The Dolphin Has Landed...275

Today I booked our hotel for our Summer 2012 Disney vacation!!!!!  After much debate I decided on the Dolphin.  Not an easy decision but I feel pretty good about it.  We were looking at the Polynesian but even with a 40% discount it was going to be too much and there is no guarantee that they will even have the same discounts this year as last.  We had looked very closely at the Port Orleans Riverside and the new Royal Rooms at the Riverside.  There is still a chance that if I got a pin code from Disney or if they offer the 25 to 30% on rooms that we would switch to the POR.  Below is a breakdown of the rates for the hotels we were looking at...

That's a Dolphin?  Great blog about the hotel here...
http://land.allears.net/blogs/jackspence/2010/09/swan_dolphin_part_two.html

The Dolphin is a little more expensive but I think it will be worth it.  As a teacher I qualify for the $179 rate at the Dolphin.  BUT the Swan and Dolphin have a $12 a day "resort fee" and $12 a day for self parking.  So that is the total you see and tax has been included on all of them.

The rooms at the Dolphin offer a Mini-fridge and Heavenly Beds which are supposed to be, well, heavenly.  The $12 resort fee, that isn't optional, covers in-room high speed internet, unlimited access to the health club and 2, yes, 2 bottles of water per day!  I'm pretty excited about the "free" water bottles.

The Swan and Dolphin are not owned by Disney but still receive most of the perks that you get with staying on Disney property.  The most important to me are Disney transportation, both boats and buses and the Disney Extra Magic Hours.  Finally, I just really love the Epcot area.  I am excited about the thought of leaving the kids in the hotel room with Grandma and Grandpa and having a nice romantic walk around the BoardWalk with my wife.  To me, the BoardWalk area just offers a slower pace and at night, it's just one of the prettiest sites and sights on property.  So what do you think about my decision?  Any thoughts on the Dolphin?  Please post in the comment section.  Thanks for reading.