Resort Debate

[Lucys dad]

Well... That's a HUGE MINUS followed by a Big Plus . But I guess that one can go there and eat anyway, right?

Indeed. I would eat again at Shulas and Kimonos in a flash. Shulas is possibly my favourite of any restaurant in the WDW area.

 

[HopperFan]

What are SPG points?

Starwood Preferred Guest. The Sheraton (not Disney hotel ) and now part of Marriott Frequent Guest Program.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/index.html

 

[Micca]

You could say the same for the resorts on Hotel Plaza Blvd.

That's what I was thinking, except the Swolphin location is excellent.

 

[SA mom]

All the pros have been well stated above. I only add that the beds are truly heavenly. We stay at the Swan on points so we only pay the resort and parking fees. That is a pretty cheap room and I still get EMH. That is my top priority.

 

[JanBlessed]

That's what I was thinking, except the Swolphin location is excellent.

TRUE! It sure is...

 

[JanBlessed]

Starwood Preferred Guest.
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/index.html

Thanks
I have something similar with the Hilton Resorts.

 

[robinb]

Thanks
I have something similar with the Hilton Resorts.

I can book the Swan over NYE - 5 nights for the price of 4. 48,000 points for 5 nights + $125 resort fees v/s $1907 for the cheapest room over the same dates.

ETA, I'm over at the Boardwalk on my DVC points for those dates already

 

[kiford]

One way in which you can tell if a hotel on the Disney property is owned/operated by Disney or is independent or part of a chain is by the name. If the name starts "Walt Disney World" XXX it is not owned or operated by Disney (as in: Walt Disney World Swan). Hotels that starts "Disney's" XXX (as in Disney's Boardwalk Inn) are owned and operated by Disney.

We personally prefer to stay at Disney hotels for some of the perks and atmosphere but there are a lot of really nice restaurants at the Swan and Dolphin which are just a short walk away from both HS and Epcot. We're not going to do Il Mulino this time only because they haven't changed their menu in quite a few years. It's a good menu - we're just a bit bored with it.

 

[chris benton]

Just got back home an hour ago. 6 nights at Swan.
One complaint - Monday AM Extra Magic Hours a Animal Kingdom - The bus was not running. There was an angry mob. Not everyone could fit on the first bus. I got to the queue at 7:30 am, and there were already 15 ppl waiting. The first bus showed up AFTER 8am. People were fuming. I called the Disney Desk (they never answer the phone, btw.) I left a msg with phone number, and never got a call back. I called the front desk, and the csr told me they were getting complaints about it. Didn't destroy my day as bad as I thought it would, but the real issue I had is this: I got my family to sleep the night before, then woke them up early to feed and prep them all for absolutely nothing to show for it except getting screwed out of Magic Hour prime touring time WHILE THE LINES FOR ATTRACTIONS grew. I don't think ppl understand that losing 30 minutes doesn't just mean you leave the park 30 minutes later than you planned. That screws up your whole day because the lines for all the attractions you planned are steadily growing while you are stuck. So when you get in line for your first, and have to wait longer than you should have, the line for your second is growing even more, and so on, and so on. What REALLY pist me off, tho, is that I could have ordered an uber, and got my family there for like 6 bux BEFORE rope drop. GLADLY!!!!!! Swan made my life harder for no reason at all. Life is too short. I would have absolutely no issue, if they would have sent a csr out to the crowd of 70 ppl CLEARLY WAITING, and said, "hey, **** happens, the busses are screwed up." I would have GLADLY ordered an uber - the price is almost insignificant. But instead, I actually planned enuff time to not get screwed by the disney bus, and still got totally screwed. I stopped by the Disney Desk and the Hotel Desk this am, to ask what happened. Neither of them knew anything about it. Ok - rant over. My fault for relying on humanity. I'd suggest Uber to anyone who actually plans their days out. Uber is cheap and on time. I actually did use Uber several times, but on that one day, I actually had the fam in bed early, and I had everything organized to be at AK as close to 8am as possible for emh.

