POFQ or Swan/ Dolphin

[danpam1024]

Trying to decide between the two. Price is almost identical. POFQ we love, never stayed at Swan/Dolphin, but love the Epcot area. Opinions? TIA:wave:

 

[Bri1121]

There is a nightly parking fee at the Swan/Dolphin, but you do not need to pay to park at the parks. Just show your hotel key at the parking gates and they will wave you through.

Really, I asked AAA agent and they told me you had to pay, sigh!!

We are driving this time for the first time but my mom will be there too. She is staying at Old Key West, so she will take the car and park it there. Then we will use Disney transportation!!

There are a few stops on the buses for the Dolphin/Swan. But you truly only have to use the bus for DTD.

 

[WVParkfan]

We stayed at the Swan this past August and absolutely loved it! We've been to WDW 9 times, and the Swan absolutely is the best, MOST magical place we've been. It certainly DOES have the entire Disney feel, and I would recommend the resort to anyone.

I wrote the following review about our Stay at the Swan:

Just got back from a week at "the World," and stayed at the Swan for the first time. This was our 9th visit to WDW, and we've stayed at all of the Values, along with Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs Resorts. We've always wanted to stay at an Epcot Resort, but just can't afford the $400 per night price tag. Then we found the Swan, and it was great! I got a AAA rate of $161 per night, and couldn't have been happier.

The Swan and Dolphin are both huge, but the Swan felt very comfortable and never crowded. The Grotto pool area was simply amazing. It's got to be one of the largest pools in all of Disney World, and with the 3 sections and 2 bridges, each area felt secluded from the others. The slide was fun, and the waterfall helped to keep the pool cool enough, despite the high temps. They also have 3 other pools, along with several hot tubs, so you can always find a place that isn't crowded.

The pool/ beach area was fun. On Saturday night, they had an outdoor movie at the pool. During the day, they had a DJ playing music, they had supervised volleyball games both in the pool and on the beach, and many more activities. It was hard to leave the pool area each day to head back to the parks!!!

We only ate twice at the Swan, and both were poolside lunches. We had lunch at the Splash Grille, and it was very good and affordable. But the best was our "picnic" lunch at the pool with food from Picabu in the Dolphin. I had a chicken salad sandwich and my wife had a tuna wrap with a salad. Our kids had burgers and hotdogs. All were good, and very affordable.

Dinners each night were either at a Boardwalk restaurant, or at Epcot. And that's the great advantage of staying at an Epcot resort. You can walk to some great restaurants!

Transportation is fair. Walking to Epcot (our favorite park) was easy, and the boat to DHS was quick enough. We had to take a bus to the MK and the AK. The busses were a little more crowded, though, because we shared with the Boardwalk Resort, the Dolphin, the Yacht Club, and the Beach Club Resorts. Our bus stop was at the entrance to the Swan, and it was fine, but the bus sharing was confusing. Some days we would share a bus only with the Boardwalk and the Dolphin. Other days, all 5 resorts would share, and it was standing-room only.

Other than the crowded busses (which we were able to manage), everything else was just about perfect. Check in and check out each only took 5 minutes. The Swan and Dolphin charge a resort fee of $10 per night, but you get a newspaper each day, 2 bottles of water, spa access, and internet access for that $10. I didn't like the idea at first, but after being there for a week, I really appreciated all of those amenities and feel that we certainly got our monies worth.

By staying at the Swan, we were also able to walk over to Fantasia Gardens for miniature golf. It was fun and challenging. We were able to see the tip of Everest at the AK from our room, and we were able to see the entire fireworks show from the MK. We could not see Illuminations from Epcot from our room, or Fantasmic at the DHS. But, we were able to see Illuminations each night from the Boardwalk.

The store at the Swan was classy, and had the same great Disney clothes, toys, food, and souvenirs as all of the other shops we went to. Both the Swan and Dolphin have arcades. The Dolphin has some other shops, but we didn't get a chance to go through them.

To sum it up, the Swan was by far the best Disney Resort we've stayed in, and we will certainly stay there again. The grounds are beautiful (just like at every Disney Resort), the staff was wonderful, the price was great, the Heavenly Beds were very comfortable, the room was nice, the pool was amazing, and being able to walk to Epcot was just tremendous.

If anyone is considering staying at the Dolphin or Swan, please feel free to ask me any questions.
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[WVParkfan]

Really, I asked AAA agent and they told me you had to pay, sigh!!.

You have to pay a resort fee to park at the Swan or Dolphin, but you do NOT have to pay extra to park at any of the parks. We decided to drive to the MK one day, and just had to show our Swan room key and we parked for free.

 

[Bri1121]

A suggestion for the buses is to go to Epcot and then take the monorail to Magic Kingdom. I first thought this seemed like too much but I heard from a few it was faster? Just a thought.

 

[WVParkfan]

We did both (taking the bus to the MK and walking through Epcot to the Monorail). The bus is much, much quicker, as they take you to the front door of the MK. The Monorail at Epcot takes you to the T&T center, where you've got to board another monorail. In our experience, the bus (when it arrived quickly, which was most of the time) took about 20 minutes to get from the Swan Lobby to the MK gate. Walking around the Boardwalk, through Epcot, then taking the Monorail to the T&T Center, and then getting another Monorail (with 2 more stops at Poly and GF) took about 45 minutes to an hour.