The **New** Swan and Dolphin Resort thread ~ April 2012 ~ Please read post #1

[pooh2001]

They only count adults on your reservation.
Dolphin rooms holds 5 people, Swan rooms hold 4 people.

We have a DS over 18 - and a DD under 18, so our reservation just says 3 adults - but they know our DD is also in the room with us.

If over 2 adults, it is an extra $25 each night for each extra adult (18 and over) in the room.

But, we are a family, and no one is left behind - so our almost adult DS is paid for by us.

 

[Abharmagic]

Teacher Discount Question:
What kind of proof do they need- a pay stub? I am a preschool teacher, does that count? M-f 8:30-3:30 I put my time in I do not have any form of teacher ID- is it certified public school teachers only?

 

[NancyC1000]

Teacher Discount Question:
What kind of proof do they need- a pay stub? I am a preschool teacher, does that count? M-f 8:30-3:30 I put my time in I do not have any form of teacher ID- is it certified public school teachers only?

My husband is a college professor and we qualify for the teacher's discount. We just bring a copy of his most recent pay stub for proof. Hopes this helps.

 

[Mouseteacher]

Teacher Discount Question:
What kind of proof do they need- a pay stub? I am a preschool teacher, does that count? M-f 8:30-3:30 I put my time in I do not have any form of teacher ID- is it certified public school teachers only?

I am a principal in a Catholic school but I have state certification which I have shown upon check-in. I have heard that a pay stub suffices and perhaps a letter from your administrator on school letterhead as a back up.

 

[magsmum]

As far as I know, the teacher/nurses discounts are standard discounts offered by the resort year-round, every year.

I just linked to the Dolphin reservations page through the Teacher discount link and dates are available for booking through November 2013, although the months of June and July are blocked. I plugged in random dates for April, August and October and came up with rates of $219, $149 and $169, respectively.

The good thing about these rates is that you can book a room now, and if a better rate comes along later on, you can re-book up to 5 days before your arrival without incurring any kind of penalty.

Good luck with your planning.

Check rates carefully. I am booked for President's Week 2013. Teacher rates just came out and they are substantially higher than rates I got for 2012 and 2011. Fifty dollars more per night higher. I booked a AAA rate initially and called regularly to see if teacher rates were out. I managed to drop to a better AAA rate ($23 less) and that rate, while much higher than I would like, is better than the teacher rate that was finally released. I'm so disappointed and will keep checking the rates. My first choice is the Dolphin but with these rates, I'll be switching to POR if free dining comes out for my dates. The Dolphin is not the deal it has been in the past for that week.

 

[SingingMom]

How long does the Dolphin leave up their Christmas decorations?

How is the weather in January?

We ALWAYS go in the summer, but now that DD is in college, we have more leeway with her time off. We were thinking of fitting in a visit after the New Year, before Spring semester begins. Any feedback from anyone who has gone to WDW at this time of year? Thanks!!

 

[olive]

I understand that it is pretty variable. We did a January trip for January 2011. We got to Orlando on New Years Day and stayed a little less than 2 weeks. It was freezing cold! My husband ran the NY marathon (November) and the Disney marathon and he was pretty uncomfortable so early in the morning in the cold. We bundled up a lot (had to buy gloves and hats there), and we definitely cut our days shorter because of the cold. I also ended up at the ER midway through the trip with pneumonia, which didn't help. That said, some of our family got there a few days earlier and were able to swim, and apparently it is not unheard of for it to be swimming weather here and there in January. Although we were initially scared off by our January experience, we are going to try it again this coming January. (We went last May/June, too, and swore we would never do another cold weather trip with such a great experience in terms of both weather and crowds on that spring trip, but we changed our minds.) If we have bad weather luck again, this will probably be our last winter trip! My husband teaches at a college and I will be on maternity leave, so we though it would be a perfect time to take a longer vacation. We'll see how it pans out! I've got my fingers crossed for both of us.

