The *NEW* SWAN & DOLPHIN RESORT Thread ~ April 2009 ~ Please read Post #1!

[Dan Murphy]

Sounds good, diskids2.

 

[SingingMom]

I got the plastic ones, ordering through the website. I had the other durable paper one's when I bought them at the Swan and dolphin desk.

Just giving myself a shout out!!!!!!!!!! Six more days!!!

Yippee!!

 

[Dominus]

Does the swan/dolphin run Govt. rates very often? Or is it something they've gotten away from.

 

[Zuzu03]

Hey everyone!!! We're back! I'll post some pics and a mini-review when I get myself sorted out, but for now I have some serious kitty and puppy hugging to catch up on!!!

 

[LexiC123]

Does the swan/dolphin run Govt. rates very often? Or is it something they've gotten away from.

I'm pretty sure the Teacher, Nurse and Gov't rates are always offered by S/D. If you go to their respective Westin/Sheraton room availability pages, the Gov't rate is one of the options in the drop down Special Rate Plan menu.

Hey everyone!!! We're back! I'll post some pics and a mini-review when I get myself sorted out, but for now I have some serious kitty and puppy hugging to catch up on!!!

Welcome back! Can't wait to hear all about your trip.

Hugs to your furbabies!

 

[SingingMom]

I'm pretty sure the Teacher, Nurse and Gov't rates are always offered by S/D. If you go to their respective Westin/Sheraton room availability pages, the Gov't rate is one of the options in the drop down Special Rate Plan menu.


Welcome back! Can't wait to hear all about your trip.

Hugs to your furbabies!

Don't know that they are "always" offered - I seem to remember there are certain dates. (we had tried for teacher's rate one year and it wasn't available for our travel dates) Best bet is to call directly.

 

[LexiC123]

Don't know that they are "always" offered - I seem to remember there are certain dates. (we had tried for teacher's rate one year and it wasn't available for our travel dates) Best bet is to call directly.

Good point.

Always good to call, so you get the most current, accurate information.

 

[Zuzu03]

Okay, mini-review time. We had no problems flying down, picked up our rental car and got to the Dolphin by 12:30. I had checked our reservation online and saw that we had been upgraded to a resort view with a balcony so I was REALLY excited! Well, it didn't quite materialize, we got a resort view but no balcony. The gentleman at the front desk said that for that amount of time (7 nights) it would be impossible. Ummm, okay. DH said I should have pushed it because I had the printout with the confirmation, but I'm not good at confrontation so I said that's fine. We were in the west wing- room 11163 here was our view:

Straight out:

to the right - ugh:

And to the left:

We saw the Fantasmic fireworks and a bit of the higher Illuminations fireworks so that was nice!

Our first order of business was to explore, so DD and I made the walk around the resort, then over to the Swan, then around the Boardwalk up to Epcot, over to the Beach Club and Yacht Club then back "home". It was cooler in Florida than it had been in Vermont (couldn't believe it!) so it was a pleasant walk. Here is a pic of us getting ready to hop the boat to Epcot for our Le Cellier dinner that evening:

I won't go into too much more detail - we had 8 great days at the Dolphin before moving over to the Polynesian to finish our trip. There were several conferences while we were there and there were actually several large South American tour groups staying at the Dolphin! One of the conferences was called "The" and we could NOT figure out what it was until I finally asked someone - it was for aspiring child actors and models to audition for agents. There was also a conference called Candance which was a Canadian dance competition - that was cool - DD and I popped into one of the ballrooms to watch on Friday evening and they were awesome! Finally there was a conference for the National Strength and Conditioning Association and we met Steve Bliss, former coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes when head coach Woody Hayes was there. He was eating with his family at The Fountain and he had an Ohio State hat (as did my DD) so we started talking and he showed us his national championship rings. Very cool!

The pools were pretty crowded by 10 in the morning when we visited them and some of those dance people were rather wild one night drinking by the pool!

We ate at Picabu's a lot, bought the refillable mugs, ate at The Fountain three times and Garden Grove once. The rest of the time we ate at the parks. GG was excellent, it was mediterranean night when we went and we used our restaurant.com $25.00 gift cert. The food was wonderful and the service excellent. We'll definately go back there!

