I understand that the Dolphin is no longer participating in WDW’s transportation system, so that is a minus, but maybe not a deal breaker. I am curious what the other minuses are of staying at the Dolphin. If you are staying at the Dolphin, when can you make park reservations (i.e., to be admitted to a park) and how much does that disadvantage you vis-a-vis WDW resort guests? Same question for dining reservations. Basically, I am trying to figure out how the Dolphin compares to WDW resorts with this transportation change and in the time of COVID.
There’s no difference in park or dining reservations. You can’t use magic band to charge back to your room, and no Magical Express. Since you already highlighted the park bus difference…I’m not sure there’s much else (currently, subject to change in the future!).
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Many are walking to BW or YC to catch the normal Disney buses. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but it’s happening. It is only really helpful for MK as AK the buses park close to the others.
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For ADRs, you can make them at the 60 day point, one day at a time, not 60 + length of stay. For in demand restaurants, I found it to be a disadvantage.
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Has it always been that way or was it a change when ding went to 60 days?
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I thought it was length of stay too…those quasi-onsite benefits seem to shift a lot.
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I thought, like FPs, ADRs were the same as the Disney owned resorts but I see with the 60 day change it does say SOG, and DS resorts don’t have that benefit too.
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We were at The Swan it was180 days one day at a time. Fastpasses were length of stay.
I called both the Swan and Disney, got conflicting answers. But, when I made ADRs, I could only do each day at 180 says.
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It always said that was the rule, but I stayed in 2016 and 2018 and was able to book for length of stay.
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Someone that has stayed at the Dolphin since reopening was also able to do length of stay.
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SOG is definitely length of stay right now. I know someone going in March who made their ADRs 60 days out for full length.
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Yes, I confirmed it with someone that booked recently on chat. I love it when Disney doesn’t know its own system. I wonder if it is because those reservations can still be linked in MDE?
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Maybe. That’s true for Swan/Dolphin though too?
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Yes, for swan/dolphin too and they all can book length of stay for ADRs.
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Ah, ok. I thought that was still in question 
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