Walt Disney World SWAN, DOLPHIN & SWAN RESERVE RESORTS Information & Questions

[Dave006]

Yes that can be correct. It usually the resort is hosting a Conference or Conference and multiple meetings. The 1K prices are the Marriott Dynamic pricing model that varies based on bookings. And you usually only see 1 type of room available.

Note: Even at that price it might not be actually bookable if you proceed to check-out.

Dave

 

[SteveH]

@5DisneyNuts yep it's correct. As @Dave006 noted thy Dynamic pricing goes up, dramatically at times, as the hotel fills. You can see on the Swan Dolphin Values Day page there are a number of dates in October that are sold out. Looking at Sept 28-30, lowest priced room at each resort. It's crazy.
Swan $1,776/night
Dolphin $995
Swan Reserve $501

You can keep checking to see if prices drop. But if its a conference by now the rooms should have already been mostly returned to the hotel for inventory, so I'd expect it's just a very busy time.

 

[Bird003]

Snagged dolphin for entire week of thanksgiving with AP rate for less than riverside!,,

 

[5DisneyNuts]

@5DisneyNuts yep it's correct. As @Dave006 noted thy Dynamic pricing goes up, dramatically at times, as the hotel fills. You can see on the Swan Dolphin Values Day page there are a number of dates in October that are sold out. Looking at Sept 28-30, lowest priced room at each resort. It's crazy.
Swan $1,776/night
Dolphin $995
Swan Reserve $501

You can keep checking to see if prices drop. But if its a conference by now the rooms should have already been mostly returned to the hotel for inventory, so I'd expect it's just a very busy time.

@Dave006 @SteveH

Thank you! That makes sense.

Wow, good for them. I've stayed before during this time but had always booked well in advance. Lesson learned.
I appreciate the replies

 

[sky13]

I'm currently in a room at the Dolphin - first stay here at the Swan/Dolphin.

There was a long queue at check in but it moved fairly quickly. Interestingly everyone was in the "elite" queue and no one was in the "regular" queue...

Room is fairly nice but definitely does feel slightly dated compared to the more recently refurbished rooms in Disney (for reference I also stayed at All Star Sports, BWI and Contemporary this trip - all of which were very recently refurbished).

Think the two main things that really make the room feel dated to me is the carpet and the lighting in the room. I always think of older hotel rooms as having less lighting and newer hotel rooms as having lots of lighting, and the lighting in this room is definiterly on the lower side. It's not so bad during the day when I can have natural light from the windows, but at night it feels very dark.

Besides the lighting the other major issue I'm finding is how small the bathroom is - just feels a bit difficult to navigate between the door/shower/toilet.

Otherwise the room is quite nice, and I do like having a nice large desk. Beds also quite comfortable. Also, I have a lovely view of the Swan, Boardwalk, and the Tower of Terror from my room!

I'm still confused by room charges, whatever is being charged to my card does not seem to match the balance after what I paid before as a deposit. It's off by a small amount (tens of dollars) but it just confuses me that it doesn't match. I really wish they could have a better accounting of room charges since this was also an issue when I first booked the room and I had to chase them for an invoice so I knew what I'd already paid. So I'm going to have to stop by the front desk later and ask about this I guess.

Went to both DHS and Epcot yesterday. I was about to walk but the boats came at just the right time so I took the boats! From here to DHS the boat is definitely faster than walking. But from here to Epcot I think walking is faster as the boat makes so many stops along the way - yesterday I took the boat from Epcot dock to the Boardwalk dock, got off at the Boardwalk to buy some stuff in the shop there, walked back to Dolphin, and still beat the boat getting to the Dolphin (because it also had to stop at Y&BC along the way)!

 

[Dan Murphy]

I'm currently in a room at the Dolphin - first stay here at the Swan/Dolphin.

There was a long queue at check in but it moved fairly quickly. Interestingly everyone was in the "elite" queue and no one was in the "regular" queue...

Room is fairly nice but definitely does feel slightly dated compared to the more recently refurbished rooms in Disney (for reference I also stayed at All Star Sports, BWI and Contemporary this trip - all of which were very recently refurbished).

