Saw some shad stuff at Swan / Dolphin pool this week you don't see at Disney pools

[OneinThree]

they just shook off and left.

My dogs do it that way, so why not?

Seriously though. . .people act like it's not a thing. My own wife recalls crashing SAB with friends when she was like 17. Forget staying at the resort, they didn't even go to the parks, IIRC. Criminal.

 

[BK2014]

So your first thought if you see someone with a non-pool towel or who is paying cash for their pool side snacks and beverages is "They aren't staying at this hotel" ??? Really??

It is not that they didn't have a towel, or they paid for cash, or that they swam in what appeared to be street clothes, it is that all of those factors were present. It is the totality of the circumstance that makes it odd.

 

[danielocha30]

I understand the unpleasant view of having people at your not cheap at all hotel on street clothes using the pool, but if I were to sneak in a hotel pool the last thing I would do is bring attention to me by bathing full clothed
Paying cash definitely not a tell sing, no towels? maybe they are so close to their room that they didn’t feel the need to bring one. Who knows?

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

Was there a life guard there? At the Poly you have to use your MB to enter the Volcano pool and the Oasis pool. I have never seen anyone check - but we usually swim at night and it is never that crowded.

 

[bumbershoot]

See this all the time. Someone makes a very reasonable observation regarding an unpopular topic, and typically the best defense of said ridiculous behavior is, "well, how do you know that's was. . . <insert>" ̶d̶e̶s̶p̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶o̶b̶v̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶f̶r̶e̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶l̶ .

You see it “all the time” because not everyone always agrees with original posters. It’s nice that you agree with the op. Others don’t.

But thanks for reinforcing my point.

What point?

That you and the OP feel it’s obvious that they were sneaks and others don’t???



So, let’s be logical. This sneaky family comes from...where?

Did they park at the swolphin?

Are they coming from the parks? Did they drive to the parks? Did they take the bus from their resort? Did they waste two hours of their lives driving in, parking at DS, walking through Epcot, exiting, and walking over there?


Ok. So. They’ve been so naughty, they’ve had their swim.

Now what?

You truly think that they are now going to leave and walk past however many employees to go retrieve their car?

They are going to go all sopping wet back to their car parked at Epcot, walking through the park dripping? Or get on that bus to go back to their resort or Disney springs to retrieve their car? While that sopping wet?

Come on.

I’ve been on cruises where you see a family dressed totally inappropriately until one day their luggage catches up with them. Then they can get out of their jeans and into their cruise clothing and bathing suits.

I think it’s far more likely that it’s a situation like that than the one where they are going to be as obvious as they can possibly be to sneak around.

When my Floridian cousins used to swim at Disney resorts (and they state firmly that it used to be allowed and not against rules) they brought suits and towels. They weren’t then driving back to Tampa or Daytona in their wet pants.


I almost never do room charging. I pay cash.

And I’ve brought food and a beverage to a pool.

I do tend to wear appropriate clothing for the pool, but here at the Ymca where I’m sitting during my son’s dance class, you wouldn’t believe what people try to wear in the pool. Jeans? Really? How is that appropriate? And yet they try.


And lastly, a version of my standard question...what did the pool staff say when you brought these families to their attention?

 

[JerseyJanice]

See this all the time. Someone makes a very reasonable observation regarding an unpopular topic, and typically the best defense of said ridiculous behavior is, "well, how do you know that's was. . . <insert>" ̶d̶e̶s̶p̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶o̶b̶v̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶f̶r̶e̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶l̶ .

And I read a lot of posts that make me wonder if I am the most unobservant person on Planet Earth.

While I admit people swimming in clothes instead of bathing suits might catch my attention, I have never noticed whether someone had drinks and food in their cooler. I’ve never checked out what towels people are using. And pretty much the last thing I’d take note of is how they settle their snack bill (cash or credit).

At restaurants, I might check out a dish being served to another table to see whether it’s something we’d want to order. But I sure as heck have never noticed people ordering only cupcakes and soda, and leaving the server a small tip. (Not this thread, but I see it on others.)

Lastly, I tend to think if a family was sneaking into a pool complex, they’d try to blend by not wearing clothes in the pool and standing there to wring out their jeans.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh and regarding the towels, while I’ve never been to swolphin, I’ve seen many people not understand that pool towels are free at resorts at universal. I’ve forgotten to grab towels on my way into a Disney pool. It could be an oversight, a misunderstanding, etc. one set of cousins gets very nervous in situations like this, and are hesitant to ask questions.


