Walt Disney World SWAN, DOLPHIN & SWAN RESERVE RESORTS Information & Questions

[kappyfamily]

I booked the Dolphin through Starwood 8 days ago and have been unable to get my reservation reflected correctly on MDE. It shows wrong number of guests and won't let me update. I've spoken to Starwood 3 times and Disney twice. Starwood says they'll resend the reservation and each time 24-48 hours later, no change. I discovered in talking to Disney this morning while she called Starwood directly that they had tried to resend and it didn't go through "for some reason". So they're trying again. I'd like to be able to utilize the 60 day FP access (also only showing 30 day options at this point), but it's getting close.

Anyone else having any problems with MDE and S/D lately?

I've had almost the exact problem when I booked a rewards room for November. I've been on the phone a dozen times (not kidding)with just about everyone from Disney, SPG to swan, tech specialists etc, they all say they can fix it and will resend to Disney and it will take 24-48 hours. It has never worked. I'm lucky I have the contemporary booked 2 nights before I check into swan so I was able to make fast passes. When I call the swan the reservation is there as well as on SPG so I know I'm good but ugh it's been a huge hassle. Good luck I feel your pain....

 

[ckelly14]

I'm staying at the Swan for the first time later this year and worried a little about this at first. But, as others have said, I think that being able to walk to two parks and be right next to the Boardwalk is going to be an amazing experience

I almost always stay at the Swan or Dolphin since I accumulate a bunch of Starpoints. In 2014 I did a split stay with the Beach Club and Dolphin, since pre-booked fast passes were not available at the S&D yet. Sure, if they were exactly the same price, I would probably pick the Beach Club. Better customer service, a bit closer to Epcot, Disney touches throughout, etc. except food is better at the S&D. However, at the price points were are talking about, I think S&D vs CBR or CSR or POR is a no-brainer. Location, Location, Location...

 

[pwrflpills]

@kappyfamily thanks for chiming in. Doesn't sound good. I'm 2 days from 60 day FP. :/

 

[AngiTN]

Just booked our first stay at Swan/Dolphin. DH and I decided on a very last minute trip for the long Columbus Day weekend. There was just nothing there on property for our dates and we are mostly after F&W (despite weekend crowds) so Dolphin was an easy choice. We can manage fine without charging to our bands, we'll just use the card that is usually attached to our bands instead. Easy. Actually looking forward to trying something different.

 

[pepperandchips]

Just booked our first stay at Swan/Dolphin. DH and I decided on a very last minute trip for the long Columbus Day weekend. There was just nothing there on property for our dates and we are mostly after F&W (despite weekend crowds) so Dolphin was an easy choice. We can manage fine without charging to our bands, we'll just use the card that is usually attached to our bands instead. Easy. Actually looking forward to trying something different.

Sounds like the perfect choice for your F&W weekend. We love the Swan/Dolphin - just be forewarned that you may never return to the Disney owned and operated resorts after experiencing the proximity on Crescent Lake coupled with the Heavenly beds!!!

 

[Airship Ariadne]

Officially booked our Dolphin stay. three nights in Nov 2017 King bed park view balcony as part of our 20th anniversary trip...first four nights at Port Orleans French Quarter (covered with Disney Visa Rewards), then three nights at the Swan using Starwood points (wife uses Starwood card for work travel).

Guessing it will be a fun time trying to combine the two reservations on MDE and not mess something up.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Just booked our first stay at Swan/Dolphin. DH and I decided on a very last minute trip for the long Columbus Day weekend. There was just nothing there on property for our dates and we are mostly after F&W (despite weekend crowds) so Dolphin was an easy choice. We can manage fine without charging to our bands, we'll just use the card that is usually attached to our bands instead. Easy. Actually looking forward to trying something different.

Hope you enjoy the S&D. You will be arriving there at the same time that my gang is leaving.

The main reasons to not go with S&D are no Magical Express and no DDP. If either of those things is immaterial, then it is an excellent choice. You get a deluxe resort in a deluxe location for the price of a moderate.

Have fun!

 

[AngiTN]

Hope you enjoy the S&D. You will be arriving there at the same time that my gang is leaving.

The main reasons to not go with S&D are no Magical Express and no DDP. If either of those things is immaterial, then it is an excellent choice. You get a deluxe resort in a deluxe location for the price of a moderate.

Have fun!

Thanks. Most trips we do use ME at arrival. We never use it for departing. On this trip we are spending our arrival night on property so we can still use ME for arrival. For departure we always go with Lyft and we always go to Epcit on our departure day. We usually put our carry on bags in a luggage locker. This will be even better since we can leave our bags at the resort. Just need to plan time to walk back there vs time to walk to the parking lot. Shouldn't be a big difference

 

[pwrflpills]

Just figured out a work-around for my MDE reservation linking issues in case anyone is interested. I had Starwood resend the reservation last week and it was changed but still very wrong on the MDE system. What I figured was, as long as all the people who need FP are showing in the system and it's the correct amount of people, then when I hit 60 days, I can still just get my FP and not worry about the hotel reservation that's independent of WDW. Should work. We'll find out tomorrow.

 

[patty57]

Sounds like the perfect choice for your F&W weekend. We love the Swan/Dolphin - just be forewarned that you may never return to the Disney owned and operated resorts after experiencing the proximity on Crescent Lake coupled with the Heavenly beds!!!

Exactly what happened to me after years of BW & BC. Love the Swan & Dolphin. AngiTN, I know you travel to WDW often...surprised you haven't tried them out before. Hope you enjoy your stay!

