Elise Heffelfinger
We just completed two nights at the Swan following a cruise. I expected an average, generic corporate hotel after reading many reviews about the lack of Disney theming. However, we LOVED this hotel and the service. Our room was huge, we were upgraded from no view to a gorgeous resort view, and we got checked into a room at 10:30 am following our cruise (which I did not expect but was amazing). The rooms are updated, clean, and modern, and while we like VRBOs for longer stays with kids, I would go back to the Swan in a heartbeat for a hotel stay. Don’t hesitate, it’s great. We took the boat and walked to the parks, so easy!
Kayli barnes
I enjoyed my time here at The Swan, and I would go back again. The location is definitely the highlight of the hotel, with buses to disney, and a quick few minute walk to Boardwalk. You can even get a quick ferry to Epcot.
The service is great and a quick check in process even with a lot of people all checking in at the same time. I stayed in a two bed room with a balcony, and a view of Crescent lake. The room was clean with no issues.
The restaurant options in the Swan, and the other two hotels are really great! They all never miss.
Autumn Whittle
The rooms are nice but pretty standard, nothing super fancy but they’re clean and the beds and pillows are very soft. The staff that assist with luggage are so polite and extremely helpful! My only complaint is that they didn’t charge for my entire stay upon check in and I ended up being charged multiple times and more than I should have for parking and they had to issue a refund. The valet office staff were pretty rude when I tried to bring this to their attention that they had overcharged me. Self Parking is extremely limited so prepare to pay outrageous valet parking prices! The walking distance from the Dolphin to the boardwalk is pretty far too so be prepared.
Courtney Collins
Really enjoyed the resorts calm and inviting vibe. The resort was clean and service was excellent. Loved the way access to HS and Epcot. My family would stay here again! I wish the rooms were more decorated and that the bathroom had towel racks. We had a family of four with one child who had cheer makeup to manage. There was no place to hang our face cloths.
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.
