The SATURDAY SIX checks into the WALT DISNEY WORLD SWAN RESERVE (Everything You Need To Know)

This week’s SATURDAY SIX heads over to the EPCOT resort area and checks the Walt Disney World Swan Reserve! Now, I’m a huge fan of the Swan & Dolphin resorts and think they have some of the most underrated dining venues in all of WDW (Todd English’s bluezoo and Shula’s Steakhouse are both straight up E-Ticket) but I’ve never been to the Swan Reserve, which opened in November, 2021. So, it was time to check this hotel off our Disney bucket list and we went up recently during a trip to the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.

One of the biggest strengths of the Swan Reserve is location, location, location. You can easily walk to two theme parks (EPCOT and DHS) along with all the other great places in the area including Beaches & Cream, AbracadaBar, and Il Mulino.

In the photo above, the Swan Reserve is at the bottom center of the photo. Directly to the right of the Swan Reserve is Fantasia Gardens, one of the most fun mini golf courses in all of Orlando (which is high praise because we got a lot of good ones!)

This is a photo taken behind the Sorcerer Mickey topiary that sits in front of Fantasia Gardens, and the building behind it is the Swan Reserve. You are literally a hop, skip, and a jump away. In fact, Fantasia Gardens and the Swan Reserve even share a parking lot.

The Swan Reserve is considered a Disney Deluxe Resort, and guests get the normal WDW on-site amenities allotted to that level; including 30 minute early entry into the Disney parks, Extended Evening Hours, transportation to the parks and Disney Springs along with early access to Lightning Lane purchases. How does the Swan Reserve stack up compared to other on-site resorts? Well, today we are going to check out our favorite parts of this incredible hotel, and let’s begin our list with…

# 6 – The Lobby

The Swan Reserve is a 14 story boutique hotel that is owned and operated by Marriott. This means the hotel participates in the Marriott loyalty program (Bonvoy) and has – in my opinion – a much better level of service across the board than what you receive at onsite hotels that are owned and operated by Disney. Like the Loews hotels over at Universal, Marriott is a premium brand that knows how to run a hotel and does it right.

Upon entering the Swan Reserve, you’ll be directed to the third floor of the hotel to check in. You can either take an elevator, or a nice long escalator.

Walking off the escalator will lead you directly to the reception desk. The decor of the Swan Reserve fits in with the aesthetic you experience at the nearby Swan and Dolphin resorts.

Birds were a running theme throughout the Swan Reserve, from the birds in flight behind the reception desk, to this large peacock in the lobby area.

The Swan Reserve has a clean, bright design that is very tranquil to be in. Many Disney hotels have a lot of hustle and bustle going on that can add a certain amount of stress to your theme park vacation, but the Swan Reserve is much more relaxed and low key.

The third floor is the center of the Swan Reserve universe and is where you find many of the resort’s amenities including the table service restaurant Amare, the pool, and several bars. There is also a large amount of seating in the area for couples, families, or other groups of people.

In the direct center of the lobby is the bar Stir, which leads us to our next section…

# 5 – The Bars

Stir  can be a completely different experience when going during the day versus at night. During the day, the lighting elements hanging from the ceiling really make the colors in the room pop, while the subdued lighting at night provides a different atmosphere. I loved the plants that they had above the bar.

Stir offers a full drink menu, but you can also order several food items as well. Because all of the food at Swan Reserve comes from the Amare kitchen, the quality of food you get is MUCH higher than what you would get from the other bars at Disney hotels (many of which don’t offer any food.)  In particular, the pizzas are an amazing bang for your buck and reminded me of the quality you would get at Red Oven Pizza Bakery at Universal CityWalk.

One of the questions that TouringPlans receives a lot, especially during the Fall and Winter, is “where can I watch football games at Disney?” During our stay, the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills played a Thursday Night NFL game, and it was playing on the big screens at Stir.

On the opposite side of Stir is Tangerine, the poolside bar of the Swan Reserve. There is plenty of seating in the area, and they also have a full bar service along with food options.

Normally when I go to a hotel bar, I’ll order that bar’s signature drink, which is oftentimes themed to the hotel. However, a different drink jumped out to me when I was going through the Tangerine menu. The drink was called: Where’s the Helicopter Pad?

I asked the bartender where the name originated from, and they said that the hotel had a surprising amount of helicopters flying overhead and nobody knew why.

