Walt Disney World Swan Resort

Sheri Summy

The hotel is beautiful. The pool with the waterfall and slide, just makes you so relaxed. The bar and food amazing. Rooms where great and the bed was comfy and the had great pillows very clean and spacious. The parking lot kinda of a walk to the doors of the hotel. Not a big deal I guess but trying to find a cart not easy. Since people stay there for like a week because of the parks. The shuttles are easy to find to get to the parks. You can set up your magic band there which is nice.

Kristin

We recently stayed at the Swan, standard room, king bed, no view. The Good: The location and the Disney hotel perks. The Bad: The dated room, the limited room amenities INCLUDING TOWELS, the dated and limited baby gear, the lack of sound proofing between rooms, very uncomfortable beds, and it’s not as good of a deal as they lead you to believe at booking We didn’t plan on being in the room much and were traveling with our 1.5 year old who would (hopefully) be asleep long before the fireworks, so a view wasn’t a must, but if you want one, you can get one if one is available. The Swan (and Dolphin) are considered to be in the deluxe tier of Disney hotels and you get the same perks (early entry, after hours when they have that, you can buy your lightening lanes a week prior, and there are buses to the parks and Disney Springs as well as a boat) but … it’s really not that great of a hotel. Maybe we’re not social media influencers, so we didn’t get the towel art or one of the renovated rooms as I’ve seen online in reviews. The overall experience was often frustrating and very meh. And I don’t mean that there was no Disney theming. There’s not, and that’s fine, I knew that. But. We were hoping for a good spot to rest and be close to the parks. We got one of those things. The location is great, but I seriously do not get the luxury hotel tag. It’s just not. It’s a basic Westin that happens to be in a good location. Also, be aware that you will be charged a $50 “resort fee” per night of your stay, so what you thought was a much cheaper option compared with an actual Disney hotel starts to whittle away. If you think you prepaid for your room and knew all the costs ahead of time, you didn’t and you didn’t. You could refuse upon check in and leave but … are you going to? We would not stay here again. This is not a nice hotel even though you’re paying for one. Was I expecting the Four Seasons? Definitely not. Was I even expecting something like the Boardwalk? Honestly, no. The Swan was (kind of) cheaper than other Disney deluxe resorts, but it was not better than a mid-level Disney hotel but-for the location and you don’t have the theming of a Disney hotel. Now we know.

Taylor

First time staying at Swan/Dolphin and it will be the last. I understand why Disney felt like they made a mistake after allowing a company to open a hotel on their property and it was the last. The Swan/Dolphin are the only non Disney operated hotels at Disney World. My experience overall was very poor. The biggest issue I had was the shuttle service. Swan/Dolphin uses Mears bus service which is the worst to use for Disney. The buses never ran on time. At Magic Kingdom the buses only run to the ticketing center which is not that good considering Disney buses drop off at the entrance. After Magic Kingdom closed I took the monorail to the ticketing center and walked to the bus stop and waited for over an hour. I called the clueless front desk staff at Swan three times to try to receive an update on when the bus would arrive and kept receiving excuses that it was stuck in traffic, late etc. After over an hour and almost 1am I ended up sharing an Uber with some other people that had been waiting to get back as well. The next day I went to Disney Springs and, expecting the experience to be a little different, I chose to take the bus from Swan to Disney Springs. The bus arrived at Swan fifteen minutes later than the ETA showed on the screen at the pickup area. After I left Disney Springs I waited over an hour again in the rain for the bus to arrive with several others who had been waiting. I expressed my frustration with the bus driver and he said that he had seen the other buses drive by. He explained that the Mears Coach buses were picking up as well and we should have been explained that by the hotel. If you're wondering, the buses you see at Swan/Dolphin have the resort logo on the side of the bus along with the resort name. The Mears Coach buses are a different color and just say "Coach" on them. They also didn't say "Swan/Dolphin" on the electric display sign on the front window so there was no way to know that they were picking up and driving to the resort. If, for some reason, you choose to stay at one of these run down half ass resorts walk the boardwalk to Disney's Boardwalk Inn and take the actual Disney shuttle from there to where you want to go so you can avoid the horrible service from Mears. This resort was probably nice and cutting edge when it opened in 1990, but they are a slum in today's standards and the customer service is abysmal. I have had a much better experience at Disney's budgets hotels in the past such as All Star Movies and Pop Century. They even have free parking where Swan/Dolphin charges $40 a day. Will never stay again.

Gr

Unfortunately had a less than satisfactory and very stressful experience at the Swan. My boyfriend and I went in not knowing that this Is a Marriot owned hotel (our bad) and were surprised to learn that unlike other Disney owned Resorts, not only is there a lack of Disney decor (mickey emblems/characters - I know they technically don’t have the rights so - if that is important to you, maybe don’t stay here) there is also an $100 incidental fee that is charged daily. This fee was very much not made apparent on their website, so imagine how shell shocked we were learning this as we are about to experience a week long vacation. According to my research - all Disney hotels only charge an $100 hold for your whole stay - so the fact that Swan/Dolphin does this nightly is ridiculousss and a testament to how much this resort cares about their guests (especially since the so called “services” that this incidental charge covers are just poor- which I’ll get into later.) We were told about 3 different stories about that incidental charge, all with attitudes and inconsistent/vague language - seemed they just wanted to get us out of their hair and didn’t care to explain/help us understand. A really aggravating sneak charge. We were also charged an additional $500 hold on the last night of our stay after already getting charged $500- and we were told it was because of the way the bank does it? To this day not even sure what happened there. We also were charged $40 daily for parking at a lot that rarely ever opens it’s gates correctly. When contacting the staff - to which they confirmed they had fixed it for us, it still refused to open. We also requested housekeeping one morning, to which they confirmed with us, spent a long day out at the parks, only to return to our room- to see they had not come at all. The vibe of this resort is kind of standoffish - the staff sort of match that vibe as well. I am a POC from the east coast and I can kind of assume why, but I was heavily stared at. Just in case any POCs are reading this, and if that is important to you - just know you’ll probably be a minority here. My boyfriend and I were also surprised by how different of a vibe the Dolphin was when we crossed over to do laundry and have lunch - still some stares, but staff and patrons were worlds nicer and less.. stoic and cult like. In addition - we saw a roach on the Swan/Dolphin bus on the way back from Magic Kingdom. Gross and was praying that the bus wouldn’t come to a short stop and the roach would fly onto me lol. Not something you want to see after an exhausting day at the parks. I’ve stayed at many Disney Resorts throughout the years- The Coronado, Bay Lake (The Contemporary), Pop Century to name a few, and none of those ever had the service/atmosphere that The Swan had. I guess now it makes sense learning that this is a Marriot hotel. Don’t get us wrong, we love a Marriot, but it seems this hotel is trying to profit off of people just breathing in their hotel and it also has a weird liminal/dated vibe that I can’t quite put my finger on. Thanks for the memories Swan, but we will never return again. We will likely opt for The Coronado - similar price point (probably would’ve saved more money tbh), a Disney Owned hotel where you know they’ll actually care…lol rip - sayonara.

Zeynep Soysaraç

Most affordable hotel with premium qualities and service including all kinds of transportation to Disney World Parks plus early entry and late admission. You can use Marriott Bonvoy points as well. Only downside is the parking fee, could’ve been complimentary. Breakfast is not included; however the cafe has a large menu including vegetarian options. 100% recommend.