Review of Swan Reserve - August 2022. I'm a lifetime Titanium elite member, and have stayed at Swan and Dolphin quite a few times, but this was my first stay at the Reserve. I originally booked a King no view regular room using the Annual passholder rate.
Suite night awards: I requested Chairman Suite, Epcot view King Signature suite, or Epcot view Queen signature Suite with my SNA's. Exactly 5 days before check-in my upgrade was confirmed to Epcot view King Sig suite.
Check-in: I checked in at 3p but room was not quite ready so I grabbed a coffee from Grounds and hung out in the lobby until just before 4 when they texted my room was ready. All of the front desk staff were wonderful and super helpful. The lobby is open and airy, and had many great little places to plug in a computer or lounge in a comfy chair. The Grounds coffee was very good and they seem to have slightly different drink options than either Fuel or Java which was nice. Also had grab and go options there.
Room: upon entering my room, I realized I had a corner suite room, which means I could see both Epcot and Magic Kingdom fireworks! That was a great surprise. The suite was very spacious.
The bathroom was accessible from both the living room and the bedroom. The toilet area had a second sink that closed off from the shower/sink area, which would be great if you had multiple people getting ready.
Bed: Pillows were great, bed was on the firm side but still comfortable and I slept well. The blankets are very thin - basically two sheets so I did need to turn up the room temp at night but once I did that it was fine.
Breakfast vouchers: The breakfast vouchers were good for either in room dining via a special category on the Swan/Dolphin app. Basically you can choose a pastry, fruit or yogurt, and drink and they will deliver to your room. The other option for breakfast voucher was to use at Amare located in the hotel, over at Fresh in the Dolphin, or Garden Grove at the Swan for continental breakfast. You could pay 14.99 to upgrade to the full hot buffet while using the voucher at those spots.
The in room continental breakfast was a great quick option on the days I rope dropped. I could choose delivery as early as 6am, and the bagel came toasted and warm. The latte wasn't great, but it was coffee and I didn't have to wait in line for it so that was a win.
The breakfast buffet at Amare was great. The overall selection wasn't huge, but everything that was offered was very good quality for buffet food and I would definitely eat there again.
Pools: The Reserve pool is cute with steps running all down one side which makes it easy to get in and out of. There is also a tanning ledge down at one end. However, since it is so small its more of a place to hang and cool off than actually swim. Shade is VERY hard to come by in the middle of the day so plan accordingly. Service was great though, and the flatbreads served from Tangerine/pool service were excellent.
They have walking path right after the crosswalk that leads towards the Dolphin and grotto area of the pool if you take the left path (the right path takes you towards the Swan). They have signs that mark out which path leads where. The crosswalk was very easy to use - it was usually never more than about 15 seconds from the time you pressed the crosswalk button to when you could start crossing.
Water taxis: on the way to the parks I didn't feel like the walk was too bad, however the first night coming back to the hotel I made the mistake of walking the Dolphin way around, and I was not a fan. After that, I walked the Swan side and that felt much better. Taking in account how much smaller the Reserve is and how close the elevators are in the lobby, I don't know that the walk is really all that much longer than going to a room in the Swan, or especially at the Dolphin given how long some of the hallways are.
Busses: The bus drivers are great. I don't think I ever waited more than 10 minutes for a bus, other than one day leaving Disney Springs around noon it took 20 minutes. With the Reserve being further away from the boardwalk, I chose just to take the bus to the TTC vs walking to Yacht or Boardwalk and it worked just fine. They all started running at least 1 hour before park open on the days I was there. I actually prefer the Animal kingdom bus location vs the disney busses; it seems like less of a walk.
Overall: I was not expecting to like this hotel as much as I did, however it was great. I would stay here again in a heartbeat, and would have a hard time choosing between this and the Swan. In all fairness the suite was great, so maybe if I had stayed in a regular room I wouldn't have loved it as much? Every single staff member there was wonderful. The hotel felt modern without feeling "cold," and it felt very relaxing to walk into the bright open lobby.
TLDR: Great hotel, especially for adults or Marriott elite members looking to use Suite Night awards. Walk wasn't that much further than Swan or Dolphin and you get the WDW deluxe hotel perks.
Edited to add: my pics aren't uploading right now I will try to get those posted!
How does this even happen. It was stuck in their system and she had to log into a different system and pull it manually. When I checked the Disney site the next day it was magically there.
