^^ Neither that nor the 'free' food/drinks make it worth $150+/day @ the Contemporary to us. But guess it depends on your budget and what amenities you value.
$150 day for 2+ people? To cover breakfast and possibly dinner, if you time things right? Heck yeah it's worth that. I dare say few people can eat 2 meals at Disney for that. Heck, a sit down breakfast for 2 will run you darn close to $150, if you add in a mimosa. Wouldn't take much to make up the difference with a beer here or a beer there. So time your afternoon break right and get some of those evening apps (pretty easy to do most of the time) and it's not near as hard as you think.
Otherwise, there is no value on view or floor. Because not any Resort offers anything on the CL that you can't find one floor down. And at some of the resorts, CL rooms are on the same floor as non-CL rooms.
Quick question on timing. We usually go the last week or two of August for lower crowds. As you know we just came back from the Bahamas. My kids now tell me they want to go to disney earlier in the summer and don't want to go the end if August because it's nice having time before school starts. Do you think the crowds will be that much more at the end of July vs end of August? Will I be miserable? I have the poly booked for August already. I suppose I could make one for earlier and cancel. That also brings me to my next question. I have friends staying BWI the end of July. If we go the same week it would be nice staying near them. We hated BC. Enjoyed walking to epcot but if I did BWI to be in the same hotel (2 sets of friends, we are all friends) would I like it? I know it gets great reviews but we really missed poly last trip. But how nice would ut be for the kids to have friends to swim with and for us to have friends to drink with by the pool. Decisions. I'm so confused.
We've done it all, late May, late July, late August.
Of the three, Late July is the most crowded. Simply because EVERYONE is out of school by then. Late May, the after Labor Day kids are still in School. Late August, the before Labor Day kids are back in school. Neither of those are willing to take vacations so close to the end/start of school.
But, we didn't find that late July was that much worse than late August. You still have a whole lot of families out till Labor Day.
Would never do Disney in July/August. Every year there are a few people from my office who return and ALWAYS say the same thing.........."TOO hot/TOO crowded" and they would never go again that time of year. We prefer Spring or Fall, but with school age children, you may have less flexibility.
We go all times of the year. First of all, common misconception that Disney is MORE crowded in summer than in Spring or Fall. Quite the opposite actually. Fall has become more crowded than Summer.
Hotter for sure but honestly, you are talking lower 90's vs. upper 90's. 90's are 90's.