SWAN - not so graceful

That is correct my booking window as the same for dining and rides as it was for any Disney hotel.

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Interesting, I had read that the dining would not be available and that’s really what swayed me. I have no idea where I read it, but good clarification to note for if we ever have the points built up for it.

If you are going to stay - I suggest the SWAN over Dolphin as the swan has queen beds. The grotto pool is further away from the Swan as well. There is a convenience store in the Dolphin that I would treck to every night for milk - however it was a fun 20 minute “just me” time so I actually didn’t mind it at all. Also if you have enough points - having a balcony made a HUGE difference for us.

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We returned from 4 nights at the Dolphin last week, and I can give my perspective. We paid $241.04/night, which includes the room charge, room tax, resort tax, service package, service package tax, and service package resort tax, with the AAA discount. There were two of us, both adults, and we got a king bed room, which was the same price as the 2 double bed room.

For the service package, we got 4 full size bottles of water per day and spotty in-room wifi. We did not get a refurbished room, but we were offered one at a $30/day upcharge. I am a Starwood Preferred Guest and requested a higher floor room or balcony. Neither were offered at check-in. We checked in at 2:30pm, but a room was not ready. I told them that I’d appreciate it if one of my requests was met, and she said she would do what she could. We then walked away to wait for a call when our room was ready, which came about 10 minutes later. We were then offered a room on the 11th (top) floor.

There was no balcony, but we had a lovely view below of the service area and open garbage dumpsters. At another glance, however, we could see the Magic Kingdom in the distance. Sure enough, we happened to return to our room at 10pm to see a perfect, tiny view of Wishes.

We did use the grotto pool, and we found it to be clean and pleasant, but not particularly special. We didn’t use the pool bar, and were not approached by the server walking around. You had to go to a shack at the entrance and show your resort key to get towels, which could then be returned to a towel dump. There were about as many ducks enjoying the pool area as we found at the Universal Royal Pacific Resort pool last fall. But we saw no droppings or feathers, the area was kept clean.

We found the layout of the Dolphin to be ridiculously complicated, and it was very difficult to find our way around. Bluezoo on our first night was outstanding and exceeded my expectations. We didn’t use Fresh Market. We used Picabu twice, for coffee (not good) and a quick take out breakfast. The lobby bar offered better coffee and a few pastries and yogurt in the mornings.

The room was shabby and dark. The sink (just one) area outside the toilet and bathroom was badly laid out and tiny. The two of us were bumping into each other trying to get ready. The tiny refrigerator was cool but not cold, as previously reported by others.

The location was awesome. All in all, there really aren’t any other reasons to stay at the Dolphin other than a cheaper alternative to the other Epcot hotels, which was why we were there. We felt we were paying for location, and compared to the others which started at $400 at the time I booked, the Dolphin was a deal, and in that we weren’t disappointed. The room was quiet, housekeeping was fine. Would I go back with my kids? No. But for our purposes it did what it needed to do, no more.

I think the SWAN may have been in a bit better shape than the Dolphin. All the rooms have been rehabbed and it was one of the reasons I chose it over the Dolphin. Everything was pretty much as you described. It wasn’t horrible - but wasn’t what you would hope for either. I know when I booked my room and when we checked in I was very specific about a few things. I do have to say if we didn’t have the balcony (which we paid extra points for) - I think our time there would have been less enjoyable - I actually did spend quite a bit of room time out on the balcony watching things and enjoying the breeze. Sorry your experience wasn’t better - but hopefully they will get their act together. Your description of the pool was pretty accurate too.

Wow this is depressing! I was hoping to stay at the Swan on a future trip when my kids are a bit older. It looked like it would be a nice lower-cost alternative to the Beach Club for a good pool & great location. :frowning:

Susan

Its an OK place. Location is awesome. Rooms ok. Pool - tired. It is lower cost - but not a substitute for Beach Club though. We stayed there as it was FREE with points - and if you get a deep discount - go for it. But if you are paying more than $200 a night - you may be disappointed - especially with the pool

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