 

[danjoan14]

I booked the Dolphin through Starwood 8 days ago and have been unable to get my reservation reflected correctly on MDE. It shows wrong number of guests and won't let me update. I've spoken to Starwood 3 times and Disney twice. Starwood says they'll resend the reservation and each time 24-48 hours later, no change. I discovered in talking to Disney this morning while she called Starwood directly that they had tried to resend and it didn't go through "for some reason". So they're trying again. I'd like to be able to utilize the 60 day FP access (also only showing 30 day options at this point), but it's getting close.

Anyone else having any problems with MDE and S/D lately?

My reservation shows up for our trip to the Swan in MDE. My confirmation number shows and the guests and days are correct. However, the message "We are experiencing difficulties requesting additional details about this reservation. Please try again later and We're sorry, Detail payment information is not available at this time. Please try again later" appears next to the reservation. I have an option to Check In and skip the front desk. However, when I select that option, it doesn't allow me to do the check in. Just my reservations are displayed. Not really concerned about the check in. But it would be nice if I could just get to my room. We have reservations for the MVMCP the first night we arrive, so I want to drop my bags and head to the park. Our flight doesn't get in until 5 pm. I was able to making dinning reservations 180 days out. I'm sure I won't have a problem when my 60 days hit for my fastpasses.

 

[iheartglaciers]

Does anyone know the pool hours? I'm wondering if we'll be able to use the hot tub when we get back from the parks on our Dec trip.

 

[loves to dive]

My reservation shows up for our trip to the Swan in MDE. My confirmation number shows and the guests and days are correct. However, the message "We are experiencing difficulties requesting additional details about this reservation. Please try again later and We're sorry, Detail payment information is not available at this time. Please try again later" appears next to the reservation. I have an option to Check In and skip the front desk. However, when I select that option, it doesn't allow me to do the check in. Just my reservations are displayed. Not really concerned about the check in. But it would be nice if I could just get to my room. We have reservations for the MVMCP the first night we arrive, so I want to drop my bags and head to the park. Our flight doesn't get in until 5 pm. I was able to making dinning reservations 180 days out. I'm sure I won't have a problem when my 60 days hit for my fastpasses.

You can do on line check in on the Starwood site. Even if you don't do it, you can still drop your bags off with bell services and head to the parks just like you do at a WDW resort.

 

[Tess]

My reservation shows up for our trip to the Swan in MDE. My confirmation number shows and the guests and days are correct. However, the message "We are experiencing difficulties requesting additional details about this reservation. Please try again later and We're sorry, Detail payment information is not available at this time. Please try again later" appears next to the reservation.

That message won't change in MDE unless you booked through Disney. The Swan and Dolphin reservation systems are separate from Disney's and hence the reason detailed information is not available to MDE. If your party count is correct in MDE, you are good to go.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Does anyone know the pool hours? I'm wondering if we'll be able to use the hot tub when we get back from the parks on our Dec trip.

9 AM-9 PM

http://www.swandolphin.com/pdf/Resort_Report.pdf

 

[AngiTN]

Exactly what happened to me after years of BW & BC. Love the Swan & Dolphin. AngiTN, I know you travel to WDW often...surprised you haven't tried them out before. Hope you enjoy your stay!

Thanks. I've looked at it a time or two but it never saves that much money so I've never made the jump. This time, there just isn't anything on property for our dates that isn't a suite.

My reservation shows up for our trip to the Swan in MDE. My confirmation number shows and the guests and days are correct. However, the message "We are experiencing difficulties requesting additional details about this reservation. Please try again later and We're sorry, Detail payment information is not available at this time. Please try again later" appears next to the reservation. I have an option to Check In and skip the front desk. However, when I select that option, it doesn't allow me to do the check in. Just my reservations are displayed. Not really concerned about the check in. But it would be nice if I could just get to my room. We have reservations for the MVMCP the first night we arrive, so I want to drop my bags and head to the park. Our flight doesn't get in until 5 pm. I was able to making dinning reservations 180 days out. I'm sure I won't have a problem when my 60 days hit for my fastpasses.

That message won't change in MDE unless you booked through Disney. The Swan and Dolphin reservation systems are separate from Disney's and hence the reason detailed information is not available to MDE. If your party count is correct in MDE, you are good to go.

Good to know. That's what mine says too.

 

[AngiTN]

Question, since someone has mentioned to watch out for this, has anyone experienced issues with paying something different than what is shown on the confirmation you get when you book?
I know there is a resort fee, that's shown on the breakdown on my confirmation. Along with taxes. We won't have a car, so no parking fees. I realize there are add ons like food, etc. But I'm not planning on making any charges back to the room. We'll use our stand alone credit card for all purchases. Is there something else that could generate a charge? Just so I'm prepared.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Question, since someone has mentioned to watch out for this, has anyone experienced issues with paying something different than what is shown on the confirmation you get when you book?
I know there is a resort fee, that's shown on the breakdown on my confirmation. Along with taxes. We won't have a car, so no parking fees. I realize there are add ons like food, etc. But I'm not planning on making any charges back to the room. We'll use our stand alone credit card for all purchases. Is there something else that could generate a charge? Just so I'm prepared.

Only thing I can think of is an occasional error.

You'll really enjoy it there, have a great trip.

 

[AngiTN]

Only thing I can think of is an occasional error.

You'll really enjoy it there, have a great trip.

Thanks. I was chalking the issues up to just a random error or someone not understanding what some of the add ons may be.
I'm really looking forward to trying it out.

 

[iheartglaciers]

9 AM-9 PM

http://www.swandolphin.com/pdf/Resort_Report.pdf

Thanks!!