NEW...DOLPHIN/SWAN..."questions and answers"...tips and hints!

[lovingthemouse]

Mom Poppins
Were you ever an elementary teacher? I love the activities you planned for your "at home" vacation. You are truly creative!!! I can also bet your family had the most wonderful vacation and never mind the "home" bit - all you had planned seemed to take them out of their stick around home feelings.
Being the mom of five, I remember well staying home and always finding things for the girls to do - nice day trips always helped. Funny that when the girls were younger, they seemed to find plenty to do- it was still acceptable to play with dolls, riding bikes was lots of fun, and roller skating was what they seemd to love a lot.
My 6th graders seem so grown up in class - dolls would be laughed at, riding a bike??? boys do that...and roller skates??? It is wonderful when kids can still act like kids - no pressure to grow up, become street smart, or be responsible for so many younger siblings etc... Thanks for continuing to make childhood so wonderful for your kids!!!
DF and Disbug and Mouseteacher - hope the magic continues to envelope you all !!!
Caroline

 

[TinkOhio]

Hi, Dismom63!

We booked the teacher rate at the Swan for this Easter break and ran into the same problem. Just call SPG acct. services and they will give you their confirmation number for your stay. (This will differ from the Dolphin's confirmation #.)

Can't help you with your other questions, but I'm sure someone else will. The people on this thred are SO nice!

Good luck!

TinkOhio

 

[KelliR]

DF ... love hearing your WDW adventures! I just returned from South Bend and I leave Tuesday for the Westin in Times Square.

I dined at Seasons 52 when I was there in June. It was fantastic!!! I recognized the delicious pork dish and the filet mignon ... from the Cali Grille! Everything was delicious. The wine selection was very good ... and I especially liked the dessert presentation ... they offered a "tasting" sampler. (I have forgotten the exact name). Small goblets of about 12 or so different desserts. You can order one or two ... or even the whole tray! They are about $1.95 or so and are a wonderful way to satisfy your sweet tooth, but not get too full. The restaurant has a great atmosphere and the service was tremendous.

Happy Anniversary ... and everyone enjoy your vacations!!!

 

[G-gang]

Has anyone stayed at the Dolphin (standard room) family of 5 comfortably w/o the rollaway bed? We were thinking of bringing a sleeping bag. In the description it states oversized doubles--what does that mean exactly? My DH and I just want to make sure that we'll get a good night sleep. TIA

 

[hookedup]

We leave in 4 days! I am getting really excited but I can't seem to focus on packing. I always have good intentions to pack early but it always ends up a last minute task. DH keeps checking the timetable and telling me where we'll be (on the train) at this time next week. Right now we will be in North Carolina heading south. Then on Monday WDW and the Swan CL!!!!!!
Yipee!!!!

 

[Muffy]

Hookedup, Have a great time. I hope everything works out ok with your train travel plans!

Disbug, Did you bring a laptop? Hope you are having a blast at WDW with your family!

Mouseteacher, Are you back yet? Hope your trip was magical!

Ozzie, How did the raft with the inflatable sides workout at the grotto pool?

DF, Keep posting your updates! We love them!

Muffy

 

[madge]

G-gang--we had 5 in a room at the Dolphin last fall and will be doing the same this September. Our youngest is still in a crib--we never really felt crowded in the room at all. In fact, we felt more smooshed this week in our Washington, DC hotel room!

Madge

 

[#1hockeymom]

I love the at home vacation photos! What a nice treat to plan for your family!

dismom63>> Sometimes I had to put my name/password and information in the spg site more than once, and then it would go through. I also had to pick "other reservations", or something like that, in order to see my Swan reservations since I had booked them through DU. I believe category A is resort view, according to some other posts I have read.

g-gang>> How old are your three children? We have two kids, 17, and 9(ten now!) and the split vanity in our Swan room saved our sanity. It was much easier to get ready in the morning if our DD had her own mirror and sink, than if she was using the one in the bathroom exclusively.

hookedup>> have a great trip! Enjoy Chicago on your way over (down)!

kelliR>> I am hungry just reading your post! I wish more restaurants would do sampler desserts like that!

luvdisney14>> I would ask in person, with your biggest brightest smile! It can't hurt to ask! Good luck to you! We really enjoyed having club level on our last trip.

jetsetter>> Congrats to you and yours!

*Waving to the rest of the group*

To everyone in the world, ENJOY! Hope you are having a great time! I am about to put my own counter up, which will probably quell my need to be there NOW, for a bit! IF my pink slip goes away, DH said, "yes, if you'll leave me alone you can go book the next trip" wait.. I mean he said..."YES! You loved it, I loved it, I love you! go book it!" Either scenario gets me to the same point. Please send some pixie dust to make that pink slip go away!

Have a great Monday! Summer is still here!

