FEATURE GROTTO POOL WAY TOO COLD at Disney's Swan and Dolphin

[DisneyFunTrips]

We had a wonderful stay at Disney Dolphin - the location being at the top of my list - being on the Boardwalk at the ability to walk or take a water taxi to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios. The food was great too. Rooms were a bit dated, but the beds were oh so comfortable! Everything was great except for the usage of their beautiful looking Grotto Pool - waterfall pool with water slide. Unfortunately, the water was too cold for us to enjoy swimming. We are a family who just loves to swim and the pool looked so beautiful - this is one of the reasons why we choose to stay at this resort, but were most disappointed by the water temperature they keep. Additionally, the pool slide closed down at 5pm - way to early for a resort on Disney property. We have stayed at Disney properties before, and most likely will only return to them because of the pool experience we had. Disney pools are heated and are warm - you could swim at just about any time of year! The water slides are open later too. Disney Swan and Dolphin must address this issue even though they are independently owned by Westin and Sheraton. The pool should be run the same way - with more than one lifeguard for such a large pool, the water slide staying open longer and warmer water to swim in. We were most disappointed and expected a better pool experience for our relaxing enjoyment and downtime.

 

[Lewisc]

Most hotels have comment cards. Did you fill one out? You might send a letter to Starwood. A few years ago Disney lowered the pool temperature. Saved energy. Enough guests complained and Disney reverted back to the old policy.

It makes no sense to have late pool hours if the pool isn't sufficiently heated.

I don't remember. Are the other pools warmer? I vaguley remember reading it would cost too much to keep the grotto pool warmer (waterfall).

 

[DisneyFunTrips]

I did contact the supervisor at the front desk and was told that my issues regarding the pool would be addressed.
I don't mind the water not being too cold vs a warm pool, but this was so icy cold that my kids wouldn't even go swimming.

I did hear from others about the waterfall making this really large grotto pool keep cooler water temperatures. I am not sure what they should do to fix the cold water problem.

I have heard that there is a smaller lap pool which is a salt water pool, which keeps better temperatures. We didn't even know that they had that pool? Perhaps they should consider adding salt to the Grotto pool, or fixing the waterfall so that they can better regulate their pool?

We were all really looking forward to using the feature pool at Swan and Dolphin - it looked visually so beautiful, but was a HUGE disappointment because of the too cold water. Although the location of the resort was pretty great, I don't think we will return to this resort again unless the pool issues are corrected. It really took something away from our overall enjoyment of the property. In my opinion, they should try to copy Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Huge Sandy Bottom Feature Pool where the water temperature IS always great! It might even be the best pool at Disney!