Ok, other than that, I don't know of a reason to hate on Swan. Room was nice. Very clean. Housekeeping was no issue at all. "Resort View" with a balcony. I stepped out on the balcony three times for a total of about 2 minutes. Nice to know it was there, but not a big deal. I wouldn't pay extra for it. Pools were awesome. Awesome! Music, activities, towels, drinks from the Cabana Place at Dolphin - the one Swan pool had an outside bar that was manned at times. The pools were just great. Fantastic way to re-charge after an am park tour before hopping to a night park.

The restaurants:
We did Picabu:
I got the steak tacos on corn tortillas. The tortillas were absolutely awesome. Everything else was pretty crappy. 9.95 or 10.95. 3 steak tacos. I assumed there would be rice and beans, but nope - 3 tacos. The tortillas were fantastic. I asked for a side of their Collard greens, and was actually kind of impressed.

Kid's meal burger - I'd get a burger at Picabu again.

I wanted to try a half chicken dinner at some point, but after seeing the chicken parts on two different occasions, it didn't seem like a good idea.
==
Kimonos:
You could do pretty well at Kimonos if you avoid the land mines. I'd say stick with the decently priced sushi, and you'll be happy. Some of the sushi seemed overpriced, but some seemed pretty decently priced. If we stayed there again, we'd eat at kimonos a few times, happily.
==
Garden Grove:
We did the breakfast buffet at Garden Grove, and I think it was overpriced by about 5 dollars. I think they'd be better off removing a lot of things, and charging less. My family really liked the oatmeal, grits, omelette station, and absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the smoothies, but most of the other stuff was bottom of the barrel quality, and it was very apparent. I secretly liked the cinnamon roll that my 7 yr old said was, "bad." It was moist and dense seemingly out of nowhere. I expected it to be light and airy, but it was dense and chewy. I also loved the fruit - the raspberries and blackberries were sweet! We opted for Garden Grove only because it was a few bucks cheaper than Fresh Med. I don't think we would do the breakfast buffet again at GG. If they upped the quality a little, then maybe. I expected a bit better.

I spied the Seafood Sensation buffet one night before we headed out to a park - right around 6pm. It looked a little tired. I was glad I cancelled my reservation.

The Fountain was pretty decent. We got the pulled pork sandwich, the "big cib," and nothing else to make a real note of. Both sandwiches were very decent. Wouldn't hesitate to visit there again.

All in all, I would definitely stay at Swan again. The Friendship boats were fantastic, the walk back from Epcot after Illuminations was a breeze made even nicer since we had the Boardwalk to walk through - Ample Hills Creamery makes some decent ice cream - not too sweet- VERY good stuff.

No reason for me to hate on the Swan at all after this stay. I really liked it. Laid back vibe, not "all Disney all the time." It was a pretty chill place. I had higher hopes for the food we tried, but I know what to look out for next time.

 

[AngiTN]

I'd be pretty annoyed myself but not sure Swan is at the fault for the bus issue though. They are Disney buses just like at a Disney resort and they can be screwed up at those too. And I've never seen a Disney resort send someone out to talk to the guests either. They do have transportation CM that are at them sometimes but that comes from transportation, not the resort. And they are not at all resorts all the time

Great report on the foods. We really never eat at resorts so we didn't try any during our stay last month.

 

[Chaoticsweetness]

We stayed at the Swan a couple of years ago.

We didn't use the bus service, since we strictly walked to the Boardwalk and DHS.

It was a very nice resort, but I would not stay there again.

They put a hold on my credit card for $450 which was much more than the one night stay was (it was $105), I did get it removed eventually, but it was a lot of grief and not enough customer service assistance, it took close to a month for it to be removed. No where on the check in did it say that a hold would be placed on a booking credit card in that amount. They said it was because of my credit card, but I have used it almost everywhere on property & never had a hold on it like that.

