After our 9 night stay at the CR from 9/7-9/16, we have decided that we will stay nowhere else on Disney property except the Contemporary ever again. We have been to many other resorts at WDW resort but the CR takes the cake. Our favorite park is the Magic Kingdom, and it is worth every single penny to be able to stroll back to the room at leisure while the teeming masses jockey for room on the buses, boats, and (sometimes functioning) monorail. The pool was hardly ever busy, the food options were great, and we had a great view of Wishes from the bridge between CR and BLT.
The trip started off with a bang as we were magically upgraded from our Garden Wing room to a Bay Lake view room in the tower. We had our Garden Grocer order within 30 minutes of checking in, grabbed a snack at Contempo, and we were off to the MK. I can't again express how nice it was knowing that you didn't have to cut the night short and catch a bus or boat to get back to your room. Our MK nights were so much nicer to enjoy with this fact in the back of our heads. The room was extremely quiet at night, which is something I guess you wouldn't expect with a monorail running below. We were on the 7th floor and never heard a peep until we opened the door.
CR haters will constantly site the lack of character as to why they don't like it there. Yes, it's not elaborately themed as some of the other deluxes, but the CR is classic Disney through and through. Who needs foo-fooey upscale snobbery (joking, of course) from the GF or the faux-Fiji style of the Poly? We really liked the GF when we stayed there in 2014, but it just didn't seem like "Disney". The Poly was pretty nice, but the lobby was always a congested mob of people. The CR was bustling but we never felt packed in like sardines.
My only minor complaint - it seemed to take forever to get back home from Epcot. A transfer at the TTC and a long monorail loop made for a couple of long nights (Uber next time). No big deal though.
From here on out - it's the Contemporary or nothing for these mouseketeers!