Choosing My Hotel | Plan With Me — 2 Foolish Mortals

WOW! That escalated quickly! The last time we spoke, which was only just yesterday, we’d been chatting about possible dates. Today, we’ve taken a leap all the way towards booking hotels and park pass reservations. While it probably seems like things are going warp speed, the reality is that when you have your dates figured out [especially if you’re planning a somewhat last minute trip] things can fall into place really fast. . . . which is exactly what happened here.

So, the main focus for today is hotels and park pass reservations. Booking transportation [or in my case, flights] is also on the list today too, but that’s a different type of discussion that we’ll save for another day.

The first thing on my list today was to check the Theme Park Reservation or Park Pass Reservation availability. This is absolutely an extra step, but it’s one of the first things you should do if you’re planning to visit Walt Disney World any time in the near future. In fact, Disney recommends that you do this before you buy your tickets [or book anything. . . if we’re being completely honest] and I 100% agree. Why? Because whether you’ve purchased a ticket for a Walt Disney World Theme Park or not, you can’t get into the park without a reservation. [This is something that went into place when the parks reopened in 2020 to help control crowds and monitor capacity better than previous systems. Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay . . . . at least for a while. . . . so you should familiarize yourself with it.] Fortunately, the dates that I picked were wide open, so [being an annual passholder] I went ahead and put in my reservations so that I could continue to book everything else without having to worry too much about it.

[NOTE: You’ll have to purchase a valid theme park ticket before you can put in your Theme Park or Park Pass reservations. Like I said, I’m an Annual Passholder, so I was able to do this right away. If you’re set on all your other travel plans, purchasing your park tickets and putting in your reservations right away is not the worst idea.]

If you’re looking for the calendar where you can see Theme Park Reservation or Park Pass Reservation availability, you can find it HERE.

With my reservations for the theme parks in, it was time to get the ball rolling on booking my hotel.

As I’m sure most of you know, when visiting Walt Disney World, there are 2 categories to consider when choosing where to stay; on property or off property. In other words, you can stay at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotel or one of the other hotels in the area. As with anything else in life, both of these options have their pros and cons. . . . . and I’m not going to get too into the weeds with that discussion today. While I do have experience with both, I feel as though we’ll end up in a long winded essay if we turn down that road, so we’ll put a pin in it for later. What I will say is this: staying off property was not an option for this trip.

Look, this is going to be a controversial opinion, but staying off property is not always the most affordable option. In fact, our last trip to Walt Disney World where we stayed off property and rented a car was a perfect example of this. Was the hotel we stayed at cheaper than anything that happened to be available on property at the time? Sure. Did we have the freedom to drive around in our rental car versus having to stick to Disney Transportation? Yeah. That came a cost though; to the tune of about $400 per night when you factor everything in. While I don’t entirely regret that decision, the reality is that we could have easily stayed on property if we’d factored those costs in. Which is why you should always crunch numbers. Sure, it may have been more affordable to stay off property and rent a car a few years ago when you visited, but times are a-changin’ and price hikes happen all over the travel industry; not just at Disney World.

Aside from the cost, there are a few other things I took into consideration that made staying on property a no-brainer. First of all, I didn’t want to deal with Disney’s lack of trams in the parking lots again. Sure, it sounds a little bit silly, but this is one of those things you can’t truly appreciate until you’ve spent an entire day in the parks and have to hoof it another couple miles through a parking lot to your car. Then there’s the part where I honestly don’t want to be driving if I don’t have to. Look, I don’t have a problem driving myself around and I’m more than happy to do it. It’s nice not to have to when you’re on vacation though. Want a drink? Go for it! You’re not driving home. Feeling tired ‘cause you’re at the parks late and it’s been a long day? Jump on a bus! No need to worry. No need to call a Lyft and get into a stranger’s car in the middle of the night. . . . . . it’s simple, easy and quite frankly the way I like to do things.

All this having been said, there is a considerable amount of hotel availability for the dates that I’ve selected. [Side Note: This leads me to believe that this is in fact a “sweet spot” and that the crowds won’t be too bad during this timeframe. Again, I can’t be sure, but I’ll continue to keep you posted.] The pricing was quite reasonable too, with many of the options I found just at or under $200 per night. However, one of the hotels stood out to me because it’s in what I consider to be the perfect location. . . . The Walt Disney World Swan.

Now, to be completely fair, I don’t think that The Walt Disney World Swan is considered a “Walt Disney World Resort Hotel”, but it’s not considered to be “off property” either. It’s this really great little grey area sitting in the middle of what I consider one of the best places to stay at the Walt Disney World Resort; the EPCOT area. Not only is it right in the proximity of some great resorts [Disney Yacht & Beach Club and Disney’s Boardwalk], it also shares transportation with those resorts. In other words, you’re enjoying some of the great perks that you’d have if you were staying at these $500 to $700 per night resorts without that price tag. In fact, I was able to get a room for under $200 per night before the Annual Passholder discount that they are running for the dates I’m traveling. . . . SCORE! At least, I think it’s a “score”. I’ve never been to this hotel before, so we’ll have to see how things turn out.

I’m honestly very excited to be staying at The Walt Disney World Swan. Don’t get me wrong, it would have been great to stay at the other hotels that were available too. In fact, I’ll most definitely be giving them a try at some point in the future, but I really am looking forward to seeing what The Swan has to offer. I also really like where The Swan [and The Dolphin] sit on the spectrum of Walt Disney World hotels. [Even though it’s not owned or operated by Disney.] With so many people always complaining about the price of hotels in the EPCOT area, I’m genuinely curious to see if this is a suitable alternative and share my experience with you all.

. . . . but now that the logistics are mostly planned out, it’s time to start focusing on the fun stuff! I’m going to take the rest of the day to let my brain [and my fingers] rest though. We’ll be back soon talking about all those fun details like where we’re going, when and what we want to do soon!

Until then. . . .