Swan & Dolphin Hotel Review
The Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin are on-site hotels near Epcot that are Deluxe-caliber. This resort review features room photos, thoughts on amenities at both hotels, value for money, and how these resorts compare to Disney-owned accommodations.
Reviewing the Swan and/or Dolphin is a tricky proposition. One big question is how to categorize them? They are operated by Marriott, but dubbed “Walt Disney World resorts” by virtue of their on-site location plus certain perks that are otherwise typically offered to guests of Disney-owned properties.
From a guest benefit perspective, the Swan & Dolphin are arguably treated better than most Disney-owned hotels now that Disney’s Magical Express has been retired and so long as the Disney Dining Plan remains suspended. That’s because, in addition to Early Entry, Swan & Dolphin guests are eligible for Extended Evening Hours, whereas Value and Moderate Resort guests are not.
Accordingly, I’m going to dub the Swan & Dolphin as “official unofficial Disney Resorts.” That mildly incoherent moniker accurately summarizes the arrangement here. There’s also the question of treating them as one single hotel or two distinct hotels. In terms of quality, service, and all meaningful review metrics, they are akin to the Yacht & Beach Club, except without any significant thematic differences. As such, it’s appropriate to lump them together for the purposes of this review.
As a final note before we get going, we would treat the new Swan Reserve differently. That’s located across the street from the other two hotels, is decades newer, and substantively different. As such, its pros & cons will differ. We’ve toured the Swan Reserve several times, but have yet to stay as paying guests–which we’ll do in early 2022. Until then, you can check out our Swan Reserve Room Tour for more info, thoughts, and a look around.
Turning back to the regular ‘ole Swan & Dolphin, I won’t bore you with the history of how deals Michael Eisner made gave these hotels their murky status (you can read DisneyWar for that) or the contrived, now abandoned backstory of the design choices of the hotels. Suffice to say, the Swan & Dolphin are among the most historically interesting of all the hotels at Walt Disney World, and the size and scale of the hotels has made them controversial and divisive among Disney fans.
Style is largely in the eye of the beholder, but I have to admit that I am not much of a Michael Graves (the architect for the hotels) fan. To his credit, he has a very distinct and “conversation-worthy” approach that makes many of his buildings instantly identifiable, but I’ve always found them to have a cold, impersonal look.
Today, I think most of his work for Disney looks straight out of the 1990s, but I can’t really put my finger on why. Then again, I’m not a critic of architecture and really have no idea what I’m talking about from the perspective of architecture as art–this is all merely my gut-level reaction to the design.
Regardless of all that, there are benefits of being official unofficial Disney Resorts. The two biggest of these are location and price. Aside from Shades of Green (also a hotel with an interesting history and murky status), no other hotel that isn’t Disney-owned has as good of a location as the Swan & Dolphin.
Located on Crescent Lake alongside BoardWalk Inn and Yacht & Beach Club, the Swan & Dolphin are within walking distance of both Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. With this prime piece of real estate, the Swan & Dolphin actually have a better location (in my estimation) than half of the Disney-owned hotels at Walt Disney World.
Then there’s the price. At prices often right around $250/night (including the resort fee), these rooms are substantially cheaper than their counterparts at the BoardWalk Inn and Yacht & Beach Club.
Even accounting for an excellent promotion, it would be difficult for those Disney-owned hotels to compete with the Swan & Dolphin in terms of pricing, save for maybe 4 adults staying in one room during the “Free Dining” promo (which hasn’t even been offered in over 2 years at this point). Even then, Swan & Dolphin might have the edge. For more of a thorough head to head, see our Swan & Dolphin v. Beach Club comparison.
However, being that they are not Disney-owned hotels, there’s the unfortunate side of the pricing model used by the Swan & Dolphin. Namely, the non-optional resort fee.
This is something I’ve bemoaned in previous hotel reviews, so I won’t rehash the topic here. Suffice to say, if you want to know more about why this practice should be abolished, see our Fight Back Against Hotel Resort Fees post.
Even with the irritating resort fee plus a potential charged for parking rolled into the actual “out the door” price at the Swan & Dolphin, it comes out to around $250/night many nights.