And sure they might think there’s a charge. How many people have always thought, and still think, that fast passes have a charge at Disney??

 

[OneinThree]

You see it “all the time” because not everyone always agrees with original posters. It’s nice that you agree with the op. Others don’t.



What point?

That you and the OP feel it’s obvious that they were sneaks and others don’t???



So, let’s be logical. This sneaky family comes from...where?

Did they park at the swolphin?

Are they coming from the parks? Did they drive to the parks? Did they take the bus from their resort? Did they waste two hours of their lives driving in, parking at DS, walking through Epcot, exiting, and walking over there?


Ok. So. They’ve been so naughty, they’ve had their swim.

Now what?

You truly think that they are now going to leave and walk past however many employees to go retrieve their car?

They are going to go all sopping wet back to their car parked at Epcot, walking through the park dripping? Or get on that bus to go back to their resort or Disney springs to retrieve their car? While that sopping wet?

Come on.

I’ve been on cruises where you see a family dressed totally inappropriately until one day their luggage catches up with them. Then they can get out of their jeans and into their cruise clothing and bathing suits.

I think it’s far more likely that it’s a situation like that than the one where they are going to be as obvious as they can possibly be to sneak around.

When my Floridian cousins used to swim at Disney resorts (and they state firmly that it used to be allowed and not against rules) they brought suits and towels. They weren’t then driving back to Tampa or Daytona in their wet pants.


I almost never do room charging. I pay cash.

And I’ve brought food and a beverage to a pool.

I do tend to wear appropriate clothing for the pool, but here at the Ymca where I’m sitting during my son’s dance class, you wouldn’t believe what people try to wear in the pool. Jeans? Really? How is that appropriate? And yet they try.


And lastly, a version of my standard question...what did the pool staff say when you brought these families to their attention?

If it did not occur frequently enough, do you honestly believe the bean counters at Disney would be paying the hourly wages CM who check magic bands at resort pools?

 

[JerseyJanice]

If it did not occur frequently enough, do you honestly believe the bean counters at Disney would be paying the hourly wages CM who check magic bands at resort pools?

Yeah, but that would be only if they employed people just to do that.

When I’ve seen CMs checking MBs, they’ve been either lifeguards or Security. I doubt that “Magic Band Checker” is an actual job title.

 

[scrapquitler]

It is not that they didn't have a towel, or they paid for cash, or that they swam in what appeared to be street clothes, it is that all of those factors were present. It is the totality of the circumstance that makes it odd.

I've seen more than my share of really odd things that people do both at Disney and in other places, so I guess maybe I just don't think about these things as much as you do. People are really strange sometimes. When you bring people from so many cultures, socio-economic and geographical areas together as you see in Disney, people are bound to do things very differently than one some of us are used to. Sometimes you just have to shrug your shoulders and laugh about it.

 

[OneinThree]

Yeah, but that would be only if they employed people just to do that.

As a bean counter myself, I can promise you it does not work that way.

 

[scrapquitler]

Oh and regarding the towels, while I’ve never been to swolphin, I’ve seen many people not understand that pool towels are free at resorts at universal. I’ve forgotten to grab towels on my way into a Disney pool. It could be an oversight, a misunderstanding, etc. one set of cousins gets very nervous in situations like this, and are hesitant to ask questions.


And sure they might think there’s a charge. How many people have always thought, and still think, that fast passes have a charge at Disney??

Don't they still charge for towels at the Disney Water Parks? They did the last time I went to one (more than 10 years ago).

 

[JerseyJanice]

Oh and regarding the towels, while I’ve never been to swolphin, I’ve seen many people not understand that pool towels are free at resorts at universal. I’ve forgotten to grab towels on my way into a Disney pool. It could be an oversight, a misunderstanding, etc. one set of cousins gets very nervous in situations like this, and are hesitant to ask questions.


And sure they might think there’s a charge. How many people have always thought, and still think, that fast passes have a charge at Disney??

I’ve stayed at the Swan and Dolphin numerous times. It’s our favorite resort.

There is a hut on the Dolphin side where you borrow life jackets for kids, get towels and buy stuff like sun screen and pool floats. If you get a towel there, they ask to see your room key.

On the Swan side, they leave rolled towels on all the chaises plus there is a bin of towels for the taking. I usually grab my towels there because the Dolphin hut lady always tries a hard sell on their sunscreen.

