Here we go!!! We pulled off our very first Disney World trip as a family staying at The Dolphin Hotel, and I could not be more thrilled with how it went. I wanted to share the planning and research that went into it because I did a ton of googling and asking around. While we were there I got a lot of messages asking for information so I wanted to consolidate it here.
I wrote it all out and it’s LONG, so I’ll be putting it up in several parts.
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This one will be about our experience with The Dolphin Hotel info/review!
For reference, on this trip Reegan was two and a half and Julia was almost 5 months old.
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Firstly, I picked this week in September for extremely specific reasons and it paid off. We decided to go the week before Georgia fall break, but when Florida kids would be in school. We also picked week days due to the Food & Wine Festival. Trading in vacation days for less crowds was worth it. We were able to ride rides several times and walk on to a few classics like It’s A Small World. Julia wasn’t crawling, although she was teething, and both girls were free. #FreeUnder3!!
Step 1 : Booking a Hotel!
The Starwood Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort
At first, I wanted to go through Costco. I even joined Costco for this purpose. But literally seconds before booking the trip, I checked the return policy and it was 35-50% money back. Um. I’m sorry. That is not an option with a 2.5 year old and a baby. That’s basically saying “here take my money”. So, I headed directly to The Dolphin Hotel website and checked rates.
It just so happened that at the time, the rate was low (it wasn’t a few weeks later) and so we booked it. We knew we would be able to get Starwood points at The Dolphin and also loved that with our Chase Visa Disney card we’d be double-dipping on the points bonuses. If you are hearing Dave Ramsey in your ear, we saved up the cash and paid the hotel off immediately after. I am with you on the opening of credit cards… be smart. This card was recommended to us and I’ll be talking about the perks in Part 2.
While The Dolphin is not technically a Disney on property resort, they offer great pricing, transportation, free parking at parks, extra Magic Hours, and park shopping to hotel delivery. So, the only difference I have come across is that our Magic Bands were not credit cards and room keys. But that honestly relaxed me. We grabbed Magic Bands at Guest Services after checking in the hotel and linked them to our park tickets and scheduled Fast Passes via confirmation number, avoiding will call.
Hot tip? The guy on the reservations line told me to call before my cancellation policy was up and switch to the prepaid rate if it’s cheaper. You have to check the rates online because the pre-paid rate changes with the room rate based on occupancy, but paying in full beforehand could save you megabucks. Wait until you know you are going though!! It changes the return policy. Check the rate regularly via website to price match.
As for location…
It was perfect. The hotel has it’s own bus to Magic Kingdom (as well as the other parks) that came about every 30 minutes and was roughly under 20 minutes of ride time. You do have to fold up your stroller!
There is also the option to take a boat or walk to Hollywood Studios and Epcot. The boats also come regularly, and are shared between The Dolphin and The Swan hotels. Transportation starts an hour before park time opening so it depends on the park and Magic Hours. But they have a schedule downstairs.
We ended up walking home from Epcot the last day because it was easier to not have to fold the stroller. And it was nice to walk off all of the park food. The Boardwalk next to the hotel was lined with restaurants, ice cream, magicians, ands more. It was a great end to the trip!
** The double stroller was a hot topic for us so I will be posting about that in our What to Bring to the Park post. If you have opinions on to stroller or not… comment below!! **
Self Park!
The self parking at The Dolphin is right out front and incredibly easy to get to. We self parked which made it easier if we needed to get quick access to the car. We were able to fit the double stroller in the hotel room, but we weren’t sure until we got in the room. Self parking was easy enough that our original plan was to keep the stroller in the car if need be.
We got two beds.
I think we originally had a king. We are used to co sleeping with our girls, but two double beds made me want to put two double beds in our master bedroom at home. I think everyone had more space. I slept with the baby and my husband got to sleep with our rotating toddler.
Netflix and more!
They had the option on their TVs to log into your Netflix, Youtube, and Hulu accounts. I haven’t been in a hotel lately, but that was an incredible feature. We watched a little Bolt and Moana getting ready for bed two nights, but honestly we were too tired to get through either.
One thing we didn’t do and I meant to, was grab breakfast foods at Publix beforehand to have in the room. There was a refrigerator in the room, not a mini bar. Thank you Dolphin Hotel! We were able to put our own waters and food in the fridge no problem. This did make it where they had the dresser off the wall, so the fridge could breathe, but it was fine. If you have a crawler, just arrange the chairs to make it where the kids can’t get behind the TV.
Because we didn’t bring food, other than park snacks, we ate downstairs at The Fuel Bar every morning. It was delicious. I had The Popeye Wrap 3 times and loved it all 3 times and Jeff had The Standard breakfast sandwich. We also enjoyed some bubbly canned rosé on Wednesday. The have a great selection of beer and wine (bottles and single servings) there for decent “hotel pricing”. Think around $6 a beer. Yes, they had White Claw. They had every snack you could think of, coffee bar a la Starbucks, a self serve candy bar, coke machine, and a froyo station. We were fans.
On Monday, after check in we decided to do the Garden Grove character dinner across the way at The Swan portion of the hotel. The food was surprisingly great, and the characters spent a decent amount of time at each table. We made an early reservation at 5:15pm and were the first ones there. I LOVED it. The crowd massively thicken around 6pm as we left, so go early. It started the trip off perfectly. The salad bar was fine, but the entrees (I had the Salmon with a side of sauteed mushrooms and Jeff had the Chicken with Onion Rings) were great and the dessert was really good. Oh and once again kids under 3 eat free!
EXTRAS!
The hotel also has multiple pools (My Top 10 beach/pool must haves for your baby!), restaurants, room service, and a spa but we weren’t there for any of that this time. Next time I think we will tack on a day just to explore the grounds. We did order pizza to the room Tuesday after Magic Kingdom and it was quick and I believe $22. So not bad.
All in all, I could not have asked for a better hotel experience. The staff was lovely, we always had extra towels and the location is perfection.
We will be staying here again soon!
If you have any questions let me know! You can comment below for a shared answer or shoot me an email at meandreegs@gmail.com !
You can buy tickets to Walt Disney World HERE!
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