Location was the only positive
Feb 24, 2021 Theresa N New York City, New York
First time staying at the Dolphin after many years of staying at the Swan. As we are Marriott members and acquire and can use points for stays, this location is Amazing when going on a Disney vacation. You are on the same property as Disney's Boardwalk, Yacht and Beach Club Hotels and are in walking distance to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. In…
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First time staying at the Dolphin after many years of staying at the Swan. As we are Marriott members and acquire and can use points for stays, this location is Amazing when going on a Disney vacation. You are on the same property as Disney's Boardwalk, Yacht and Beach Club Hotels and are in walking distance to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. In addition, There are so many great restaurants to choose from right there on property, 3 Beautiful pools, 2 gyms and the Dolphin has a decent sized and clean laundry room. That was the positive.
The negatives: We did mobile check in through the Marriott app at 12pm. Didn't actually arrive in the hotel until 6pm. When I went to get my room key card I was told "Sorry, but unfortunately your room isn't ready" When I stated that I did mobile check in hours ago and that this was unacceptable I was told again, "sorry but we are fully booked". Ummm... that's why you take reservations isn't it?? When I asked how long it would be She couldn't give me an answer. Seeing how frustrated I was she offered me late check out as a compensation. I told her as a Gold Elite member I already am supposed to get late check out and a room upgrade. She told me since they were fully booked I could not get an upgrade. This has Never happened at the Swan. My room is always ready and I always automatically get room upgrade and late checkout. We sat in the lounge and waited a little over an hour and finally got the room ready text. We had a King room on the 5th Floor in the West wing. It was clean and comfortable. But smaller than the Swan rooms; especially the bathroom. The Swan bathroom is Huge with 2 sinks. Also, the toiletries in the Dolphin seem to be of less quality than the ones at the Swan. There was a small, travel sized package of sanitizing wipes by the TV. I assume to wipe the remote or phone. But I brought my own sanitizing spray and wipes.
I was able to communicate with housekeeping through my Marriott app which was nice for extra towels, water, coffee and toiletries as they do not come in daily since Covid. They always responded promptly and were very friendly. They also came to change the bedding halfway through our stay. But I heard if you request it they will come in as often as you would like. The walls seemed to be paper thin. I wound up having to use a sleep sounds app to drown out the noise from the adjacent rooms and hallway. The Dolphin hotel on a whole seems a lot more noisier than the Swan.
The weather was Beautiful for February and the pool areas were not surprisingly crowded. All 3 pools are shared by the Dolphin and Swan guests. One large pool with a waterfall in the center and 2 medium sized pools with pool bars on either side. But the pool bars and restaurant were Extremely understaffed! We waited about 20 mins just for someone to come take our order - mobile order was not available - and then about another 45 mins for our food. The server was very apologetic and did bring us our drinks first while we were waiting. During this time I heard several complaints and the manager apologizing to people for the wait times. On Another day, we got our food beforehand through mobile order from the beach club hotel and when we got to the pool just went straight up to the bar for drinks. The line was Very long as there was only one bartender. Another thing that was quite un-nerving at the pool was the amount of children splashing around in the hot tubs as if they were bathtubs with no adult supervision. Even though there are big, clearly written signs stating under 16 needs to be supervised! There was no staff in sight to even complain to. I'm assuming they let a lot of staff go during the pandemic and never hired them back now that things are getting back to normal. I do not fault the staff for this, In fact I felt bad for them. In conclusion, being a Disney fan and a Marriott member I will be back because of the location. But I will Not choose the Dolphin again.
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