Disney's Contemporary Resort

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Disney's Contemporary Resort
city Bay Lake (Florida)
Hotel information
opening 1st October 1971
owner Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Awards AAA Four Diamonds
Furnishing
room 655
Photo of the hotel

Coordinates: 28 ° 24 ′ 54 "  N , 81 ° 34 ′ 26.4"  W.

Disney's Contemporary Resort , originally called Tempo Bay Hotel and later Contemporary Resort Hotel , is a four-diamond resort of the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, awarded by the American Automobile Association . It opened on October 1, 1971 as one of the first two hotels in the leisure complex next to the Polynesian Village Resort and belongs to the Deluxe price range. It is adjacent to the Magic Kingdom and its main building is A-shaped.

history

The Contemporary Resort is one of the two resorts that were on the site when Walt Disney World opened in 1971. The Contemporary Tower, the main building of the four-building hotel complex, was built in the shape of the letter A. The outer walls are inclined inwards, inside there is an atrium. The design was the result of a cooperation between Disney, the United States Steel Corporation and the Los Angeles-based architect Welton Becket . During the construction, steel frames were manufactured on site and the modular, pre-constructed rooms, which were designed by the Californian architect Denald Wexler , were placed in their intended location using a crane. Much of Disney's Polynesian Village Resort and Court of Flag Resort were built the same way, except that there the hotel rooms were stacked.

In 2006 Disney submitted plans for a project on the north wing of the Contemporary Resort. In the Bay Lake Tower, 281 apartments for part-time use were created. In order to be able to sell these later, Disney founded a company for trading in condominiums on January 9, 2007 . The project was presented to the public on September 16, 2008. Sales began on September 28, 2008, initially for existing members of the Disney Vacation Club and on October 5, 2008 for new members.

Extensive renovations took place in the resort from 2005 to 2009. The north wing of the hotel was replaced by a separate Disney Vacation Club Resort as part of the hotel complex, which opened in 2009. At the same time, construction began on the Bay Lake Tower . On January 30, 2007, Disney's Racquet Club, the north wing between January 31 and April 6, 2007, was demolished. The new buildings were constructed from 2007, with Disney not providing any official information on what exactly was being built. The Bay Lake Tower opened in 2009.

Richard Nixon's press conference

On November 17, 1973, one of the most famous press conferences in US politics was held at the Contemporary Resort, at which President Richard Nixon declared, "I'm not a crook." It had been seventeen months The Watergate scandal had begun and Nixon was on his way back from a trip to Key Biscayne . He made a stop at the Contemporary Resort, where the Association of Editorial Directors of the Associated Press held their annual meeting in 1973. In the Ballroom of the Americas, the President held a one-hour press conference that was televised live. In response to a previous question Joe Ungaro asked about Nixon's taxes, he said that he had benefited from his civil service money: “I made every penny. And in all my years in public I have never obstructed the judiciary […] People need to know whether their president is a fraud or not. So, I am not a cheat . I deserved everything I got. ”Nixon resigned from his presidency on August 8, 1974, after incriminating tapes emerged on August 5, 1974.

layout

main building

Rooms and facilities

The reception and concierge are located in the Contemporary Tower . The main concourse, Grand Canyon Concourse, is located in the main tower and contains restaurants and shops. There are 383 hotel rooms along the outer walls. The monorail Walt Disney World travels through the interior of the main building, which also houses a train station is the monorail. The walls of the main hall are decorated with a multi-story mosaic by Mary Blair . In the adjoining south wing there are another 250 rooms spread over three floors. On November 11, 1991, a conference center opened on the hotel premises with an area of ​​over 8,000 m 2 . In October 2007, the resort was accepted into the Florida Green Lodging Program .

Restaurants

There are several restaurants in the main building. California Grill is located on the 15th and top floor of the tower, originally known as the Top of the World Restaurant.

Others include The Wave… of American Flavors, a contemporary table-service restaurant with American cuisine, the Contempo Cafe self-service restaurant and Chef Mickey's, a buffet restaurant with Disney characters.

Bay Lake Tower

Exterior of the Bay Lake Towers

The Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort is a 15-story building that opened on August 4, 2009. It is part of the Disney Vacation Club. It is located on the site of the former north wing and has the same design as the rest of the hotel complex. He shares the reception, concierge, room service and transportation to the theme parks with the rest of the resort. The Bay Lake Tower also has its own concierge and online check-in. The fifth floor is connected to the fourth floor of the main building by a footbridge.

The apartments were initially the most expensive at the Disney Vacation Club, presumably due to their proximity to the Magic Kingdom . Some of these have full-length windows with views of the Magic Kingdom or Bay Lake. Some of the bathrooms have movable partitions so that the fireworks can be seen from the bathtub.