Readers of this Fine Blog Series know why, so of course we had to say “Cheers” to blogger-in-the-sky @bioreconstruct while enjoying our drink.

(In all seriousness, the reason the Swan Reserve has so many helicopters pass closely at the Swan Reserve is because the hotel sits at the edge of a no-fly zone.  So the copters turn left to route outside Disney Hollywood Studios)

Anyhoo, Tangerine also offers draft beer…

…and the great pizza. You can’t beat that.

# 4 – The Pool & Fitness Center

Right next to Tangerine is the Swan Reserve pool.

Check out these hours for the pool. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! We rope drop the pools at Cabana Bay and Sapphire Falls over at Universal and they don’t unlock the doors until 9AM. They also generally aren’t open all the way till 11PM either. Incredible!

Towels are available at the Towel Hut, and you can also get complimentary card games, books, beach balls, inner tubes, and pool noodles. Here you can also purchase sunblock, spf lip balm, tanning oil, sunglasses, goggles, and diving toys.

Life vests are also available for the kiddos.

There is something next level awesome about being at a pool and seeing the TOWER OF TERROR.

Just amazing.

The reason you can see the Tower of Terror is because the Swan Reserve is right across the street from Disney Hollywood Studios.

There is a ton of seating by the pool.

There are also Premium Day Beds available to rent. These include a TV, couch, ceiling fan, refrigerator stocked with drinks, fruit bowl, and a “seasonal infused water tower” (I don’t even know what that is, but I know I want it.) These Premium Day Beds go for $75-$125 per day, depending on availability.

There is a $45 per night resort fee at Swan Reserve that needs to be factored into your “bottom line” price when evaluating hotels, but even with that fee it’s still cheaper than any other option in the Boardwalk Resort area. Swan Reserve guests also get full access to all the amenities at the nearby Swan & Dolphin resorts, including the Grotto pool (which I have ranked as a top 5 pool at Walt Disney World.) I got out the stopwatch, and it took me less than four minutes to walk from the Swan Reserve front door to the Grotto pool area at the Swan & Dolphin. You’re that close.

If you’ve never been, the pool areas at the Swan & Dolphin are ::chef’s kiss::

Okay, let’s head back to the Swan Reserve. On the second floor you’ll find the fitness center, which is open 24/7 with your room key.

As far as Disney hotel gyms go, this is at the upper end compared to the ones I’ve been to. The locker room area was well appointed, and had showers with changing areas.

Good array of weights, machines, ellipticals and treadmills.

# 3 – Amare

The Mediterranean-inspired Amare is the Swan Reserve’s signature restaurant. It is casual, but upscale and features seafood, pastas, and pitas as well as an extensive wine list. Amare is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Similar to the rest of the Swan Reserve, Amare is clean, beautiful and has a great vibe.

Amare has an open kitchen, which I’m a huge fan of. Not only do I find it fascinating to watch chefs work (love watching cooking shows like Top Chef, Chopped, and Hell’s Kitchen) but it also shows how efficient Amare is at getting food from the kitchen to the tables.

I’ve mentioned the great pizzas you can get at Swan Reserve and its fascinating watching this station in the kitchen because it is just making pizzas non-stop.

Okay, so let’s check out dinner service at Amare.

Not only is the drink menu extensive – with a giant selection of wines, cocktails, and craft beers – but there are several wine flights available as well. We went with the Taste of Greece option. “This flight features some of Greece’s signature varietals. Tasting through a white, rose and red wine. Enjoy a 3oz tasting of each: Zoe, Roditis, Peloponnese, 2020, Croix de Peyrassol, Mediterranee, 2020, Boutari Kretikos, Crete, 2019.”

Meanwhile, I always say you can’t go wrong with a Miller Lite (which is not a sentiment shared by a server I once had a Via Napoli, but that’s a story for another day.)

Bread service at Amare includes a hummus and olive tapenade dip. Very tasty.

 

The presentation at Amare is just wonderful, featuring many appetizers and entrees you don’t see in many WDW restaurants.

Several kid’s entrees that include chicken fingers, spaghetti, hamburgers & cheeseburgers, cheese & pepperoni pizzas, and mac & cheese.

I think I’ll do an entire dining article on Amare in the near future because it is a true WDW gem, which is saying something because the Epcot resort area is the mecca for great dining at Disney. The cannolis were possibly the best we’ve had at Disney and definitely don’t sleep on the Greek yogurt cheesecake.