I was very upset with them.

They tried to make it up to me by giving me a free upgrade & our room was ready upon check in.

 

[kiford]

And I've never seen a Disney resort send someone out to talk to the guests either.

Actually, last year there was a CM out at the bus stop almost every morning (this was at GF) often giving advice to people about the best way to get where you wanted to go or telling people that some buses might be delayed or suggesting alternatives. The resort monorail wasn't running early one day and one of them suggested to us to get on the bus to HS and either take the boat or walk to Epcot which we did and it was reasonably efficient. Probably better than waiting longer for a bus to MK and then going to the TTC and taking the monorail to Epcot which was our plan.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, it was actually the Captain's Grille we were going to at YC for breakfast so it was even faster to go with the CM's suggestion since we'd have to walk from the front of Epcot to the International Gate if we'd done our original plan which would have been even slower. I don't know if the CM was posted there because it was during a period when the monorail was undergoing maintenance but we got great advice several times about transportation options.

 

[AngiTN]

Actually, last year there was a CM out at the bus stop almost every morning (this was at GF) often giving advice to people about the best way to get where you wanted to go or telling people that some buses might be delayed or suggesting alternatives. The resort monorail wasn't running early one day and one of them suggested to us to get on the bus to HS and either take the boat or walk to Epcot which we did and it was reasonably efficient. Probably better than waiting longer for a bus to MK and then going to the TTC and taking the monorail to Epcot which was our plan.

That was a Transportation Dept CM not a Resort CM
They are there often but not continually.

 

[chris benton]

I'd be pretty annoyed myself but not sure Swan is at the fault for the bus issue though. They are Disney buses just like at a Disney resort and they can be screwed up at those too. And I've never seen a Disney resort send someone out to talk to the guests either. They do have transportation CM that are at them sometimes but that comes from transportation, not the resort. And they are not at all resorts all the time

Great report on the foods. We really never eat at resorts so we didn't try any during our stay last month.

I'm pretty sure that Swan has very little to do with Disney busses, I agree, however, I expected a little more professionalism considering how much money and planning goes into these trips, and how professional the CM's at Disney appear to be. I would think that at 7:30 ish am, once the calls started coming in to the Disney Desk and the Front Desk at the hotel, someone could have walked out to the group of ppl, and just said, "Listen, the bus is running behind, the ETA is 8:10 am." No apologies needed, imo. I would have absolutely LOVED to know that, and made the very simple adjustment accordingly - no big deal. Uber would have been a fantastic, easy, cheap workaround. I understand that things can happen, but, a simple courteous announcement would have gone a long, long way. No big deal to Uber over. It's cheap, and fast, and allows someone other than Walt to make a living when Walt screws up. I'm over it now, but it screwed up our day for no real reason. We had plenty of time to happily order an uber, and would have been very thankful to be respected enough to be let in on the situation that they were already taking calls about. I feel really sorry for the families that didn't even make it on the first bus. I'm sure they also planned out getting their kids ready for Magic Hours, and got screwed even more than we did.

 

[AngiTN]

I'm pretty sure that Swan has very little to do with Disney busses, I agree, however, I expected a little more professionalism considering how much money and planning goes into these trips, and how professional the CM's at Disney appear to be. I would think that at 7:30 ish am, once the calls started coming in to the Disney Desk and the Front Desk at the hotel, someone could have walked out to the group of ppl, and just said, "Listen, the bus is running behind, the ETA is 8:10 am." No apologies needed, imo. I would have absolutely LOVED to know that, and made the very simple adjustment accordingly - no big deal. Uber would have been a fantastic, easy, cheap workaround. I understand that things can happen, but, a simple courteous announcement would have gone a long, long way. No big deal to Uber over. It's cheap, and fast, and allows someone other than Walt to make a living when Walt screws up. I'm over it now, but it screwed up our day for no real reason. We had plenty of time to happily order an uber, and would have been very thankful to be respected enough to be let in on the situation that they were already taking calls about. I feel really sorry for the families that didn't even make it on the first bus. I'm sure they also planned out getting their kids ready for Magic Hours, and got screwed even more than we did.

