We are just back from a five night stay at Dolphin as well!
Room:
Ended up on fifth floor, east wing with a balcony, on one of the wings that juts out. Even though we were close to the big tower, we had a nice west-facing view of the walkway to the boat and could see the Tower of Terror and HS nightly fireworks. Sun was hot on the balcony in the PM. We had booked a king room, but took a double since it was ready for early checkin. This was perfectly fine for us, 2 adults, and toddler in a crib near the door and bathroom.
Boats and buses:
Never had to wait long for a boat! We walked to HS once, and beat the boat by a hair at a very leisurely pace. Walked to EPCOT and always beat it.
MK bus line in the mornings was not our friend. 8:15 for 9am opening. Picks up at Swan first. We weren’t serious ripe droppers this trip, but used Uber one day instead of bus.
Our experience with a toddler here.:
I don’t think I’d bring him back for a long stay here until he’s older. I prefer the Disney hotel playgrounds and grounds where there is space to play outside without getting all sandy, and the playground at swan/dolphin is too tall for a two year old to play freely on. (Too cold for the pool for us this time around.)
I brought in and cleaned the balcony table, which gave him a nice kid-sized table to use. It tucked under the desk when not in use.
He’s ~36” and slept comfortably in the crib, which we tucked in the entryway near the bathroom.
Getting around:
As a previous poster mentioned, it is easy to get lost in the Dolphin! Whoever designed it didn’t make it user friendly, and there’s no interior map provided. This was our second stay, and we are still figuring it out. A few tips (some mentioned in this thread before):
-take any elevator down to 1 to reach the boats easily
-west wing more convenient to pool, laundry, buses, quick service
-escalator near Picabu goes up to buses
-path behind pool to buses
-cut through the back of Fuel from lobby to go out to buses
-from East elevator, turn towards the spa and follow hallway to lobby for quicker path to escalators
Food:
Picabu for breakfast and paid $9 for a waffle with a AAA discount. That included their silly 10% service fee.
Fuel for carry out lunch, included a really good chef salad and PBJ bagel about $14, with AAA discount.
Fountain for dinner. Food was very good! soup, kids meal, BLT chicken sandwich & banana split. We walked up and were seated immediately. $45, w AAA discount.
Overall, a very good stay. Aside from our need for more small-kid-friendly space. We had a great price from Hotwire, and as you all know, that location can’t be beat.