For breakfast at Amare you can order dishes off the menu a la carte, or get the breakfast buffet (which includes Mickey Waffles!)

This bottle blew my mind. Branded syrup bottles!

Like the dinner service at Amare, even the breakfast buffet has items served in an interesting way, such as these biscuits & gravy below.

Other hot items on the breakfast buffet include: scrambled eggs, potatoes O’brien, and steel cut oatmeal. The chefs will make omelets with the items of your choosing. There is also a good selection of bread slices and bagels that you can toast.

Off the a la carte menu we got the Avocado Toast. It was fantastic.

# 2 – The Rooms

Our room was located on the 9th floor, and with four elevators for such a small hotel, you’re never waiting long for one to arrive.

The Swan Reserve still uses actual key card to unlock your door. Say what you will about the convenience of Magic Bands (which do have some great positives) I’ve NEVER had a problem with old school key cards at any Disney or Universal hotel, whereas I’ve had plenty of problems trying to access a room with a Magic Band.

With only two of us on this trip, we had a standard room with a king size bed option.  When you first walk into the room, the floor to ceiling windows are an instant stunner.

The bed was extremely comfortable and reminded me of the top notch mattress we slept on during our Princess Cruise Line sailing (who pride themselves on their beds.)

One of my favorite features in the room was a lighting element that is on the headboard of the bed. Here is a photo of the light when it is off.

While below is the light turned on. This was a nice amount of light rather than the usual Goldylocks and the three bears situation in a hotel bed where the options are a bright light right next to your head or no light at all.

One side of the bed had various outlets installed above the end table.

While the other side could use the ports in the clock.

There is also a couch in the room that can unfold into a bed. This mattress was also more comfortable than any fold out couch I’ve ever slept on back in the Real World.

Across from the bed is a  desk. The desk had three stylish bird paperweights on it.

I’m not 100% sure what you are supposed to use the paperweights for, but I used them for my notes and tips for housekeeping. Housekeeping comes every day unless you request them not to. They even came at night because after our Amare dinner we came back to the room to discover they had tidied the area up.

Across from the desk is a large piece of furniture that has several drawers for clothes, holds the safe in the room, and has the mini-fridge (which was actually cold.)

We’ll talk more about the in-room TV later in this article. Rest assured, it has some pretty great options.

The bathroom in a standard room is AWESOME. First of all, you have a ton of space.

There is no better sign you are staying in a quality establishment at Disney and Universal than the places who have branded stickers on their toilet paper. To me, it’s a sign of excellence.

The sink area.

This is not a great photo, but the small magnifying mirror that is in the bathroom is straight up E-Ticket. I would have bought one of these if they had offered them for sale.

I had forgotten my toiletry bag at home, so I went to the Swan Reserve’s Grab & Go area to see if they sold a toothbrush and toothpaste. They directed me to the front desk, where I was given a “dental kit.” This was perfect.

One of my all time favorite showers at any Disney hotel was over at the Disney Dolphin hotel, and I’m glad to report that the Swan Reserve also has an excellent shower experience. I’m a huge fan of the “rainfall” gimmick or whatever they call these shower heads.

Branded Swan Reserve soaps and shampoos. Like my beloved Cabana Bay Beach Resort, this is going much harder than the Swan Reserve has to and I for one am here for it.

The closet outside the bathroom had robes, slippers, extra bedding and more.

Important to note that one of the Swan Reserve’s biggest strengths compared to all other Disney hotels is the amount of suites that they offer. Half of the hotel is suites, some of which can accommodate up to 8 guests. My room was directly across the hall from a suite, and one time returning to the room I was walking next to the family staying in that suite.  The family was preparing to head to the parks and told the two kids they could get ready first, with each kid using one of the suites two bathrooms.

Having the extra space that a suite gives you, along with that invaluable second bathroom, can be the difference from having a really good Disney family vacation and an unforgettable “Magical Memories” one. We all know vacationing can be stressful, and having a suite can alleviate a lot of potential trigger points before they even happen.

I mentioned earlier that its pretty amazing that you can see the Tower of Terror from the Swan Reserve’s pool. Well, many of the Swan Reserve’s rooms have an even better look the Tower of Terror from their window.

