Swan or Wilderness Lodge?

[mickmom728]

Annual Passholders and we want to take advantage of our discounts before it expires. Would you do the Swan or Wilderness Lodge for a few days? We will have a car. Pros and cons please!

 

[danikoski]

Wilderness Lodge...the theming and atmosphere are amazing! There is a boat that goes between WL, Contemporary, and Fort Wilderness after 3:30 pm so you can enjoy those resorts as well. You can also take a boat or bus to MK, then take the monorail or boats to Grand Floridian or Poly and enjoy those resorts. Or just go relax by either of the pools and enjoy a drink at Geyser Point.

 

[Dave006]

Annual Passholders and we want to take advantage of our discounts before it expires. Would you do the Swan or Wilderness Lodge for a few days? We will have a car. Pros and cons please!

How many guests in your party and what parks are you planning to visit?

Location is king. Swan has easy access to Epcot and HS and multiple modes of transportation. WL has easy access to MK via boat or bus. @danikoski also covered the boat service that covers the CR, FW, and WL loop in addition the direct boat service to MK.

Dave

 

[WSobchak]

Since you will have a car, remember that it costs $36 a day to park at the Swan while there is no parking fee at the Wilderness Lodge.

Other than that, it depends on if you want to be closer to MK or Epcot/DHS. Personally, I prefer the Wilderness Lodge itself, but like the Crescent Lake location more, so it's a hard call.

 

[mickmom728]

Thank for the responses! I should have mentioned that we are in our late sixties and we will be celebrating a delayed 45th wedding anniversary. It will be a nine day stay so we’re hitting all the parks but just wanted a couple days of “something special”!

 

[DVC Deac]

we will be celebrating a delayed 45th wedding anniversary. It will be a nine day stay so we’re hitting all the parks but just wanted a couple days of “something special”!

Congratulations! Transportation options from either is a push. However, if you want special then it’s Wilderness Lodge. By a lot.

 

[Marthasor]

If given the choice and if costs are equal, I would do WL. The theming and overall atmosphere of the resort are just so special. We've stayed there multiple times and I could just sit in the lobby all day and be content.

Swan is nice and I find the beds quite comfortable. The location, certainly, has its advantages, but the resort is quite sterile feeling IMHO. We do stay there, but only if there is a huge cost advantage and we are mostly doing an EP/DHS trip.

 

[AussieFan8]

For something special, I’d go with Wilderness Lodge, although we often stay at Dolphin due to price and location and thinks it’s a great value for the money. As far as the resorts themselves, WL is our favorite.

 

[matt and beth]

We’re fifty and DvC at at WL and BWV. If we want special and slightly romantic we are over at BWV area. Being at Swan you have a great night life, fine dining, and some good bars. Plus easy access to just walk on into Epcot for some fun. But with Jellyrolls or Atlantic Dance Hall just a short walk… it’s easy for us. We absolutely love WL but it’s really quiet and very lazy. Nothing really romantic about the dining. More like country cowboy fun. Which we like. Just not anniversary

 

[gottalovepluto]

Have you priced them both out? If you aren’t booked yet be advised reports are AP discounts for Disney have been slim pickings- but lots of rack rate availability. Start with prices, WL is not worth thousands more than Swan. Likewise if Swan has a convention you could be looking at astronomical rates or even no availability making it unviable.

I’d split. 9 days in one place is a bit much for me. Spliting that would give you boat access to three parks. (If you do a resort day at Swan head over to the Dolphin for the pool, it’s a beautiful pool complex complete with order to your lounger food and drinks). I also like a split as it gives me refreshed food options (Swolphin’s food offerings blow WL’s out of the water).

 

[mickmom728]

Have you priced them both out? If you aren’t booked yet be advised reports are AP discounts for Disney have been slim pickings- but lots of rack rate availability. Start with prices, WL is not worth thousands more than Swan. Likewise if Swan has a convention you could be looking at astronomical rates or even no availability making it unviable.

I’d split. 9 days in one place is a bit much for me. Spliting that would give you boat access to three parks. (If you do a resort day at Swan head over to the Dolphin for the pool, it’s a beautiful pool complex complete with order to your lounger food and drinks). I also like a split as it gives me refreshed food options (Swolphin’s food offerings blow WL’s out of the water).

