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

HELP! We are staying at the Dolphin, which is why I’m posting it here.


I thought I had a plan and now I’m second guessing myself with the lack of attractions at HS studios before TS land opens. We are going 6/27-7/6 8 park days. Trying to decide if I should switch things around to do HS studios twice after TS LAND opens, or if it’s enough to do it once with TS land open and spend that other day at Epcot? (Currently we have one day at Epcot) our kids are 18,14,7.

Is it worth rearranging my ADR and fast passes?
 
HELP! We are staying at the Dolphin, which is why I’m posting it here.


I thought I had a plan and now I’m second guessing myself with the lack of attractions at HS studios before TS land opens. We are going 6/27-7/6 8 park days. Trying to decide if I should switch things around to do HS studios twice after TS LAND opens, or if it’s enough to do it once with TS land open and spend that other day at Epcot? (Currently we have one day at Epcot) our kids are 18,14,7.

Is it worth rearranging my ADR and fast passes?
At this point Most FP options will be gone for when you want them so I wouldn't rearrange everything. Perhaps you decide to Rope Drop DHS one day (even if it costs you say a FP on Soarin) so you can check out Toy Story Land.
 
HELP! We are staying at the Dolphin, which is why I’m posting it here.


I thought I had a plan and now I’m second guessing myself with the lack of attractions at HS studios before TS land opens. We are going 6/27-7/6 8 park days. Trying to decide if I should switch things around to do HS studios twice after TS LAND opens, or if it’s enough to do it once with TS land open and spend that other day at Epcot? (Currently we have one day at Epcot) our kids are 18,14,7.

Is it worth rearranging my ADR and fast passes?
also a side note but I will be at the Dolphin as well during part of your stay.
 
HELP! We are staying at the Dolphin, which is why I’m posting it here.


I thought I had a plan and now I’m second guessing myself with the lack of attractions at HS studios before TS land opens. We are going 6/27-7/6 8 park days. Trying to decide if I should switch things around to do HS studios twice after TS LAND opens, or if it’s enough to do it once with TS land open and spend that other day at Epcot? (Currently we have one day at Epcot) our kids are 18,14,7.

Is it worth rearranging my ADR and fast passes?

From what I understand, Toy Story Land might be great for your 7 year old but is not at all aimed at your teens. I think that teens will enjoy DHS but not for Toy Story, more for the thrill rides and Star Wars if they're fans of those things. I certainly wouldn't rearrange all my plans. Your kids will have a great time no matter which park you decide on, I'm sure.
 


We used Safeway with free delivery (even one hour windows so you can ensure you'll be around). We met the driver outside in the taxi drop off/pickup area (I rolled an empty suitcase out there to pick up our things). Worked great. I liked the safeway option because more options than Amazon and beer/wine too.

Sounds like a good plan. Since we will have a car, we may just pick up a few grocery items at Publix (breakfast items, water, beer, etc). Thanks for the info!
 
We will be getting into Dolphin on 7/3 around dinnertime. Is the character dinner worth it? Who's normally there? What would you suggest for dinner that night? We have 2- 4 year olds and a 7 year old, all girls.

We have all day on 7/4 to kill before a wedding at 5:30. What would you suggest to do? We don't want to put-put. I'm trying to get into a breakfast at Cape May, but so far I haven't found a reservation. The girls will be happy to swim, but I thought it would be fun to do something more Disney.

Last question (for now, lol), how do the rental car counters work? On 7/5 we are doing MK and then switching to a different hotel in Florida that evening. We have a car reservation set for pick up at 8AM so we can grab the car before we hit the park. Can we leave the car at the hotel and avoid paying for parking?

I lied one more. Who does grocery delivery down there? We need to order some breakfast stuff and snacks.

Are there any other fun tips for the Dolphin? I think we will try to do the smore thing the night we get in. We're only staying 2 nights at Dolphin before we head out to my In-Laws.
 
We have all day on 7/4 to kill before a wedding at 5:30. What would you suggest to do? We don't want to put-put. I'm trying to get into a breakfast at Cape May, but so far I haven't found a reservation. The girls will be happy to swim, but I thought it would be fun to do something more Disney.

