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

[SteveH]

Wouldn’t the bus to MK from the Yacht Club have been closer tHan walking over to Boardwalk?

If you use Google Maps and compare from the S/D Friendship Boat Launch is .4 to BW and .4 to YC and .6 to BC, so from the Dolphin it would be closer, but its really a bit of a toss up IMHO.

 

[empedocles]

IIRC, the Disney buses drop you off in the center of DS, whereas the Mears buses drop you off all the way on the far west side past Cirque du Soleil.

I thought the Mears busses from S/D dropped off at the old bus station near the Market Place entrance or is that just for Uber/Lyft and the DS area hotels?

When I was last there (end of 2020) the Mears busses dropped off on the other side of the Cirque building. It was approximately a 56 mile walk to the Springs entrance from there.
(OK, exaggerating... a little... )

 

[redmister]

Does anyone have an opinion on whether the Deluxe Resort View Room with Balcony at the Swan is worth the upcharge? It would be about $50/night. From my reading it seems you have a very good chance of just having a view of the hotel, not the parks.

 

[JulieODC]

Does anyone have an opinion on whether the Deluxe Resort View Room with Balcony at the Swan is worth the upcharge? It would be about $50/night. From my reading it seems you have a very good chance of just having a view of the hotel, not the parks.

it’s worth it if you really want a balcony (we enjoy sitting outside in the evenings, and a balcony isn’t a guarantee at Swan - so to us, it was worth it!)

 

[Chirple]

Wouldn’t the bus to MK from the Yacht Club have been closer tHan walking over to Boardwalk?

As @SteveH pointed out, the distance differences are minor. We liked the BoardWalk direction better than the one to/from Yacht Club. Personal preference.

 

[isabellea]

Yes it is. Enjoy your first ever at the Dolphin, Isabelle. It won't be your last.

Unfortunately, this trip is probably our last one to WDW as we want to see more of the world now that our daughters are older. We are already planning on visiting DLP and Europe since we are French speakers, Hawaii (Aulani included) and California/DLR in addition to the Grand Canyon and Canadian Rockies. Too many places to visit, not enough summer vacations!

 

[Scalemaster34]

As @SteveH pointed out, the distance differences are minor. We liked the BoardWalk direction better than the one to/from Yacht Club. Personal preference.

When we went, BW still wasn't fully open yet. They were only doing Vacation Club, so was almost never a wait there.

 

[Tigerlily125]

No, to a microwave in the room but we were told by the front desk the microwaves were back that they always used to have, I believe, on the third and sixth floors by the ice machines. We didn’t verify it, though.

edited to add: my nephew just confirmed it was there. He was our ice runner

Super helpful — thank you!!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin files permit to greatly expand its pool and recreation area

 

[SteveH]

That looks like a good size pool expansion, with the slides it will become even more popular! Excited to see what this looks like, with the Swan Reserve on property this expansion is needed otherwise I think the Grotto pool would have been swamped.

 

[Luisfba]

i haven’t done much travel since covid . How does it work if while we are there someone on the party gets sick and tests positive? Is there some notification that takes place to the hotel and what happens if you need to stay longer as a result?

 

[SteveH]

@Luisfba I can't say I've seen any discussion about that in detail. My suggestion would be to call the Swan Dolphin direct and talk to one of the staff another option would be use the SwanDolphin Mobile App (click on I'm on Property, then the Text Us! option and see what they say. It's a rather big question so they may not be able to help via text but then you can screen cap and safe if they do.

There is a lot to unpack in your question; positive before arrival vs positive while on site; either way you want to review the cancellation policy before booking and consider trip insurance, key is to understand coverage if you come down before or while on site. Then do you want to stay there, at that rate, if you are isolation or move to another location. If the hotel is booked you might have to move, but do let them know so they can take precautions and if you're positive they might be more willing to let you stay, hard to say for sure.

For our Hawaii trip our TA had a few lower cost hotels that she could have called to booked so we could have moved should we have tested positive during our trip.

We all need be aware of the DIS Boards Covid Discussion Policy as stated, "COVID related discussion should be limited to actual policy and practical application, and NOT veer into opinion or debate." I just don't want things to go off the rails, but you've asked a good question. Hopefully some others can help too.

