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

[snappy]

Mine are all clearly visible in app and on website, all booked with points. Swan res also linked in MDE.

My 3 upcoming reservations are linked too, with the old SPG reservation number but I also know the new Marriott number. And wait a few days and it will be the new Marriott Bonvoy number or whatever they are renaming the program.

 

[TheyCallMeStacey]

That's just what they recommended to me. I suppose I sounded like a nervous nelly in the email, but i would be SOOOOO peeved if something happened with that reservation after all it took to get it to where it is and linked as needed.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

That's just what they recommended to me. I suppose I sounded like a nervous nelly in the email, but i would be SOOOOO peeved if something happened with that reservation after all it took to get it to where it is and linked as needed.

When is your reservation? Soon?

 

[TheyCallMeStacey]

When is your reservation? Soon?

May - they said they were having some trouble with the merge and to not merge them for now.

 

[shoreward]

Just a quick FYI - I've been getting notes from SPG and Marriott to merge my accounts, BUT I emailed in to them and expressed my concern about my Swan reservation that was made before the point valuation change, telling them I wanted to make sure nothing would happen to the reservation if I combined the accounts and they straight up told me not to do it. So if you were on the fence about combining accounts, wait if you can.

The bookings made prior to the Marriott takeover are safe, if you merge accounts. Your log-in for both SPG and Marriott will use the Marriott log-in, as long as those sites are still up. You will see all of your trips under both sites, though there was a big problem, initially.

If you linked your stay to MDE, double check that you can still see it; I had problems, which were eventually resolved, between Disney IT and Swan in-house reservations. So, maybe there is still that issue going on.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

May - they said they were having some trouble with the merge and to not merge them for now.

Well tbh they’ve been having ‘trouble’ with the merge since the beginning 5 months ago. No signs that will improve. Personally I’d be more afraid I’d lose info when they start Bonvoy and get rid of SPG. Even the SPG app and website are going away in my understanding. But if they told you to wait, then I gues I’d just keep all the confirmation emails and screenshot everything about your account, points balance, reservations, free nights, etc.

 

[pepperandchips]

MDE won’t let me add anyone. The res is already linked with me, DS and “guest 3” 30 minutes with Disney IT today and tech couldn’t fix it either. She did say it looks like I can still book his FPs though. Hope she’s right bc FP day is next Tuesday

As long as you are linked to the resort stay and your fastpass window opens at 60 days, you can make fp on that day for you plus anyone you are connected to on MDE with valid ticket media. The only issues you would have is if your entire party isn’t intending to have the same fp selections - then you would want to make sure everyone is on the hotel stay. But if you’re all doing your fp together this “umbrella policy” covers you.

Has anyone stayed in the Alcove suites in the Dolphin? Do they have 2 doubles or a King? Thanks!

They come in both configurations. My cautionary tale is that we reserved a double/double alcove and got stuck in a king- they offered us a rollaway bed but we just made it work.

 

[Ariel1080]

As long as you are linked to the resort stay and your fastpass window opens at 60 days, you can make fp on that day for you plus anyone you are connected to on MDE with valid ticket media. The only issues you would have is if your entire party isn’t intending to have the same fp selections - then you would want to make sure everyone is on the hotel stay. But if you’re all doing your fp together this “umbrella policy” covers you.


They come in both configurations. My cautionary tale is that we reserved a double/double alcove and got stuck in a king- they offered us a rollaway bed but we just made it work.

Hello Melinda, I have a question. Are you saying that if just my name is on our Swan reservation, I can still make fastpasses for everyone in our party? My kids aren't on there and I didn't want to go through the trouble I've been reading about from everyone, so I didn't do my fastpasses at 60 days.

 

[pepperandchips]

Hello Melinda, I have a question. Are you saying that if just my name is on our Swan reservation, I can still make fastpasses for everyone in our party? My kids aren't on there and I didn't want to go through the trouble I've been reading about from everyone, so I didn't do my fastpasses at 60 days.