Think the two main things that really make the room feel dated to me is the carpet and the lighting in the room. I always think of older hotel rooms as having less lighting and newer hotel rooms as having lots of lighting, and the lighting in this room is definiterly on the lower side. It's not so bad during the day when I can have natural light from the windows, but at night it feels very dark.

Besides the lighting the other major issue I'm finding is how small the bathroom is - just feels a bit difficult to navigate between the door/shower/toilet.

Otherwise the room is quite nice, and I do like having a nice large desk. Beds also quite comfortable. Also, I have a lovely view of the Swan, Boardwalk, and the Tower of Terror from my room!

I'm still confused by room charges, whatever is being charged to my card does not seem to match the balance after what I paid before as a deposit. It's off by a small amount (tens of dollars) but it just confuses me that it doesn't match. I really wish they could have a better accounting of room charges since this was also an issue when I first booked the room and I had to chase them for an invoice so I knew what I'd already paid. So I'm going to have to stop by the front desk later and ask about this I guess.

Went to both DHS and Epcot yesterday. I was about to walk but the boats came at just the right time so I took the boats! From here to DHS the boat is definitely faster than walking. But from here to Epcot I think walking is faster as the boat makes so many stops along the way - yesterday I took the boat from Epcot dock to the Boardwalk dock, got off at the Boardwalk to buy some stuff in the shop there, walked back to Dolphin, and still beat the boat getting to the Dolphin (because it also had to stop at Y&BC along the way)!

Thanks for your review, @sky13. Enjoy the balance of your stay.

 

[sky13]

Epcot closed at 9pm tonight, I went shopping in Creations and walked out of International Gateway a couple of minutes after 10pm.

There was a boat waiting at the Epcot boat dock, and the CMs were telling people that that would be the last boat for the night.

I wanted to slowly walk back to the Dolphin so continued walking past the boat dock.

I got to the bridge between the Boardwalk and Beach Club as the boat left the Epcot dock. Watched the boat head under the bridge.

The boat reached the Boardwalk a few minutes before me, I saw it dock and unload passengers. It was still at the Boardwalk dock as I walked past it.

I kept walking and saw the boat take off for Yacht/Beach Club. Lost sight of it as I walked between Jellyrolls and Atlantic.

Continued walking and definitely got to the Swan/Dolphin dock way before the boat. I saw the boat finally get to the Swan/Dolphin dock and unload people.

In total according to my Apple Watch that walk was 0.7 miles and 21 minutes long. I was really walking at a very leisurely pace and still beat the boat! Though I think this particular boat may have taken a longer time at the docks due to it being the last boat of the night.

Anyway, after a couple of days at the Dolphin and taking the boats on and off, my preferences for the boats are to take them if it's during the day and really hot - they are a very nice alternative to walking in the hot afternoon sun! But if it's at night and the weather is nice and pleasant, I much prefer walking for Epcot as the Boardwalk is fun to walk along and it's actually faster!

 

[disneyfan150]

My booked rate went down a bit and my deposit is paid. Should I totally rebook to get the new rate or do I somehow ask for an adjustment on my existing reservation?

 

[mickey916]

My booked rate went down a bit and my deposit is paid. Should I totally rebook to get the new rate or do I somehow ask for an adjustment on my existing reservation?

You should be able to go into the Bonvoy app and modify your reservation.

 

[leeniewdw]

You should be able to go into the Bonvoy app and modify your reservation.

Thank you for this reminder to check. I just got 3k pts back for our Nov reservation (2 nights at the Dolphin). And thankfully Marriot makes it very easy to do this. I just hit modify, then it pulled up the screen for me to "update" the reservation and it said I'd get 3k back and I did immediately!

 

[happ]

I used the Swolphin app/text yesterday to request my DS be added to my reservation for MDE purposes. The kind CSR said I was all set. Will his name magically appear in MDE at some point? The Bonvoy reservation just shows 1 guest (me) and MDE shows the same.

 

[Disneydawg74]

Stayed at the Swan the past four days. Had two occasions to use the text feature on the Swan/Dolphin App. Never received a reply to either text. I eventually had to go down to the front desk To get one issue resolved. This hasn’t happened before. Just FYI.

