Walt Disney World Swan

Disney deluxe infobox
name = Walt Disney World Swan

location = Epcot Resort Area
opendate = January 13, 1990
theme = Entertainment Architecture
sections = Main Building
roomnumber = 756
suite =
address = 1200 Epcot Resorts Boulevard Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32830
phoneno. = [phone]
faxno. = [phone]

|The Walt Disney World Swan is a resort hotel designed by architect Michael Graves located between Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios behind Disney's BoardWalk Resort and across from its sister resort, the Walt Disney World Dolphin. The Swan, which opened January 13, 1990 on Disney property, is an official Disney Hotel but not owned by the Walt Disney Company. Rather, it is owned by Tishman Hotel Corporation and operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide under the Westin Hotels brand.

The Dolphin and Swan share similar elements, but each has a distinctive appearance. The Swan's main structure is a 12-story rectangular main structure with a gently arching top and two 7-story wings on the Dolphin side. The main structure is crowned with two giant, 47-foot tall Swan statues. The colored facade is adorned with turquoise waves similar to the Dolphin's banana-leaf motif.

The Swan houses various restaurants and lounges such as "IL Mulino New York Trattoria", "Kimonos", the "Java Bar", and the "Garden Grove", which features dining with Disney characters. Each resort boasts over 329,000 square feet of meeting space.

The Swan and Dolphin both recently underwent an over $135 million dollar renovation to their lobbies and 2265 guestrooms.Fact|date=September 2007 In addition, the renovation added more shopping as well as the Mandara Spa.

Rooms

All rooms include either a king bed or two queen size beds, twin vanities, hair dryer, bath robes, 27" TV with Cable, High Speed Internet (extra charge), coffee maker and iron & ironing board. All rooms are non-smoking.

Hotel amenities

Hotel amenities include 24-hour room service, on-site fine dining, on-site Disney ticket desk, concierge service, and workout room.

Dining

Casual

*Cabana Bar and Beach Club - Poolside grill
*The Fountain - Malt shop
*Fresh Mediterranean Market - Breakfast and lunch
*Picabu - Cafeteria
*Splash Grill - Indoor poolside
*Splash Terrace - Seasonal poolside

Fine dining

*Todd English's bluezoo - Seafood
*Il Mulino New York Trattoria - Italian
*Shula's Steak House - Steak and seafood
*Kimonos - Japanese
*Garden Grove - Family

History

In the late 1980's, Disney saw that they were losing business to area hotels that catered to conventions and large meetings, so Michael Eisner decided to build a convention-oriented hotel near Epcot. The Tishman Group, the contractor who was hired to build Epcot and who also had hotels in the nearby Disney hotel zone, claimed that the Epcot deal gave them exclusive rights to operate convention hotels on the Disney property. So Disney partnered with Tishman to develop the Swan and Dolphin complex. Eisner had used Graves for other company projects and wanted to continue to build striking, unique buildings.

Tishman owns the buildings, but has a 99-year lease on the land from Disney. Disney also receives a share of the hotel's revenues, and has a say in any design or architecture changes to the interior or exterior of the buildings.

Walt Disney World privileges

Swan guests enjoy complimentary transportation to all Walt Disney World theme parks and attractions. Length-of-stay passes are available, as is package delivery from shops across the resort. Swan guests also enjoy Extra Magic Hours at certain theme parks on certain days. Room charging (using hotel key as a credit card at Walt Disney World) is not available and hotel restaurants do not participate in any Disney dining plans or discounts.

Resources

* [http://www.swandolphin.com Home Page for Swan & Dolphin]
* [http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1018 Walt Disney World Swan page at Westin Hotels website]
* [http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/resorts/resortLanding?id=SwanResortLandingPage&count=12 Swan Resort's page at Walt Disney World website]