 

[NBCGal]

Has anyone experienced the Swan & Dolphin food & wine classic? We've done the food & wine fest at EPCOT a few times & wonder how this event compares.

 

[MBELSANTI]

http://binged.it/JV2OaT

Ohhhhh I spent the last 40 minutes looking at that map. Thank you for sharing!

 

[MBELSANTI]

HI all,

I have been out of commission for several weeks now, so I had about 20 pages of catching up to do!
I am down to 3 weeks left before we depart and have a few more questions.
Thanks to SRUAlmn I have a restaurant.com cert to Garden Grove for dinner. Do they only offer buffet for dinner and which night has the best food (seafood, Mediterranean or Southern BBQ)?

Has anyone ever ordered a special cake through their baker? I want to get a cake with Mickey dressed as a boyscout. I found a clipart for it online.

And I am reading about all of the upgrades so I tried to log in tonight to see if I can tell if my AAA is linked and it says the site is down If I booked with my AAA and received the discount, am I automatically linked with AAA?

Thanks again for all of the help you guys have given me! I am so looking forward to our stay!!

 

[LexiC123]

HI all,

I have been out of commission for several weeks now, so I had about 20 pages of catching up to do!
I am down to 3 weeks left before we depart and have a few more questions.
Thanks to SRUAlmn I have a restaurant.com cert to Garden Grove for dinner. Do they only offer buffet for dinner and which night has the best food (seafood, Mediterranean or Southern BBQ)?

Has anyone ever ordered a special cake through their baker? I want to get a cake with Mickey dressed as a boyscout. I found a clipart for it online.

And I am reading about all of the upgrades so I tried to log in tonight to see if I can tell if my AAA is linked and it says the site is down If I booked with my AAA and received the discount, am I automatically linked with AAA?

Thanks again for all of the help you guys have given me! I am so looking forward to our stay!!

Welcome back!

Unfortunately, just booking a room with the AAA rate doesn't link your AAA account with your SPG account. If you call SPG Customer Support at (888) 625-4988 and give them your AAA number, they can link your accounts.

And yes, Garden Grove is buffet only for dinner. I haven't eaten there (yet), but I've read some good things about the seafood buffet and the Mediterranean buffet. Haven't seen anything about Southern BBQ night.

Here's a really good review of Mediterranean Night from the Dining Review Board: Part 1 ....Part 2

 

[melissam2003]

I have a quick ?

I was going through our reservations on my SPG app on my phone & our room type is listed as a DLX Balcony King & then is list its features. I reserved a resort view king...is this the same? JW because when I sign into our SPG on computer it is the same as the day I reserved but noticed this on the APP. Its not a big deal no matter what both are balcony resort view jw if there is a difference.

TIA

 

[Ramsfan28]

HI all,

I have been out of commission for several weeks now, so I had about 20 pages of catching up to do!
I am down to 3 weeks left before we depart and have a few more questions.
Thanks to SRUAlmn I have a restaurant.com cert to Garden Grove for dinner. Do they only offer buffet for dinner and which night has the best food (seafood, Mediterranean or Southern BBQ)?

Has anyone ever ordered a special cake through their baker? I want to get a cake with Mickey dressed as a boyscout. I found a clipart for it online.

And I am reading about all of the upgrades so I tried to log in tonight to see if I can tell if my AAA is linked and it says the site is down If I booked with my AAA and received the discount, am I automatically linked with AAA?

Thanks again for all of the help you guys have given me! I am so looking forward to our stay!!

I have ordered 4 different cakes over the years from the S&D baker. They all were incredible and exactly what I ordered.

I contacted the concierge and she took my order via email.

 

[Ramsfan28]

Has anyone experienced the Swan & Dolphin food & wine classic? We've done the food & wine fest at EPCOT a few times & wonder how this event compares.

Much smaller is scale but the food is far superior than what you will get in EPCOT in my opinion. The only probably when I went this past year was the weather, it poured for about a hour during the event.

