyed our stay here.
My family and I stayed at BLT in June of 2012, and it was one of the best stays we've ever had at a Disney Resort. Like any resort, there are some pluses and minuses. Now the minuses will never effect my decision of wether or not to stay here, but they are something that may make you go out of your way or take couple of extra minutes. PLUSES: -Quiet, Relaxing Atmosphere( with a fruity smell) -Great Proximity to the Magic Kingdom, Monorail or Walking. -Excellent Pool area with a really cool slide. -You can make your room like a meat locker (65 degrees) DVC MEMBER BONUS: Access to the Top of the World Lounge!!! MINUSES: -EVERYTHING is in the Contemporary A-Frame Tower, which means even to refill your mug could end up being a lengthy walk -Extremely high point value, almost 500 pts. for a week -It can feel like your the only one in the resort, it's that large I hope I provided you all with good info on BLT, any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Just returned from 8 days at BLT. We had a MK view which was spectacular. We were able to see the fireworks at MK from the room. Also saw the fireworks from the Top of the World Lounge which was excellent. DD loved the slide at the pool and we enjoyed the pool immensely. Especially loved the 5 minute walk to MK. Our usual DVC is at WL. This was a great experience and would recommend to anyone.
We stayed in a 2 BR unit in June 2010. We were a party of 6 and bought a package deal that included the deluxe dining plan and parkhoppers as well as the room for 11 nights. We paid over $15,000 for said package which was supposed to include a "Lake View". We were originally assigned room 7605. It was a terrible "Lake View", but a fabulous view of the pool and the building opposite ours. I felt like I was living in a city high rise. It seemed like less than 25% of our view consisted of the lake. However, if you stood 5 feet back, from the large window, and looked straight ahead, you could not see the lake at all. You literally had to stand over to the right of the window, and turn your head to the left to see the lake. When I requested a move, I was given a song and dance by first, the woman at the front desk, then her manager. I heard several times, "That room is considered a lake view". At that point, I told them I could accept that room if they agreed to refund me the difference between a "Lake View" and a "Standard View". Upon hearing that request, the manager agreed to move me to "the only other Lake View opening up that day". We ended up moving to room 7602, which wasn't a great lake view as it had a cluster of tall swampy trees partially blocking our view. However, it was much better than 7605. I seriously hope Disney reclassifies their "Lake Views". Those rooms on the inside of the "C" should be either "Pool VIew", or "Standard". I will never again pay the premium and risk getting a questionable "Lake View".
We had a one bedroomed lake view room on the 10th floor and we loved every second of our stay there . I personally would rather have this view than an MK view as it looks over the car park . The rooms are excellent ,the main shower and hot tub are a luxury and i cant wait to revist again . The only negative i have is that there is no proper check in ( you have to go to the Contemporay and i wish they had a little shop within the hotel
We just spent 6 days (1-31 thru 2-5) at BLT and it was ok. I liked the decor of the room but like other peoples comments it just didn't have that Disney feel. I also agree that the skyway should be inclosed. When it is cold and raining it is not much fun! We also went to the California grill one night for dinner. I was really disappointed in the food. With so much hype about it and the sell prices on the menu I thought the quality and presentaion of the food was very poor. The scallops I got were bad and made me sick! It just seems that the service in general was not what it used to be. We have stayed at Disney for a week every year for the past 15. I'm sad to say that we are going to try somewhere else next year!
We were excited to check out the BLT and we were not disappointed. Our room had 2 BR and 3 bath! Sparkling clean and modern. The CMs were very friendly and helpful. It definitely is limited access but that made us feel like part of a special secret club. It was amazing to wake up every day to a view of Space Mountain, the castle, and the rocket pods. Each night we turned the lights down for the fireworks and turned the TV to channel 20 to get the soundtrack. Our last night we went to the Top of the World Lounge to view the fireworks. Incredible. The bridge to the Contemporary needs to be enclosed. It was a bit of an adventure for me. I've been flying all my life and I think I've developed an inner ear balance problem. But it was cool to take the bridge to eat, do some shopping, or catch the Monorail to Epcot or another resort for a meal. MK was a 10-15 minute walk. My minor complaints: Disney resorts still do not have Fox News, there is only hard-wired Internet in the master bedroom (going to have to invest in a wireless router), and there is no espn360.com access, even though Disney owns ESPN. I wanted to watch my Texas Longhorns online and had to settle for Internet radio. We're going to try the Beach Club or Boardwalk next, but we will be coming back. Leaving was very difficult.
loved it fantastic views large rooms cool pool so many activities for kids and adults.
