Swalphin vs a moderate

[chucklhd]

I have a chance to attend a conference at the swalphin. My concern is what will I be giving up by not staying at a Disney resort? I'm bringing my parents and 1 year old daughter if that changes opinions.

 

[karly05]

Swan/Dolphin does not participate in Magical Express (Disney transportation from/to MCO) and for me that is a dealbreaker.

If you don't mind driving or booking your own transportation, that's a non-issue.

S/D are in an awesome area between Epcot and DHS, however, with boat or walking access to those two parks, whereas at any Mod you'll be riding the buses to all parks.

 

[afcgirl]

You will not be able to purchase the dining plan by staying at the swalphin, but you will get to participate in extra magic hours. I prefer Swan/Dolphin over Disney moderates.

Also, you may not get to book a fastpass + in advance. That could change though.

 

[vicb]

I have stayed at CSR and then at Dolphin the following trip, prior we had stayed at deluxe resorts because we were only booking one room. As our kids got older we wanted two rooms thus the down grade to mod or S/D.

We did not have a bad experience at CSR but we really love the advantages of the Epcot area resorts so the Dolphin was a better stay for us. We did not feel that we missed out on "disney magic", we don't use DME so that was fine and we adjusted to not charging to our hotel by carrying a cc so no problem.

Even with the fast pass + testing and uncertainty right now at Dolphin, that is our target hotel for our May stay.

 

[figment_jii]

As others have said, if you stay at the S/D, you don't get to use Magical Express, nor do you have charging privileges.