Walt Disney World Dolphin

Virgin Holiday Favourites

Why is this a Virgin Holidays favourite?

Range of restaurants, offering fantastic dining options

Great for families, with Camp Dolphin supervised activity programme* (local charge)

Fantastic spa facilities with exclusive discounts for Virgin Holidays' guests

Exclusive Virgin Holidays benefits:

Receive a Lake View Room at the Dolphin or a Courtyard View Room at the Swan
Kids 9 years and under eat free at the following restaurants when accompanied by a full paying adult. Garden Grove which offers breakfast, lunch and dinner and Fresh, which offers breakfast and lunch. Maximum 2 children per room, per paying adult. Restaurants and meal options are subject to change
Complimentary babysitting service for kids aged 4-12 years whilst parents eat at either Shula's, Blue Zoo or Il Mulino. Maximum 2 hours
Receive 20% discount on any Mandara Spa treatment valued at $50 or more
Complimentary self-parking saving $28.00 per day
Any adult only booking will receive a $50 food coupon to dine at the resort (one per room, per stay)

Getting Around

Complimentary Disney transportation throughout the Walt Disney World Resort. Within walking distance of Disney's BoardWalk, Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and to a private entrance at Epcot. Complimentary water taxi to Disney's Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Complimentary shuttle to nearby Orlando Premium Outlets.

Dining

17 restaurants and lounges including Il Mulino New York Trattoria (Italian), Todd English’s bluezoo (seafood), Shula’s Steak House (voted Orlando’s best high-end steakhouse) and Kimonos (sushi). More casual eateries include Garden Grove (Disney character dining nightly for dinner and breakfast on Saturday and Sundays), Fresh (breakfast and lunch), The Fountain (lunch and dinner), Fuel, Cabana Bar and Beach Club (poolside), Splash (poolside), Picabu (24 hours), Phins, Java Bar, and 24-hour room service*.

Fun and Games

5 swimming pools, including a grotto pool with slide and waterfalls, white sand beach, 2 health clubs, whirlpools, the Balinese-inspired Mandara Spa*, jogging trails, paddle-boat rentals*, games room, Camp Dolphin supervised kids' activity programme*. Nearby golf on 4 Championship Walt Disney World golf courses*.

Handy Stuff

24-hour convenience store/cafe, room service. Valet and coin laundry. Complimentary high‐speed Internet access. Complimentary 2 bottles of water in room, replenished daily. Complimentary tea and coffee in room. Complimentary unlimited use of health clubs. Complimentary childcare for 2 hours when dining at signature restaurants.

Accessibility

Wheelchair accessible rooms available on request. Please note that these rooms are subject to availability and may be restricted to specific room categories and bedding arrangements. Rooms and facilities vary between hotels so please check at the time of booking. For more information and contact details please check out our Special Assistance page

Additional Information

Hotel Resort benefits:

- Disney's Extended park hours on selected days, open 1 hour early and up to 2 hours after regular closing at one of the Disney Parks (valid theme park ticket and resort ID required)

- Unlimited use of Walt Disney World transportation

- Disney Character Dining at Garden Grove Restaurant available Mon-Fri for dinner and Sat-Sun for breakfast

- Complimentary parking at Disney Theme Parks

- Complimentary delivery of purchases made within Walt Disney World Resort theme parks direct to your hotel

*Denotes local charge.

Please note: there may be a local charge for use of a roll-away bed for parties of 5 people or more sharing a room. This is subject to change and is charged by the hotel.

Please note: by booking this hotel through Virgin Holidays you will be able to make Disney FastPass+ selections up to 30 days in advance.

TripAdvisor traveller rating

Rating summary

Location
Sleep Quality
Rooms
Service
Value
Cleanliness

Traveller rating

Excellent (420)
Very good (332)
Average (154)
Poor (83)
Terrible (78)

kid friendly

Jul 12, 2019 pb1158

Breakfast was great. Children enjoyed everything. The hotel was very clean. Everyone was very friendly. Restaurants had great food. Not too high in price. Fast room service, fast service at check in. We will consider going back.

Completely under-staffed, over-priced and you do not get what you pay for.

Jul 11, 2019 Z866MLrickc

We expected much more from a Marriott property. We waited until after 6:00 pm to check in when the website clearly says check in is at 4:00 pm. We sat in the lobby for the first 4 hours of our vacation with a massive crowd of dancers from a dance competition that we were not made aware of when we booked. My kids changed in the lobby bathroom to go… Read more

We expected much more from a Marriott property. We waited until after 6:00 pm to check in when the website clearly says check in is at 4:00 pm. We sat in the lobby for the first 4 hours of our vacation with a massive crowd of dancers from a dance competition that we were not made aware of when we booked. My kids changed in the lobby bathroom to go swimming but they wouldn't even give us towels because we didn't have a room key yet. The room was not what we paid for. It was a completely different layout than what the website photos show. The rooms are old and worn. The bathroom smelled like it had a sewerage issue. The front desk personnel were completely overwhelmed with complaints and rooms not being ready. They were speaking to people condescendingly including us. I called for pillows 3 times and waited until midnight and then just gave up and slept with a couch pillow. I tried again the next day with the same results! Promised they were coming but never showed. Overall, very very disappointing stay and mostly disappointed in the Marriott for treating guests that way. I expected better....For the record I also had asked twice for the General Manager to call me but I was completely ignored and never received a call back. I would recommend looking at a different property or staying in a Disney hotel if you are looking for a better experience. Read less

Still a fav but....

