Discussion Boards | Reviews | News | Trip Planning | Shop | Travel | Site Map

Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide

- Look in: MousePlanet WWW

[ Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide - Contents ] [ Return ]

First Impressions  |  Grand Canyon Concourse  |  Restaurants  |  Pool and Recreation  |  Shopping

The escalators to the Grand Canyon Concourse are located at the far East end of the lobby, just across from the Food 'n' Fun Center.  Actually, you need to go up two flights of escalators to get to the concourse (there's a level of meeting rooms in between the concourse and the lobby at ground level below).  

Here's a little artsy photo for ya... The concourse escalator.

The view from the top (4th floor) of the escalator.

Stretching from the top of the escalator are several shops (which you can see on another page of this photo tour in more detail).  Straight across the way, in the picture above, you can see a monorail in the resort station because one fact about the Contemporary, and very unique at the time it was built, is the fact that the Magic Kingdom resort monorail runs right through the A-frame structure of this hotel.

The monorail loading platform from concourse level.

I remember as a kid arguing with the boy that lived next door about what was better -- Disneyland in California (which I'd been to several times at that point of my life) or Walt Disney World, which Kevin had just visited with his family.  My argument was that Disneyland was the original park and besides, it had the Matterhorn!  But Kevin's response was that WDW was so big (something I just didn't comprehend until I visited myself for the first time several years later) and that the monorail ran right through the main hotel.  It's hard to compete with something that's that cool.

In the picture above, you can see the resort monorail loading platform, perched just above the Fantasia Shop.  If you look closely, you can see a monorail train is actually parked there when this picture was taken.  From this angle, it's hard to see (you can barely make it out through the stiles of the guardrail) but it's there.

Standing here in the shopping concourse, the Tower building guest rooms are stacked above us on either side.  Of course -- the wonderful glass walls let in a flood of natural light making this a very pleasant area. Looking at this same concourse from above gives a completely different perspective!

The shopping concourse and monorail station viewed from the 8th floor...

...and from the 11th floor.

On this same level, on the opposite end of the concourse from the shops and monorail station, you'll find a couple of restaurants and a lounge.  The Outer Rim Lounge gets pretty busy in the evenings, especially when many folks are waiting to be seated at Chef Mickey's and at the Concourse Steakhouse.

Since I showed you what the shopping end of Grand Canyon Concourse looks like from above, I figured I'd show the same perspective on the restaurant end...

Chef Mickey's viewed from the 8th floor...

...and the whole restaurant end of the concourse from the 11th floor.

Just a note on geography from the photo above: Chef Mickey's is located toward the far end of the Concourse.  The suspended glass disk with the un-readable (in this photo), blue-lit "Chef Mickey's" letters marks the entrance to that restaurant. The Concourse Steakhouse seating area is in the area from Chef Mickey's and going forward (you can see several round tables scattered about, and the square structure in the right foreground is filled with booths for larger parties.  The Outer Rim Lounge is to the left.

Before we leave the concourse I'd like to show you a couple of murals that are on the high walls.  The mural shown in the picture to the left is directly adjacent to the Concourse Steakhouse.  The shops are to the right.

The West-facing Mary Blair mural.

The other mural, and the larger of the two, is located over on the shop side of the concourse.  If you look at that picture, above, of the monorail station and the Fantasia Shop facade, the main mural is on the wall to the left, just outside of the picture.

The shopping concourse mural.

Obviously, this is one of the grand-daddies of all murals.  Designed by Imagineer Mary Blair, one of the eight stories tall splashes of color in an otherwise plainly decorated building.  The murals (one on the shop side and one on the restaurant side of the concourse) are on the faces of a huge wall that forms a bridge across the tower building.  The wall also serves to hide the resorts elevators that services the guest floors and the California Grill and Lounge up on the 15th floor.

As an aside, a MousePlanet reader, Karl, sent me the following note:

Brian, I read today's photo safari on the Contemporary. Two tidbits on the murals.

1. On the west-facing mural, facing the monorail platform, there's a goat with five legs, up near the top.

2. On the south-facing mural, visible from the Steakhouse, there's a boo-boo - one of the tiles is rotated 90 degrees out of place, and it's fairly easy to find. (Editor's Note: This mural isn't shown on this page.)

These might be fun for folks to look for.

First Impressions  |  Grand Canyon Concourse  |  Restaurants  |  Pool and Recreation  |  Shopping

Click here to return to the Contemporary Resort "Fast Facts" Page.

[ Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide - Contents ] [ Return ]