The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort completed the largest transformation in the resort’s history—a $140-million, three-year project that included a redesign of all guestrooms, complete transformation of the Dolphin Resort lobby and renovation of all meeting space.
The completion of the project comes in time for the openings of Toy Story Land (2018) and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (2019) at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, all located near the resort.
All 2,267 guestrooms were completely transformed to reflect the resort’s water-themed architecture. Interior design and architecture firm Garcia Stromberg/GS4 Studios designed the rooms, drawing inspiration from the resort’s original designer, the late Michael Graves. The new rooms use hues of white, blue and gray; and come with multi-functional furniture and new bathrooms with vanities with backlit mirrors on iridescent glass tiles.
Technology upgrades in the rooms include the addition of more outlets and USB ports for charging devices, and new high-definition TVs.
KBCO Design was hired to design all of the suites for both the Swan and the Dolphin Resort, covering five different designs and the exclusive two-storied suites. The firm also designed the ballroom renovation.
The resort will also soon introduce new interactive TV software, allowing guests to check out from their room and cast their own video streaming services from their personal tablets and mobile devices to their in-room TV.
The Dolphin Resort lobby, designed by ICRAVE, has new look with a new geometric ceiling, enhanced lighting and more than double the amount of guest seating. The centerpiece of the new lobby is a chandelier stretching 20 feet from the ceiling with nearly 1,000 strands and about 10,000 individual crystals suspended above the Dolphin fountain.
The resort built a completely new dining venue, fuel, located in the Dolphin lobby.
Phins is a new bar also located in the Dolphin lobby and can seat up to 150 guests.
New private poolside cabanas with lounge seating, tables, fans, refrigerators and television for rental are due to open soon.
A new 2,800-square-foot meeting and event space, Lake View, offers outdoor views of the resort’s private lake and Dolphin Resort. The resort’s 332,000 square feet of meeting space was transformed with an updated appearance. New technology includes electronic reader boards throughout the meeting space and high-density Wi-Fi offering connections to groups as large as 15,000 people.
Fred Sawyers is the GM of Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort.