I’ve read back the last 40 pages or so since my last trip Labor Day week at Swan. I can help clarify the bottled water and housekeeping situations.
Housekeeping was available daily during our 7-night stay (Sat-Sat, park days Sun-Mon and Wed-Fri). They would make the beds, change out towels, restock soap bars and mini lotion, take out the trash, and wipe everything down. They would also replenish water bottles. Most of the time it was 2 bottles and once it was 4 bottles. We rope dropped every morning except Tuesday (rest day) and took midday breaks. Sometimes we’d come back as early as 11AM but as late as 2PM. We completed everything we wanted to do in that park in the morning and would go to a different park in the evening (we did every attraction offered at each park except most shows and all kiddie rides like Dumbo, Magic Carpets, etc.). Sometimes housekeeping had already come by the time we returned but usually had not when we took the earlier breaks. I’d say they came around noon on average. On the days they hadn’t come yet we put up the do not disturb sign and we were fine skipping that day’s cleaning.
Bottled water is always available even outside of housekeeping. There were 4 bottles in our room when we arrived. Every time we came in from a park we stopped at the front desk and asked for more water. They asked how many we wanted and I always got 4. Sometimes they would even offer a bag. We took 4 with us each morning and again in the afternoon to the parks. I estimate we got 58-62 bottles of water total for the week. I think we packed 4 bottles in the cooler for the drive home. There was usually not a line at the checkin counter but if there was it was maybe 1-2 people. I always walked up the mobile checkin line because it seemed they called those people first (presumably because those people already checked in and would be quick to assist).
I can’t recall if we ever took the bus from Swan to the TTC but we did take it back twice. The first time we waited about 20 minutes for a bus. The second time it pulled up as soon as we sat down to wait. The AK bus from Swan was far better than any Disney bus. We went to AK twice and the bus pulled up as soon as we got to Swan’s stop. Both days were
Disney Cruise Line coaches that were extremely comfortable. The drop off at AK is very close to the main entrance gate. We did not take the bus back as we had a dinner ADR at Sanaa after park close on one visit and a late breakfast ADR at Boma another. The AKL bus was at the far end of the Disney bus stop. It was a much farther walk than SDR’s bus. We Uber’d back to Swan after both meals. Uber was cheaper than Lyft all week but we paid less than $9 for 3 trips and under $10 for one (before tip). We Uber’d from AKL to Swan x2, Swan to Riviera, and Swan to Contemporary. There’s an app called Obi that will compare ride-share costs including Minnie Vans.
No one ever talks about the Swan walking path to HS. It was absolutely faster than the BW walking path. It was not crowded at all and we only passed a few people (they were walking towards the Swan) but we could see across the water how full the other path was. We kept track of a few people to see if we would beat them to HS and we did by a decent amount. The Swan path definitely saves some steps because we didn’t have to walk out the back door, up the hill, nor over the bridge to get to the path like the BW path. We cut through the Swan parking lot and jumped on the path from there.