Debbie

 

[ww52]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the great information I received over the past several weeks (or months) on this thread, the Starwood thread, and the resort board in general. We were able to get a CL upgrade with Starwood points at the teacher rate – a huge savings over our original plan (BC at nearly rack rate). The upgrade was somewhat clumsy (in that we originally reserved CL, then had to downgrade / upgrade with points). Then the upgrade mysteriously disappeared on the SPG site just a few hours after I saw it was all in order. Then we got it back, but without the 2 queen beds we needed. Finally a very effective call by my wife to a Swan manager got everything back in order.

Again, thanks to all the great people on this board for the help and information.

 

[G-gang]

Madge: I'm so glad to hear that your family faired well at the Dolphin and hopefully mine will to.

1Hockeymom: My boys are 11 and 8, and my daughter is 6. I don't have to worry about the vanity thing yet, I'm lucky if she lets me comb/brush her hair once a day. LOL

I appreciate your input and hope you don't mind me pestering with some more ?'s before we leave on our trip.

Lisa

 

[RAV]

We just returned from 7 nights at the Swan. We had a wonderful time. I was terribly concerned about the crowds prior to our arrival but we were pleasantly surprised at just how manageable the crowds were. Our room was on the club level. Morning service was efficient and cheerful in the lounge( as always) but the evening service was a disappointment. The lounge hours are one hour shorter now. Unfortunately, if we did not arrive at the lounge at 5pm, the selection was very limited and items were not replenished. We had lovely dining plans for each evening during our stay so the p.m. hours in the lounge were not all that important to us. But, we paid for club level because we did not want to chance a comp. upgrade. The sign doesn't say, first come, first served. If food is offered for 2 hours , then replenish it. My son asked for a cookie and was told they were gone. If the lounge is open, then accomodate guests. (just had to vent)

Both my husband and son made it to the hot seat on Millionaire. My son went out on the 64k question and my dh on the 500k question. It was fun to watch them having so much fun. We also rode Mission Space several times. It was exciting and great fun.

We had a wonderful trip and are planning our return. Thanks for all the tips received on this thread.

 

[ww52]

Sorry to hear about the hours in CL being shortened. Maybe it was temporary due to staffing? Anyway, we did get a comp (see previous post) so I can't complain - and yet if we did pay the CL differential we would have a lot to say about that.

I still think the Swan needs to rethink the CL pricing - but I guess I should wait until I experience it before expressing too strong of an opinion. My thought is that it is overpriced for what you get, so few people opt to pay for it; so there are plenty of rooms available for SPG points and comp upgrades; in addition, others get CL privileges without even having a room on CL - presumably from an upgrade. So maybe the service shrinks since they are not getting enough money from it?

It seems very different from concierge at GF, AKL, etc. where the lounge is open much longer and they provide other services as well. I'm sure that is more pricey, but I also presume they don't give many of those rooms away as "comps" either, so the services are being funded by the room rate.

 

[madge]

our experience with the CL is that in the evening, it is always first come, first served. We found this to be true at the Swan as well as the Dolphin. To be fair, we haven't stayed on CL since June 2001....hoping to work something out this fall, though. That stinks about the evening hours, for thise that use it. We always grabbed something right at 5 to hold us over until dinnertime.

 

[MOM POPPINS]

Update on Baby Jr. and Me....For those of you who have followed my journey with my pregnancy and my months in the hospital I wanted to let those of you know what happened with the Doctor who told me "Frankly I think your baby will be dead by Monday"... This Doctor was a specialist at the hospital my own OB had sent me to back in March. I went to see my own OB today and asked if he told the specialist that Baby Kirk had survived. He told me the specialist had been reassigned My OB said the day I left the hopital to go to another hospital, against medical advice, the Chief of the hospital got involved and wanted to find out what happen. My OB "went to bat" for me and told the board he "would never deliver another baby at this hospital unless they let him go" and my OB has been delivering there for over 20 years. They reassigned the specialist to the Medical school but he can no longer see patients. It was not only the comment he made above but many more and he also had also asked that I not be allowed to see anyone not even my children. This did not ever happen because my own OB said NO way. Anyways I wanted to let those of you know who thought this specialist was way out of line... that the board of the hospital also thought so and decided " A doctor not only needs to look after someones physical well being but their emotional needs as well." I would also like to say that it is refreshing to have a doctor who cares as much about his patients as my OB does, he has a heart of gold. I will also share one more things and say that he said it was so hard to come by and see me there everyday for months hooked up to the monitors 24/7 and difficult for him to leave me there day after day.... and he said to me today " Your my hero" .... and that is one special Doctor....... I just wanted to share to those of you whom have followed our long journey

By the way when we were at the Dolphin in October last year CL always had plenty of cookies and food no matter what time we went by

 

[Mouseteacher]

Hi, everyone - just took a few minutes from laundry to read the past posts. I'll respond later.

