CanadianGuy
<font color=green><br><br><font color=blue>Me and
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2006
Just back from another stay at the Swan/Dolphin resort. What an amazing vacation. We were booked in for 8 nights at the Swan, we stayed the Dolphin last trip.
In my head, I know it makes ZERO sense, but we definitely preferred the Swan over the Dolphin. It feels more intimate and less 'hustle bustle' for this kid. Of course, if you like hustle...
We ate at Il Mulino New York Trattoria.. and that was amazing. It had been a very long day at the parks and we didn't wanna fight crowds to eat. We sat outside in courtyard late afternoon. We had the gnocchi and the calamari. Service was quick and super friendly and the food was ... mmmm.. just what was needed.
Swan Lobby
I really enjoy the lower-key nature of the resort and the lobby is very elegant with tasteful touches here and there. There was a major IBM convention happening while we were there. Honestly, if I hadn't seen the signs and a few name tags, I wouldn't have known!
And really didn't care. Thing about convention people is --- shhh.. don't repeat this to others -- they generally don't use things like the pool or parks transportation so I didn't mind them at ALL!
The other side benefit was they boosted the WIFI availability by having increased WIFI coverage in the ground floor area. The resort's wifi was acceptable but we did have some troubles in-room partway thru the trip. We called and whatever they did, it was working again within minutes. So no major problem there at all.
Our room --- which was really quite 'suite'.
In fact, it was a suite and we enjoyed it a lot. The suite offered a living room area pictured here along with a dining table and a balcony. Our king bedroom was off to the side and ... well, I don't know if I can vacation again without having two complete bathrooms. We could both get ready without being in each other's way and besides being a time saver, I think it was probably a friendship saver too!
Another 'green option' the resort offered. For each day we refused full 'housekeeping' service, we got a 5$ food and beverage voucher. We asked up front and were told that we could use several of these at one sitting if we chose. We saved up a few days worth and used them for subs at the Splash Grill down by the Swan pool. Staff working the Slash Grill were amazingly friendly and happily made our sandwiches to order. (I don't like olives.. so sue me!)
We really thought this was an absolutely BRILLIANT idea and since we're hardly messy folk and had ample towels etc.. we took advantage of refusing housekeeping on several nights of our stay.
Panorama from the Walkway
Walkway to Swan from Dolphin - Note the Purple Flower Beds
In the purple flowers was a ducks nest. She had several eggs of which one or two had hatched and she took them for a swim. We didn't touch the eggs of course. Too cute to watch tho.
Learned a few things have changed since my last trip. Specifically about ticket upgrading.. tickets must be upgraded BEFORE the last entitlement is used. The 14 day expiration no longer applies for upgrades. Fortunately, since we were staying at the S/D and Disney accords many of the same benefits to S/D guests as Disney resorts, they made an exception for us.
The downside of that was the ticket prices had changed partway thru our trip, so adding just one more day turned out to cost over $30 per ticket. Wasn't too thrilled about that.. but what can ya do?
All in all this was one of the best trips to Disney I've ever taken... and as you can see from the signature.. there's been a bunch! (and many more not listed there) The location of the S/D resorts is pretty spot on. You're a short walk to either Epcot International Gateway or Hollywood Studios .. the boat transportation is fun and the buses to the other parks made it all very easy.
I've been hooked by the Swan tho.. I suspect we'll be staying here again.. for sure.
In my head, I know it makes ZERO sense, but we definitely preferred the Swan over the Dolphin. It feels more intimate and less 'hustle bustle' for this kid. Of course, if you like hustle...
We ate at Il Mulino New York Trattoria.. and that was amazing. It had been a very long day at the parks and we didn't wanna fight crowds to eat. We sat outside in courtyard late afternoon. We had the gnocchi and the calamari. Service was quick and super friendly and the food was ... mmmm.. just what was needed.
Swan Lobby
I really enjoy the lower-key nature of the resort and the lobby is very elegant with tasteful touches here and there. There was a major IBM convention happening while we were there. Honestly, if I hadn't seen the signs and a few name tags, I wouldn't have known!
And really didn't care. Thing about convention people is --- shhh.. don't repeat this to others -- they generally don't use things like the pool or parks transportation so I didn't mind them at ALL!
The other side benefit was they boosted the WIFI availability by having increased WIFI coverage in the ground floor area. The resort's wifi was acceptable but we did have some troubles in-room partway thru the trip. We called and whatever they did, it was working again within minutes. So no major problem there at all.
Our room --- which was really quite 'suite'.
In fact, it was a suite and we enjoyed it a lot. The suite offered a living room area pictured here along with a dining table and a balcony. Our king bedroom was off to the side and ... well, I don't know if I can vacation again without having two complete bathrooms. We could both get ready without being in each other's way and besides being a time saver, I think it was probably a friendship saver too!
Another 'green option' the resort offered. For each day we refused full 'housekeeping' service, we got a 5$ food and beverage voucher. We asked up front and were told that we could use several of these at one sitting if we chose. We saved up a few days worth and used them for subs at the Splash Grill down by the Swan pool. Staff working the Slash Grill were amazingly friendly and happily made our sandwiches to order. (I don't like olives.. so sue me!)
We really thought this was an absolutely BRILLIANT idea and since we're hardly messy folk and had ample towels etc.. we took advantage of refusing housekeeping on several nights of our stay.
Panorama from the Walkway
Walkway to Swan from Dolphin - Note the Purple Flower Beds
In the purple flowers was a ducks nest. She had several eggs of which one or two had hatched and she took them for a swim. We didn't touch the eggs of course. Too cute to watch tho.
Learned a few things have changed since my last trip. Specifically about ticket upgrading.. tickets must be upgraded BEFORE the last entitlement is used. The 14 day expiration no longer applies for upgrades. Fortunately, since we were staying at the S/D and Disney accords many of the same benefits to S/D guests as Disney resorts, they made an exception for us.
The downside of that was the ticket prices had changed partway thru our trip, so adding just one more day turned out to cost over $30 per ticket. Wasn't too thrilled about that.. but what can ya do?
All in all this was one of the best trips to Disney I've ever taken... and as you can see from the signature.. there's been a bunch! (and many more not listed there) The location of the S/D resorts is pretty spot on. You're a short walk to either Epcot International Gateway or Hollywood Studios .. the boat transportation is fun and the buses to the other parks made it all very easy.
I've been hooked by the Swan tho.. I suspect we'll be staying here again.. for sure.