Part of our stay will be in Flamingo Crossings so just looking for a couple days of Deluxe treatment!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Part of our stay will be in Flamingo Crossings so just looking for a couple days of Deluxe treatment!

Ah, that’s a different ball game if you’re looking for basically a resort only stay for only a couple days. But, you said take advantage of your AP discount so I do not believe you don’t care about the price. A classic mistake people make is deciding they’ll splurge on a Disney room because of a discount, not checking availability/not booking when they see availability, falling in love with the resort they’ve chosen and then being faced with a rack rate bill or being bummed out.

Get your prices locked down for both options to assure they even exist in the realm of possibility. Make sure your Swan rate is refundable.

 

[SteveH]

I am a big fan of the Swan as far as location and dining options, but if I were in your situation I think I'd try to opt for Wilderness Lodge due to the theming and location to MK. Reports on the SwanDolphin thread are some pretty good discounts going on as @gottalovepluto said compare your prices and the locations and decide what's best for you.

 

[kylenne]

(If you do a resort day at Swan head over to the Dolphin for the pool, it’s a beautiful pool complex complete with order to your lounger food and drinks).

Heresy I know but I actually prefer the Dolphin pool to SAB.

OP, I would check both but given your circumstances I would lean toward WL. On a regular trip though this would be a nice split to me.

 

[mickmom728]

Thanks, everyone! We had already secured the WL AP discounted room when I saw the Swan come up for the same time. I thought I’d get some opinions before I made my decision!

 

[DisneyTeacher]

We’ve done both and prefer the Epcot resort area but would take WL over Swan. I think you made the right choice, stick with WL.

 

[kiford]

Hands-down WL. The Swan is a great location for dining and access to HS and EPCOT but WL is such a beautifully themed resort. It's still pretty close to MK and other resorts for dining so I don't see its location as a particular drawback. We just find it tranquil and relaxing there, especially having a drink at Geyser Point or down by the water.

 

[TeamSy]

We stayed at WL in 2010 (so it's been a while), Swan in 2018 and 2023.

We were unimpressed with WL that we ended up switching hotels to Beach Club shortly into our stay and have not been back. I will say the new Copper Creek cabins look amazing, but $$$. For us, I think it was the room/location. We were given an accessible room on the first floor (did not request one) that was a hike to get to and needed major updating. When we asked to switch rooms at WL, we were told they were sold out, and I believed it - it was PACKED. It just wasn't the experience we wanted so we ended up switching to Beach Club. We really enjoyed that. In terms of crowd, there was none, and they clearly had available rooms so I don't know what that was about, like a randomly crowded oversold WL lol. Maybe it was a random once-off bad experience? There was nothing that has us eager to return. The only transportation at the time (again, this was 2010 so a while ago) was the boat to MK, and of course bus, but we would prefer to drive than to take the bus.

Swan we found completely lovely. It's not as "Disney," but it's very relaxing and clean. We appreciate that. While it's less "bubble" feeling you're still within it and it's a nice break quite honestly. I was say last year when we went we split our stay between AKL and Swan, and the pool experiences were night and day. We couldn't find seats and were practically elbow to elbow with people in the pool at AKL. The Swan's pool complex is huge and wonderful. Again, relaxing. That's what we think of when we think of our 2 trips to the Swan. Walking to the Boardwalk, Epcot/HS (or take the boat) was also wonderful. MANY food options. Swan also has room service and poolside dining. Also pluses for us, don't know about you.

While we are doing GF and Beach Club this year, our kids ASK to go back to the Swan over all the other hotels. They love the fountain in the lobby and of course the pool. They actually like the pool complex at Swan/Dolphin over SAB lol. They loooooove the big waterfall and the slide. The ONLY reason we are not returning to swan this year for the Epcot/HS portion of our stay is I wanted laundry to be able to pack less lol, and while Swan has laundry, we wanted something in our room.

 

[TeamSy]

Heresy I know but I actually prefer the Dolphin pool to SAB.

OP, I would check both but given your circumstances I would lean toward WL. On a regular trip though this would be a nice split to me.

OMG I did not think anyone else did! My kids ASK to go back to the Swan pool over SAB! They were disappointed that we are doing Beach Club over Swan this year lol. They love the waterfall, the slide and "all the different pools" lolol

 

[CynBeth]

WL!