Happy Anniversary, DF.
Ours is on July 30th and we were treated royally at the Cali Grille on last Saturday evening. DH and I were using that evening to celebrate our anniversary. Our waiter, Gary, asked if we were celebrating any thing special. I was hesitant to say anything because the date was slightly off but DH did and our evening was fabulous (I'll tell more later).

Got my comp upgrade to a balcony!!!!!!! and guess what room that balcony was attached too? a Junior Suite!!! Am I still thrilled or what?

If I thought I was sold on Dolphin last summer, it was cemented by our magical stay at the Swan this trip. Everything was special -heavenly beds are heavenly. Turn down service was lovely. Our view was wonderful. We used the balcony a great deal of the time. I could go on and on but I'll go into detail soon.

 

[#1hockeymom]

OH my! My mouth is just hanging open reading your post, mompoppins! I am glad he is no longer seeing patients. I hope he also will change his attitude so something like that doesn't rub off on his students! I am very glad that the board decided to do something about the situation with this doctor. Again, I am even more happy that you and baby Kirk are healthy and alive!

She's BACK! Welcome back Mouseteacher! Looking forward to all your "in the world" stories! You must tell us your tricks on getting comp upgrades like that! Two trips in a row that the front desk had pixie dust for you! I was too scared to try for a comp on our last trip, this next one I will probably be booking the minimum we'll be happy with, and then cross our fingers for something special!

Rav, I am sorry you didn't have the magic on club level that I ran into the end of June. I am also sorry to hear that club level shorted their hours, and it sounds like their staff has also been cut back. I hope this was just an isolated incident and things will go back to normal. Club level for us was wonderful every evening except for one, and as I mentioned in a much earlier post, neither MommaT nor Thabo were working that night, and Thabo asked us the following morning how things were that previous night. Even our "bad" night wasn't a problem at all! There were still some things to snack on, and the beverages were still in huge supply. Give me a comfortable chair and diet coke on a hot day and I am a happy camper! As far as pricing. I thought it was fair as far as being "light" concierge in relation to Disney's "all out" concierge. The price is about half what Disney charges. I was willing to pay for the Swan/Dolphin concierge. I would love to do concierge at a Disney hotel, but right now I feel that it is a little out of our price range.

ww52>> So glad your reservations are all worked out! You became a points expert in no time at all! I still need to make some decisions about going with the amex. We have so many credit cards already I really dont want to add fuel to the fire, even if most of them are 0 balanced and never used.


Have a nice night everyone,
Debbie

 

[Mouseteacher]

Debbie ~ we booked a standard King room. Upon check-in the CM read the reservation as such and I gulped... took a deep breath (I was nervous asking) and asked for a balcony room if possible (also inserting the comment that I was spg Gold) because it would really make our stay wonderful. At this point, I was stumbling over my words b/c I am not used to asking for upgrades. The CM (Ana) smiled and said let me see what I can do. She played on the computer for a few minutes while I held my breath. She looked up and said "Yes, I have a balcony room. It is a junior suite - would that be alright?" OMG!!! think I - am I hearing her? She repeats again since I'm sure my face was frozen with a disbelieving look. I then snap to and say thank you so very much. DH keeps saying what are we getting? LOL

The CM did offer CL privledges for an additonal $50 a day. She said she could not do both complimentary. I turned down CL since it was just DH and me and we knew we would not be using the afternoon offerings. We were fine without it.

Our room was on the 6th floor of the East Wing - last room. The view was of the walkway to the Dolphin, the boat landing, the quiet pool, the lagoon and the Dolphin. We could see the Y/B Club from one window, too. The room had 3 windows plus the sliding doors to the balcony. It was room 625. I am still pinching myself.

 

[#1hockeymom]

*clapping* Love your story! And a happy ending!

Your room was the room across the hall from us, and one floor down. (726) I bet all the rooms in that corner are the jr suites! That makes sense with what Ozzie had said earlier about our room being on the corner so it must be a suite. We had standard queen/queen with the slider facing epcot and a single window facing the dolphin. Your room really wraps around! My smiles only achieved us three floors higher than we were originally. I'll have to work on my smile!

If it was only the two of us, I would have taken the room over the CL, also!

Thanks for sharing,
Debbie

 

[madge]

mouseteacher! that sounds awesome! glad your trip was so wonderful I can't wait to hear all about it!

Madge

 

[KittenLittle]

MouseTeacher! Sounds fantastic!!
Please reiterate that there ARE Jr. Suites at the Dolphin that DO have balconies!?! I thought I had seen on this site that none of them did. I do dream of being able to stay in this type of room next summer. I wonder if DU handles Dolphin Jr. Suites??
Do tell!!!
By the way-I hope you have a wonderful upcoming school year! I was a middle school teacher for 25 years and LOVED it!!