Our hotel portion of our trip was upgraded!

[ofiesty4u]

We were upgraded on our hotel part of our land/sea package!! Went from the CBR to the Dolphin!!!

Has anyone else gotten any pixie dust?

 

[Hygiene99]

Hey good for u ..... we stayyed at dolphin once
Now we always stay at the Boardwalk..... Witch u willl be able to enjoy the area at night.... and dont forget to TRY the FLYING FISH restruant at the Boardwalk .....

GREAT FOOD........


peter

 

[ofiesty4u]

Originally posted by Hygiene99
Hey good for u ..... we stayyed at dolphin once
Now we always stay at the Boardwalk..... Witch u willl be able to enjoy the area at night.... and dont forget to TRY the FLYING FISH restruant at the Boardwalk .....

GREAT FOOD........


peter

The upgrade came as a complete shock, I thought once you got your documents it was a done deal. We needed this little tidbit of good news!

I see you're off on your voyage soon, hope you have a magical time!

 

[Hygiene99]

We Dont REALLY LIKE THE YANKEES around here much.....

LOL I Wonder if i can get A tee time with the A's

Oh we will with the magic out of dry dock and 150 of our closest Dis Board friends ................

Oh yea and look for us on the boardwalk we will be there at the same time....lol

 

[LAMPSKIES]

Ofiesty4u.........a word of advice.......DON'T DO IT!!! The Dolphin and The Swan are NOT WDW Resourts. You will not get a KTTW card thus 2 checkins. No charging benefits at the parks. I took the upgrage last year and will NEVER do it again. Dolpin and Swan I believe are Westin owned and their computers don't "talk" to DCL's. Feel free to p.m. me I will send you the 4 page minutte by minute fiascoe.

 

[aprilgail2]

I wouldn't take that upgrade either...I stayed at the swan once and won't ever do that again....just not that "disney feel" there!

 

[DisneyForLife]

I agree with above posts. I would not stay at the Dolphin or Swan again. Just didn't feel that magical feeling!!!!!!!
When we did the land and sea we were upgraded to the Floridian. Now that is a hotel I wouldn't refuse.

 

[LAMPSKIES]

I stayed at CB the first time........all we did was sleep and swim there. When I was offered the "upgrade" I at first refused. Then I was told "your kids eat free". After much discussion with DW we took the upgrade, guess what??? Kids 9 and under eat free!!!Mine were 10 and 12 and they knew thay on my reservation!!!! We were one of the cancelled Nov. 29 cruisers and rescheduled three days at the Dolphin then the 4 night Wonder then 2 more days at the Swan. Guess what I got there Thursday morning.......no reservations.....when I showed them my faxed confirmation boy were they surprised. There excuse was "we are not a WDW resourt and our computers don't have the ability to talk to each other....sorry". Yep, no park passes no hotel room no nothing!!!

 

[LAMPSKIES]

Here is a small portion as to what you WON'T get.Unlike Disney-

Unlike other Disney resorts, charging privileges don't extend beyond the Swan and Dolphin. All purchases and dining expenses at both the Swan and the Dolphin can be charged to your pre-arranged account. There are no Disney toiletries in the guestroom and no Mickey wake-up calls. They do have great oatmeal bath bars! NO refillable mugs. Hey, Swandolphin this is definitely a HINT! No relocation help if splitting stay between Swan/Dolphin and a Disney owned resort. Also, you can not use Disney Dollars to pay for hotel stay.

 

[aprilgail2]

Do you even get early park entry when you stay at the swan/dolphin?? I can't remember that far back LOL.

 

[LAMPSKIES]

You don't have a KTTW card........do you need that for early entry??? Yippie My bad experience may actually help someone out!!!

 

[Hygiene99]

I would also echo what has been said by the other posters
did not know all that stuff so i did not want to spoil
someone else excitment... but we did not like it at the
Dolphin CONCIERGE level just did not have the disney feel.....

was the way we can sum it up will not stay there again...


Would check with disney and see if they can upgrade u to the
Beach club ..... now that would be nice....

 

[ofiesty4u]

Originally posted by Hygiene99
I would also echo what has been said by the other posters
did not know all that stuff so i did not want to spoil
someone else excitment... but we did not like it at the
Dolphin CONCIERGE level just did not have the disney feel.....

was the way we can sum it up will not stay there again...


Would check with disney and see if they can upgrade u to the
Beach club ..... now that would be nice....

I appreciate all the warnings... we're not too concerned about the "disney feel" that's not real important as we'll have plenty of that outside the hotel... I don't know how I feel about calling the TA back and asking about another hotel... I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth... it's just the two of us, no kids, we aren't planning on buying a lot of stuff, so charging to the room isn't a problem. We'd rather not run up a huge bill anyway. The website does say you get early entry...

the only thing that concerns me is the two check-ins sans the KTTW... I will call my travel agent in the morning and pass along my questions and concerns about this place...

