disney-world | Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures

12/14/24

This trip came about as a birthday celebration for my youngest daughter. We decided to let her pick a friend to join us. The night before we were flying to Florida, her friend suffered an injury in her high school basketball game. She arrived to our house in the morning on crutches and with ice packs! Ackkkkk! Since we were flying Southwest Airlines, I went into her confirmation and added a wheelchair to it. I had NO idea the extent of the injury, but I knew I wanted her to walk the least amount necessary!

Southwest was great! We checked in like normal and then went to a “wheelchair assistance” desk. They scanned her boarding pass and we were off to head through security. We went through a special entrance and there was no line. They also wheeled her to the gate and upon boarding, we all were permitted to preboard with her. Our flight was not full.

Once on the plane, she did have to get up every 20 minutes and take a stroll down the aisle to avoid blood clots. (Her crutches fit in the overhead bin.)

Now, let me do a preview…

We are Disney Vacation Club members. We had 3 day tickets for Universal Studios Orlando. So for our arrival day, we took a Lyft to Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, which I booked with our DVC points. My plan was to take the monorail around to the resorts and look at the Christmas decorations and gingerbread houses, wake up the next morning and Lyft to Universal.

Our Lyft from the airport to Bay Lake Tower was $50 plus tip.

We landed around noon and were at our resort by 1:00 p.m. Our room was not ready yet, so we checked our luggage with Bell Services, and went to get something to eat.

It was a beautiful day!

Bay Lake Tower is connected to the main Contemporary Resort by a Skybridge walkway. This is located on the 5th floor of BLT. The gingerbread display was located directly inside the Contemporary once crossing the Skybridge walkway.

I loved seeing this:

It was amazing in person! There also was a little stand set up where they were selling gingerbread goodies.

For lunch we went to Contempo Cafe, which is one of my FAVORITE quick service locations.

We mobile ordered. The menu:

If you do not mobile order, you can order at the cashier and then they will deliver the food to your table.

I ordered the Vegetable Flatbread–Zucchini, Red Onion, Roasted Red Pepper, Roasted Tomato, Asparagus, Mozzarella, Parmesan, and Pistou finished with Balsamic Glaze and Chives $13.29

This was actually amazing! The taste was so good, and it was a good serving size. I could not eat it all.

Chicago Style Italian Beef Sub–shaved Italian Beef, Mozzarella, Giardiniera, and Seasoned Au Jus $13.99

This was also really good! He ate the whole thing.

Kids Chicken Strips–Served with 2 sides and a drink $8.49

Fun fact, anyone can really order a kid’s meal at a quick service location. It’s a good portion size and comes with choice of 2 sides and a drink. Both girls got double fries and a water. They loved these!

Chili-Cheese Fries $6.99

We also ordered a side of the Chili Cheese Fries. These were also really good!

Here are some of the desserts that were available:

Overall, 10/10 meal here! It was super busy and tables were limited.

From here, we hopped on the monorail and headed out to check out the Polynesian and Grand Floridian. We all four had a backpack because we weren’t able to check into our room yet. So I had my laptop, others had ipads, etc. Security was crazy. All 4 of us were flagged and they had to go through our bags at every single checkpoint during this journey.

Our first stop was the Polynesian. This is one of my favorite Disney resorts! I love the vibe here!