We’ve priced out the Swan & Dolphin on other occasions and found it to be more or less expensive than that, so your mileage may vary. Still, that’s less than half the cost of other Crescent Lake resorts.
Once you get inside those doors, getting past those domineering exteriors and frustrating pricing, there’s actually a lot to like about the Swan & Dolphin. For us, this starts with Marriott.
We are Marriott Bonvoy Members, have stayed at many of the chain’s other hotels, and have found it to be a solid brand with quality service. We are big fans of Disney, but don’t think hotel management is one of the company’s strong suits. In this regard, Marriott has the edge.
Another area where the Swan & Dolphin are strong is dining. We have not eaten at every restaurant in both hotels, but the lineup is pretty staggering, and everywhere I have dined has been solid. (We’re big fans of Todd English’s Bluezoo.)
From Shula’s Steakhouse to Il Mulino to Kimonos to Bluezoo to Garden Grove and more, these hotels have some of the best dining on property. While some of these restaurants can be pricey, I feel like their value is usually slightly better than other on-site locations.
For all of my comments about the design choices in these hotels, I have to say that I don’t mind the interiors quite so much. They still are far from my favorite, but I generally think they are “fine.”
It’s really only the exteriors that get me riled up, and even those do have some redeeming features. If you’re big on theme, these hotels probably aren’t going to be for you, unless you consider postmodern design an ample substitute.
In this regard, the Swan & Dolphin are sort of like the Contemporary–modern design but in settings and with locations that distinguish them from ordinary modern luxury hotels. Rather this is a benefit or drawback depends upon your perspective.
For those wondering, if they were eligible, they would have been #6 or #7 on my Walt Disney World Deluxe Resort Rankings, due to being comparable to the Contemporary in style and location, gaining points on value, but losing points on theme.
Then there are the rooms. What you think of these rooms will largely be dictated by when you last stayed. My first visit to one of the rooms in the Dolphin was several years ago, and it was dated and, frankly, in horrible condition. I was actually a bit taken aback, as I had heard this hotel recommended by many friends, and I started to wonder if said friends were actually blind.
The Swan & Dolphin just wrapped up a $150 million, three-year renovation which included a redesign of all guest rooms, complete transformation of the Dolphin lobby and renovation of all meeting space, which finished its final phase late last year.
This time, I stayed in a refurbished room at the Swan (all of which were finished at the time of my stay) and it was excellent.
Excuse the photo quality here; I made the mistake of opening my blinds when taking the photos, which really messed up the white balance. You might want to look at the room photos on the Swan & Dolphin website, as my shots manage to have too much blue and too much yellow/orange.
What they’ve done with the new rooms is really nice, from the style to the quality of the carpet, furniture, and bedding. Normally, I stay away from the PR copy that hotel websites use, but in this case, they hit the nail on the head with their description of the bedding: “Heavenly Bed, featuring a pillow-top mattress, a white goose-down comforter, and four overstuffed pillows. You don’t just sleep in it, you lose yourself in it!”
Yeah, that’s about right. In my experience, this was hands down the best bed I’ve “lost myself in” thus far at Walt Disney World.
The bathrooms are also really nice, with great lighting in the mirrors, plus sinks both outside and inside the shower room.
The shower is a nice walk-in with decent water pressure.
Beyond the guest rooms, there are a whole host of other amenities at the Swan & Dolphin, from the pools to health club, tennis courts, jogging trails, spa, game room, watercraft rentals, art gallery, and more.
Even by Deluxe Resort standards, it’s a pretty solid lineup, and when adding the excellent dining to the equation, the Swan & Dolphin are very competitive with other Deluxes in this regard.
Since first publishing this review, we’ve stayed in the Presidential Suite at the Dolphin, which was far and away the coolest hotel room we’ve had at Walt Disney World.
If pools are your thing, the Swan & Dolphin are for you. They have approximately 37 different pools (okay, 5) with everything from award-winning lap pools to a beautiful grotto pool with rockwork and a waterfall that overlooks a white sand beach. There are poolside restaurants, kiddie pools, whirlpools, and more.