Again, thanks to everyone who spoke up!

 

[Hygiene99]

then dont sweat it... u may lke it at the dolphin , try it u only live
once ,,, we have disney vacation club so we alays stay at
BW uless we go and someone else wants to try some place else

Checking in at the port is a breeze get in line and 5 minute later u have your room key painless , we donot have any children go relax and enjoy...... see my BIL loves swan dolphin ......

 

[BethC1952]

We received the same upgrade for our December cruise last year, from PO Riverside to the Dolphin. The Dolphin was very nice, the rooms were large, there is a 24-hour place to eat, service was good, and everything was included--they gave us a fridge, paid the "resort fee", etc. It's very easy to get to Epcot and Disney-MGM Studios.

With all that said, I'm really glad that we stayed at the Dolphin once, but I don't think I'd take the upgrade again. I really do prefer the Disney moderates, with their outside walkways and lots of beautiful landscaping.

We didn't have to check in at the port. We were given our keys just before we boarded the bus. I have to admit that the bus-boarding was slightly less organized than it had been at PO Riverside on our previous cruise.

Beth

 

[abitjaded]

A vote FOR the Swolphin! We have stayed at the Swan several times. The resort is lovely, the pool is wonderful. The Michael Graves designs are fascinating, and I think they are very "Disney". The service is wonderful. The rooms are huge and we nearly always get upgraded, even though we were always paying dirt cheap teachers rates. The boat service to MGM, Epcot and Boardwalk are great. The walk back from MGM at night is lovely. We rarely use our rental car when we stay there. We have had many extra perks by staying there. When we had hassles with tickets once, they straightened it out and the hotel credited us any difference that would have incurred due to "not being connected to Disney computers". Our kids used the club and the four kids and cousins had two CMs to themselves who entertained them wonderfully. We had a wheelchair that popped apart and someone there fixed it. Once one of my older cousins, who is learning impaired, showed up and could not locate us, due to his not remembering my DH's last name. They were incredibly kind to him as he waited for hours hoping to find us. Talk to the resort directly to confirm your needs/wants. They have wonderful employees who bend over backwards to help.

Carla

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by ofiesty4u
We were upgraded on our hotel part of our land/sea package!! Went from the CBR to the Dolphin!!!

Has anyone else gotten any pixie dust?

CONGRATULATIONS!!! If you've never stayed at the Dolphin, you'll love it! We've stayed there and the Swan and enjoyed both. Now, you can enjoy the Boardwalk, a walk or boat to MGM and Epcot. Also, if you go to Coral Cafe, they have character buffet breakfasts that are a lot of fun. You don't even need ressies -- just walk right in. ENJOY!

 

[ofiesty4u]

Originally posted by BethC1952
We received the same upgrade for our December cruise last year, from PO Riverside to the Dolphin. The Dolphin was very nice, the rooms were large, there is a 24-hour place to eat, service was good, and everything was included--they gave us a fridge, paid the "resort fee", etc. It's very easy to get to Epcot and Disney-MGM Studios.

With all that said, I'm really glad that we stayed at the Dolphin once, but I don't think I'd take the upgrade again. I really do prefer the Disney moderates, with their outside walkways and lots of beautiful landscaping.

We didn't have to check in at the port. We were given our keys just before we boarded the bus. I have to admit that the bus-boarding was slightly less organized than it had been at PO Riverside on our previous cruise.

Beth

Thanks, since we've never been to Disney (well he hasn't, I haven't been since 1980 when I was 9) we've never stayed onsite, so we won't have anything to compare it to. So we're sticking with the upgrade... I might regret it, but we'll see.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by aprilgail2
Do you even get early park entry when you stay at the swan/dolphin?? I can't remember that far back LOL.

Yes, you do get EE.

We happen to really like these resorts. We've experienced all kinds of wonderful things at these resorts (and by the way, they are not owned by Westin, they are owned by Starwood):

1 - character buffet breakfasts
2 - tubbis buffeteria
3 - LARGE rooms with really COMFY beds
4 - character dinners
5 - the Boardwalk
6 - Fantasia Mini Golf
7 - Disney bus transportation
8 - Characters walk around the lobbies during certain times of day
9 - DCL Check in Desk
10 - Proximity to The Boardwalk Inn, The Beach and Yacht Club
11 - Then endless eating possibilities at not only the Swan and Dolphin, but those mentioned in #10.
12 - Beautiful pools and spas
13 - Very clean rooms with excellent housekeeping services

I could go on, but I won't. To each's own. Just know that it's not all bad like many posters are describing.

Just my 2cents.

 

[ofiesty4u]

Originally posted by CRSNDSNY
I could go on, but I won't. To each's own. Just know that it's not all bad like many posters are describing.

Just my 2cents. [/B]

I'm beginning to see that people have such different opinions on what they want in a hotel. I do appreciate all the information from both sides and we agreed to keep the upgrade, I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time no matter where we lay our heads.