Resort Thread Walt Disney World SWAN, DOLPHIN & SWAN RESERVE Resorts

[leeroy1798]

It was rough in comparison to the times we'd stayed there before. The room was had a musty smell and an issue with some gnats all over the place near the balcony door. Some things were in need of repair. Having said that, our stays have been fantastic in the past. It's a huge place, so it's going to happen that some of the rooms are in need of TLC. But, I'd still consider staying there in a heartbeat due to the location, price (if you can get a deal), and perks of being a deluxe guest. Feel free to send me a message if you have more questions!

That's awesome, thanks. This vacation is for 2 X big birthdays and 1 x big anniversary, hence looking at deluxe over value this time. We rarely eat in hotels anyway (there's a great Roadhouse Steakhouse within a 20 mins drive as it is )

 

[Dave006]

Also, all/most rooms at the Swan have very recently been renovated.

@pixiedust2u confirmed on Jan. 13 that 100% of the Swan Guest rooms had completed the renovation.

Dave

 

[Karalee402]

That's awesome, thanks. This vacation is for 2 X big birthdays and 1 x big anniversary, hence looking at deluxe over value this time. We rarely eat in hotels anyway (there's a great Roadhouse Steakhouse within a 20 mins drive as it is )

You'll have the best time and honestly, like I said, the deluxe benefits outweigh any downside for me. And I say, it's vacation, eat where you want! Enjoy that Roadhouse

 

[Road_Dog]

Hey all. I can't think of an easy way to search this thread and I'm sure this has been answered. I wanted to talk about using Marriott Bonvoy points at Dolphin and Swan. Is it generally advised not to?

I'm big into credit card churning and amassing a lot of credit card points and miles. I've stayed at Disney Springs resorts on points before, since they offer a number of Hilton and Hyatt options, and general hotels you can book using things like the Chase travel portal. The Dolphin and Swan strike me as the "best" non-Disney resort that you can use points on given it's location and offered transportation.

That being said, it seems like a big drawback of using Marriott points to stay here is the offered room types. Last time I checked, you are only allowed to book studios on Marriott points, is that still correct? I also try to get at least .7cpp for my Marriott points and a lot of times, even with the 5th night free, I'm getting more like .5cpp-.6cpp. which isn't the best use of points compared to saving them for other non-Disney stays.

For example, I can get October 28th to November 2nd, 5 nights for 280k points. The cheapest cash rate (Prepay and Save) is $354/night. This works out to my Marriott points getting around .63cpp value. Which seems to be about as good as it gets.

The main downside of this route is that lets say I open a new Amex card and get 150k Amex points. If you know how to work the Amex system, you can cash those Amex points out at roughly 1cpp, meaning I can get $1,500 cash for those points. OR I can transfer them to Marriott at a rate of 1-1. And then my 150k Marriott points are worth only $945 if I'm applying them towards a Dolphin stay.

Yes sometimes transfer bonuses come around, but I'd need to get a huge bonus to make my 150k Marriott points worth as much as $1,500 cash. Looking at those exact same dates at Art of Animation, I can get basically the exact same room (a standard suite with 2 queens) for $272/night. So the question becomes, if I have 280k Amex points, would I rather have $2,800 cash and book 5 nights at Art of Animation for $1,360 and keep $1,440 in my back pocket, or would I rather stay 5 nights at the Dolphin? Is the Dolphin really worth an extra $1,440 over Art of Animation? Better yet, $2,800 cash can probably get me 5-nights at a Moderate or a cheaper Deluxe like Saratoga or OKW.

I'm sure comparing a Value with the Dolphin isn't super fair--you're likely wanting to stay at the Dolphin due to it's proximity to the parks and being on the boardwalk. I realize their cash rate is much more favorable than the surrounding Deluxe resorts like Boardwalk, which starts at $750+/night. In that scenario, yes the Dolphin for 5 nights will cost $1,770 while the Boardwalk will cost $3,750. In this scenario, sure, I bet perks of staying at Boardwalk are not worth $2k more than the Dolphin. But that's just it--we're now talking about cash rates.

I just don't see a huge point in using Marriott points at Dolphin or Swan, unless for some reason, you just have huge Marriott loyalty. Maybe you stay in Marriott's a lot for work and get a bunch of free points, maybe you have one credit card and it's a Marriott and you don't want to jump through hoops to get a bunch of Amex cards and transfer the points--in which case you can just reward yourself with a free Disney Dolphin stay once you rack up enough points. Outside of that specific scenario, I think the cash rate wins out at Dolphin and Swan 99% of the time. It strikes me as a great place to stay if you want to stay at the Boardwalk for a much cheaper price than a Deluxe Disney resort.

