We're home! After 5 nights at Swan then another 3 nights at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Clearwater Beach.
We had a blast at WDW! We checked into the Swan late, as expected, around 12:30AM. Took Lyft from MCO to the Swan, which worked out perfect. Check-in was simple, I'd sent in a request a week before asking to be away from the elevators, if possible, and of course an upgrade, if available. At check in she told us the hotel was sold out, which I expected since several nights were not available except for the Costco rate that we had. While we didn't get an "upgrade" we got what we paid for, which was a resort view room. We had room 444, which was all the way down the hall and a corner room!!! This gave us two large banks of windows. Had we been in the room often it would have been great, but frankly we were there for the parks, not sitting in our room. Nonetheless the view of the water, trees and backside of Boardwalk at night was very nice and peaceful. In the morning the sun was right outside our window.
The Room - The room itself was nice, clean and bright. We had the two queen instead of a king but that was fine with my wife and I. I do feel the room decor has lost some the playfulness that it had on our previous stays. I felt this room could have been any Westin/Sheraton in any City. As I said it was nice and clean, but almost felt too sterile. We did like having the dual sinks in the bathroom and the shower setup was great!
The only complaint I had, was upon arrival, the toilet would drain about every 5 minutes, I tried using they're texting service to report it, but they either didn’t come or didn’t fix it. In the end I called the Front Desk, twice as the first time the guy didn’t get it fixed right. This does seem like something house keeping should have noticed.
Hall Carpet - I see what everyone is talking about now. They appear worn, but it’s clearly the pattern not actual wearing or dirt. Why anyone would have chosen that is completely beyond me.
Staff - Everyone we ran into from front-line to management staff were friendly, smiled and greeted us. I can’t say I felt the same about some of the CMs at Disney though.
Picabu - We had breakfast here everyday. We throughly enjoyed the omelets and the staff were wonderful. The place was mostly dead by the time we would show up which was between 9-10AM. One staff member told us it was pretty dead right after the holidays and the conference attendees didn’t come in for breakfast, which was fine with us. Our only wish was if they would have had the omelets available for late nights, a couple times we got back to the hotel hungry but they were not an option.
Transportation - The busses to/from MK & AK were great, never full either direction. The bus is shared between Boardwalk, Swan & Dolphin. At the Swan they need to remove the dead TV that shows the times, but there was one that worked. We never had to wait long for MK/AK busses, but going to Disney Springs took over 20 minutes, in fact we had to MK busses drop by during that wait time.
We used Lyft to get to the Swan and once returning from Trader Sam’s - service worked well and reasonable price. I can see this getting more and more popular. We almost gave up waiting for Disney Springs bus and used Lyft.
Amazon PrimeNow - I placed our order the morning we left to be delivered Saturday between 8-9AM. Package showed up on time, though the driver didn’t read the instructions I had left. I was very clear that we were at the Swan, her English was non-existent so she had to call back to HQ and a supervisor translate where I was. I’d brought down an empty suitcase to put everything in and haul back to the room. Whole process was easy and priced reasonable. I would use this again in a heartbeat.
Costco Travel - Everything with Costco travel worked great. Check in/out was seamless, the room was fine, etc. We used Costco to book a rental car at the Dolphin as well, again everything worked great. I wish Costco could book Disney rooms too.
I’d go back to the Swan based on location of Epcot & DHS, but I do miss the playful theme and colors in the rooms.
I decided to wait till today to check the MDE again,since I know there were issues last week across the board..... it finally worked! Bro's hotel is linked!!! (I know small potatoes but it was dicey for a bit) whatever the last cm's did from that long call was successful,and with only a few days to spare before FP+ window opening....thought I'd share to update on what happened,in case it happens to anyone else....that disney it number is handy!
Too bad it was so stressful getting it all linked but hopefully you will have smooth sailing now!