Where is the wedding? My immediate thought of a really disney thing that is absolutely free and great for girls is the Princess Promenade at the Grand Floridian, daily at 3:30 pm. Cinderella and Prince Charming lead a parade of kids through the resort and then dance in the lobby. It's one of the only free character events that happens regularly at the resorts. I would do something like swim in the morning, have lunch at Picabu, get ready for the wedding and then head to MK on the bus. You can take the resort monorail from MK to the Grand Floridian, giving your girls a free disney "ride" and then you can see the Grand Floridian grounds and let your girls participate in the Princess Promenade, listen to the piano player or the orchestra. If you walk around the grounds you might get to see a bride in Cinderella's coach! All of this assumes that your girls like princesses, which may not be the case! If they do like princesses I would also watch for availability at the Boardwalk's Trattoria al Forno for breakfast. Ariel, Prince Eric, Rapunzel, and Flynn Rider meet there.
 


@Blondemomma007 The dinner buffet at Garden Grove always has at least Goofy and Pluto.

We’ve dined there 3 times, but only at their Seafood Sensation buffet which is held Thursday through Saturday nights.

On other nights, you choose an entree and side from the menu, and you get an AYCE buffet containing soup, salads and desserts.

The New England clam chowder is excellent, and the desserts are phenomenal. I highly recommend the lemon meringue cupcake.

Most importantly, if you have a AAA card, you get 20% off your food. :)
 
Question about Garden Grove: when exactly is it a character dinner/character buffet? I’m seeing that it’s only for breakfast on the weekends but wanted to double check.
 
We will be getting into Dolphin on 7/3 around dinnertime. Is the character dinner worth it? Who's normally there? What would you suggest for dinner that night? We have 2- 4 year olds and a 7 year old, all girls.

We have all day on 7/4 to kill before a wedding at 5:30. What would you suggest to do? We don't want to put-put. I'm trying to get into a breakfast at Cape May, but so far I haven't found a reservation. The girls will be happy to swim, but I thought it would be fun to do something more Disney.

Last question (for now, lol), how do the rental car counters work? On 7/5 we are doing MK and then switching to a different hotel in Florida that evening. We have a car reservation set for pick up at 8AM so we can grab the car before we hit the park. Can we leave the car at the hotel and avoid paying for parking?

I lied one more. Who does grocery delivery down there? We need to order some breakfast stuff and snacks.

Are there any other fun tips for the Dolphin? I think we will try to do the smore thing the night we get in. We're only staying 2 nights at Dolphin before we head out to my In-Laws.
Goofy, Pluto, Chip n Dale.
 
HELP! We are staying at the Dolphin, which is why I’m posting it here.


I thought I had a plan and now I’m second guessing myself with the lack of attractions at HS studios before TS land opens. We are going 6/27-7/6 8 park days. Trying to decide if I should switch things around to do HS studios twice after TS LAND opens, or if it’s enough to do it once with TS land open and spend that other day at Epcot? (Currently we have one day at Epcot) our kids are 18,14,7.

Is it worth rearranging my ADR and fast passes?

We're also there (not dolphin) same dates almost exactly. I agree that there's not a lot of wiggle room with FPs right now. I believe TS land RD will be nuts. We have Hoppers, as we go alot, my kids are older teens, in fact ones an adult, and know how to ride the transportation on their own. My strategy is:
27th -. RD TSM as no FPs are available. This is my 16yr olds only request. Then do whatever we can, but actually have my FPs later for AK.
2nd - Go for EE at DHS, try and riderTSM or RnR,see how it goes, but have FPs for AS2, ST and Indiana. Leave whenever.
3rd- Go for EE, try and ride TSM, ST maybe, but have FPs for TSM, RnR, ToT and ST (2 party's of 2 on ToT and ST) Leave whenever, planning to go to another park later and grabbing next FP while at 3rds swipe of band.

We are not interested in SDD

I also would say that there is plenty of things to do there if you've never been, and also I have noticed it is easy late in the day to grab a fantasmic FP, I've been checking TP each day around 6pm and they are still there, so no need to waste one earlier

If you want Indy show, which is good, try and do earlier as it's outside, though covered, but it gets hot
 
HELP! We are staying at the Dolphin, which is why I’m posting it here.


I thought I had a plan and now I’m second guessing myself with the lack of attractions at HS studios before TS land opens. We are going 6/27-7/6 8 park days. Trying to decide if I should switch things around to do HS studios twice after TS LAND opens, or if it’s enough to do it once with TS land open and spend that other day at Epcot? (Currently we have one day at Epcot) our kids are 18,14,7.

