July 12, 2026 · Hotel Review
Walt Disney World Swan: small gym, borrowed bars, unbeatable location
Quick setup for anyone who doesn't know this corner of Disney World: the Swan is part of a three-hotel cluster — the Swan, the Dolphin, and the newer Swan Reserve — sitting right on Disney property but run under the Marriott umbrella (the Swan is a Westin, the Dolphin a Sheraton). This review is the Swan specifically.
And the headline is location: you're a short walk from Epcot's back gate. There's a low-key entrance behind the World Showcase that hotel guests use to stroll straight into the park — which is why a pub crawl "around the countries" is basically a Swan-guest tradition. Stay here and the walk home from Epcot takes less time than the ride-share line out front.
The gym: 3/5 — small, but it covers you
Honestly? The gym at the Swan is small for a property this size. But it has what you actually need: free weights with dumbbells up to 50 lbs, a Smith machine, an adjustable bench, and a couple of Pelotons. It gets crowded at peak times — that's the tradeoff of a compact room at a big resort.
Two saving graces. First, your key gets you into the Dolphin's gym across the way, which is much bigger — full cardio rows, more machines, more room to breathe.
Second — and this is the real story — the running around this hotel is world-class. The loop around the Swan, Dolphin, and Disney BoardWalk is a couple of miles of great paths, and part of the Disney Marathon actually runs through here. Step outside any morning and you'll see a steady stream of runners. A small gym stings a lot less when the best cardio in Orlando is out the front door.
The bar: 4/5 — the Swan itself barely has one. It doesn't matter.
Here's the quirk: the Swan has no real lobby bar. The closest thing is the bar inside Il Mulino — an excellent Italian restaurant in the hotel, and a legitimately good place to land for a Negroni. There's also Kimonos, the sushi spot, which has its own bar and karaoke nights — more fun than it has any right to be. Plus a pool bar for daytime.
So why a 4? Because within a five-minute walk you have an almost unfair number of options: the Dolphin's big lobby bar, the bar at Michael Mina's Bourbon Steak, everything on the Disney BoardWalk — and, if you're feeling ambitious, eleven countries' worth of drinks inside Epcot's World Showcase. Judged strictly on its own lobby, the Swan would score lower. Judged on where you can be with a drink in hand ten minutes after dropping your bags, it earns the 4.
The verdict: 4/5
The Swan is the play if you want to be on Disney property without staying in a Disney-branded hotel — especially if you're Marriott-loyal, because you'll earn and burn Bonvoy points here and the rates are often a genuinely good deal for the location. The gym won't wow you, but between the Dolphin's bigger room and that BoardWalk running loop, your training doesn't miss a beat. And while the Swan's own bar scene is thin, you're surrounded by so many options that it never once matters.
Want gym and bar scores like this for every hotel? That's the whole app.