I didn’t test any of the pools during my visit for this review, but I went back and was able to take a dip in the grotto pool during a more recent stay. Wow. I think this is by far the best of the bunch. The Swan & Dolphin are right up there with Yacht & Beach Club for the crown of best pools at Walt Disney World.
Oh, and remember the Swan Boats in the Magic Kingdom? Probably not unless you visited prior to 1983, but if you do, the closest you can get to taking a cruise in a swan boat at Walt Disney World these days is renting one at the Swan & Dolphin.
The Swan Boats in the Magic Kingdom are before my time, but during my next stay at the Swan or Dolphin, I’m definitely giving one of these a try. A neat novelty, for sure.
Overall, the Swan & Dolphin hotels are going to be serve a specific subset of Walt Disney World guests very well, and another subset not so well. If you are a conventioneer or someone who wants a respite from the non-stop inundation of Disney when you head back to your hotel–but without sacrificing location–these hotels are definitely for you. If you’re a family looking for something with an immersive theme or that will appeal to your kids, there are probably better options at Walt Disney World for you.
I stop short of saying “definitely” there because the Swan & Dolphin still might be good options, especially if you’re looking for a luxury experience, excellent amenities, or close proximity to the parks at a lower price point (and who knows, maybe your kids will be drawn to the “pyramids” of these hotels–I was as a child!). While the resort fees do bug me, the fact remains that prices here are significantly better than comparable Disney-owned hotels even with added costs factored in, and the amenities give virtually every Disney-owned hotel a run for its money.
Not sure which Walt Disney World hotel is right for you? Check out our Walt Disney World Hotel Reviews page, which offers quick-hit capsule reviews of the strengths and weaknesses of every Walt Disney World hotel, plus links to our reviews and photo pages for every hotel we have reviewed. Looking for comprehensive Walt Disney World vacation tips? Make sure to read our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide.
Your Thoughts
Do you like the look of the Swan & Dolphin or are they not your style? Have you stayed the Swan or Dolphin post-refurbishment? Pre-refurbishment? Planning on staying here someday? Do you agree or disagree with our review of these hotels? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
The best part of these hotels is SPG Points. We go to disney 2 times a year and stay for free (less the 15$ a night resort fee) as they have a great points deal. You can use 40k starwood points for 5 free nights.
I agree that the Disney hotels have more charm (especially wilderness lodge), but the Dolphin room sizes are huge and you can’t beat free when compared to the crazy disney rates.
I use the dolphin as the benchmark hotel when looking at disney rates. Do I want to pay 350$ for the yacht or suck it up, save the 150 and do the dolphin which is practically next door. We go to walmart for food anyhow, so the magical express point is moot.
Overall, its better than the mid range disney hotels by far, has one of the best locations in disneyworld and is soo much cheaper. Once renovated, I think the hotels will really give the other top top premium hotels a run for their money
This hotel is a solid contender now that the rooms have been refurbished. I will say though, this review should have included the pool section of the resort also. A shot from the balcony view would have been nice also. Still, the review served its purpose in showing that the swan and dolphin can be a great bargain under the right circumstances!
Great update. Out of curiosity, what are the other “official unofficial” WDW hotels?
Shades of Green, Four Seasons, and the Hilton Orlando.
I actually just stayed at Swan a week ago for a conference, and my room was not refurbished at all. It was laid out very similarly to the photo you posted, but the couch, desk, etc. were old. So maybe they haven’t gotten to all of the rooms yet?
Interesting…I was told it should all be finished. Hmmm…
Thanks so much for this review! More than anything else, the nostalgia (I came here most as a kid) would put these hotels into my favorite category, except maybe for Yacht Club. I know they were in bad shape and was really looking forward to your newer review! Cant wait to go check them out myself.
Since you mentioned it I would love to see a review on the shades of green, If you can’t get in maybe I could help.
The Swan and Dolphin have some of the best discounts on property if you look for them. Here’s a link for Nurse,Teacher, or Military
http://www.swandolphin.com/offers/
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
We are utilizing this in June! We will be down for AAU Volleyball Nationals at Wide World of Sports since we coach and are staying after at the Dolphin. I work for the School district in Human Resources and got a room for $159 a night. We couldn’t pass that up, we normally stay at a Disney resort but figured we would give it a try!