If your Swan stay is connected to your My Disney Experience account, that onsite stay should trigger the opening of the fastpass+ booking window for you. You have the “key” into the 60 day access by being connected to that resort stay. Using your MDE, you can make fastpasses at the 60 day window for you and anyone else that’s connected to you who has valid ticket media assigned, regardless of whether they have a resort stay. They get to “go in” with your “key”.

The reason I was making a distinction about all doing the same fastpass is that if you and one child wanted to do Toy Story Midway Mania while two older children wanted to do Slinky Dog Dash (for example), the kids who aren’t on the reservation and want to book Slinky Dog no longer have the “key” so they would be ineligible for 60 day fastpass. Meaning you have to book everyone for all the same fastpass or do a lot of legwork.

If everyone has tickets you can go ahead and try this. I’m happy to help further if I can but I’m sure there’s discussion here on the Disboards maybe in the fastpass sticky about how this works. I heard about it on a podcast and have read a bit about it on the touring plans forums.

I hope that helps!

 

[Ariel1080]

If your Swan stay is connected to your My Disney Experience account, that onsite stay should trigger the opening of the fastpass+ booking window for you. You have the “key” into the 60 day access by being connected to that resort stay. Using your MDE, you can make fastpasses at the 60 day window for you and anyone else that’s connected to you who has valid ticket media assigned, regardless of whether they have a resort stay. They get to “go in” with your “key”.

The reason I was making a distinction about all doing the same fastpass is that if you and one child wanted to do Toy Story Midway Mania while two older children wanted to do Slinky Dog Dash (for example), the kids who aren’t on the reservation and want to book Slinky Dog no longer have the “key” so they would be ineligible for 60 day fastpass. Meaning you have to book everyone for all the same fastpass or do a lot of legwork.

If everyone has tickets you can go ahead and try this. I’m happy to help further if I can but I’m sure there’s discussion here on the Disboards maybe in the fastpass sticky about how this works. I heard about it on a podcast and have read a bit about it on the touring plans forums.

I hope that helps!

 

[Ariel1080]

Thank you so much for the detailed answer! I guess I'll go ahead and try to link my reservation and see what happens.

 

[SteveH]

With the upcoming change from Marriott Rewards/SPG to Marriott BonVoy on Februay 13 if you don't need to make a change over right now I'd hold off a bit. I have not bee overly impressed with Marriott's IT ability to address problems before they become problems, the combination of SPG into Marriott was a complete disaster for many users and a huge black eye for Marriott followed by their admission of the Data Breach makes me question who smooth this roll out will really be.

 

[cix00]

The reason I was making a distinction about all doing the same fastpass is that if you and one child wanted to do Toy Story Midway Mania while two older children wanted to do Slinky Dog Dash (for example), the kids who aren’t on the reservation and want to book Slinky Dog no longer have the “key” so they would be ineligible for 60 day fastpass. Meaning you have to book everyone for all the same fastpass or do a lot of legwork.

Would just add the following:

• Ariel1080 can "umbrella" the two kids wanting to do SDD (i.e. all three would start by getting the SDD FP+ 60 days out); then
• Ariel1080 can then immediately "umbrella" the two kids wanting to do TSM (i.e. all three getting the TSM FP+), by swapping out her SDD FP for a TSM FP.

 

[BlueFairy]

Popping in here to say Hi! We have a stay booked for April 7 Fortinet Accelerate conference. Can't wait for an adults-only trip to S/D.

We have a Mar. 25 checkin booked as well. I need to cancel that and get back my 144,000 points. (We decided to stay on cash at AKL). We are coming up on 60 days for that trip (Thurs) and I'm holding AKL and S/D for now. Any reason not to cancel that reservation today?

Then we will quickly come up on the next stay, just 12 days later. I don't have that reservation number or convention tickets yet, so those aren't linked. Any advice on how to link everything up for those 2 trips without messing up my FPs on trip #1? I want to be sure my tix are used in the right order too.

