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

[JJ2017]

Welcome home (even though I know you wish you weren't). Sorry about that spill your hubby had by the pool. I know, it can be slick in some areas.

And yes, if you are in the east wing in the Dolphin, it is a long walk to anywhere.

Sounds like a great trip.

I don’t know enough about room locations. At the end of the month, hubby and I have a standard double booked. Since it’s just us, we don’t really care where it’s located but I’d like to try to explore the resort to see where our family would be best located for our November trip. At that time we have a connecting king Alcove with a double room, with a balcony. Suggestions? And I’ll take suggestions too for a location request for our trip in two weeks. We are booked on points though and don’t check in until midnight so I don’t have high hopes of getting what we request. Thanks!

 

[Lpamama]

Thanks for the nice report @Lpamama. Glad to hear that you and your family had a nice time despite your DH’s injury.

I just love it, and truthfully, I am looking more forward to being at the resort than going to the parks on my upcoming trip.

I totally get that! If it hadn't been our first time at WDW and/or with the kiddos, I would have definitely spend more time at the Swan/Dolphin. What an amazing property. Enjoy your trip!

 

[CJK]

Hi all! Question about linking our Hotwire reservation to MDE..... We phoned the Dolphin yesterday and requested the confirmation number that can be linked to MDE. That went smoothly. After getting the number, I linked it to MDE. The reservation is in dh's name, so his name was automatically linked. With Hotwire reservations, you obviously don't have to list the second person's name. However, I tried adding my name to the reservation on MDE. I *thought* that worked. However, when I checked MDE again today, the Dolphin reservation was no longer there! I checked in 2 browsers. Today, I repeated the same linking process. The reservation is once again showing up in MDE. However, the confirmation number I entered, is different from the confirmation number that is now showing up in MDE. How is that possible?? The dates are correct. Has anyone else run into this issue? Is the system just complaining that my name doesn't match the original reservation (which doesn't have my name listed at all)? I'm wondering if the reservation will be gone again tomorrow?? I hope I'm making sense! I just want to be able to book FP's for the whole trip 60 days in advance. Otherwise, I won't really care about linking to MDE.

 

[Jerry2]

We got $78+ resort fee for the Swan online too. We had planned to drive down next winter, which we still plan to do but we booked a week in May.

It's pretty much the equivalent of staying at a Deluxe Resort at less than a Value price. Can't wait!

 

[happymommy]

We got $78+ resort fee for the Swan online too. We had planned to drive down next winter, which we still plan to do but we booked a week in May.

It's pretty much the equivalent of staying at a Deluxe Resort at less than a Value price. Can't wait!

Awesome deal! Was this on Hotwire, Priceline, or other site?

 

[Dave006]

Awesome deal! Was this on Hotwire, Priceline, or other site?

This is on Hotwire and it is a Hot Rate deal for Aug / Sept. Both the Swan & Dolphin are available. Please review the last 4 pages of the thread for ways to verify / confirm that you are going to get either the Swan or Dolphin based on their TripAdvisor reviews shown on the Hotwire site.

Dolphin - 5051 TripAdvisor reviews
Swan - 4908 TripAdvisor reviews

Note: There are other periods where the Swan & Dolphin have highly discounted rates. For example the Swan shows up as a Hot Rate beginning at $135 for select dates next month. Sample dates: May 20 - 26.

Dave

 

[happymommy]

This is on Hotwire and it is a Hot Rate deal for Aug / Sept. Both the Swan & Dolphin are available. Please review the last 4 pages of the thread for ways to verify / confirm that you are going to get either the Swan or Dolphin based on their TripAdvisor reviews shown on the Hotwire site.

Dolphin - 5051 TripAdvisor reviews
Swan - 4908 TripAdvisor reviews

Note: There are other periods where the Swan & Dolphin have highly discounted rates. For example the Swan shows up as a Hot Rate beginning at $135 for select dates next month. Sample dates: May 20 - 26.

Dave

Thanks. I booked the Dolphin for a solo trip in September with the hot rate ($79 a night for a king bed plus resort fee, which may be lowered as my husband is lifetime platinum with SPG and I put his name & SPG number on the reservation directly with the hotel). I wasn't aware the Swan was showing up! I actually prefer the Swan, but for a solo trip (unlikely he'll come along, but he may) the Dolphin is fine. Better than the Boardwalk (I just stayed at the BWV and had a horrible room).

 

[wassily]

This is on Hotwire and it is a Hot Rate deal for Aug / Sept. Both the Swan & Dolphin are available. Please review the last 4 pages of the thread for ways to verify / confirm that you are going to get either the Swan or Dolphin based on their TripAdvisor reviews shown on the Hotwire site.

Dolphin - 5051 TripAdvisor reviews
Swan - 4908 TripAdvisor reviews

Note: There are other periods where the Swan & Dolphin have highly discounted rates. For example the Swan shows up as a Hot Rate beginning at $135 for select dates next month. Sample dates: May 20 - 26.

Dave

Strange, using different browsers I get different tripadvisor review stats for the same dates, same amenity listings, same resort fee, same price.
On Edge/Safari: I get 2000+ TripAdvisor Reviews
On Chrome: I get 5051 TripAdvisor Reviews

Wonder if there is even a difference between 2000+ and 5051 as some have reported that they got Dolphin with 2000+ reviews

 

[Dave006]

The key is that there may be a difference in the actual Hotel Hotwire selects for you until we have more reports of the +2000 also matching the Dolphin. Lot's of Hotels have more than 2000+ reviews at this time but only the Dolphin has 5051 and the Swan has 4908!

