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

[Dan Murphy]

Any knowledge if the will call window is available for the ppl using the International Gateway for Extra Magic hours?

Yes it will be open.

 

[pwrflpills]

Any news on the room refurbs at Dolphin?

 

[REEREEG]

Very random question, but does anyone know if they do the "cinema on the sand" more nights in the spring/summer than they do now (2 nights a week)?

 

[quilt03]

Hi, I realize garden grocer isn't able to deliver to the dolphin anymore, (boo hoo!!) but do they still accept delivery packages for us?? I was thinking of doing this instead of a grocery stop. I am not sure which would be better? Also if you do ship, do you ship case of water ? And what about wine is that something you could ship or have to find a place to buy it? Thank you in advance.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Hi, I realize garden grocer isn't able to deliver to the dolphin anymore, (boo hoo!!) but do they still accept delivery packages for us?? I was thinking of doing this instead of a grocery stop. I am not sure which would be better? Also if you do ship, do you ship case of water ? And what about wine is that something you could ship or have to find a place to buy it? Thank you in advance.

There are handling charges on items delivered to the resort.


HANDLING FEES:
Handling charges are in addition to the cost of shipping, and
are charged on a per package basis. Charges apply to inbound
and outbound shipments. The charges can be applied to your
room, master account, credit card or cash.
Letter Packs $3.00
1 – 10 lbs. $ 6.00
11 – 20 lbs. $10.00
21 – 40 lbs. $15.00
41 – 75 lbs. $20.00
76 – 99 lbs. $25.00

You might check Picabu at the Dolphin for some items, or the Screen Door General Store on the Boardwalk for wine and maybe other items.

 

[columbusdizfan]

Any news on the room refurbs at Dolphin?

West wing is complete or nearly so. The rest of the resort will take another year or so. That's what the person who checked us in said.

 

[mikeamizzle]

Just was able to book two nights at the Swan on very short notice for a mini food and wine trip (Nov 7th and 8th), for $201.00 a night after fees and taxes. Pretty killer rate for anyone thinking about it last minute this year!

 

[Disneytam]

Just was able to book two nights at the Swan on very short notice for a mini food and wine trip (Nov 7th and 8th), for $201.00 a night after fees and taxes. Pretty killer rate for anyone thinking about it last minute this year!

This is the same rate that we have for Dec. 3 and 4th. This doesn't include parking but we won't have a car so I didn't include that.

 

[SMorgan711]

anyone know anything about the Food and Wine Classic this weekend? I've been searching the DIS and google and haven't really found any first hand experiences. the food and wine classic website is the only one that I've found info on. Wondering if anyone went and how it was?

 

[ckelly14]

anyone know anything about the Food and Wine Classic this weekend? I've been searching the DIS and google and haven't really found any first hand experiences. the food and wine classic website is the only one that I've found info on. Wondering if anyone went and how it was?

We went 2 years ago and had the kids in tow and that probably downgraded our experience a great deal. This is a fancy adult event and it was quite expensive. I was really surprised by the number of people in suites and dresses- not your typical Disney crowd. Food was very good, but with very long lines at the most popular tables. Wine offerings were average. Water and soft drinks were extra. If it was just my wife and me, I may consider it again, but I like the casual feel and ambiance of Epcot F&W better.

 

[SMorgan711]

We went 2 years ago and had the kids in tow and that probably downgraded our experience a great deal. This is a fancy adult event and it was quite expensive. I was really surprised by the number of people in suites and dresses- not your typical Disney crowd. Food was very good, but with very long lines at the most popular tables. Wine offerings were average. Water and soft drinks were extra. If it was just my wife and me, I may consider it again, but I like the casual feel and ambiance of Epcot F&W better.

oh wow. thank you! this is exactly what I was looking for. We may go just to peruse and get a feel. I was thinking of doing the unlimited or the tickets but I'm not sure if it'll be worth it if the lines are long.

 

[BlueFairy]

anyone know anything about the Food and Wine Classic this weekend? I've been searching the DIS and google and haven't really found any first hand experiences. the food and wine classic website is the only one that I've found info on. Wondering if anyone went and how it was?

The DISUnplugged podcast team goes every year. You can probably search the archives with better results, but here is a link to their reviews.
http://www.disunplugged.com/tag/food-and-wine-classic/
http://www.disunplugged.com/tag/food-and-wine-classic/

 

[JerseyJanice]

So I am just back--not really, but I've been crazy busy since I came home.

We stayed at the Swan 10/1-10/9/16. Yes, Hurricane Matthew closed the parks for a day, 10/7. My family group consisted of nine people. We booked two regular resort rooms and one two-bedroom suite.

I can't express how thrilled I was with just about everything at the resort. It was easily the best aspect of our entire trip.