This is not the room view that we had though. NAY NAY. We were on the other side of the Swan Reserve with an…

# 1 – EPCOT VIEW

I’ve stayed in a lot of rooms on Disney property, many of which had some awesome views, but our room at the Swan Reserve was a true game changer. I mentioned the fantastic floor-to-ceiling windows and the view they provide, but check out this view!

The pictures do not do this view justice because it is absolutely next level to be able to see the Magic Kingdom and The Contemporary in the distance along with EPCOT being almost directly next door.

As good as the view was during the day, it got even better at night because you can see all the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. Below is a shot of fireworks at the Magic Kingdom as seen from our room.

Again, the photos don’t do this view justice as the human eye sees these fireworks much better. I can only imagine how incredible this experience must be during the fireworks at the Halloween and Christmas parties along with the 4th of July spectacular. Sign me up.

I zoomed in on the picture below, but this is a more accurate representation of how the fireworks look when you are watching them from the room.

You also get to see the fireworks used during Luminous over at EPCOT!

I’m pretty jaded as a theme park fan as I’ve done so much over the years, but this experience was just so neat. Kids will lose their minds.

Okay, so this next part was possibly my favorite part of the room and it doesn’t translate as well to pictures but trust me as a theme park fan when I tell you this was just amazing. I took the photo below while lying in bed and just relaxing as Spaceship Earth cycled through it’s lighting features.

Again, this zoom is a more accurate reflection of what it feels like. Who needs a white noise machine when I can have the tranquility of looking out and seeing Spaceship Earth as I fall asleep. I’m convinced there would be no more wars if every person on Earth got to go to bed with this view.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: I took a while before going to the Swan Reserve because I assumed it was going to be more like a “business hotel” catering to various conventions. I couldn’t have been more wrong and the Swan Reserve is at the tippy top of our list of our places to return to. You get a great value compared to the other locations in the Boardwalk resort area, but you are just as close to everything and also can get a great view of two of the best theme parks in the world. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my various stays at the Beach Club, Yacht Club, and Boardwalk, but I didn’t  get or have a single view in any of those rooms nearly as good compared to what we had at the Swan Reserve.

Honorable Mention – Grounds

Grounds is the grab-and-go area and is located on the third floor of the Swan Reserve, directly next to Amare.

There is some limited seating inside Grounds, but also a whole bunch of tables directly outside the venue (seen earlier in this article.) You’re also right next to the pool area which also has a bunch of tables.

Among the various drinks you can get is Phins & Feathers, the signature craft beer made for the Swan & Dolphin resorts.

There are a ton of snacks available, along with pre-made salads and sandwiches. We went with the vegan protein bowl salad and it was terrific.

At the counter there is a bakery case filled with items that they are constantly changing out during the course of the day.

You load up a snack with Reece’s Pieces and I’m gonna buy it. That’s my policy, and it’s never steered me wrong.

Double Secret Honorable Mention – Transportation

The front door to the Swan Reserve is literally right across the street from the Swan & Dolphin resorts. This gives you the option to just walk over to EPCOT or Disney Hollywood Studios. The Swan & Dolphin have complimentary water taxis to those parks, and you’re also near the Skyliner station at EPCOT.

The Swan Reserve also offers bus transportation to the Disney parks and Disney Springs.

One thing to note is that the bus to the Magic Kingdom drops you off at the TTC compared to the bus corral that Disney operated hotels drop you off at. This was no big deal for us as I generally have a car when going to Disney and drive to the TTC anyway to save time. We took the Swan Reserve bus to MK, got dropped off at the TTC, went through security and immediately walked onto one of the ferry boats to get to the Magic Kingdom (we took a monorail to get back.)

Minnie Van service will also take you to and from the Swan Reserve.

Triple Threat Honorable Mention – In Room TV

I mentioned the in-room TV earlier, and now it’s time to do a deep dive on this baby. You can use the TV to find out details on all the amenities in the hotel, including the dining venues.

You can check out the weather forecast.

As for the TV channels themselves, the lineup is pretty impressive.

But you also get easy access to directly connect to various streaming services.

This was convenient because the Thursday Night NFL game I mentioned earlier in the article was only available to watch on Amazon Prime. So I logged into Prime…

…and got to watch the game.

So there you have it: The SATURDAY SIX checks out the Walt Disney World SWAN RESERVE! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on Twitter (@derekburgan).

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Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHyde and you Potterheads will  enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.