i was very excited to be staying bay lake towers at the end of september. I had a 2 bdrm villa with 7 people in it and a friend had 1 bdrm with 4 people. i got lucky and got one of the few bake lake rooms with magic kingdom view (rm 7702) my friend not so lucky. she had a view of the contemporary first then after her 3rd room change because the rooms were filthy her view was just as bad (the hotel was not crowded) the staff (which is over at the comtemporary was treating her horribly refusing to help her move her luggage. We had ordered food to be delivered to our room and only 1/2 of it arrived. It took them 2 days to find the rest of it. The air conditiner in my room did not work for 5 out 7 days (we went out and bought fans as we had already unpacked everything and didnt want to move rooms) maintaince got it working for 2 days in middle of trip and then it stopped again. the walk to the magic kingdom was wonderful (5 min) but the pool was tiny, the waterslide nothing to write home about and it was just very boring at the hotel. for the money it cost to stay there you are far better off at the yacht and beach club, especially if you have children. if you like staying in your room a lot you may like this hotel.
For me, this is the best Disney resort. I love the themeing! That is what others usually say as the biggest defficit, but I disagree. How is a Caribbean themed room (for example) more Disney? The clean lines and graphic art are very appealing. There are plenty of hidden Mickeys around the room to give you that Disney feeling. We checked in on opening day an got to take two lithographs home with us (one Mickey and one Minnie). We have stayed at other places around the WDW, but never wanted to join DVC because there was never a place that I loved. After we got home from this trip, we purchased DVC points at BLT.
We did tour the BLT while we stayed the the contemporary tower. We were very impressed and ended up purchasing points.
We were very please with our recent stay. We were in the tower on the 9th floor theme park view. The room was very nice, the pictures do not do it justice. I was also very impressed with the overall resort upgrade. Food options were very good and I really enjoyed the coffee bar in the lobby. I think the theme park view is a little overrated but nice to do once. I think next time I will stay in the tower with the lake view and save some money. The room was very quiet we couldn't here any resort noise. In the morning we could here the ferry horns and at night of course the fireworks. The beds did shake a little when the monorail went through but I really didn't notice it until my husband said something. We didn't have any problems with the bathroom sinks that others have noted but we did have a slow bath drain. Normally we are beach club/yatch club/boardwalk people but this resort has changed our mind. We will be staying again.
Just stayed in a studio at Bay Lake tower the nights of Sept 8 and 9. As others have pointed out the security (exclusivity?) is acute, requiring the room key to even enter the lobby. The hallways and room numbers are way cool looking, very modern and sleek ... but that said, the place has zero warmth and character, none of the rich theme-ing that the other DVC properties have. The monorail access is key for me -- not just for the access to Epcot and Magic Kingdom, but for the other resorts as well. We love the restaurants at Grand Floridian and Polynesian, so it's great to be able to hop on the monorail and get there quickly (Tonga Toast for breakfast!!!) The studio was attractive, but small and not cozy in the slightest. My biggest objection is the arrangement of the bathroom sink -- it's outside the toilet/shower room, which can be convenient, but it's directly across from (and much too close to) the kitchen counter, sink and appliances. You're looking in the mirror brushing your hair and the microwave and coffee maker are literally inches behind you. Some things just belong farther away from kitchen counters. The rooftop lounge was a lovely place to experience the Wishes show (although I still prefer standing inside the park on Main Street; the castle is an important part of the choreography of that beautifully designed fireworks show). The lounge with apps and drinks and TVs and comfy couches is a pleasant way to wait for the show, and the outside viewing platform is large. There were very few people when we were there on Sept 8, but there's plenty of space for larger crowds. I'll stay there again, but will probably combine a stay there with other DVC properties.
I recently stayed at BLT from August 13-20 in a two bedroom villa. Although it was gorgeous, the living area was really small and it was themed more as a condo that you would expect to see in Miami rather than WDW. If you lost your "Key to the World" room key, you were screwed because you can't open a single door in the building without it. That was nice because not many people can sneak in that way, but its still a real pain. In order to get to the Top of the World Lounge, you have to show someone at the front desk your room key, and than they put their own key in a slot in the elevator to let you up. Kinda redundant if you ask me. The lobby area smelled like cocoa beans mixed with new paint (not very pleasant) and the music in the lobby was quite irritating. There was music playing around the pool area and outside of a couple of Jonas Bros and Miley Cyrus songs (both of which I cannot stand!), it was just rock music that had no correlation to the Disney franchise. There was no true character of the building that would make you feel as if your in the World. To me, BLT struck me as the Hard Rock Hotel minus the musical artifacts throughout the building. The only thing that BLT brought to the table was convenience. It was very convenient to hop on the monorail to go to the Magic Kingdom or to Epcot. However, I must say this, my first five nights, BLT was not at full capacity. I believe it was just under 50% filled. When day six came around, the entire building was filled and my family and I watched four monorails come and go through the station before we could get on one simply because the platform was PACKED with people! Disney should have thought that out long before the opening. Hopefully they'll fix that by putting another monorail on the line. So I guess it's not too convenient anymore. Odds are I won't be staying there again, I was very let down.