First off, it's drop-dead gorgeous--the rooms, the grounds, common area, pools, everywhere you look is sumptuously decorated. The rooms we had seemed huge, and so did the TVs, beds and towels. Towels at the Swan are about 90 times nicer than the towels at any Disney-owned resort. The Swan's are thick and big. All room amenities were A+ IMO. Coffee was pods of Starbucks in assorted kinds (Pikes Place and Breakfast Blend). The beds are truly Heavenly, and the sheets, duvet, and pillows are high quality and lush.

My sister is a smoker and she used the DS courtyard off the lobby. It's so pretty there, she said the nicest smoking section ever. LOL! It has a smaller version of the big Swan fountain in the lobby and picnic tables with umbrellas so she could smoke in the rain.

My older brother and his family had a suite which I believe was called an Executive Suite. It consisted of a large parlor adjoined to two resort rooms, one a king bed and the other 2 queens. It was breathtaking. My brother said it was nicer than the one they had at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. With the drapes open, the Causeway and the Dolphin were in full view. It's a beautiful sight any time of day and especially pretty at night IMO with the palms on the Causeway lit up. The place is so well kept. I thought it was immaculate.

We loved the pools and hot tubs too. My sister, sister-in-law and I got up early almost every morning and went for a soak in one or more of the hot tubs. Tip: They keep a cart full of extra beach towels in the Splash Terrace building next to the Swan pool. The pools on the Dolphin side don't technically open till 9:00 AM, but the Swan pool is open earlier for people who want to swim laps. Although lanes are not painted, the pool is a long rectangle. It is also filled with salt water so it's a bit warmer than the Grotto pool. There's a hot tub alongside it that we used most mornings of our stay.

We had good dining experiences at the resort. We ate lunch one day at Cabanas near the Dolphin. I can confirm that they discount the food (not drinks) 20% with your AAA card, and the wait staff is gracious about giving it. I loved my skirt steak sandwich there.

We used our AAA cards for 20% at Picabu and the Garden Grove. Garden Grove was excellent! We dined there on Friday, 10/7, the day that the parks were closed. Friday and Saturday, they serve a Seafood Sensation buffet, and we liked it better than Cape May Cafe. If the parks are open, it has characters too. The price before tax and tip is $36 per adult, which comes to $28.80 with AAA. In addition to high quality snow crab legs and prime rib at the buffet, they bring everyone a stuffed half Maine lobster that was very tasty. We really enjoyed the Phins and Feathers craft beer on tap there too.

The best feature of the entire resort is its staff. Every worker that we encountered had a smile and could not have been more welcoming and accommodating. The front desk, concierge, housekeeping, wait staff, pool staff--even security--super kind, friendly and looking to help you.

I was blown away by the awesomeness of the Swan, and the price was close to what we have paid for a moderate. I would recommend it without hesitation to anyone. I may start playing Powerball so I can daydream about living there. LOL!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Well we are back from our trip to the Swan.

The first part was Oct. 17 and 18 at the Swan. Oh yes, give me a G A R T N E R. This is a shouting cheer because all we heard for 2 mornings from our room was blasting music, sigh, sigh and more sigh. I expected some stuff but poor ds3 had a bad cold and was miserable and wanted to sleep in one morning. The music was really annoying to say the least. There were huge signs up outside for the Swan and Dolphin, I guess so people would not be confused from the conference.

Our room was not ready at check in. The wheelchair we ordered was there. Of course I shared my dh computer issues, so we had to bring his computer to epcot with us because the room was not ready. The Swan does not have a dedicated locked separate cage area as dh calls it like the Yacht Club does, just a locked room. Oh and one night when walking back from the bus stop the outside door was open and there is a big sign in there that says Think Happy Thoughts, lol!!!

Our lst room was an upper floor inside view of the resort. We had a balcony which ds 3 sat out on sometimes. He loved the heavenly beds, pillows etc.

I manged to manuver the wheelchair around the gartner groups. Once we were going with the flow with them, at least we were not the salmon swimming upstream against them.

They did have these busses for them that just kept circling the Swan but somehow we never saw them pick up anyone from the conference. One time I counted 50 Gartner people in the lobby all at once. Dh and ds went down to the Java Bar twice. they said sometimes the area was crowded because right across from there where they usually set up Chocolate Santa they had a samsung virtual reality test area for free and people were crowding around that. I also noticed a big crowd in Il Mulino one night.

We took our luggage to the YC on the boat with no problem.

