News Swan and Dolphin Tower Expansion - The Walt Disney World Swan Reserve

[castlecake2.0]

Had friends stay at Swan this weekend. Rooms felt dated. I feel if your beds still have bed skirts you are out of date in the hospitality industry. They arrived around noon and asked if there room was available. “No but you can do early check in into an upgraded room for $40 a night.” They decided to wait. 5pm room still wasn’t ready. “We can check you into a different room but it’s an extra $10 a night because it’s an “upgrade” from your booked room”. Ridiculous. You’re going to PO your guest to make an extra $30 because you couldn’t get the room ready in time? Anyway, good location but overall resort felt tired, almost like it’s too big for its own good and they can’t keep up.

 

[UNCgolf]

As to theming, I will admit to never staying at a Pop Century or AoA type property that had themed rooms. However I will say comparing my stays at other Deluxe resorts (Contemporary, Yacht Club, Poly, GF) prior to the the latest round of room renovations at Poly and Contemporary, I didn't see the Deluxe resorts being overly "Disney" themed. Yacht club has its own nautical theme, Boardwalk its Jersey Shore/Cape May type theming. Poly obviously a Polynesian type setting, and Contemporary a "modern" feel. But none of those things really screamed Disney theming. Other than the theme park view from Contemporary (which to be fair to me was the most "worth it" upgrade cost of anything Disney related) nothing at any of those resorts in style really linked me to a Disney experience. It was more the connection via location to the parks that made me feel within the Disney bubble, as opposed to the theming of the hotel itself.

That's the kind of theming I'm talking about. I don't want "Disney" theming that consists of characters slapped on stuff. I love the Boardwalk Inn, for example, and used to love Grand Floridian before they cut the orchestra, among other things. I also love Port Orleans. I like theming that's intended to evoke another era and/or location.

The Contemporary isn't really themed at all, or at least wasn't before they built the new awful Incredibles rooms, which is one of the reasons I never had much interest in staying there.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Had friends stay at Swan this weekend. Rooms felt dated. I feel if your beds still have bed skirts you are out of date in the hospitality industry. They arrived around noon and asked if there room was available. “No but you can do early check in into an upgraded room for $40 a night.” They decided to wait. 5pm room still wasn’t ready. “We can check you into a different room but it’s an extra $10 a night because it’s an “upgrade” from your booked room”. Ridiculous. You’re going to PO your guest to make an extra $30 because you couldn’t get the room ready in time? Anyway, good location but overall resort felt tired, almost like it’s too big for its own good and they can’t keep up.

That's interesting. We had the exact opposite customer service experience when we went in August. We had booked 2 rooms, one an upgraded resort view room, the other a standard (least expensive available) room. When we went to check in, and they gave us our room keys, we were asking the location of the rooms and they stated that they were both in same area, with adjoining door. When we asked how that could be they stated that they had complimentarily upgraded the standard room to the deluxe room and gave us adjoining rooms, which ended up being a really nice surprise. We thought service was great, but at same time we were their in late August, during a definite dead time at the parks/hotels, so likely the service staff was not being pushed all that hard. I will say now that some business travel is picking up, it has been my experience that many hotels are short service staff, and that check ins times have been spotty.

As to the hotel itself, the only downside to the room I could pick on was having 2 full beds as opposed to 2 queens. But they clearly advertised that was what we were going to get, so I can't complain too much.

 

[wdwmagic]

Tour of the Walt Disney World Swan Reserve

Tour of the Walt Disney World Swan Reserve

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[Purduevian]

I honestly do not understand the attraction of going to the world's premiere themed resort and then staying at a generic, unthemed hotel. This just looks so overwhelmingly uninteresting.

Just stayed at the Swan this this past October. My room was $344 a night for a room with 2 queen beds. The other cresent lake resorts were all over $700 a night. Easy decision for me to get all the perks of a disney hotel, walk to EPCOT, boat to DHS, and stay at a very nice resort.

Just looking 4 months from now (just a random dates March 12th-19th). I can book
Dolphin $336 a night
Swan $442 a night
Swan Reserve $452 a night

Or
All Star Movies $235 a night (Cheapest Value Resort)
Disney's Port Orleans Resort - Riverside $366 a night (Cheapest Moderate Resort)
Animal Kingdom Lodge $618 a night (Cheapest Deluxe Resort)

*I can also get AAA discounts and BonVoy points by staying at Swalphin

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Just stayed at the Swan this this past October. My room was $344 a night for a room with 2 queen beds. The other cresent lake resorts were all over $700 a night. Easy decision for me to get all the perks of a disney hotel, walk to EPCOT, boat to DHS, and stay at a very nice resort.