It also seems that Dolphin/Swan price their award rooms high enough where it's hard to use the free night certificates (FNC). Because most of the FNCs offered by credit cards have a max redemption of 35k/night (which you can top off with 15k points and use it as a 50k certificate), which wouldn't work when Dolphin is charging 70k Bonvoy points a night.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Hey all. I can't think of an easy way to search this thread and I'm sure this has been answered. I wanted to talk about using Marriott Bonvoy points at Dolphin and Swan. Is it generally advised not to?

I'm big into credit card churning and amassing a lot of credit card points and miles. I've stayed at Disney Springs resorts on points before, since they offer a number of Hilton and Hyatt options, and general hotels you can book using things like the Chase travel portal. The Dolphin and Swan strike me as the "best" non-Disney resort that you can use points on given it's location and offered transportation.

That being said, it seems like a big drawback of using Marriott points to stay here is the offered room types. Last time I checked, you are only allowed to book studios on Marriott points, is that still correct? I also try to get at least .7cpp for my Marriott points and a lot of times, even with the 5th night free, I'm getting more like .5cpp-.6cpp. which isn't the best use of points compared to saving them for other non-Disney stays.

For example, I can get October 28th to November 2nd, 5 nights for 280k points. The cheapest cash rate (Prepay and Save) is $354/night. This works out to my Marriott points getting around .63cpp value. Which seems to be about as good as it gets.

The main downside of this route is that lets say I open a new Amex card and get 150k Amex points. If you know how to work the Amex system, you can cash those Amex points out at roughly 1cpp, meaning I can get $1,500 cash for those points. OR I can transfer them to Marriott at a rate of 1-1. And then my 150k Marriott points are worth only $945 if I'm applying them towards a Dolphin stay.

Yes sometimes transfer bonuses come around, but I'd need to get a huge bonus to make my 150k Marriott points worth as much as $1,500 cash. Looking at those exact same dates at Art of Animation, I can get basically the exact same room (a standard suite with 2 queens) for $272/night. So the question becomes, if I have 280k Amex points, would I rather have $2,800 cash and book 5 nights at Art of Animation for $1,360 and keep $1,440 in my back pocket, or would I rather stay 5 nights at the Dolphin? Is the Dolphin really worth an extra $1,440 over Art of Animation? Better yet, $2,800 cash can probably get me 5-nights at a Moderate or a cheaper Deluxe like Saratoga or OKW.

I'm sure comparing a Value with the Dolphin isn't super fair--you're likely wanting to stay at the Dolphin due to it's proximity to the parks and being on the boardwalk. I realize their cash rate is much more favorable than the surrounding Deluxe resorts like Boardwalk, which starts at $750+/night. In that scenario, yes the Dolphin for 5 nights will cost $1,770 while the Boardwalk will cost $3,750. In this scenario, sure, I bet perks of staying at Boardwalk are not worth $2k more than the Dolphin. But that's just it--we're now talking about cash rates.

I just don't see a huge point in using Marriott points at Dolphin or Swan, unless for some reason, you just have huge Marriott loyalty. Maybe you stay in Marriott's a lot for work and get a bunch of free points, maybe you have one credit card and it's a Marriott and you don't want to jump through hoops to get a bunch of Amex cards and transfer the points--in which case you can just reward yourself with a free Disney Dolphin stay once you rack up enough points. Outside of that specific scenario, I think the cash rate wins out at Dolphin and Swan 99% of the time. It strikes me as a great place to stay if you want to stay at the Boardwalk for a much cheaper price than a Deluxe Disney resort.

It also seems that Dolphin/Swan price their award rooms high enough where it's hard to use the free night certificates (FNC). Because most of the FNCs offered by credit cards have a max redemption of 35k/night (which you can top off with 15k points and use it as a 50k certificate), which wouldn't work when Dolphin is charging 70k Bonvoy points a night.

Swolphin can be a good use of points but it’s getting more and more rare. It’s dynamic and not only are the rooms different point costs on different dates that cost can change depending on the minute you are pricing it. Heck it can be hard to use 50k FNC’s on it even topped off.

I would not stockpile Marriott points just for a Swolphin stay, it’s just too overpriced in general. (But after another recent deval across the board I wouldn’t stockpile Marriott points in general, they’re going Hilton.) I still have a stash (but I’m burning it at decent rates at airport hotels when I travel) and a couple FNCs each year from my cc- but that just happens as a churner and a person whose hotel options tend to be Marriott or Marriott?

Have you joined us on the I love credit cards thread on the Budget Board? Get to know us in page one and then hop to the end with any q’s or even just to say hi! Deep bench of churner knowledge, especially when it comes to churning for Disney!

