Bay Lake Towers in Walt Disney World is a Disney Vacation Club resort but is considered an addition to Disney’s Contemporary Resort. It is located adjacent to the Contemporary and occupies the land that was formerly one of the garden wings of the resort.
All of the rooms within the resort are Disney Vacation Club properties. If you are a not a member, you can stay at this resort and pay cash for the reservation. It is fairly expensive to pay cash for the room, so you are better off renting DVC Points from David’s Vacation Club.
Price: $591 to $731 and up
Room count: 428
Room features: Some rooms offer amazing views of the Magic Kingdom while others offer views of Bay Lake.
Studios – Sleep 4 adults plus an infant under 3 in a crib. The room contains a queen size bed, full-size sleeper sofa, refrigerator, toaster, coffee maker. Room is approximately 300 square feet.
One-Bedroom Villa – Sleep 5 adults plus an infant under 3 in a crib. The villa contains a bedroom with a king size bed and whirlpool tub. There is a second bathroom in the living area. There is a queen-size sleeper sofa and sleeper chair in the living room. This room also has a full kitchen and a washer and dryer.
Two-Bedroom Villa – Sleeps 8 adults plus an infant under 3 in a crib. The villa contains a bedroom with a king size bed and whirlpool tub. A second bedroom with a queen-size bed and double sleeper sofa. There is a queen-size sleeper sofa and sleeper chair in the living room. This room also has a full kitchen and a washer and dryer.
Grand Villa – Sleeps 12 adults plus an infant under 3 in a crib. There are 3 bedrooms. One has a king size bed with a whirlpool tub. The other 2 contain two queen-size beds. There is also a queen-size sleeper sofa in the living room. It has a full kitchen and a washer and dryer.
Food options:
Cove Pool Bar serves beverages and light snacks.
Top of the World Lounge offers appetizers from 5 pm to 12 am.
Next door at the Contemporary, you can enjoy these restaurants:
The Contempo Cafe – Located on the 4th floor, this counter service restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is open from 6 am – 12 am daily.
The Sand Bar – Located by the pool, this restaurant has a couple quick service options. It is open from 11 am to 6 pm daily.
The Wave – This table service restaurant is located off the lobby on the first floor of The Contemporary. It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and is open from 7:30 am to 9:30 pm. It is not overly difficult to get a reservation at this restaurant, so it is a great last minute option.
Chef Mickey’s – This popular character meal is located on the 4th floor. Reservations need to be made 180 days before you travel. Chef Mickey’s serves breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7 am to 9 pm.
California Grill – This signature restaurant is located at the top of The Contemporary. It serves dinner from 5 pm – 10 pm. You can also watch the fireworks from this restaurant on the day you have a reservation even if it isn’t at the time the fireworks begin. Just return to the restaurant and they will show you to the viewing area. Review of California Grill
Pools: There is one pool at Bay Lake Tower. It is a zero-entry pool and has a 20 foot waterslide that is surrounded by glass blocks.
There is a Mickey-shaped fountain play area and a hot tub nearby. You can also play Ping-Pong or enjoy a picnic.
Activities: Nightly movie in the courtyard; Daily pool party at 2 pm; Campfire with marshmallow roast at 6:30 pm; Poolside activities from 1-5 pm; Game station; Guided Fishing Excursions ($); Jogging trail; Video games, arts and crafts (check the schedule), rentable sports equipment, board games and DVDs at Community Hall; Sammy Duvall’s Watersports Centre for parasailing, water skiing, wake boarding, family tubing and personal watercraft rentals ($); Health Club; Pin Trading at Community Hall from 8-9 PM daily.
Amenities:
- 24-hour front desk
- atm
- basketball court (get a ball from the Marina shop)
- Beach volleyball (get a ball from the Marina shop)
- cabana rentals by the pool
- check-in and guest service
- childcare service
- complimentary wifi
- concierge level rooms
- covered bus stops
- designated smoking area
- dry cleaning
- gift shop
- hair dryers
- handicap accessible rooms
- ice machine
- ironing boards
- irons
- kiddie waiting area in lobby
- laundry facilities
- luggage service
- Magical Express
- mail services
- merchandise delivery and pickup
- online check-in
- outdoor smoking areas
- resort airline check-in
- safe
- valet parking
- wake- up call service
Overnight parking is $24.