With the upcoming change from Marriott Rewards/SPG to Marriott BonVoy on Februay 13 if you don't need to make a change over right now I'd hold off a bit. I have not bee overly impressed with Marriott's IT ability to address problems before they become problems, the combination of SPG into Marriott was a complete disaster for many users and a huge black eye for Marriott followed by their admission of the Data Breach makes me question who smooth this roll out will really be.

I'm late to this discussion. We still have our SPG and Marriott points balances separate under separate logins. Are there problems I should be looking for with my account? Or things we should do to protect our giant points balance? We're saving for a 2020 Europe trip.
ETA: I went back a page or 2 and I see it now. Worried that existing reservations would be affected. Since we're canceling that, I just need to document how many points it cost me and be sure that I get them all back as a credit, right? It's for 144,000 (36,000/nite), made before the rate changed.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

As long as you are linked to the resort stay and your fastpass window opens at 60 days, you can make fp on that day for you plus anyone you are connected to on MDE with valid ticket media. The only issues you would have is if your entire party isn’t intending to have the same fp selections - then you would want to make sure everyone is on the hotel stay. But if you’re all doing your fp together this “umbrella policy” covers you.

So today is my FP day. I was able to make FPs for my whole party, including DH who was not linked to Resort res. The website was pretty buggy and I got Olaf “not working”page a number of times. We have a 5 night stay booked at Swan (2 days off-site after) and 6 night hoppers. MDE would not let me book past the last day of our Swan res. So I have one day of tix with no FP. I’m sure I could book 10 days out in the past. Fortunately that day is resort/Disney Springs/Epcot late and the FPs I want will likely be available if booking opens tomorrow. If it doesn’t I will call to see if they can fix it.

 

[SteveH]

I'm late to this discussion. We still have our SPG and Marriott points balances separate under separate logins. Are there problems I should be looking for with my account? Or things we should do to protect our giant points balance? We're saving for a 2020 Europe trip.
ETA: I went back a page or 2 and I see it now. Worried that existing reservations would be affected. Since we're canceling that, I just need to document how many points it cost me and be sure that I get them all back as a credit, right? It's for 144,000 (36,000/nite), made before the rate changed.

I would call Marriott and work wit them to get the points situation cleaned up before you cancel. When you call in be sure to take name and/or ID #'s so you can document any conversations. I am hoping things are better, but back in early September it was a cluster.

 

[BlueFairy]

I would call Marriott and work wit them to get the points situation cleaned up before you cancel. When you call in be sure to take name and/or ID #'s so you can document any conversations. I am hoping things are better, but back in early September it was a cluster.

I guess that's what I'm asking. What points situation do I need to clear up? So far we don't have any errors in our reservations or account balances. Can you explain more?

 

[SteveH]

@BlueFairy So if I understand correctly, you have points right now with an SPG account and a Marriott account, correct? By now I think the SPG points have been transitioned over to the Marriott points level. So you have 2 balances based on the current points system, correct? Then you are going to cancel your reservation that was worth the original SPG value of 144,000 which according to The Point Guy Calculator should give you 432,000 Marriott Rewards points.

I hope I'm understanding your situation correctly.

https://www.thepointcalculator.com/SmallCalc/Marriott-To-SPG-Point-Calculator

 

[BlueFairy]

@BlueFairy So if I understand correctly, you have points right now with an SPG account and a Marriott account, correct? By now I think the SPG points have been transitioned over to the Marriott points level. So you have 2 balances based on the current points system, correct? Then you are going to cancel your reservation that was worth the original SPG value of 144,000 which according to The Point Guy Calculator should give you 432,000 Marriott Rewards points.

I hope I'm understanding your situation correctly.

https://www.thepointcalculator.com/SmallCalc/Marriott-To-SPG-Point-Calculator

Oh thank you. This makes so much more sense. No, it was 48000 SPG points, which is now listed as 144000 Marriott Points with my SPG account. So as long as I see the credit for 144000 I will be ok. Thanks so much! I am going to document everything.

 

[SteveH]

Thanks so much! I am going to document everything.

Happy to help, document everything and keep names of who you talk with. I wouldn't do this online if you can help it, calling a real human might be best.