 

[Nimbus]

<snip>

I'm sure comparing a Value with the Dolphin isn't super fair--you're likely wanting to stay at the Dolphin due to it's proximity to the parks and being on the boardwalk. I realize their cash rate is much more favorable than the surrounding Deluxe resorts like Boardwalk, which starts at $750+/night. In that scenario, yes the Dolphin for 5 nights will cost $1,770 while the Boardwalk will cost $3,750. In this scenario, sure, I bet perks of staying at Boardwalk are not worth $2k more than the Dolphin. But that's just it--we're now talking about cash rates.

<snip>

This. This is why you stay at Swan and Dolphin and this is why (in my opinion) the points are worth it. We churn too, and Swan (and sometimes Dolphin/Reserve) is basically the only place we use our Marriott Points. At this point, we only get Marriott points/cards to fund our Disney vacations. Being walking distance from two parks and the Boardwalk is a perk that it is difficult to overstate (especially if you have young kids). The points per night also often drop the closer to the stay you get, so we book a ways out and then typically alter the stay (you don't need to rebook) closer to the date, often for significantly less points. They are, in my opinion, worth 50k-80k points per night, because hotels of comparable quality and just 100 meters away, are charging 2-3x as much at $700-$1000 a night.

 

[gottalovepluto]

… They are, in my opinion, worth 50k-80k points per night, because hotels of comparable quality and just 100 meters away, are charging 2-3x as much at $700-$1000 a night.

As much as is key. BC/YC/BWI rack rates are that high but if discounts are available you’re talking as low as $400. And the proper comparison is the cash cost of Swolphin with whatever discounts you have access to (AAA or AP). Only then can you calculate your cpp.

 

[kylenne]

Have you joined us on the I love credit cards thread on the Budget Board? Get to know us in page one and then hop to the end with any q’s or even just to say hi! Deep bench of churner knowledge, especially when it comes to churning for Disney!

I totally forgot about that thread, I need to hop in there because I just pulled the trigger on a Plat on a targeted offer.

 

[Nimbus]

As much as is key. BC/YC/BWI rack rates are that high but if discounts are available you’re talking as low as $400. And the proper comparison is the cash cost of Swolphin with whatever discounts you have access to (AAA or AP). Only then can you calculate your cpp.

A free stay in the middle of WDW is hard to put a price tag on, but yes, one would be saving at least $400 per night if they decide to use BW/YC rates to peg the value of their points--possibly much more. But I do think it's important to ask ourselves if that is a really valid metric. As I said before the prices for Swan/Dolphin often change quite a bit even after making the reservation. Does the value/benefit of staying in that location at that property change for me just because the price of the hotels or Disney hotels arbitrarily goes up or down after I have made my reservation? No, I don't think so. If it's worth it, it's worth it. When I first got into the points game I was really concerned with maxing out my cents per point; now I'm more concerned with maximizing my experiences per point (subjective, I know) which is much more enjoyable.

 

[DisFanWife]

Just booked a stay at Swan for November through my Capital One Venture X. The rates were over $200 a night cheaper than the booking directly with Marriott, not to mention I'll get 10x points through the portal. We're normally DVC renters at Boardwalk Villas, but we waited too long to rent, so there were no studios available. We decided to check out Swan, since it is basically same location as BWV, which we love so much.

My question is-- is there a big difference between the King Bed, No View, Traditional Guest Room (340 sq. ft) and the larger King Bed, Resort View, Guest Room (500 sq. ft), which appears to have a separate sofa area? The larger room appears to be the same room called an "Alcove" room on the Marriott site, but I plan on calling the hotel to confirm next week. We booked the larger room because it was only $35 more a night, but am curious if anyone has feedback on the different room types and views based on experience. I booked the refundable rate to allow for easy changes. Thanks for any feedback!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Just booked a stay at Swan for November through my Capital One Venture X. The rates were over $200 a night cheaper than the booking directly with Marriott, not to mention I'll get 10x points through the portal. We're normally DVC renters at Boardwalk Villas, but we waited too long to rent, so there were no studios available. We decided to check out Swan, since it is basically same location as BWV, which we love so much.

My question is-- is there a big difference between the King Bed, No View, Traditional Guest Room (340 sq. ft) and the larger King Bed, Resort View, Guest Room (500 sq. ft), which appears to have a separate sofa area? The larger room appears to be the same room called an "Alcove" room on the Marriott site, but I plan on calling the hotel to confirm next week. We booked the larger room because it was only $35 more a night, but am curious if anyone has feedback on the different room types and views based on experience. I booked the refundable rate to allow for easy changes. Thanks for any feedback!