The 2nd part was just the split stay night of Friday 2lst. This room was really expensive. Ds and I were in AK, so dh went to check us in late at night after he picked up his computer from YC. He said the room was great. Um, no sorry dh,. I guess you and I dust dont have the same idea of a great room. The room had a connecting door. It was a semi handicapped room. Dh did not ask for this at all. I didnt see the view but dh said it was nice. I did see some palm trees briefly. The bathroom set up was strange and weird. It did not have a walk in shower but there were bars by the toilet and tub area. There was the sink in the bathroom but then there was some strange door setup and the other sink was on the other side of one door. I think it was folding type door. I didnt like this at all and believe me for the money we paid for that room I would have asked to been moved if we were not staying there more than one night.

We ate at the Garden Grove for the character breakfast buffet on Sat. and I have to say this is the lst time I was really disappointed with the meal and the character stuff itself, not that I was looking for the character stuff but in our area Goofy came by once and that was it. We told him to stop for another picture and he just flew by and Pluto never came to our table. If I had kids I would be upset about this. The food was also so so this time. Best thing was the cinnamon rolls. The danish tasted stale, the raspberries were mushy, our server was no where to be found. She forgot our butter twice. I started stacking up the dirty dishes on our table because she didnt come by often. At least they had mickey waffles on the buffet this time. First time they ran out of blueberries that dh wanted, but they got more. When we arrived I counted 35 people in the lobby waiting and they told dh the wait would be 15 minutes.

The only rude bus driver we had all eek was at the Swan our last day of course. She insisted to ds that I had to sit in the wheelchair and be pushed up the ramp. He said, no she just walks up the ramp etc. He said no other bus driver has said or asked that of her. She said its a rule, oh really???? Well of course I just walked up the ramp. When I got out she remarked something like oh, you do things the hard way, um, I really thought she was rude to say that to me too. No other driver ever commented to me like that.

We also had some dealings with the gift shop. Happy to report they stock halls cough crops, dayquil and vicks. Ds3 was a happy cold camper with all of that.
Then we went to pick up a package. It was actually 2 green slips so we thought it was 2 packages. Well it was almost 11 pm and the one pkg. was missing. They said the supervisor would be back shortly and the 2 women helping us were very sweet. They went to photocopy the one paper to try and track it down the next morning, but then ds said, lets look in this one big package and therw werw our missing items. We never knew the cm put everything in one bag after we walked out of the store in epcot. Mystery solved and they were all willing to help us even so late at night. Great customer service at the Swan.

Dh said he wants to write and ask someone to please consider getting a locked area of the storage room. Where would he address that and to whom??

So all in all the Swan is always a great place for us at a reasonable price for the most part, I just wouldnt want to go during the gartner time, but with dh work schedule, it couldnt be helped.

 

[kappyfamily]

So I am just back--not really, but I've been crazy busy since I came home.

We stayed at the Swan 10/1-10/9/16. Yes, Hurricane Matthew closed the parks for a day, 10/7. My family group consisted of nine people. We booked two regular resort rooms and one two-bedroom suite.

I can't express how thrilled I was with just about everything at the resort. It was easily the best aspect of our entire trip.

First off, it's drop-dead gorgeous--the rooms, the grounds, common area, pools, everywhere you look is sumptuously decorated. The rooms we had seemed huge, and so did the TVs, beds and towels. Towels at the Swan are about 90 times nicer than the towels at any Disney-owned resort. The Swan's are thick and big. All room amenities were A+ IMO. Coffee was pods of Starbucks in assorted kinds (Pikes Place and Breakfast Blend). The beds are truly Heavenly, and the sheets, duvet, and pillows are high quality and lush.

My sister is a smoker and she used the DS courtyard off the lobby. It's so pretty there, she said the nicest smoking section ever. LOL! It has a smaller version of the big Swan fountain in the lobby and picnic tables with umbrellas so she could smoke in the rain.

My older brother and his family had a suite which I believe was called an Executive Suite. It consisted of a large parlor adjoined to two resort rooms, one a king bed and the other 2 queens. It was breathtaking. My brother said it was nicer than the one they had at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. With the drapes open, the Causeway and the Dolphin were in full view. It's a beautiful sight any time of day and especially pretty at night IMO with the palms on the Causeway lit up. The place is so well kept. I thought it was immaculate.

We loved the pools and hot tubs too. My sister, sister-in-law and I got up early almost every morning and went for a soak in one or more of the hot tubs. Tip: They keep a cart full of extra beach towels in the Splash Terrace building next to the Swan pool. The pools on the Dolphin side don't technically open till 9:00 AM, but the Swan pool is open earlier for people who want to swim laps. Although lanes are not painted, the pool is a long rectangle. It is also filled with salt water so it's a bit warmer than the Grotto pool. There's a hot tub alongside it that we used most mornings of our stay.

We had good dining experiences at the resort. We ate lunch one day at Cabanas near the Dolphin. I can confirm that they discount the food (not drinks) 20% with your AAA card, and the wait staff is gracious about giving it. I loved my skirt steak sandwich there.

