Disney Vacation Club (with a Toddler): Bay Lake Tower Two Bedroom Theme Park View Review

Since we wanted to experience more DVC resorts than our home of the Grand Floridian Villas, we started off our stay at Disney’s Bay Lake Tower with a two bedroom, Magic Kingdom view room! What a way to start a vacation, right?!

First up, a video tour of the room. It’s a little fast, sorry about that, it was our first time doing it:

The room was HUGE and had a good view of Cinderella’s Castle from the large windows in both bedrooms and the living room. The balconies off the living room and the bedrooms had seating so you could just chill outside, although honestly it was more parking lot and monorail view than anything. This room was bigger than our place back at home so we enjoyed spreading out and geeking out over the amenities, not all of which turned out to be good. Since we were traveling with a toddler and we knew we’d never be able to stay late enough in the parks to see the fireworks, seeing Wishes from our hotel room was going to be a BIG plus for us!


While you could lay in bed and watch the fireworks from the second bedroom (the one with two queen beds), you could NOT do that from the master bedroom (with the King bed). For some reason the window does not extend that far, so if you lay in bed you get a nice view of Things That Aren’t The Magic Kingdom. HOWEVER, there is a soaking tub basically right next to the bed with a retractable wall where you COULD just sit and watch the fireworks while taking a nice romantic bath.

Here’s the thing: that nice romantic bath is definitely set up for adults to use and love, but when you have a toddler it makes things very problematic. As I brushed my teeth the first night, my toddler came waddling in and gleefully discovered that she could reach the controls for the bath, which were on the long side of the tub instead of the short side. So of course she instantly turned on the water and splashed it everywhere. I called out to my husband to come and get her since there was now water on the tile floor and I didn’t want her to slip (being pregnant I wasn’t moving that fast and was afraid of slipping myself). As my husband came into the bathroom my daughter got excited to see him and turned to run towards him. You can see where this is going. She slipped, feet going right out from under her. My husband yelled, I gasped and stuck my foot out and MIRACLE OF MIRACLES her head landed on my foot and not on the marble (?) tile. It gave all of us heart attacks but luckily we did NOT start out our trip with a cracked baby head!

Unfortunately since these were sliding doors that understandably did not lock from the outside, there was almost no way to keep her away from the tub area. My husband ended up having to step into the bathroom, slide the door closed, lock it, then climb out through the tub and the retractable wall to make sure that wouldn’t happen again. I have to say that experience definitely soured me on the room when I wasn’t overly thrilled with the theming in the first place–it’s very toned down for a hotel that is the closest to the Magic Kingdom! However, there was a pathway to walk to the Magic Kingdom so I thought that would be the plus that saved the review!

It was not a plus. Yes, it was nice not to have to wait for the bus and head right over, but it’s Florida. And it’s hot. And the walkway is not at all covered and it is further than you would think, especially when you’re pregnant and you have a toddler that wants to walk rather than ride in the stroller.

There were definitely a few pros though: My daughter LOVED just sitting and watching the monorail pass by our window, we didn’t mind getting up early to go downstairs for Chef Mickey’s (which we have always missed in the past because we just don’t get up and out early enough), AND when you stood out on the balcony at night this was your view:

So you didn’t have to go to the Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks and there was a channel on the TV you could listen to to get the music. However, do note all the cars in the parking lot. Maybe the view is a lot better further up (we were only on the 4th floor), but I’d say that it’s probably not worth it to splurge your points for a Theme Park view here when they have a balcony you can go up to every night and watch them from there if you are so inclined.

Though maybe you also really like watching the monorail and buses pulling in and out. To each their own!

Here’s the caveat to this post: we only stayed here for one night so we did not get to experience all of the amenities that the resort offered like the pool or the DVC members bar. However…I am okay with that. While the location being right next to the Magic Kingdom is great, the Contemporary and Bay Lake Tower still feel like they lack that Disney Magic you want in a Disney Resort–which I understand since they cater mostly to conferences. We likely will not return to this resort until our kids are teenagers and even then there are so many other places to stay that are more in tune with the Disney Magic aspect that I think we can safely put this on the “Tried it, Don’t Need To Stay Again” list.

Next Week: Kidani One Bedroom Savannah View Review!