Swan/dolphin Questions !!!!

[daisy58]

what is the difference between the two??? We are 2 adults planning for May 07. Is one more "family", and the other "adults" in setup, amenities? Also do
the king standard rooms have a balcony?? Or do you need to upgrade the room catagory?
Am I correct in the following:
Extra Magic Hours-yes
Magical Express-no
Park charging to room-no
Package delivery from parks to resort-yes (does this include DTD???)
Able to make ADR's- yes (180 days advance like Disney resorts?????)
MYW Dining-no
Anything I left out?????
*****I also read somewhere that there is not a refridgerator, but a
minibar, which if you use it for personal stuff they charge $20.00???
And is that per stay, per night....how is the enforcement????
THANKS!!!!

 

[daisy58]

bumping myself!!!!

 

[Rella Bella]

what is the difference between the two??? We are 2 adults planning for May 07. Is one more "family", and the other "adults" in setup, amenities? Also do
the king standard rooms have a balcony?? Or do you need to upgrade the room catagory?
Am I correct in the following:
Extra Magic Hours-yes
Magical Express-no
Park charging to room-no
Package delivery from parks to resort-yes (does this include DTD???)
Able to make ADR's- yes (180 days advance like Disney resorts?????)
MYW Dining-no
Anything I left out?????
*****I also read somewhere that there is not a refridgerator, but a
minibar, which if you use it for personal stuff they charge $20.00???
And is that per stay, per night....how is the enforcement????
THANKS!!!!

HI DAISY!
Hello to your pretty little dog too!
I will help all I can.
We stayed in the Dolphin. LOVED the room, especially the King bed!
THE BEST BED we've ever had on property! They call it the Heavenly bed... and they're not joking! Very comfortable and upgraded linens too.
The Swan has them too.

The pool area is phenomenal! Lobby areas are beautiful in both hotels, the rooms were wonderful, the hallways were long and a bit tired & worn. The Dolphin is HUGE!!!!! Long walk from elevator to room. When I go back I will stay in the Swan... a little smaller.

Food was great, transportation & location wonderful.
We had a park view but didn't ask for an upgrade.
Don't remember much else.

If you choose S or D go to Starwood Preferred Guest & sign up to earn points. You will probably earn a free night (or close) with just your 8 days!


Have fun planning!! Rella

 

[daisy58]

Thanks Rella!
ps...she really is a cutie pie, huh....I just luv her to pieces! If only they had disney doggie days.....
....She has a not so secret crush on "Tramp"

 

[webray]

the king standard rooms have a balcony?? Or do you need to upgrade the room catagory?
Am I correct in the following:
Extra Magic Hours-yes
Magical Express-no
Park charging to room-no
Package delivery from parks to resort-yes (does this include DTD???)
Able to make ADR's- yes (180 days advance like Disney resorts?????)
MYW Dining-no
Anything I left out?????
*****I also read somewhere that there is not a refridgerator, but a
minibar, which if you use it for personal stuff they charge $20.00???
And is that per stay, per night....how is the enforcement????
THANKS!!!!

Balcony rooms are definately a category of their own..I have never been in a standard room that has a balcony.

You definately get EMH, we have many times.

No park charging to room.

There is a mini bar. We usually just put a couple bottles of water in front of the stuff to chill as needed.

Swan and Dolphin are both great. Comfy beds, wonderful ammenities, nice atmosphere. Dolphin has Picabo, the 24 hour restaurant. Dolphin has larger lobby area. Swan is much smaller than Dolphin, so shorter walk to room.

 

[CindeBella]

We just returned from our first Dolphin stay a couple of days ago. We have always stayed at the Swan. The was our first trip without our 3 lovely children. We wanted to experience an adult Disney vacation of fine dining and moving at our own pace.

We had a king room with a distant view of the MK. We were able to see the fireworks in the evening which were amazing! We didn't ask for this or pay extra.

As far as a shuttle from the airport... to be honest, we were happy to pay the $109 for a car to take us to and from the airport. Not only for comfort but to save time. We arrived at 11am and wanted to get a start on the F&W Festival at Epcot. Our room wasn't ready at the time of arrival, which was a first, so we left our bags at the bellstand and went to Epcot. The Swan/Dolphin have drivers all the time which makes it nice if you don't want to ride the bus. We used a driver to take us to the Contemporary for breakfast one morning at the end of our stay.
The hotels also have very nice restaurants. This was our first time dining at Shulas and the food/service was outstanding! The best dining experience yet.
Our drinks were very strong, only ordered one and our waiter sent us a complimentary molten cake that was AMAZING. The Bluezoo was very good as well.

ADR can be made regardless of where you are staying. Those that live near by make them as well.