We used our AAA cards for 20% at Picabu and the Garden Grove. Garden Grove was excellent! We dined there on Friday, 10/7, the day that the parks were closed. Friday and Saturday, they serve a Seafood Sensation buffet, and we liked it better than Cape May Cafe. If the parks are open, it has characters too. The price before tax and tip is $36 per adult, which comes to $28.80 with AAA. In addition to high quality snow crab legs and prime rib at the buffet, they bring everyone a stuffed half Maine lobster that was very tasty. We really enjoyed the Phins and Feathers craft beer on tap there too.

The best feature of the entire resort is its staff. Every worker that we encountered had a smile and could not have been more welcoming and accommodating. The front desk, concierge, housekeeping, wait staff, pool staff--even security--super kind, friendly and looking to help you.

I was blown away by the awesomeness of the Swan, and the price was close to what we have paid for a moderate. I would recommend it without hesitation to anyone. I may start playing Powerball so I can daydream about living there. LOL!

Thank you for this! We leave in 7 days for the Swan and it's our first time. This helped my jitters....many thanks!

 

[chris benton]

Anyone else find the polarized reports of the dinners at Garden Grove almost comical? I'm still debating whether or not to risk the Seafood Sensation buffet. Some reports of how bad it is makes me wanna go just to see if it's an absolute trainwreck for the entertainment value. Yelp reviews (which I take with a huge grain of salt,) are almost unanimously bad to horrid. Mind you, I've never been, never stepped foot in the place, so I have no first-hand knowledge of it being anything other than fantastic. I do not want to bash the place at all. Wondering if anyone has further thoughts? I posted a similar q in the Garden Grove thread - no action.


eta -that this was referring to dinner only. The breakfast reviews do not appear nearly as bad.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Anyone else find the polarized reports of Garden Grove almost comical? I'm still debating whether or not to risk it. Some reports of how bad it is makes me wanna go just to see if it's an absolute trainwreck for the entertainment value. Yelp reviews (which I take with a huge grain of salt,) are almost unanimously bad to horrid. Mind you, I've never been, never stepped foot in the place, so I have no first-hand knowledge of it being anything other than fantastic. I do not want to bash the place at all. Wondering if anyone has further thoughts? I posted a similar q in the Garden Grove thread - no action.

Are you asking about the breakfast? If so, read my report above. Its not the first time we have been there. If you want to see characters then get there earlier by nine or nine thirty at the latest on a sat. or sunday.

If you are referring to the dinners, we have only done the friday night? I think seafood one just once and we did not enjoy it at all. The only thing that saved the meal was the 20% TIW discount we got.

 

[chris benton]

Yes, I left out that I was specifically referring to the dinners. I meant to include that. Again, I don't want to sound like I'm bashing the place, because I've never been, but the reports appear to be overwhelmingly "against" the dinners.

 

[Dan Murphy]

We've eaten breakfasts and dinners at GG. Always found them to be good. We also like the other casuals, Fountain, Fresh and Picabu.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Anyone else find the polarized reports of the dinners at Garden Grove almost comical? I'm still debating whether or not to risk the Seafood Sensation buffet. Some reports of how bad it is makes me wanna go just to see if it's an absolute trainwreck for the entertainment value. Yelp reviews (which I take with a huge grain of salt,) are almost unanimously bad to horrid. Mind you, I've never been, never stepped foot in the place, so I have no first-hand knowledge of it being anything other than fantastic. I do not want to bash the place at all. Wondering if anyone has further thoughts? I posted a similar q in the Garden Grove thread - no action.


eta -that this was referring to dinner only. The breakfast reviews do not appear nearly as bad.

I can tell you that our Friday night Seafood buffet was excellent. I would not hesitate to go again. The two servers who waited on us were both from where we live, and they were great--friendly, quick to pick up dirty dishes and refill soft drinks.

The crab legs were better quality (bigger and easier to shell) than the ones at Cape May Cafe earlier in the week. Something all of us enjoyed was a bowl of Parmesan cheese crisps. They were meant to be a garnish for salads, but a couple of us ate them like chips. LOL!

They have a prime rib carving station where the meat was roasted rare. The chef at the station carved and trimmed it, then cooked it there to order on a stone cooktop and served it with au jus and horseradish sauce.

They had fresh green beans sautéed with olive and garlic, and real mashed potatoes. I liked the mussels and salmon dishes as well. Dessert was similar to what they serve at Cape May Cafe--miniature tarts and cakes and such.

What I appreciated a lot was that we didn't need an ADR. We had so many weather issues during our trip that it was hard to keep the ADRs I made. I liked being able to go downstairs when we were ready to eat and dine there under the same roof.