Walt Disney World SWAN, DOLPHIN & SWAN RESERVE RESORTS Information & Questions

[Dan Murphy]

Has anyone purchased one of these dining cards??? We booked our trip through Costco last December for this November. Now they announced disounted Disney Dining Cards and it peaked our interest! I love being able to prepay!

https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_149333382859813&key=debb21522a2ba14b8d7bcbd1910c5bdb&libId=j210canl01002d7s000DAlikw6d50&loc=https://www.disboards.com/threads/new-quick-service-dining-card.3600307/&v=1&out=http://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/new-quick-service-dining-card-available-at-a-discount-when-you-book-a-walt-disney-world-vacation-package/&ref=https://www.disboards.com/forums/disney-dining-plan.116/&title=NEW Quick Service Dining Card | The DIS Disney Discussion Forums - DISboards.com&txt=http://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories...ou-book-a-walt-disney-world-vacation-package/

It appears you must book through Walt Disney Travel Company with a package, including tickets.

 

[ckelly14]

Our trip after next will be with brother in law and his wife. We will have 4 adults and our daughter, who will be 7 at the time. We would want separate bedrooms for adult couples with our daughter in our room with her own bed or sleeper sofa. What should we look into for swan or dolphin suites. They do not post their costs online. Does anyone know their price range? Thank you!

Consider the executive suite at the dolphin. This is a parlor area with King bed attached to separate hotel room with 2 doubles. I don't know the prices but it is generally cheaper than 2 connecting rooms.

 

[pillow]

Consider the executive suite at the dolphin. This is a parlor area with King bed attached to separate hotel room with 2 doubles. I don't know the prices but it is generally cheaper than 2 connecting rooms.

I would love to do this room on points, but I don't think there is a way (unless you pay the extra cash at check-in - and of course there has to be availability). Right now I have 2 rooms booked. I upgraded to balcony rooms for an extra 1,000 points/night - so 22,000 points/night for 2 balcony rooms.

Other ideas are welcome. Would MUCH rather use points vs pay cash for this trip!

 

[ckelly14]

I would love to do this room on points, but I don't think there is a way (unless you pay the extra cash at check-in - and of course there has to be availability). Right now I have 2 rooms booked. I upgraded to balcony rooms for an extra 1,000 points/night - so 22,000 points/night for 2 balcony rooms.

Other ideas are welcome. Would MUCH rather use points vs pay cash for this trip!

Typically, they would charge you a total of 20,000/night for the executive suite. There have been a few occasions where they said the points option was not available, but I was able to use points only for my trip in December. YMMV. You may get a different answer from different agents. The problem is that the Dolphin reservation people don't have access to your points, and the Starwood people can't see suite availability. You need to call the Dolphin directly, and have them conference call with Starwood. Kind of a pain, but this way you guarantee a connecting room. Good luck.

 

[hsmamato2]

so you can book a suite using points? but you have to call for availability? that's interesting

 

[ImprovGal]

I meant to post this sooner, but got waylaid by a gall bladder that needed to be removed. I had a great, but brief, stay a couple of weeks ago. It was 1 night dolphin, 1 night swan. For both resorts, as an spg platinum, I was charged the reduced resort fee of $20. I miss the days of them waiving that fee, but at least it's a little something. Service at front desk and bell services was excellent, and it's nice to see loyalty recognized and rewarded.

 

[mikegood2]

Consider the executive suite at the dolphin. This is a parlor area with King bed attached to separate hotel room with 2 doubles. I don't know the prices but it is generally cheaper than 2 connecting rooms.

I second the idea of an executive suite. We stayed in them in 2011 and 2013 and loved them. We were never able to get prices on line either, but any time we called they were very helpful. If you do end up booking one I would suggest calling and checking out prices periodically. On our stay in 2013 we were able to rebook at a better rate, I think it saved us close to $60 a night. We have two rooms booked at the POP Century in June, executive suites weren't available for some of our days, and I those two rooms cost the same as what we got the Executive Suite for in 2011.

I know the Swan Dolphin have gone thru a renovation or two since, but here are photos of our executive suite in 2011
The **New** Swan and Dolphin Resort thread ~ September 2010 ~ Please read post #1

Our Executive Suite in 2013 had a standard room and the suite portion had the wet bar/kitchenette in it.

 

[pillow]

Typically, they would charge you a total of 20,000/night for the executive suite. There have been a few occasions where they said the points option was not available, but I was able to use points only for my trip in December. YMMV. You may get a different answer from different agents. The problem is that the Dolphin reservation people don't have access to your points, and the Starwood people can't see suite availability. You need to call the Dolphin directly, and have them conference call with Starwood. Kind of a pain, but this way you guarantee a connecting room. Good luck.

Thanks! I'll give this a try. What are the views like from the executive suites? Do they have balconies?

 

[Volatica]

I think messaging the service rep was a good idea, hopefully they get back too you soon with a definitive answer. Also, don't feel silly contacting them, if the layout you saw was the reason you chose the a Premium studio than better to figure it out now than have to deal with potential issues when you arrive.

We also found that finding "accurate" room layouts to the suites/studios difficult in the past. Between the differences in rooms between the Swan and the Dolphin and renovations every couple years, I'm not sure if they have one specific layout.

We stayed in Executive Suites at the Dolphin, in 2011 and 2013, and the room layouts were definitely not the same. Luckily both rooms worked out great for us and we prefered certain aspects of both of them. In 2011 the room portion was a handicap accessible room, so it had a wetbar/kitchenette area and walk in closet. In 2013 the wet bar/kitchenette was in the suite room (my room) and the room was a standard room. Funny story, we really liked the wetbar/kitchenette area on our second stay and wished we had one on our first stay. 2 or 3 days into that stay we realized that we did have one on our first stay, but that was where we kept my nieces crib, so we were not able to use it.

