If you book on the Bonvoy site, the descriptions will indicate if the room category has a balcony.
One of my worst bus waits was the BC/YC/BWI bus from AK in the afternoon, 45 mins. Such is the nature of Disney bussing. No way would I pick a Disney bus thinking it would save time over a Swolphin bus (unless it's MK obvs). The only way you can count on coming back quickly from AK is a rideshare or MV.
We used the Swan and Dolphin bus coming back from Animal Kingdom and there was very little wait, it was a Mears bus with cloth seats and it dropped us right at the Swan (no more walking after a day where we put in 29000 steps!)
I think in our case Boardwalk would have been faster. We think it was close to a shift change because on our second day she said she was done after dropping us off. I think she was hanging out at the resort or just driving slow in hopes of not having to drive anyone back or to make it her last trip.
Plan on it not going through and be happy if it does. I had a trip mid-Mar that ended up during a huge conference, my SNA did not clear. A poster here was the week before me their SNA did clear.
I wouldn’t waste anytime tracking it down because at prime season you have a snowball’s chance in hell of that clearing. And when it doesn’t clear it expires before you get a chance to use them again. But that’s just me, you may find those odds good enough to try… if so I’d try booking a third refundable room for those dates, separate from the others and see if you can apply the certs then.
Most other booking sevices exclude getting your points or night credits. But if you want use the SD mobile app and shoot them to text to verify.
What’s the benefit of booking Swolphin through Disney? (Not being sarcastic, genuinely curious. I always go straight to Marriott.)
Great idea. I should try that, but I agree about the dates! Appreciate it!
I’d be booking from Uk so price is in £ Sterling and includes resort fees which means it’s a known quantity for me as I don’t have to take the exchange rate into account. Sometimes that works in my favour sometimes not but it’s always worth checking. I’ve only signed up to Bonvoy so no rewards build up as yet but I reckon a 14 night stay is a good way to start.
I was upgraded in March using SNAs and it was great. I posted the updates and photos of the room in this thread sometime in early March if you want to find it.
So you are correct that it is for 10 nights. When you have 2 rooms, you have to use the certificates for both rooms. And since you only have 5, you can't apply them.
Swolphin can only be booked through Disney as a package with tickets. Then money for tickets isn't being paid until 30 days before other than the $200 package deposit. Also Magical Extras are included with Disney package - the mini golf benefit is great with Fantasia Gardens being across the street. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/guest-services/vacation-package-magical-extras/
Thanks. Pretty annoying since I actually called SR before I chose the suite nights as I wasn't going to take the suite nights with my bonus choices but they assured me that there were 2 queen bed standard rooms that would connect to the suite if I only had suite nights for one of the two rooms. I wouldn't have choosen the suite nights if I couldn't use them for this trip. I will never get another 5 suite nights prior to December. lol. Bummer. But thanks for the info.
Thank you!
I've read that bus service to and from AK is generally quite good.
Don't rely on late checkout either if you're Elite. We weren't Ambassador yet (we usually just confirm we can check out at 3/4pm) and it was a surprise since every Marriott hotel we've ever stayed at has given us some form of late checkout.