 

[Luisfba]

As far as friendship boats - I just want to double check what I should expect to HS and EC from swolphin.

they come every 15-20 min?
About 10 min to HS and about 20 to EC?

walking about 10 to HA and 15 to EC?

 

[Best Aunt]

... what happens if you need to stay longer as a result?

Many, many years ago my extended family stayed at the Dolphin, in several rooms. One of my family members became ill with a stomach bug on the last night, so that part of the family (in one room) could not fly home the next day as planned. I asked at the front desk about extending their stay.

The front desk said they could stay but had to change rooms. I said that didn't make sense; if someone had been sick to their stomach and wanted to keep the same room, why would the hotel want them to move to a different room? The hotel said they had cleaning people to handle cleaning the room.

The person at the front desk told me that they had to move because they were in a connecting room, and an incoming guest had been promised a connecting room. I said that when we had made the reservation, we were told that were not guaranteed connecting rooms. If it wasn't guaranteed to us coming in, why would it be guaranteed to someone else, forcing us to move out? They wouldn't back down. I asked for a manager. They said there wasn't one available. This was at about 8:30 am.

I had to leave to catch my own flight, so I couldn't stay to keep fighting.

They made my family -- sick little boy and all -- switch to a different room.

Obviously this is a different time and a different illness, but that was our experience.

 

[LisaRay]

Hi, I'm thinking about booking a two night stay at the Swan this spring. I have enough points to book one night with points. I'd love book a room with a balcony for our stay but I don't see that as an option. So, if I book my 1st night with cash and book the balcony room will I have to switch to a different room for my points night? I assume so but thought I'd see if anyone has done this before?

 

[CJN]

Hi, I'm thinking about booking a two night stay at the Swan this spring. I have enough points to book one night with points. I'd love book a room with a balcony for our stay but I don't see that as an option. So, if I book my 1st night with cash and book the balcony room will I have to switch to a different room for my points night? I assume so but thought I'd see if anyone has done this before?

You could call and ask about upgrading the points room to the same classification as your balcony room. We did that when we had three nights on points at the front end of an eleven night stay. We were quoted $50/night and we thought it was well worth it.

 

[LisaRay]

You could call and ask about upgrading the points room to the same classification as your balcony room. We did that when we had three nights on points at the front end of an eleven night stay. We were quoted $50/night and we thought it was well worth it.

Thank You! this is just the news I wanted to hear LOL I'll give them a call.

 

[rkm]

Does anyone have an opinion on whether the Deluxe Resort View Room with Balcony at the Swan is worth the upcharge? It would be about $50/night. From my reading it seems you have a very good chance of just having a view of the hotel, not the parks.

if you can handle the wait on hold to discuss rooms with in-house reservations, you can sometimes get them to bump you up to better view/upgrade without paying an upcharge. we liked balconies to handle the overflow of wet clothes from the pools. but that's what we used it for mainly. swan has balconies with great views of tower of terror in HS too so if you upgrade just keep asking for the best available.

 

[rkm]

Hi, I'm thinking about booking a two night stay at the Swan this spring. I have enough points to book one night with points. I'd love book a room with a balcony for our stay but I don't see that as an option. So, if I book my 1st night with cash and book the balcony room will I have to switch to a different room for my points night? I assume so but thought I'd see if anyone has done this before?

we booked two basic rooms for summer with points last week and then called in house reservations to upgrade to balcony. we had two rooms and they gave one upgrade to balcony for free and other was charged (which was just because reservation person was really nice). so, if you are unhappy with service/flexibility you get from first person, maybe try once or twice to find someone willing to be more flexible. swan has great views of hollywood studios in corner balcony rooms if epcot side is not available.

 

[SkyGuy]

I had a reservation at the Swan through Marriott for an upcoming trip, but I just found a discounted room at BC and booked that. So, currently on MDE, I show two hotel reservations for the same days. Since I am AP, I booked my park reservations as an AP before I had hotel reservations at all, so those won’t be affected by the change. I cancelled the Swan though the Bonvoy app. Do I need to call to have the reservation removed from MDE since there is no option to do that on the app or on the website? Nothing is attached to the reservation, but I don’t want it to cause any problems with Disney’s high-quality IT. (Is this even the right thread for a question like this?)