Incidents

  • On November 12, 1992, an off duty employee fell off the edge of the Top of the World restaurant. He was sitting on the edge when a swarm of wasps flew towards him. When he struck at them, he lost his balance and fell eleven stories to his death.
  • On March 22, 2016, a death occurred at the Contemporary Resort. Due to the investigation by the Sheriff's Office of Orange County , the monorail was out of service temporarily. According to several sources, a person jumped to his death from inside the A-shaped tower. Investigators assume suicide.
  • On May 28, 2018, a drunk man was arrested who had previously falsely claimed that there was a shooter at the resort. Until the police arrived, the area was cordoned off and panic broke out. The man was hiding in a bush outside the resort where he was arrested. When questioned, he said he did so in response to people in a class and his YouTube channel .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ American Automobile Association Inc. (AAA): AAA Four Diamond Hotels. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  2. ^ Walt Disney World, The First Decade . Walt Disney Productions , 1982, p. 86.
  3. ↑ Foxxfur: Passport to Dreams Old & New: The Contemporary Resort in the 1970s . 18th September 2015.
  4. ^ Disney's Contemporary Resort . The Disney Drawing Board. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  5. ^ Construction of WDW Contemporary Resort by US Steel . YouTube. January 31, 2007. Accessed April 6, 2015.
  6. ^ The Contemporary Resort Hotel 1971 (US Steel Commercial) . YouTube. December 27, 2008. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  7. ^ Reedy Creek Improvement District (PDF) Bigfloridacountry.com. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
  8. ^ Walt Disney Co. to sell time shares in 15-story tower next to Contemporary Resort . Archived from the original on February 29, 2008.
  9. ↑ a b c Jason Garcia: Disney's time-share kingdom grows . In: Orlando Sentinel . September 16, 2008. Archived from the original on September 19, 2008. Retrieved September 16, 2008.
  10. ↑ Construction where the old tennis courts used to be ... rumored to be the new DVC resort . Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 30, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / photos.joelandkristine.com
  11. ^ Contemporary Resort Disney Vacation Club Tower . wdwmagic.com. Archived from the original on March 22, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 20, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wdwmagic.com
  12. ↑ a b Top 10 Unfortunate Political One-Liners . November 16, 2008.
  13. ↑ 'I Am Not A Crook': How A Phrase Got A Life Of Its Own ( en ) November 17, 2013.
  14. ↑ Nixon, Watergate and Walt Disney World? There is a connection , Orlando Sentinel. October 31, 2016. 
  15. ^ Samuel Walker: Presidents and Civil Liberties from Wilson to Obama: A Story of Poor Custodians ( en ). Cambridge University Press ,, ISBN 9781107016606 , p. 281.
  16. ↑ a b Nixon Tells Editors, 'I'm Not a Crook . In: Washington Post , November 18, 1973. 
  17. ^ President Richard Nixon's Daily Diary November 16, 1973 - November 30, 1973 . Nixon Library.
  18. ↑ a b R.W. Apple, Jr .: Nixon Declares He Didn't Profit From Public Life .
  19. ^ I Am Not a Crook - Richard Nixon 1973 .
  20. ↑ Video: 11/17/1973: Nixon: 'I Am Not a Crook' .
  21. ^ Florida Green Lodging Designated Property Directory . Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection. March 5, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  22. ↑ Heather McPherson: Disney's iconic California Grill reopens Monday . In: orlandosentinel.com . Tribune Newspapers. September 6, 2013. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  23. ↑ Jason Garcia: Disney to open Contemporary addition on August 4 . Orlando Sentinel. February 3, 2009. Archived from the original on February 10, 2009. Retrieved on February 9, 2009.
  24. ↑ Disney Employee Falls To Death At Hotel (en) . In: Orlando Sentinel , November 13, 1992. 
  25. ↑ admin: BREAKING NEWS: Tragedy at Contemporary Resort at Disney World . In: DisneyLists.com . Archived from the original on March 26, 2016.
  26. ↑ Danny Cox: Police Investigating Death At Disney's Contemporary Resort - Person Suspected Of Jumping To Death . In: The Inquisitr News . Archived from the original on March 23, 2016.
  27. ↑ Deputies investigating death at Disney World resort . Archived from the original on March 23, 2016.
  28. ↑ Leah Zanolla: Police investigate death at Disney's Contemporary Resort . Archived from the original on March 23, 2016.
  29. ↑ YouTube stunt at Disney resort lands Arizona man in jail . In: Orlando Sentinel , May 30, 2018. 

Web links