Is it worth rearranging my ADR and fast passes?
do you have hoppers? I found studios boring on our last trip in April(used to be my fave) so I'd do a morning that's NOT new TSland stuff, then hop, then do a rope drop that's ONLY the new stuff to see some of that,and then hop.That would get you on the mains without much need for FP. Or a rope drop for the new stuff,and then the rest of the park in the afternoon if no hoppers. (all in one day) I don't much like what's happening there,and it's a shell of what it used to be. Yes it has a few rides/shows, but overall there is no distinct theming (what a Dis park should be) and it feels like an average amusement park anywhere IMHO.(in April, we entered the park at about 1 pm, did what we wanted,ate some dinner at Brown Derby Lounge,and left by 6. We couldn't force ourselves to stick around for F!,it just wasn't fun after we did the few things we wanted there) but hey, if you enjoy watching stormtroopers march around 50 times a day for no apparent reason thru old Hollywood,then you might like it better than we did.
 
Checked into the Dolphin on Friday and asked for two room requests in advance -balcony and adjoining rooms. I was disappointed that to get the balcony room, they charged me an upgrade fee of $10.00per night per room and we’re on two different floors,so no adjoining room either. Is this typical for the Dolphin to charge you for a room request? We had a resort view room booked by Costco.
 
They will charge you only when what you are requesting is a valid booking class.

In your case, a balcony room is a valid paid booking class at the Dolphin & Swan above your Costco Resort view room. It normally runs about $19 or more for a balcony room. Did you not know that a room with a balcony was a different booking class than your Costco Resort room reservation? That might be what has lead to your current situation.

The next issue is how the balconies are actually physically configured across the resort. Adjoining rooms may not both have a balcony due to architectural differences. Take a look on either side of your room(s) and see if both rooms have balconies in addition to your assigned rooms. Also are you in the tower or one of the wings?

You also should have had an option to just say no thanks to the $10 Balcony fee and you might have actually been able to get adjoining rooms, did you ask on Friday if any adjoining rooms might be available even if there were no balconies involved?

Note: The room assigner has to decipher what you want or what your priority of requests are, so if you listed them as your indicated in your post above the room assigner may have thought your priority was balcony rooms even though your paid reservation did not include a balcony. Then if balcony rooms(s) were not available, than you wanted adjoining rooms. It appears they tried, got you two balcony rooms at a very low incremental fee and thought you would be pleased.

Dave
 
They will charge you only when what you are requesting is a valid booking class.

In your case, a balcony room is a valid paid booking class at the Dolphin & Swan above your Costco Resort view room. It normally runs about $19 or more for a balcony room. Did you not know that a room with a balcony was a different booking class than your Costco Resort room reservation? That might be what has lead to your current situation.

The next issue is how the balconies are actually physically configured across the resort. Adjoining rooms may not both have a balcony due to architectural differences. Take a look on either side of your room(s) and see if both rooms have balconies in addition to your assigned rooms. Also are you in the tower or one of the wings?

You also should have had an option to just say no thanks to the $10 Balcony fee and you might have actually been able to get adjoining rooms, did you ask on Friday if any adjoining rooms might be available even if there were no balconies involved?

Note: The room assigner has to decipher what you want or what your priority of requests are, so if you listed them as your indicated in your post above the room assigner may have thought your priority was balcony rooms even though your paid reservation did not include a balcony. Then if balcony rooms(s) were not available, than you wanted adjoining rooms. It appears they tried, got you two balcony rooms at a very low incremental fee and thought you would be pleased.

Dave
Thanks Dave. I really wanted a balcony room, so I don’t mind paying the additional fee, but seen lots of people posted about room requests/upgrades and never seen anyone post that they paid when they received them. I was just curious if this was different from the norm. I found it interesting that the Front Desk didn’t say you can’t have adjoining rooms with balcony requests, but instead just said she only had a room on the 2nd and 3rd floor. I would have understood if she said it wasn’t possible due to the layout.
 
@DreamDisneyGirl Dave's reply is good, sounds like they tried to give you your first choice.

The reality is for all of us we need to remember they are a just a request, if we really want something like a balcony or Fireworks view we need to book it and pay for it, that is the only way to guarantee it. The Costco rate is pretty good but it doesn't give you all the booking options, like connecting rooms.

Enjoy your trip... your in Disney World!
 
Just got back after 5 nights at the Dolphin. We have stayed at Pop our last 2 trips. Overall, Dolphin was great. The room was a good size, the beds were very comfortable and the pool was great. I did miss that Disney feel you get from a Disney themed resort and the wait for buses to return to the Dolphin was very long on a couple of occasions. The staff was very responsive. I would definitely recommend it to others.
 

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