Just looking 4 months from now (just a random dates March 12th-19th). I can book
Dolphin $336 a night
Swan $442 a night
Swan Reserve $452 a night

Or
All Star Movies $235 a night (Cheapest Value Resort)
Disney's Port Orleans Resort - Riverside $366 a night (Cheapest Moderate Resort)
Animal Kingdom Lodge $618 a night (Cheapest Deluxe Resort)

*I can also get AAA discounts and BonVoy points by staying at Swalphin

The Swalphin was also renovated in 2015/2016. We stayed in one of the first newly refurbished family suites in October of 2015. (Someone complained earlier that it felt "dated".)

 

[Mike W]

Stayed at the Swalphin and always had a great stay. On a few of the rooms on the higher floors, you can watch the fireworks from above.

 

[wdwmagic]

Tour of the new Walt Disney World Swan Reserve​

Tour of the new Walt Disney World Swan Reserve

See everything on offer at Walt Disney World's newest on-property hotel.

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[mgf]

Finally got the chance to walk through the Reserve. The footprint is tight, but they did a decent job of hiding that in the lobby areas. Fitness center looks really nice as did the main lobby restaurant. The top floor was completely closed down (although you could access it with the elevator).

Two big complaints:

The Reserve pool area is just unacceptably small with bad styling. It might be a little better if they were explicit this was a "quiet pool", but they clearly have tried to make it lively. It honestly feels like you are crammed up against on of those partition walls you see next to interstates [and technically you are crammed up against the interchange so....].

While integration into the SW complex is better landscaped than I expected, I am completely baffled why they decided to make the crossing at grade. Not only is it completely a-typical now at Disney to have to press a crosswalk button, but it is also really off putting at a "luxury" resort. Additionally, this is the main connection to the highly themed pool area, so it is likely that kids will be making that crossing back and forth -- and that road is not a quiet backroad. It is busy. Where is the overpass?

 

[Horizons '83]

Finally got the chance to walk through the Reserve. The footprint is tight, but they did a decent job of hiding that in the lobby areas. Fitness center looks really nice as did the main lobby restaurant. The top floor was completely closed down (although you could access it with the elevator).

Two big complaints:

The Reserve pool area is just unacceptably small with bad styling. It might be a little better if they were explicit this was a "quiet pool", but they clearly have tried to make it lively. It honestly feels like you are crammed up against on of those partition walls you see next to interstates [and technically you are crammed up against the interchange so....].

While integration into the SW complex is better landscaped than I expected, I am completely baffled why they decided to make the crossing at grade. Not only is it completely a-typical now at Disney to have to press a crosswalk button, but it is also really off putting at a "luxury" resort. Additionally, this is the main connection to the highly themed pool area, so it is likely that kids will be making that crossing back and forth -- and that road is not a quiet backroad. It is busy. Where is the overpass?

100% agree with the pool area.

While I thought the crosswalk would bother me, it really didn't. The crosswalk button takes less than 10 seconds to change, and the pool areas at the S&D are pretty close. I can see your concern with children crossing the street, but that is risk pretty much anywhere.

Outside of those concerns, I think the rooms are fantastic and the views amazing (Epcot Room View) with the floor to ceiling windows. Still a very bland exterior and a "tower" but a good option to be on property.

 

[mgf]

While I thought the crosswalk would bother me, it really didn't. The crosswalk button takes less than 10 seconds to change, and the pool areas at the S&D are pretty close. I can see your concern with children crossing the street, but that is risk pretty much anywhere.

Sure - and the wait really is short. It just seemed like a missing touch of extra design thought. Would have been great to see them take the extra mile.

 

[Epcot82Guy]

The hotel has its pros. My problem is it feels almost identical to a smaller version of the JW they just opened. So, it pushes the lack of uniqueness here. Love them or hate them, Swan and Dolphin at least had a whimsy and unique factor. This just hits as too generic. It's got great aspects that simply missed the mark given it's location and relationship. (And I love Swolphin personally.)

In details, the lobby is unfortunately lacking given the size. Amare is actually pretty good, though quite pricey. The landscaping was particularly well done. The pool assessment is spot on. They should have gone "secluded escape" and pushed the main pool for the fun, energetic pool. And, the cross walk was surprising. (Maybe that will be addressed in the pool expansion. Just my thoughts.

 

[Horizons '83]

Sure - and the wait really is short. It just seemed like a missing touch of extra design thought. Would have been great to see them take the extra mile.

Agreed