Jul 8, 2019 Kleb122 Norwalk, Connecticut

This is one of our favorite resorts but this time we were disappointed. There was some dance competition need I say more. We were stuck on the same floor which was so disappointing. The garbage and mess that was left outside the rooms and the elevator was disgusting. I don’t know how people staying in a hotel think it is acceptable to make a mess… Read more

This is one of our favorite resorts but this time we were disappointed. There was some dance competition need I say more. We were stuck on the same floor which was so disappointing. The garbage and mess that was left outside the rooms and the elevator was disgusting. I don’t know how people staying in a hotel think it is acceptable to make a mess and leave. The noise as well the door slamming and yelling was the worse. Then the pool area with the dancers screaming and yelling made for a terrible pool experience. Housekeeping was nonexistent. We went green but they never came to our room. I had to steal toilet paper from the maids cart. Read less

Just perfect

Jul 8, 2019 tinkerbell2112 Dublin

Stayed here for a week as we wanted to be on site, just me & my husband. Yes this hotel is not Disney but it does have all the benefits offered, I loved the fact that there is nothing about the hotel that screams Disney (got enough of that from the parks) Location was amazing. When we checked in, I asked if there was a room with a view available,… Read more

Stayed here for a week as we wanted to be on site, just me & my husband. Yes this hotel is not Disney but it does have all the benefits offered, I loved the fact that there is nothing about the hotel that screams Disney (got enough of that from the parks) Location was amazing. When we checked in, I asked if there was a room with a view available, I was told there was but it was high up, so we said we’d take it. Well the view we got was basically looking out over a roof and what can be described as a forest & a motorway in the distance. Note to hotel, if guests ask for a room with a view, they mean a nice view😉😉 A beautiful 10min walk to Epcot through the boardwalk. Lovely boat ride to Hollywood Studios. Hotel room was fab, room was spotless. Getting two free bottles of water a day was a godsend & a really nice touch. Being able to ring home free of charge was also a really nice touch (we didn’t use it, but great offer for anyone who for some reason lost phone etc) But the best was the BED, holy moly never once looked for my bed back home (and that’s an amazing bed). It was so good to sleep on. Pool area is fab, little beach with hammocks is really cute. Staff were very pleasant to deal with. Really couldn’t fault it. Throughly enjoy it. They really need to change the fish into dolphins ⚡️ Read less

Under impressed to say the least.

Jul 8, 2019 SaltyLife10 Valrico, Florida

This was our first time visiting the Dolphin. We were excited about staying at a Disney Resort. The Dolphin is not a Disney resort although they charge like they are a Disney resort. It is a Marriott resort. The lobby is nice. It looks to be recently redone. However, the room was small and antiquated. It took housekeeping all day to clean… Read more

This was our first time visiting the Dolphin. We were excited about staying at a Disney Resort. The Dolphin is not a Disney resort although they charge like they are a Disney resort. It is a Marriott resort. The lobby is nice. It looks to be recently redone. However, the room was small and antiquated. It took housekeeping all day to clean the room and they didn't leave any fresh towels on our last day even though we left our used towels on the floor. The worst part of the experience was the lack of choices for dining. There are two fine dining restaurants, Shula's and Blue Zoo. These are good options if you don't have young kids. If you do have young children (like we do) the options are slim. There is a cafeteria style restaurant (Picabo's) with tacos and a few other items. The staff at Picabo's was fairly rude and very hard to understand. The food was not hot enough and sub par. A premade, prepackaged PB&J was $11. They had a burger joint called the Fountain which was way too small for a 1400 room hotel. The wait was horrendous and again the food was sub par for the price. There are probably only 20-25 tables in this restaurant. The only other dining option was Fuel, which was a grab and go place. Everyday the bagels were rock hard from sitting under the heat lamp for a long period of time. The coffee was almost $10 and not very good. It's hard to walk to another hotel or the boardwalk for dinner because it was raining every evening at dinner time. Overall the Dolphin is not worth the price and there is no "magic" there as well. Disney either needs to get that hotel up to Disney standards or disassociate itself from that property. We will not be going back to the Dolphin. Read less

The hotel

Amenities

Where is it

Hotel information