Sadly, because of the Dolphin renovations, no executive suites were available for our stay in June, so we had to book at another resort this year. Not looking forward to staying at a value resort this summer because I think those executive suites really spoiled us.

Thanks for the info. I contacted customer service, and, after some pushing because what the regular-level rep was telling me didn't match the info I had found, she escalated the issue and emailed a "specialized department." I just got an email back from them today (It took about three days to hear back.), and the person who emailed me clarified that yes, some rooms do have the walk in closets with doors big enough to hold the crib like I was initially told, but some do not since layout's vary. They put a note on my reservation that I requested a room specifically with a walk-in closet. I was encouraged to reach out again when my trip is closer. We are going to bring some command hooks with us, just in case so that we can hang a blanket over the doorway of the bathroom area if we need to.

And, yeah, my parents with the younger kids and my sister with her kids are both staying at a value for this trip. I asked my husband if he would be willing to stay there too, but he flat-out said no. (Nothing against those resorts. Some people love them dearly!) But we have been spoiled even just staying at POFQ (where we normally stay). I'm somewhat worried that, after staying at the Dolphin, we won't even feel like we can go back to POFQ. We shall see.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my (somewhat neurotic) request for information! I'm feeling much better now and am back to being excited about planning.

 

[maxiesmom]

Be very very careful with the command strips if you have to use them. They can pull paint off, and then you will be paying for Disney to fix it.

 

[DisCatGirl]

Recently returned from our first trip to S/D. We were at POFQ for 2 nights and moved to the Swan on Easter Sunday, 4/16. We were there for 5 nights. I'm appreciative of all I've learned here, so let me know if I can answer any questions. A few thougths:
-I chose the Swan over the Dolphin for the beds and renovations. My wife said that next time she'd prefer the Dolphin as the amenities we used most were more convenient there (laundry, closer to pool, Fountain, Picabu to name a few)
-Room was great...comfortable and very clean. 7th floor (room 791) end of hall with balcony...great view of TOT and HS fireworks, also EE was visible and the mountains of Pandora.
-We did EP 2 days and HS one...easy walk or boat ride.
-7am EMH at Magic Kingdom on Thur. 4/20...the bus was pushing it to get there on time. We were at the stop by 6:00 and a bus had not come. It was about 6:25 for the first bus. We made it through security but they had already begun letting people in by the time we arrived, right about 7am. I wish the bus was a bit earlier.
-Garden Grove b'fast buffet was great. I am Marriott/SPG platinum and received free cont. b'fast but could upgrade to full buffet for $6 each. We really enjoyed the 2 full breakfasts we had there.
-Kids loved the Grotto Pool, but thought the water slide was weak compared to others (mainly Poly & POFQ)
-We hadn't stayed on/near the boardwalk, but will definitely do so again. Great area!

Happy to answer any questions.

I am lifetime platinum at SPG. I see you are also platinum. Can you clarify the benefits - did you have to pay resort fee? How was the breakfast?
Any other benefits?
Thanks-

 

[mc-hokie]

I am lifetime platinum at SPG. I see you are also platinum. Can you clarify the benefits - did you have to pay resort fee? How was the breakfast?
Any other benefits?
Thanks-

They waived the resort fee, but I made my reservations back in Sept. , I have heard that they may not do that now. Buffet at Garden Grove was great. I received a voucher for continental breakfast for 2 each day and was able to get full buffet for just $6 more each. I was upgraded to a balcony room facing Hollywood Studios...great view of fireworks.

 

[Willlyb]

Hi...quick question - Can the Dolphin standard room accommodate my family of 6 if my 2 youngest (1-year old and infant) are in pack-n-plays?

I know it would be cramped...I guess I'm asking if the Dolphin will even allow it as I have a ton of Starwood points I'd like to use to make this trip free in conjunction with APs. I'm just not sure if the Dolphin would count each of my 2 youngest kids towards the maximum occupancy of 5.

 

[SwanVT2]

Can you still rent the swan paddle boats, and if so what does it cost? Thanks!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Can you still rent the swan paddle boats, and if so what does it cost? Thanks!

Yes, but not sure of the rental rate.

http://www.swandolphin.com/welcome/activities/daily/monday.pdf

 

[apdebord]

Sorry if this has already been answered...are there luggage transfers from the Swan to a Disney resort? We are staying at the Swan for the first part of our trip, then moving over to Yacht Club. We'll have to move our car anyway, but it would be nice to not worry about packing the car, driving 2 seconds down the street, then unpacking the car.

 

[dansdad]

Sorry if this has already been answered...are there luggage transfers from the Swan to a Disney resort?

Yup.

 

[ginny65]

If we arrive around 1:00 p.m. and check our luggage with the hotel, is there a locker we can store our street clothes and my purse in the health club or spa until our room is ready? We'd probably like to head to the pool right away, weather permitting.

 

[Tess]

If we arrive around 1:00 p.m. and check our luggage with the hotel, is there a locker we can store our street clothes and my purse in the health club or spa until our room is ready? We'd probably like to head to the pool right away, weather permitting.

Yes, both men's and women's locker rooms in the health club. We use them frequently when we stay at Dolphin--haven't done it at the Swan, but I would imagine it is the same.

 

[ginny65]

Thanks. I was hoping we could use lockers.

I have another question. What is the best place to get a quick snack and eat it by the pool? The last time we stayed at Dolphin, we just ate lunch at Picabu's and then went to the pool. When we asked the bar by the lap pool at Dolphin, they said we had to go inside to order food. Isn't there a quick service place to get lunch and eat it at the pool?