You are right. All I meant was it wouldn't have been different at a Disney resort. Unless there was already a Transportation CM stationed at that resort bus stop no one would have been out explaining there either.

 

[Babsy]

Resort debate: No the Swan and Dolphin are not owned by Disney but they are on Disney property and come with the best Disney perks, IMO - extended hours, FP+ at 60 days and Disney transportation to the theme parks. Most of the perks that you don't get, we don't use anyway. I do miss ME bus on arrival, but we never use it to return to the airport. We prefer taxi, limo or Uber for the return. I like the heavenly beds better than the WDW beds and the rooms are truly deluxe rooms, IMO. I really like that you can book and pay for such things as a full balcony and a view of the Epcot fireworks, things that are only requests at some WDW Epcot resorts. ( I am especially thinking of you, Beach Club)

The best part of a stay at the Swan/Dolphin, however, is the price.

Current example:

Price of a "Resort view, balcony room" per night this Thanksgiving week (including weekend nights and Thanksgiving) at the Dolphin $211.00 plus resort fees and taxes = $266.00 per night with AAA discount. Newly renovated equivalent room is $249 or total of $308.00.
(rates include resort fee and taxes but not parking - we fly and never have a car)

BWI standard view room = $420 plus tax per weeknight and $453 plus tax per weekend night. with a 30% discount you would pay about $326 per week night and $352 per weekend night, Thanksgiving night (and just before) was even more $$ at around $388.

That amounts to a savings of $60 per week night, $96 per weekend night and $122 on nights just before and on Thanksgiving. (savings of $38 less per night in the newly renovated rooms).

And that is not the least expensive room at the Dolphin. You can save even more by choosing a standard room, no balcony ($202). For an Epcot area resort, these are an awesome prices. The savings easily pay for transportation to/from MCO plus the purchase of Magic Bands if you want them, with lots of $$ left over. And that is assuming that you get a 30% discount at the BWI over Thanksgiving week.

We stay at the Swan or Dolphin for at least a portion of most trips to WDW. It may not be an actual Disney hotel, but we enjoy the trip just as much as when we are staying at a Disney hotel. We walk out of our room and step onto a WDW bus or boat or walk to Epcot/DHS. We watch Illuminations from our bedroom balcony. It feels like Disney to us.

 

[PamNC]

Thing is - these are beautiful resorts and they are right smack dab in a wonderful location !!! Not to mention it's to the point now with the cost of Disney resorts, this is a great option!!! They offer decent rates for what I would call a 4 star if not a 4.5 star resort. Heck, I'd maybe call it a 5 star. I agree the food is superior. True, no dining plan. True, no ME. You have to weight out the options/price/value that works for you and your family.

 

[AngiTN]

And you have to sometimes hunt down those discounted rates. I looked at Swan/Dolphin for years and always wondered why folks said they were cheaper. Their rates usually came up the same, if not higher, than the Disney Epcot resorts. Then I learned SPG Membership was free, for instance. But rack rate at Swan/Dolphin is not a better rate in many cases.

 

[BadgerBruce]

Wow! That discount sounds great! I was not aware of this! Are the refillable mugs like the ones at other resorts at WDW?

Actually, I liked the mugs better at the S/D. The have a top that screws on and is kind of spill-proof. It also has a bottom with material that keeps it from sliding, tipping, etc. I use it for my coffee every day at home. We did most of our resort dining at Picabu, Splash Grill, & Cabana Pool Bar. We also ate at the Fountain. We used the AAA discount at all of those spots!

 

[JerseyJanice]

One thing that impressed me at the Swan was the quality of the towels. LOL! They are bigger and thicker than any I've used at "real" Disney resorts.