 

[RachelTori]

Much smaller is scale but the food is far superior than what you will get in EPCOT in my opinion. The only probably when I went this past year was the weather, it poured for about a hour during the event.

I agree with you, but I want to add that the 2nd night it poured all day and most of the night. They moved the entire event (bands and all!) inside the Swan and it was spectacular!! It was so well organized and run that you would have sworn their intention all along was to hold it indoors. Superb job, Swan & Dolphin!

 

[SRUAlmn]

HI all,


Thanks to SRUAlmn I have a restaurant.com cert to Garden Grove for dinner. Do they only offer buffet for dinner and which night has the best food (seafood, Mediterranean or Southern BBQ)?

Thanks for the shout out! We want to try the BBQ night, but haven't heard anything else about it. I can't even offer to try it and let you know since we'll be there at the same time! Hopefully we can find some info

 

[JLa01844]

Currently booked at POP! for Dec 2-10 but I am seriously considering booking the S/D. I am figuring the time we spend traveling on buses would be worth the extra money on the room. (We LOVE epcot, and the boardwalk/boardwalk restaurants) We are on a budget, about $4k budget which is kinda small for a week+ at Disney for 3.

ANyone have any tips on getting the best resort rate? Is it the Entertainment book? Anyone have a general idea what a good rate is for a standard room? I currently have a 30% pin attached to my name so, I'm really needing to justify the extra expense for s/d.

 

[MBELSANTI]

Currently booked at POP! for Dec 2-10 but I am seriously considering booking the S/D. I am figuring the time we spend traveling on buses would be worth the extra money on the room. (We LOVE epcot, and the boardwalk/boardwalk restaurants) We are on a budget, about $4k budget which is kinda small for a week+ at Disney for 3.

ANyone have any tips on getting the best resort rate? Is it the Entertainment book? Anyone have a general idea what a good rate is for a standard room? I currently have a 30% pin attached to my name so, I'm really needing to justify the extra expense for s/d.

HI,

I used my AAA card and was able to get $188.10 per night plus tax and resort fee. I think total it ended up being $225 per night. Plus I get a $50 credit to use at the resort. I though this is an excellent price for a deluxe Epcot resort. I am going mid June.

 

[MBELSANTI]

Welcome back!

Unfortunately, just booking a room with the AAA rate doesn't link your AAA account with your SPG account. If you call SPG Customer Support at (888) 625-4988 and give them your AAA number, they can link your accounts.

And yes, Garden Grove is buffet only for dinner. I haven't eaten there (yet), but I've read some good things about the seafood buffet and the Mediterranean buffet. Haven't seen anything about Southern BBQ night.

Here's a really good review of Mediterranean Night from the Dining Review Board: Part 1 ....Part 2

THank you for the tips. I am going to call them tomorrow and I am going to check out those reviews now.

I have ordered 4 different cakes over the years from the S&D baker. They all were incredible and exactly what I ordered.

I contacted the concierge and she took my order via email.

This is great to hear! I emailed them yesterday and attached the clipart of the scout Mickey. I haven't heard back from them today though.

Thanks for the shout out! We want to try the BBQ night, but haven't heard anything else about it. I can't even offer to try it and let you know since we'll be there at the same time! Hopefully we can find some info

I think I am going to go for the BBQ...DS is picky eater and won't eat seafood and it seems the Mediterraneum is too exotic for him too. The fried chicken sounds up his alley LOL!

 

[NBCGal]

I agree with you, but I want to add that the 2nd night it poured all day and most of the night. They moved the entire event (bands and all!) inside the Swan and it was spectacular!! It was so well organized and run that you would have sworn their intention all along was to hold it indoors. Superb job, Swan & Dolphin!

LOL! That was our wedding day! The ceremony was supposed to be on Luau Beach at the Poly, but Disney moved us into the Poly lobby. We had a wonderful time despite all the rain. The next day the weather cleared & we honeymooned at the Swan.

Sounds like we'd enjoy it so I think we'll book our tickets. Thanks for your responses everyone!