 

[champagne&disney]

I used the Swolphin app/text yesterday to request my DS be added to my reservation for MDE purposes. The kind CSR said I was all set. Will his name magically appear in MDE at some point? The Bonvoy reservation just shows 1 guest (me) and MDE shows the same.

You'll have to go back in and add the reservation to MDE again to get your son added. It won't show in the reservation on Marriott's website or app but it does allow you add him in MDE! I just did this last week.

 

[Dave006]

The Bonvoy reservation just shows 1 guest (me) and MDE shows the same.

You need to resolve this first since Marriott needs to show the correct total of guests per room (Adults/Children). Then Marriott pushes the updated reservation to Disney for MDE customization.

You only need to have your name correctly to load into MDE if the room is in your Name. You can assign any additional guests to names in your MDE profile.

Dave

 

[mickey916]

Thank you for this reminder to check. I just got 3k pts back for our Nov reservation (2 nights at the Dolphin). And thankfully Marriot makes it very easy to do this. I just hit modify, then it pulled up the screen for me to "update" the reservation and it said I'd get 3k back and I did immediately!

That's great! I frequently modify my reservations through the Bonvoy app. Last year I saved over $1000 on my Florida road trip by continually modifying my existing reservations.

 

[leeniewdw]

That's great! I frequently modify my reservations through the Bonvoy app. Last year I saved over $1000 on my Florida road trip by continually modifying my existing reservations.

I think I kind of just forgot! We modified a reservation using pts in Bozeman MT (ridiculous rates for hotels!) a few years ago but I forgot since then. I still have 2 months, so who knows what might happen. I do think the rate was higher when we first looked but didn't book and it went down at the time I actually booked. So this was 2 reductions for these mid Nov dates so far.

 

[happ]

You'll have to go back in and add the reservation to MDE again to get your son added. It won't show in the reservation on Marriott's website or app but it does allow you add him in MDE! I just did this last week.

Thanks. Unfortunately it doesn't work because it tells me the reservation is already added, which it is. The confirmation number hasn't changed. I wish there was an option to unlink.

 

[happ]

You need to resolve this first since Marriott needs to show the correct total of guests per room (Adults/Children). Then Marriott pushes the updated reservation to Disney for MDE customization.

You only need to have your name correctly to load into MDE if the room is in your Name. You can assign any additional guests to names in your MDE profile.

Dave

Thanks. I guess I'll have to call. I don't understand why it still shows 1 guest if the additional name was added. I need to make sure they don't accidentally rebook the reservation making this change because the current room rate is almost 1800 now.

 

[champagne&disney]

Thanks. I guess I'll have to call. I don't understand why it still shows 1 guest if the additional name was added. I need to make sure they don't accidentally rebook the reservation making this change because the current room rate is almost 1800 now.

I had 2 people added to my reservation and it doesn’t show on the reservation. The SD folks have the ability to allow people just for MDE that don’t show on the Marriott reservation! It’s great to keep the extra person fees down.

 

[djmeredith]

Stayed at the Swan Reserve over Labor Day weekend. We stayed at Dolphin in Oct 2020, which was our first time at an Epcot area hotel. Dolphin was okay, but rooms were showing wear even then and I am very picky about hotels. However, we loved staying in that area. I use Marriott points and FNCs for Disney, so knew we would do Swolphin for this trip. I loved the rooms at Swan Reserve, but the bus situation was terrible. I used a Minnie Van for MK, which was expensive but worth it to save time. We were there in 2020 when they switched from Disney to Mears. Supposedly that contract is coming up for renewal soon, so hopefully they have listened to their customers and will go back to Disney buses. I love the rooms/hotel enough that the buses are not a deal breaker.

One warning, your reservation may get unlinked from MDE during your stay. I had read that on here before going, but didn't connect the dots until it was too late. We were there 5 nts and did Genie+ with no problems up until the next to last day. On the fourth morning we got up again for 7:00 am bookings and it wouldn't let us book LL, ILL, or do VQ. I thought it was a glitch in the system or maybe because it was Labor Day. Very long story short, it turned out our res had unlinked in MDE. So I recommend you proactively verify your MDE hotel status before 7:00 am every morning.