There’s just something about the Swan & Dolphin that I just don’t love. It’s just not “Disney” enough for me. The lobby feels sterile to me. I dunno. I’ve stayed there for both business and vacation, and the rooms are really nice, but they just don’t have that Disney “it” factor. Still, were I the one sherking out the money, I’m sure I could have put that on the backburner. At least Stacey is piped in on the TV. 🙂
Other than that, I agree, it’s a *very* nice hotel.
Also fyi, quick edit: You may think, “no big deal, I take Disney’s Magical Express anyway, so it won’t effect me.” You mean “affect” not “effect”. Sorry, I can’t leave my editor cap at home!
The Dolphin is our favorite resort! We take a mears shuttle from the airport to the hotel and take an uber back to the airport, which is very cheap.
As a Southern California native who is used to visiting Disneyland as an annual pass holder, the idea of planning a Disney World trip is daunting. At this stage I am still in theoretical planning stages (summer 2017 most likely). That being said the Swan and Dolphin are currently leading the due to location and cheaper rates (I’m a teacher so I would qualify for a discounted rate too).
The lack of theme in the room doesn’t bother me and I don’t think the free dining is a great value so the only real downside I see is the lack of Disney magical express. As two adults with no kids would it be crazy to “bookend” an 8 day stay at the Swan or Dolphin with days at a value resort to take advantage of DME and stay in the Disney bubble? Do you know if Disney would transfer luggage from a real disney resort to these resorts and vice versa?
You can’t take luggage on the usual Disney bus-shuttles. So, no, the book-ending trick won’t work. Book-ending means you’re still paying for taxi (or commercial bus) to transport yourselves to and from the S&D.
However, if you want to save money by having part of your time at a Disney Value resort, then you’ll use Magical Express to go to the Disney Value resort and use that as a base of operations for Magic and Animal Kingdoms. Then, after a few days, go to the S&D and enjoy quick walking access to Epcot and Studios. But, that’s still taxiing to and from the S&D at some point.
I have book ended the dolphin with a DVC studio stay on rented points at the Boardwalk, and just walked across with suitcases, to benefit from magic express. There used to be a car rental desk, at the dolphin – so if it’s still there, you also could do a cheap one day rental if that is cheaper than shuttle/taxi………
Love the boardwalk area, but never considered dolphin as I Was always turned off by exterior …..but got a good star woods rate one trip and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Bed was divine. Pools are wonderful (fantastic lap pool) and there was a lovely pool bar. Great food options. Shared bus was the biggest downside ….often jumped off at other stops round the lake and walked the last bit…
We booked a private shuttle from the airport for $110 round trip (plus optional tip). As a bonus they let you stop at the grocery store as part of the price so we’ll easily make back a bit of the shuttle cost in savings on bottle water and beer.
what company did you use?
Michael Graves is such a hack. I want to dump him out of his chair and go ten rounds on his kidneys.
I’m certainly no fan of Graves, but that seems a bit harsh given that the guy is paralyzed.
Geez…gotta a little pent up aggression
Michael Graves died three days after this comment was posted, on March 12th.
Yeah, it was really sad to hear that.
Do rooms at the swan and dolphin qualify for getting fast passes at the sixty day time frame?
Yes, they get the 60 day window.
Because the last time we stayed at the YC, it was with a room discount.
Thanks so much for your quick work on the review! Even with the extra fees, we were able to book a suite at the Dolphin this Spring Break for what we paid for a standard room at the Yacht Club several years ago. For about the same price, we’ll have an extra sleeping surface (king size, but like a Murphy bed), an extra full size bathroom and a sitting area. If it’s not “as expected”, I’ll follow up with a comment… That said, the room rates at the YC were not discounted for our Spring Break this time, which means an even greater savings.
If it was a question of paying rack rate at a Disney resort or booking the Swan & Dolphin, I’d do Swalphin without question. Then again, I don’t think I’d ever do rack rate at any Walt Disney World hotel. The standard rates are obscene.
