I posed this question on twitter last week and got very little response so I decided, today, to write a short blog post on the topic.  If you have been following the blog from the beginning, you will know that I love the Contempo Cafe.  I love its location, the ability to watch the monorail go by, and the menu.  It’s a great place to sit back and relax after a morning and/or afternoon in the parks.

Unlike it’s monorail loop brethren, the Gasparilla Grill and Captain Cook’s; the Contempo Cafe is NOT open 24 hours.  The hours of the Contempo Cafe are from 6:00 am until midnight.  This puts the Contempo Cafe’s hours more on par with moderate and value resorts than the other dining options along the monorail loop.

Are the people staying at the Contemporary just not hungry at night?  Does Disney charge less for rooms at the Contemporary than at the Grand Floridian and Polynesian Village to compensate guests for not having a 24-hour quick service option?

Late night resort hopping is difficult to do in the off-peak months when the parks close earlier and as a result the monorail shuts down earlier as well.  There is no boat from the Contemporary to the Grand Floridian or Polynesian Village without stopping at the Magic Kingdom and when the Magic Kingdom closes for the night, those boats stop running as well.  There is a boat to Wilderness Lodge but that quick service restaurant is only open to midnight as well.

The Contempo Cafe has a wonderful breakfast especially its Bounty Platter with eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, and french toast.  Disney could replace the bacon and sausage with some steak and charge a dollar or two more and have a fantastic late night steak and eggs menu item.  It could have a late-night midnight to 6:00 am menu featuring a cross-section of its dinner and breakfast menu with quick easy-to-make selections from both menus.

Maybe Disney has crunched the numbers and the numbers say that Disney would lose money by keeping the Contempo Cafe open 24 hours a day.  However, I think that Disney is missing out on an opportunity to have a unique late-night dining opportunity at one of it’s best quick service restaurants.

Thanks for reading!