Good choice. Yes, the alcove room is great, more room to 'spread out'. There is a table and a few chairs in that area. That extra doace is well worth the $35 a night. Also, a no view could give you a view of a loading dock, or even, as referred here, a dumpster view. A resort view should give you a nice view of the Dolphin and the Crescent Lake.

Enjoy.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

Good choice. Yes, the alcove room is great, more room to 'spread out'. There is a table and a few chairs in that area. That extra doace is well worth the $35 a night. Also, a no view could give you a view of a loading dock, or even, as referred here, a dumpster view. A resort view should give you a nice view of the Dolphin and the Crescent Lake.

Enjoy.

Seconding this - for $35 more a night it’s a no brainer. At certain times of the year the difference can be more than $200.

 

[DisFanWife]

Good choice. Yes, the alcove room is great, more room to 'spread out'. There is a table and a few chairs in that area. That extra doace is well worth the $35 a night. Also, a no view could give you a view of a loading dock, or even, as referred here, a dumpster view. A resort view should give you a nice view of the Dolphin and the Crescent Lake.

Enjoy.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[DisFanWife]

Seconding this - for $35 more a night it’s a no brainer. At certain times of the year the difference can be more than $200.

Thanks! I was shocked that the price difference was so low on the Cap1 portal; it is not like that on Marriott, which is why I want to make sure I will actually get a room that is 500 sq ft.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Just booked a stay at Swan for November through my Capital One Venture X… I booked the refundable rate to allow for easy changes…

If you end up needing a refund watch it carefully. I had to help a player sort out a couple refunds from Cap1 travel that failed to post. They had to call and it was a pain on the call but they got their refunds (they were a mix of credit card purchase and travel credits).

 

[mickey916]

Question about extra adult fee: For our upcoming 7 night trip there will be 4 of us in one room. When I booked it through Marriott it shows $490 extra adult fee ($35/extra adult/night). It looks like one of my sons may only be able to stay 2 out of the 7 nights. I was curious if once he leaves if they might waive his $35/night fee for the remaining nights. I didn't really want to have two separate reservations, one for 4 people for 2 nights and one for 3 people for 5 nights. I reached out via chat in the Swan app and asked the question. They didn't answer my question but instead looked up my reservation and said "we're not charging you the extra adult fees." I shared a screen shot from Marriott Bonvoy showing the $490 and they said "that's not what we show on our end." Was this person incorrect or is that possible? If it's true great, if not, I'd like to know the answer to my original question. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[gottalovepluto]

Question about extra adult fee: For our upcoming 7 night trip there will be 4 of us in one room. When I booked it through Marriott it shows $490 extra adult fee ($35/extra adult/night). It looks like one of my sons may only be able to stay 2 out of the 7 nights. I was curious if once he leaves if they might waive his $35/night fee for the remaining nights. I didn't really want to have two separate reservations, one for 4 people for 2 nights and one for 3 people for 5 nights. I reached out via chat in the Swan app and asked the question. They didn't answer my question but instead looked up my reservation and said "we're not charging you the extra adult fees." I shared a screen shot from Marriott Bonvoy showing the $490 and they said "that's not what we show on our end." Was this person incorrect or is that possible? If it's true great, if not, I'd like to know the answer to my original question. Anyone have any experience with this?

I would call and talk to the in house reservations team. The chat team isn’t very well equipped for reservation stuff.

 

[SteveH]

@mickey916 you got spot on advice from @gottalovepluto I'd only add to call the local number, 407-934-4000 M-F shoot for around 8-5 and ask for in-house reservations, even if you get a local person you'll be better off then if you wind up in the call center system. Don't hesitate to ask if they at local at SD.

 

[mickey916]

I would call and talk to the in house reservations team. The chat team isn’t very well equipped for reservation stuff.

@mickey916 you got spot on advice from @gottalovepluto I'd only add to call the local number, 407-934-4000 M-F shoot for around 8-5 and ask for in-house reservations, even if you get a local person you'll be better off then if you wind up in the call center system. Don't hesitate to ask if they at local at SD.

Thank you both! I called and sadly the chat person was in fact wrong (too bad, but not surprised). The person I spoke with said that I can mention the change in adults during check-in and that they should be able to adjust the additional adult fee at check out. Really hoping DS-28 stays the whole week and will gladly pay the additional adult fee to have him stay, but we shall see what his plans end up being. At least now I know I shouldn't have to have 2 separate reservations.

 

[SteveH]

@mickey916 glad you got the answer you needed wish it was even better and they weren't charging though.