The only complaint I have is that we tend to find additional charges on our bill at times. This time there was a $2 charge for something that was not specified but was taken off. Not a big deal being $2 but they did not explain the charge. There is a charge for the mini bar if things are moved around.. we were told there is a scale. Not sure how accurate that info is but we have seen charges for items that we have not taken. In fact, we have never taken a single item. I have asked that the bar be locked and food be taken out when we are traveling with our 3 children which they have done. They did let us use the mini refrigerator when our daughter's formula needed to be kept refrigerated, at no additional charge. Don't let those things give you a bad take on the hotel, just check your bill. The good far exceed the bad! The employee at the bellstand could not find our return reservation to the airport from Happy Limo, he gave us a voucher for a complimentary service to the airport. Our driver showed up so we did not need it.

Also, sign up for a preferred guest on Starwood's website.

Have a good trip!!

 

[CindeBella]

Forgot to answer... packages are sent from DD as well as the parks. Sounds as if everything else is correct. The king room we had did not have a balcony. I'm not sure what the extra charge is for that.
I can't say that one is more family friendly than the other. Both are very similiar as far as I can tell.

We have considered the DVC and will probably go ahead with it, but it's so hard for us to leave these two resorts. The pool and beach is amazing. Palio and Kimonos are good restaurants also.

 

[daisy58]

So...we booked a standard room at the Swan...already happy to be saving $$$ yet not giving up our deluxe epcot room and location...signed up last night for Starwood, also their c/c, since you get 10000 points after 1st use!
Booked the room under AARP discount (we are only 51/48 yrs-but when DH turned 50 last year, AARP offered their membership, and I said
heck yeah! more discounts!) THEN today, saw on the AARP website, that
members get an upgraded Starwood discount plan (preferred plus), So I called Starwood, asked for the upgrade, and Marcus, the agent said, how about I do one better, and upgrade you to gold??? So NOW, we have the AARP discount, automatic room upgrade with the gold Starwood,
and we can use the 10k points for a *free* night in our upgraded room!!!!
I am totally stoked!!!!!!!

 

[PrincessKitty1]

Thanks for the heads-up, Daisy58! I had just rejoined the Starwood Preferred program (couldn't find my old card) for our upcoming stay in November, and I had no idea there was an AARP perk!

I just turned 50 last month and joined AARP a few months before for the discounts--they ARE great!

 

[daisy58]

PrincessKitty- be sure to call starwood and have them upgrade your
regular starwood program to the AARP one!

 

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

The rooms may have some minor differences, but nothing that I noticed. The decor is the same. Same Heavenly Beds.

We like the Swan due to its smaller size and easy walk to the Boardwalk area.

Have a great trip!! I have posted several photos on the resort photo thread. Take a look if you have time.

The pool area is very nice and you are going to love the famous oatmeal soap. The WDW channels are on the TV just like an official WDW hotel.

 

[daisy58]

oooohhhh I LOVE oatmeal soap!!!
Which makes me think of yet another question!!
are the room toiletries, shampoo etc better than at the Disney resorts?
(I never did like their shampoo/conditioner, and am not a fan of Ivory
soap! It dries my skin out!!!

 

[PrincessKitty1]

PrincessKitty- be sure to call starwood and have them upgrade your
regular starwood program to the AARP one!

I definitely will, thanks!

 

[happymommy]

what is the difference between the two??? We are 2 adults planning for May 07. Is one more "family", and the other "adults" in setup, amenities? Also do
the king standard rooms have a balcony?? Or do you need to upgrade the room catagory?
Am I correct in the following:
Extra Magic Hours-yes
Magical Express-no
Park charging to room-no
Package delivery from parks to resort-yes (does this include DTD???)
Able to make ADR's- yes (180 days advance like Disney resorts?????)
MYW Dining-no
Anything I left out?????
*****I also read somewhere that there is not a refridgerator, but a
minibar, which if you use it for personal stuff they charge $20.00???
And is that per stay, per night....how is the enforcement????
THANKS!!!!



I just stayed at the Swan in April, then the Dolphin in August. It was me, my DD7 and DS9. Here's my take:
Both: I booked a balcony room. Definitely need that one. DS has asthma, so can't have it cooped up. Love to get up before kids to have coffee on balcony - it's like having another little room. Stayed on points for both trips, so worth the extra points.
Swan: room nice size - king room with double sleeper sofa. Two sinks. Love that. Room clean. Had to have engineering come to take fuse out of motion detector to have A/C run when we were not in room (asthma). Son has food allergies so they brought a small fridge no charge. If you have a medical reason they'll give you a fridge. Never did package delivery. Did magical hours (?) so yes that's good. Room service good. It's quiet at the Swan - I loved that!