We leave for Disney in 45 days & we have booked an EPCOT view room in the Dolphin. We have walked around the resort to make sure we liked it on our last trip. We don’t have kids & love the idea of being near EPCOT. My husband & I are used to this kind of hotel because he is used to traveling for conferenced & meetings for his job. This is hotel is pretty typical for that sort of thing. He loves that there is a Starbuck’s in the lobby! Hope our room is one that has been renovated, but the Dolphin is the only one where you can book an EPCOT view room specifically. Can’t wait to photograph Illuminations from my balcony!
Thanks for the review and the pics of refurbished rooms which look fantastic. This remains my favorite Boardwalk resort for adults even before the rooms were updated. We stayed here during the 2013 Tower of Terror Race weekend and the rates were significantly less than other Deluxe resorts and we could walk to the race. Shula’s is one of the best restaurants on property and Kimonos is a lot of fun for a hangout. I would also say they have the fastest elevators of any hotel on property including the Tower of Terror! Staff was also fantastic and the pool bar is top notch!
We have stayed at the swan and dolphin about five times in the last three years. We always drive to Disney from TN so not having airport transportation is no big deal to us. We always booked through Costco which was a great package that included tickets, room and resort fees. I just priced a trip for two on the Costco travel website and 5 nights in June would be $2053 including all taxes and resort fees, plus a five day hopper for both travelers. It to me is a great deal to stay at such a great location and that is the biggest reason we have gone there in the past.
It is only about a ten minute boat ride, boats leaving every ten minutes, to either Epcot or Hollywood Studios. This is big when you have children with strollers, the boat saves you from having to take everything out of the stroller to stow it for a bus. We usually go to Epcot and then take the Monorail to Magic Kingdom leaving us with only one bus ride when we go to Animal Kingdom.
Is it my favorite resort at Disney, not close. It is a to me the best value/location trip if you book through Costco. You can stay at value resorts and moderate resorts cheaper the boat access at The Swan and Dolphin make up for the extra cost to me.
We are season pass holders this year though so it makes much more sense to book through Disney using their discounts and the Costco package isn’t applicable if you already had tickets so it may be a while until we enjoy the Swan and Dolphin again.
Great review and photography, as usual 🙂
Unfortunately resort fees in Las Vegas aren’t going away anytime soon. All of the hotels there have gone through a round of raising them in the past 2-3 months.
Really? I read an article a couple of months ago (of course now I can’t locate it) discussing how some hotels there were starting to do away with them, touting it as a selling point, with the author speculating that those hotels could be what brings down the whole scheme.
Thanks for reporting that some of them are actually *raising* the fees. Ouch!
We stayed at the Swan back in 2000 when Starwood had a promotion for free weekends anywhere. I was traveling for work a lot in those days, so I had no trouble racking up the paid nights necessary. Similarly, this year we stayed at the Downtown Disney Hilton (another unofficial/official hotel) for free on Hilton points. So that’s an advantage right there–if you otherwise travel a lot and can rack up the hotel points in the appropriate chain, boom, free Disney-convenient hotel. And in my opinion being able to get one of the big pieces of a Disney vacation for free more than makes up for the disadvantages of not being in a “proper” Disney hotel.
Oh yeah, that is absolutely a perk for those who travel a lot. Good point in bringing that up. There’s still an opportunity cost for most, in that they won’t be able to use those points elsewhere, though.
Has there been any timetable listed for the refurbishment on the Dolphin portion of the resort?
I’ve been eying this hotel for a while now due to its location. The main turn off has been transportation to and form the resort, since I don’t want to rent a car if I can avoid it.
It’s supposed to be totally done by 2016, but I was under the impression that it was already nearly complete. I’d assume you could request a renovated room, or simply do the safer thing and book at the Swan.
The difference between the old and new rooms is dramatic.
We never rent a car when we fly into Orlando. Plus, the parking fee here would make it very costly. I use a car service, which runs me about $120 roundtrip. I like not having to wait on the Magical Express bus, not having to stop at any other resorts and leaving for the airport an hour later than Magical Express.