The best way to increase your chances to a 99% match is to make sure that you find the actual Swan or Dolphin listed by name in the search list with the exact same TripAdvisor review numbers in any web browser. In the case of the Dolphin "full" beds as the default option in Hotwire for both the Hot Rate mystery hotel and the Dolphin.

Notes: My personal choice would to be to use only Chrome or Firefox to reduce the guess work as much as possible. These Hot rates are non-cancellable. However Hotwire does allow you to add a room or add up to 6 days before or after your initial reservation as a "One" Time change.

Dave

 

[Jerry2]

Awesome deal! Was this on Hotwire, Priceline, or other site?

It was Expedia. My wife texted me at work that she saw the deal either in an email or add on a web page. So I jumped on it.

Nice deal on airfare and hotel. I just need to set up transfers. DS lives down there now but if he's working and can't pick us up we'll hop on a Mears bus.

 

[vicb]

DOLPHIN REVIEW:
THANK YOU everyone who gave great information as we planned our vacation during my husband's conference this last week. We checked out about 24 hours ago and stayed 4 nights at the Dolphin.


Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks for the report... curious if you did receive the two water bottles per room each day??

 

[Lpamama]

Thanks for the report... curious if you did receive the two water bottles per room each day??

We automatically received two, but were able to get more on request.

 

[snappy]

It was Expedia. My wife texted me at work that she saw the deal either in an email or add on a web page. So I jumped on it.

Nice deal on airfare and hotel. I just need to set up transfers. DS lives down there now but if he's working and can't pick us up we'll hop on a Mears bus.

Are you going in September ?

 

[KJGA100]

Excited for our first stay at the Swan in November! (original plan was to stay at Poly with great agent deal, but the dates wouldn't work) Hoping the Swan will offer peace and quiet away from parks.

2 questions-
1. Minnie Vans work at Swan/Dolphin right?
2. On the online reservation summary- does it indicate anywhere if you have a balcony room? I can't remember if we booked it or not. It is the king deluxe alcove room if that matter.

 

[valleygirl]

Hi all! Question about linking our Hotwire reservation to MDE..... We phoned the Dolphin yesterday and requested the confirmation number that can be linked to MDE. That went smoothly. After getting the number, I linked it to MDE. The reservation is in dh's name, so his name was automatically linked. With Hotwire reservations, you obviously don't have to list the second person's name. However, I tried adding my name to the reservation on MDE. I *thought* that worked. However, when I checked MDE again today, the Dolphin reservation was no longer there! I checked in 2 browsers. Today, I repeated the same linking process. The reservation is once again showing up in MDE. However, the confirmation number I entered, is different from the confirmation number that is now showing up in MDE. How is that possible?? The dates are correct. Has anyone else run into this issue? Is the system just complaining that my name doesn't match the original reservation (which doesn't have my name listed at all)? I'm wondering if the reservation will be gone again tomorrow?? I hope I'm making sense! I just want to be able to book FP's for the whole trip 60 days in advance. Otherwise, I won't really care about linking to MDE.

I also called the Dolphin yesterday to get the correct confirmation number for my hotwire reservation and easily linked it to MDE although the number that showed up on MDE was different than the number I entered. I just rechecked MDE and the reservation is still there. Hopefully you're all set now and your reservation won't disappear again.

 

[Skippyboo]

Woo Hoo! I had previously booked a Sun Sept 23 to Sept 29 at the Dolphin with a AAA discount and $50 bucks resort credit. I just added the 71 bucks a night Hotwire rate for Fri Sept 21 and Sat Sept 22. The Hotwire rate was not available for my longer stay.

 

[momto4obkids]

I just got The Swan for $96 a night on Hotwire! July 4th to 7th! Even with taxes and fees it ends up being $152 a night which is a pretty good price.

FYI it showed up with 2000+ tripadvisor reviews, 90% recommended favorite(36 reviews)

 

[CJK]

I also called the Dolphin yesterday to get the correct confirmation number for my hotwire reservation and easily linked it to MDE although the number that showed up on MDE was different than the number I entered. I just rechecked MDE and the reservation is still there. Hopefully you're all set now and your reservation won't disappear again.

Thank you! Does your reservation display correctly? Underneath the reservation number, I see the following message, "We are experiencing difficulties requesting additional details about this reservation. Please try again later". I assumed that was normal, but just wanted to verify. Thank you!

 

[JerseyJanice]

Thanks for the report... curious if you did receive the two water bottles per room each day??

Don’t laugh. They gave us a whole case of water in September.

My nephew did a towncar grocery stop the day before I got there. The supermarket they hit was sold out of water because it was right after Irma. He told the housekeeper that happened, and she gifted us with a case of bottled water.

Our experiences with all the staff there have been amazing. They are one of the many reasons why it’s such a great resort.

 

[Dan Murphy]

1. Minnie Vans work at Swan/Dolphin right?

No Minnie Vans, as yet, at S/D.

I think this is the most current.

http://www.chipandco.com/minnie-van-service-expands-at-the-walt-disney-world-resort-304302/

I do not know the answer to your number 2.