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Our Guide to Disney's Swan Reserve Resort

 

Last summer while we were staying at the Walt Disney World Swan Resort, we had a perfect view of the newest resort being built, The Swan Reserve.


 At the time, I recorded some of it for Instagram and I accidentally called it the Swan Select.  I did notice my mistake, but the story was already published and saved to my highlights. Nobody called me out on the mix up with the name, so life went on! 


But I will say that the official name of the resort is indeed Swan Reserve!

The Swan Reserve is located in the same area as the Swan and Dolphin resorts  ( the Boardwalk resort area), but it is set behind these two resorts. If you walk out to the Swan and Dolphin pool area, you cross a road, and there it is.

The Swan Reserve is a Deluxe Category resort and is owned by the Marriot group. That means room rates aren't quite as high as the traditional Disney Deluxe Resorts and if you are a Marriot member, you can use your points!  Unlike the Disney resorts, there is a resort fee. At the time I believe it was $35 per day. It includes the use of all amenities (and at the  neighboring Swan and Dolphin) and two bottles of water in your room each day.  Even with the $35 resort fee, we found the price per night to be less than any other Disney Deluxe resort and for the awesome location, it is totally worth it. There is also a parking fee that is a bit higher than the Disney Deluxe resorts.  Currently the  parking fee is $35 per day and much more for valet parking.

As soon as we entered,  you come upon Bell Services and check in. 

Then we were greeted with a grand escalator. This is a "high rise" resort and for good reason because the views are phenomenal.  It sort of reminded me of the Gran Destino Tower at Disney's Coronado Springs. The lobby is actually elevated and you have a great view of everything down below.


On the lobby level you will find guest services, restaurants and market place, the swimming pool area, and elevators that lead to guest rooms


Our guest room was pretty fabulous!  We were on the 5th floor.  We had a view of Epcot. Not sure if this was considered a standard view or if we were upgraded to a theme park view since we were Marriot members. 

We did not have a balcony like we did at the Swan but we had a huge picture window which we loved. Actually, the only rooms that have balconies are the Chairmen suites, which would be the equivalent to a Presidential  suite, which was pretty fancy!

Let's take a look at our room!

We had a standard room that had two queen beds, but there are other ones that have a king bed and a pull out sleeper sofa.

For a standard room, it is very spacious.  There is a standard coffee pot in the room as well as a mini fridge in the cabinet.


These bird sculptures ( maybe paper weights?) were on the desk.

The Bathroom was huge!

It had nice toiletries.

The hair dryer was under the sink with some extra wash clothes in a basket.


 The shower was huge! It had one of the rainfall shower heads as well as one of the removal wands.



But really, the view is the star of this room.   I'll be sharing a complete video on Instagram.


And right around the corner, check out this view of Tower of Terror.


The swimming pool area is cool because it is elevated. However, compared to other Disney resorts, this one isn't all that impressive, no slides or waterfalls.

No splash area for the kids.  However, guests at the Swan Reserve can share all the amenities of the Swan and Dolphin resorts, including pool, spa, and Swan boats. 


Dining options at just the Swan Reserve include:


                                                         Amare- The signature restaurant

          
                                        Stir-  The  lounge in the hotel lobby, drinks and small bites


                                                          Tangerine - Pool bar and casual fare


                                                          Grounds- Grab and Go items

   We were so busy while we were here that we did not get a chance to eat at any of these restaurants. However, you can check out our posts of the Swan and Dolphin resorts as we've  experienced many of the restaurants on those properties.

Transportation

Because you can easily walk to the Boardwalk from here, you can walk to Epcot or Hollywood Studios as well. Another option is to take the Friendship Boats.  You will however need to take a resort bus to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.  Resort buses will pick  up right outside of where you enter the Swan Reserve. Note that when you get dropped off at the Magic Kingdom, you will actually get dropped off at the Ticket and Transportation Center and will have to take the boat or the monorail to Magic Kingdom.  Your bus will not go to the front of the park like the other Disney resort buses. 

We really enjoyed the Swan Reserve because we LOVE the Boardwalk Resort area, so to us the location is perfect. The views that we had from the resort ( from being up so high) were amazing and a draw to this resort.  However, the theming is more modern and less Disney-ish.  As adults we appreciated this but if you are a family bringing small children you might want to swap convenience for Disney theming!


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Fairytales and Fitness is a personal blog authored and edited by us, Meranda and Lacey. The thoughts expressed here represent only our own and are not meant to be taken as professional advice. Please note that our thoughts and opinions change from time to time. We consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind in an ever changing society. Any thoughts and opinions expressed within our out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those we may express today. Some links may contain affiliate links. Some links are just to pages we'd like to share.