Just back from the Dolphin - Hotwire

clutter

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 29, 2001
Messages
4,309
First of all, I want to thank whoever it was that found the Dolphin on Hotwire back in February. I jumped on it, and boy did we love it.

I wondered if we'd get a yucky room. When we checked in, she said we were lakeview because "we love hotwire". We had a view of the lake, right next to the fountain, and if we'd been in our room any night at 9, I'm sure we could have seen the fireworks. My dd wanted a balcolny, but I told her that wasn't in the budget.... Yep, there's a LOT of conventioneers there. Fortunately, most of them were casual, not business casual, casual. A lot brought families.

I loved the location. Boat service is fast. Busses to AK were slow, going to YC, BC and BW, but MK busses were S/D only. Only complaint was that every evening we went to MK, we waited a LONG time for a bus, only to see a second one coming in as we were leaving.

Food was ok. We had breakfast on Sunday at the Swan character breakfast, and I though it was better than at Disney. We got there late (not knowing it was character, we were simply looking for pancakes for my dd) and missed Chip and Dale, but spent way much time with Goofy and Pluto. Plus it was nice to have the option of ordering off the menu. hen we ate there again later in the week, our waitress remembered us, even though she wasn't serving us that time.

At first I thought the rooms were rather plain (renovated, I think, we had the heavenly beds). But they grew on me. I wish we'd had a regular table and chair instead of the side table. But I loved having an armchair in the room. And they need more storage. At least the room type we had.

Staff was marvelous! My dd kept telling me to call the 66 people (guest services). Boy, there wasn't a question they couldn't answer. (We'd had to get an engineer to come with a screwdriver to detach a car she'd bought from it's box.)

The pool was fun. The first day we walked by the pool and my dd decided that the water at the bottom of the slide was too deep, so we didn't get there until later in the week. The first time we did, the slide was closed. Once she tried the slide, the trip was over. It was pool timem constantly.

All in all, we loved it. It's up there with my other favorites, CBR and AKL. Especially great given the rate we got!

As for our first July trip, it wasn't as hot or crowded as I'd expected. We ended up doing two e-ride nights. Those were well worth it. Now to deal with reality. But I know why there's so much S/D raving on the boards!
 
What was your rate? We LOVE the YC but will probably have to spend less on our next trip. I've been thinking about trying Swan or Dolphin b/c we wouldn't have to give up the great location.
 
It was listed on hotwire for $90. I also bought the airfare in my package, so I'm guestimating $104 with taxes and fees. Then the resort fee on top of that. I don't think it comes up on hotwire all that often, though, so I don't know what we'll do in the future. I loved it, but I just don't like paying any more than that for a room. We used to be just as happy at the all-stars, but that was before my dd discovered slides in the pool....
 

Thanks for the review! I have reservations at the Swan in Sept so I really appreciated it, plus I haven't been able to find much info on the Character meal.

(I had to use a dime as a screwdriver to free Woody from his box for ds in meltdown mode recently, LOL, so I know what you mean, too bad I didn't have a 66 people button handy!)
 
So glad that you had a great time and that you discovered the disney hidden treasure :D
 
I am glad you had a good time at the Dolphin. We love the S/D and the location is so great. We found the staff at the Swan on our last trip to be as good, if not better, than any other resort staff at WDW we have encountered. Very friendly and service oriented.
It makes it especially sweet when you get it a great deal for your accomodations.
 


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