Transportation: For all transportation options, you must walk next door to The Contemporary Resort.
Walk to the Magic Kingdom or take the monorail to the Magic Kingdom or Epcot. You can take a bus to Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom or Downtown Disney. There is a boat available that takes guests to Ft. Wilderness.
Distance from parks by bus:
- Animal Kingdom – 10 miles
- Hollywood Studios – 6 miles
- Epcot – 6 miles
- Magic Kingdom – 1 mile
Address: 4600 World Dr, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
Phone: 407-824-1000
Featured review by Jennifer:
1. We chose Bay Lake Tower as DVC members because it was a new resort and the location. It had just opened in Aug. of 2009 we stayed there in Sept. 2009 and Dec. 2010.
We loved the idea of being able to walk to Magic Kingdom since we love staying there until they close and not having to wait for a bus.
2.We stayed in a 1 Bedroom Villa. I have a family of 4 (2 adults, a 4 year old and a 2 1/2 year old). There was more than enough room for us. You have a full kitchen with an island and 2 chairs to eat at the island. A dinette with a bench to comfortably seat all of us. A family room with a sofa that pulls out to a bed and 2 chairs and 1 pulls out to an additional bed. You have a large flat screen tv with dvd player. 2 full baths and then a spacious bedroom with a desk and flatscreen tv and dvd player . The master bath has a stand up shower and it is beautiful and a toilet and there is a pocket door seperating that area from the vanity and the jacuzzi tub with jets which my kids loved!! The 2nd bath has a vanity, toilet and tub with a shower combo. There is a laundry closet with a washer and dryer. You have a small balcony with 2 chairs and table. This resort is beautiful. Stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and the views were amazing. We had a view of Magic Kingdom we were on the second floor so you did see some of the parking lot but the kids loved watching the monorails and going to sleep watching the castle. They still talk about it. We did watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the room balcony and it was so fun. We had both tvs turned onto the Magic Kingdom fireworks so you can hear everything you would here at the park. We all sat on the balcony and loved it. On our second trip we had a Lake view and we were overlooking the pool at Blt and the bay! It was really nice.
3. The amentities, BLT has an amazing pool. They have a play area for the kids with the water that comes out of the floor, there is a small water slide for the kids to go down into the big pool. It has a zero depth which the kids loved. They also had a huge water slide for the adults. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity it was really fast and fun!!! Another nice thing was that you could walk to the Contemporary and play at the beach. We did go to the Contemporary Beach and we watched the water parade at night and it goes right by the beach. It was amazing! There is a special roof top that only DVC members can use when they are staying there on points and watch the fireworks and there is also a bar and light service restaurant (Top of the World Lounge) A staff member at the front lobby will check your stay walk you to a special elevator, swipe a key and send you up. Very special. There are washers and dryers for you to use there also to do laundry. They did have a bar at the pool so you could get drinks. There is no restaurant or shop there to get groceries . You can take a walkway to the Contemporary and you use all of the amentities there which they have a quick service restaurant, Chef Mickeys, shops, groceries and other restaurants. So you do have to take an elevator to the level that the walkway is on and then walk there. So it is just something to keep in mind that there isn’t a place right down in the lobby. It wasn’t a big deal for us.
4. The bus stop, they don’t have one. You have to use the Contemporary bus stop. You have a very short walk to the Contemporary bus stop.
You can walk to Magic Kingdom and it takes about 10-15 min. walk. There are no buses to Epcot. You can only take the Monorail. Which was kind of hard with a double stroller and it was always pretty crowded. They have buses to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. The lines were average. No more than 20 min. Both times we were there we had to stop at the Polynesian too, which was a little long.
5. We have stayed there twice so we love it there. The resort is beautiful and clean. The kids like the pool and we all love being able to walk to Magic Kingdom since we spend a lot of time there. We weren’t rushing out of MK after the fireworks to get in line for the bus so we could take our time. If you can stay there I would definately recommend it.
Learn more about the Walt Disney World Resorts and contact Destinations in Florida to help you book your perfect resort.