Dolphin: ditto balcony room. They gave us a corner room. We had an additional balcony that was huge. BUT it was a smaller room by far. King bed but the sofa sleeper couldn't open: I told them to remove it and give me a rollaway. The room seemed dirtier - maybe since it's a corner with the two balconies but I had some huge bug and lots of little bugs that bit me and a friend one night on the balcony. It was more convenient to the laundry room, the restaurants, and the shops. We carried sushi out 4 nights (DS loves it but it's pricey, about $75 each night for us 3). Got the fridge, got the A/C under control. Missed the second sink and the extra space for toiletries (brought the over the door shoe holder so that was good).

I think the Swan was nice and quieter. I am going back there in March. I never got the minibar key either time - don't know how to comment on that but if you want any other advice PM me! I am sold on the location, and the service is pretty good - much better than we've had at a lot of Disney resorts. The room service had kids' meals so that is good for a parent who frequently travels there without the DH (he works too much!).

 

[Dan Murphy]

I enjoy the Swan over the Dolphin, smaller.

 

[CindeBella]

Which makes me think of yet another question!!
are the room toiletries, shampoo etc better than at the Disney resorts?
(I never did like their shampoo/conditioner, and am not a fan of Ivory
soap! It dries my skin out!!!

I'm not a big fan of the toiletries. I brought my own in travel containers.

Just an head's up... The swan/dolphin offers a gov't discount, nurse discount and teacher's discount for just above the moderate resort price. Disboards had a discount rate of $155 recently which was $4 dollars cheaper than what we were able to get with my husband's gov't discount.

The Swan/Dolphin had a few "Best" in Birnbaum's official guide. Shula's had best steak, Palio's had either first or second place for italian, Bluezoo for seafood, first for room service... I can't think of the rest at the moment, but I can testify that all of the above mentioned are the best.

You will enjoy your stay

 

[jwfla422]

Just returned from a wonderful stay at the Swan. We have stayed at both the S/D several times and although we do like both we prefer the Swan a bit more because of it's size. The walk to your room is much quicker and the Swan is easier to navigate. That being said it's really a matter of personal preference. The Dolphin does have more conveniences. They are shared by both resorts but the conveniences are naturally closer to the Dolphin since they are located there (ie. Picabu's being 24 hrs with refillable mugs available, laundry, the gameroom, grotto pool is closer).

The $20 charge to empty the mini-bar is a one time charge. We bring our own portable frig so we don't use the mini-bar at all. There is no freezer in them so you can't freeze ice packs, etc. The only trouble we had this trip was with the parking lot scanner. It didn't work at all and everytime we exited the lot I had to wait for the attendant to let us out (we should have just gone through the "day visitor" line). Once we were double charged but they removed it with no problem.

You can click on my links below to see the Swan studio or king executive suite (which is a regular king room with a connecting door to another room which is a huge palor room).

 

[DisneyFans4]

You'll enjoy your stay at the Swan, we just love it there!! This past August we had the grand suite and 3 balconies, absolutely wonderful!!! We had an Epcot view and we watched Illuminations every night from our balcony.

If you make purchases downtown they will send it over to the Swan. Just pick your packages up in their gift shop.

 

[tjmw2727]

We love the Swan and Dolphin and just returned from a 6 day stay at the Dolphin. I prefer the Dolphin just a bit over the Swain because of the Picabu restaurant, they call it a buffeteria but its got cold sandwiches, salads and grab and go items as well as pizza and great food including the soup which is a fav of my dd's. If you request a room close to the elevators its not a long walk to anywhere, esp if you ask for the west wing. OTOH since the Dolpin is bigger you have a better chance of getting the coveted Epcot view - although its a Loooong walk to the elevators but if you get one it its worth it.

In general for us the S&D are a great option as they are often priced at the WDW moderate point but offer more including inside corridors and great restaurants. So many restaurant options in the S/D plus walking distance to the Boardwalk and YC/BC as well as MGM and Epcot. I love the heavenly beds and the toiletries are bath & body works, I love the oatmeal soap.

As far as WDW perks they offer the package delivery to the resort gift shop and EMH's same as WDW resorts and great transportation. The bus route is usually shared with BW and YC/BC and you have the boats or walking paths as well. You won't be able to charge from the parks to your room charge or have access to DME however.

The Grotto pool is our second favorite only to Stormalong Bay and since they also offer the warmer "spring pool" its my dd's favorite pool. The girls also prefer the slide at the Grotto better than Stormalong because they don't like to walk across the "street". The Grotto pool is tied for second place among our family with the Polynesian pool.

FWIW we visit often and have stayed at most of the WDW resorts in every category and the Dolphin is my first choice every trip.

TJ

 

[DisneyFans4]

When we were there in August the bus was not shared with YC or BC. It was Boardwalk, Swan and then Dolphin. Guess they realized the old way was just way too crowded for that bus. Depending on where it was going sometimes the Swan was the first stop.