Marriott has done some dumb stuff in their time. There’s been data breach after data breach. They ruined the Starwood program when they bought out SPG. And, of, course, you’ve got the whole Marriott Bonvoy debacle that’s STILL so bad that not only has the term “Bonvoyed” made it into Urban Dictionary (heads up – adult language), but the Bonvoyed.com website is still active and running strong, and this hysterical item is still for sale, over a year and a half after the term #Bonvoyed was coined! (someone please tell my husband I still want one, preferably in Dark Heather or Cranberry. He’ll know what style/size [but if not, Men’s shirt, the same size as my BA shirt].)
Now, if you consider the various Marriott brands, most Marriott properties have what would be considered reasonable names. Phuket Marriott Resort And Spa. St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London (wow, was that place beautiful!). Hotel Goldener Hirsch (oh, how we adore this hotel!). Moxy Phoenix Tempe/ASU Area (we are SO NOT their intended demographic but we really liked that place!). So you’d think when it comes to hotel names, their decisions wouldn’t be on the “dumb” side of the things Marriott does.
Until now.
Marriott is building a new hotel on Walt Disney World property. It’ll be the third Marriott-owned property at the complex after they inherited the Walt Disney World Dolphin and Walt Disney World Swan when they bought Sheraton. The new hotel will be within walking distance to the “back entrance” of Epcot, between Swan and Dolphin.
Photo below: Upper left = Dolphin. Center right = Swan. Lower left = new hotel
Photo taken 5/30/20
PC: Bioreconstruct // @bioreconstruct // used with permission
When Marriott first announced the new hotel in late 2018, it was going to be called The Cove Hotel (I also saw it referenced as The Cove Disney World). It was planned to focus on business travelers, and would be 14 stories tall, with 343 rooms (almost half of them suites that could be transformed into meeting space). Groundbreaking began in December of that year. All was fine, construction has been going on ever since, and the hotel is scheduled to open in summer 2021.
And then they decided to change the name.
So now the hotel won’t be called The Cove, but the Walt Disney World Swan Reserve. And that’s a problem, because WDW already has a property with the word Swan in it – the aforementioned Marriott-run Walt Disney World Swan.
You’d think it wouldn’t be much of an issue. I mean, just one word in the two hotels’ names are the same. But there is already so much of a precedent:
- There are two Disney resorts in the U.S. – Disneyland is in Anaheim, CA and Walt Disney World is in Orlando, FL. The number of people who refer to WDW as DL is staggering.
- Walt Disney World owns a hotel called the Yacht Club and one called the Beach Club. They’re right next to each other and let me tell you, people get them confused ALL the time.
- Walt Disney World also has Fort Wilderness, which is a campground, and The Wilderness Lodge, which is a hotel. They’re two separate entities separated by either a boat ride or a 5(ish) minute drive. Again, people continuously go to one, thinking it’s the other.
- And then there’s the whole brouhaha that Orlando International Airport has been making for over 8 years (maybe they do have a point?)
I think calling the new hotel the WDW Swan Reserve is going to confuse a bunch of people. Granted, that and the “other” Swan hotel will be near each other so mix-ups should be easily fixed. But wouldn’t it be smarter to have a name that doesn’t cause a mix up to begin with?
Feature Photo: Swan and Dolphin
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and get emailed notifications of when we post. Or maybe you’d like to join our Facebook group – we have 15,000+ members and we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel articles you may not see otherwise, etc. Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.