 

[fla4fun]

I have trouble imagining a sneaky family swimming in their clothes, for all the reasons mentioned and more. I mean, even when we do a day trip to the beach where there isn't anywhere to change, we wear our swimsuits under our clothes, remove the clothes to keep them dry, and put the clothes back over the dried suits for the return trip home. No way is anyone riding in my car in sopping wet swimsuits or clothes!

However, if I went on vacation and my luggage was lost or delayed, I'd be hitting up the gift shop (or an Uber to Walmart) to get a swimsuit rather than ruining clothes that I might need to wear a couple days or more until the luggage caught up.

There is another possibility. My cousins attend a church that requires modest clothing at all times. When we went to the beach with them, they swam in clothes because swimsuits were immodest. They had a hotel right on the beach though, so they went inside and put on dry clothing after the swim.

 

[Sue M]

I’d think the same thing, not so much about paying cash, but the swimming in street clothes and not using any towels. Plenty of people do sneak into pools after being in a park and let the kids swim. They do it at the MK resorts too because like Epcot & DHS they are conviently close to resorts. At Poly they wait at a gate for someone leaving or entering pool and walk in. When we stayed at Poly a guy and his girlfriend had ADRs for dinner, and just packed their bathing suits to use pools before dinner. They were locals.
But...if they were guests of that resort, walking down halls and elevator dripping all over the place - and not having the courtesy of toweling off- yuck.

 

[Lsdolphin]

We stayed at Poly last August and while at main pool where there are limited tables with umbrellas we were only able to find a single lounge for 4 of us. There was a group of 6 people 4 adults/2kids laughing about how easy it was for them to get into pool area and how they would never pay to stay at the Poly this while sitting at an umbrella table and having stuff spread out across 5 lounges.

Yes, I did actually go over to a lifeguard and let them know. After 30 minutes they were still there drinking beers out of a cooler. I went into the lobby and asked to see a manager and told them what was going on. Someone accompanied me right back out to pool and asked the people if they were guests at the Poly. After some arguing and pretense of looking for their magic bands they got their things together and left making nasty comments about "those who can't mind their own ****business" (that would be us). Quite honestly I felt that if we were paying several hundred $ a night we should be able to use a lounge chair at the pool let alone an umbrella table and it was our business.

It really is easy for non-guests to enter pool area they simply stand beside gate until some with a magic band goes in or out. However, Sometimes someone like me does take off their magic band to avoid suntan line and than forgets to put it back on before leaving and returning to the pool. So not everyone asking to be let in is guilty....

 

[kaytieeldr]

You truly think that they are now going to leave and walk past however many employees to go retrieve their car?

Sure. What are the CMs going to do at that point? Tell the swimmers, "naughty, naughty?" Make them go back in time and not swim?

 

[TIME4DIZ]

Since we are looking for reasons to doubt OP’s conclusion, I find it hard to believe that a family would go through the effort of sneaking in yet pay for poolside service. Poolside food and beverage is never cheap (and not the lure of venue) and that kind of expenditure is inconsistent with a ‘sneaking in’ mentality.

 

[DSLRuser]

I really don't think that any of those observations necessarily point to people who weren't staying at the resort, which you seem to be implying.

First of all: We NEVER ever use pool towels at any resort. After far too many experiences of going to hotels that ran out of pool towels, pool towels being too small and non absorbent and not being able to differentiate which pool towel was mine vs. someone elses, we decided many years ago to bring our own beach towels every time we stay at a hotel in case we want to use the pool.

Next: Paying in cash for drinks or having food/beverages from outside the hotel. Really? You don't think that people like to pay in cash instead of room charging? Tons of people on these boards say they don't room charge. And we like to bring our own snacks/drinks that are cheaper and more likely to be what we want vs. just whatever is available.

And as for the street clothes, yes, something I would never do, but maybe they decided at the last minute to swim and didn't have a suit. Or maybe for Grandma in the yoga clothes it was a modesty issue? Or maybe it was a swimming burka? People do strange things sometimes, but that doesn't mean they didn't belong there.

Justify it all you want to. i know what i saw. these people didn't belong.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Since we are looking for reasons to doubt OP’s conclusion, I find it hard to believe that a family would go through the effort of sneaking in yet pay for poolside service. Poolside food and beverage is never cheap (and not the lure of venue) and that kind of expenditure is inconsistent with a ‘sneaking in’ mentality.

A soda or two is a lot cheaper than a night at the Swan .