The parks weren't too crowded in the beginning of our trip, but got to be towards the end and there were many, many tour groups from South America. Not just Brazilians, but Venezuelans, Argentinians and Columbians (although the Brazilians outnumbered everyone by far). We had a few issues with them, but the biggest problem was that whereever they went, they just kind of took over. One evening at Magic Kingdom the entire two sides of the Main Street were lined with these groups an hour and a 45 minutes before Main Street Electrical Parade. There was no hope of finding a spot anywhere and they weren't budging for anything! But, we knew July was Brazil month, so we were prepared and just tried to avoid the large groups - it was almost impossible.

Okay, enough for now - if anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer them and I'll post pics from DD's camera because she took many more of the Dolphin than I did!

DD has more pics, so I'll post these when she gets them loaded on the computer.

 

[MOM POPPINS]

Sounds like you had a nice time. Was this your first stay at the Dolphin and would you do a split stay Poly again? We have never stayed at the Poly..... maybe someday when there are less kiddos in the nest.

 

[WUVmyDISNEY]

Zuzu, glad you had a nice trip! We are heading to the Dolphin for the first time in December. I was thinking of GG for one of the buffet dinners. Did your DD get any pics of the buffet? Thanks for posting and I really liked your view to ToT!

 

[Zuzu03]

Sounds like you had a nice time. Was this your first stay at the Dolphin and would you do a split stay Poly again? We have never stayed at the Poly..... maybe someday when there are less kiddos in the nest.

I had stayed at the Dolphin for a conference in 2008 and extended my stay beyond the conference. It was my first solo trip and I had an amazing time. YES, I would totally do it again because I LOVE both of them and can't decide which I like better! I also love the Beach Club, but a three-way split would drive DH crazy - he's not great with change - lol!!! I just love the location of these hotels, because we spent a lot of time at Epcot and DHS while at the Dolphin and at Magic Kingdom while at the Poly. It was perfect!

Zuzu, glad you had a nice trip! We are heading to the Dolphin for the first time in December. I was thinking of GG for one of the buffet dinners. Did your DD get any pics of the buffet? Thanks for posting and I really liked your view to ToT!

Thanks! I think Emma got pics of the buffet, but I'll ask her - she's at her father's and will be back home tomorrow with her camera to load her pics on my laptop. I really, really miss the Dolphin, you're going to love it! I'm already angling to go back but DH is really not a big Disney fan, so I'm going to have to do some tap-dancing - I'm trying for Christmas, but we'll see. My sister wants to go and she really has no one else to go with, so if I can convince DH to stay home with the animals, we're so there!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Welcome home, Zuzu. Nice review. Makes me wish I was there.

 

[Zuzu03]

Welcome home, Zuzu. Nice review. Makes me wish I was there.

Thanks Dan! If I could only duplicate that Dolphin lobby smell then I could close my eyes and pretend to be back too!

 

[Dan Murphy]

This is the company that makes the scent........

http://www.mane.com/

I can not find anywhere to buy it, but, you can by the Swan scent.......

http://www.westin-hotelsathome.com/category.aspx?Diffusers

 

[Zuzu03]

This is the company that makes the scent........

http://www.mane.com/

I can not find anywhere to buy it, but, you can by the Swan scent.......

http://www.westin-hotelsathome.com/category.aspx?Diffusers

Thanks, Dan! Ima have to order some of the Swan smell, at least!

 

[SingingMom]

Thanks Dan! If I could only duplicate that Dolphin lobby smell then I could close my eyes and pretend to be back too!

....if I could only duplicate that Dolphin lobby espresso martini.....

 

[Zuzu03]

....if I could only duplicate that Dolphin lobby espresso martini.....

 

[paras4ri]

....if I could only duplicate that Dolphin lobby espresso martini.....

You've gotten several of us here hooked on them too!

Happy to read all the recent trip reports - keep them coming.

 

[NancyIL]

Welcome home, Zuzu. Nice review. Makes me wish I was there.

So, Dan...have you bought your plane ticket for December? I broke down last week and bought one for October for the Food & Wine Festival, as well!

 

[DisneyQueen1320]

Hello Everyone,
I hope someone can help me out.

I'm torn between the Dolphin and BC. There's a nice rate right now for Dolphin and I would save about $80 to stay there. We would have a party of 5, (3 adults and 2 kids). We would need a rollaway bed, hopefully it's enough room. I did request an alcove room but it wasn't avab.

I love the pics on this thread and I really want to stay here, but after reading some reviews from tripadvisor I'm a little worried.

I know tripadvisor can be misleading, and I trust disboards, everyone normally right on the money w/reviews.

Can someone please tell me this isn't true, and is it worth saving $80 to stay at the Dolphin?

Thanks