Ask It: Where Do You Want to Go For Dinner Tonight?
It’s time for this week’s Ask It!
Last week, we asked you:
If you could have dinner in/near WDW tonight, would you eat at a….
With more than 1200 votes cast, the final results were (in order from least to greatest):
Restaurant off property (2%)
Disney Springs restaurant (22%)
Theme-park restaurant (35%)
Disney resort restaurant (41%)
Make no mistake, there are some wonderful restaurants off property, whether at area hotels or even on the 192 or I-Drive corridors. But for many people, if you are at Walt Disney World, the idea of leaving the bubble feels like it is taking you out of the magic. The primary reason listed for eating off property is cost. Off-property restaurants can be a considerable cost savings. (Before I moved to Florida, I would eat off-property at Sweet Tomatoes on my arrival day because I knew it would be my last healthy meal for a week, and I didn’t have a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant where I lived. If I moved away, I’d likely make a trip to Chuy’s for some creamy jalapeno sauce at some point during my trip in addition to that.)
Somewhat a surprise is that Disney Springs came in so low. My personal prediction is that if this poll was run in 5 years or so, Disney Springs would possibly switch places with Theme-park Restaurant because there are so many amazing choices at Disney Springs that people haven’t tried yet. Whether you like the comfortable vibe at Homecoming, want a more swanky meal at Morimoto Asia, the amazing foods at The BOATHOUSE, or the fun of a meal at Raglan Road, there is a sit-down restaurant for everyone. And if you’re looking for just a quick bite, Blaze Pizza, Earl of Sandwich, and D-Luxe Burger frequently draw crowds. With even more restaurants on the way (such as Paddlefish and The Edison), the popularity of Disney Springs dining will certainly grow.
Although Theme-park restaurant came in second place, it really depends what theme park you are in whether or not you’ll want to dine there according to many comments. With the exception of an occasional mention for Be Our Guest and 50s Prime Time Café, if you’re planning to eat a dinner in a park, Epcot is your destination, especially with favorites like Le Cellier and Via Napoli. Animal Kingdom was largely snubbed for a dinner destination, likely due to its early closing time. As Animal Kingdom stays open later, Tiffins may become a dinner destination for more people.
Narrowly edging out Theme-park restaurants was Disney Resort restaurants. Whether that got your vote or not, everyone seems to have at least one favorite Disney Resort restaurant, and for many people there are several choices that come up time and again. Sanaa, Boma, and Jiko provide food that is very different from what you find in the parks, and the atmosphere of a place like Whispering Canyon provides a unique experience. But hands-down many people say that when they think of their dream Disney Resort dinner, it’s a trip to ‘Ohana that makes the top of their list. Save me some bread pudding, okay?
So there you have it. Do you agree with the votes on Twitter? Have some reasons for what you would choose or a restaurant that you feel should be mentioned? Let us know in the comments. Here’s this week’s question, going live on the TouringPlans Twitter account:
Which inexpensive activity is worth your time and money during your vacation?
- Watercraft rental
- Ft. Wilderness activities
- Behind the Seeds tour
- Disney mini golf
Find out the results here, next week on Ask It!
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Loved downtown Disney but Disney springs is just like any other shopping centre. Most of the shops aren’t Disney shops – I was disappointed!
Probably going to get a lot of negative comments here but Disney Springs down the list isn’t a surprise as going with children under 12 is a complete waste of time for people flying to Disney for a vacation. Despite the countless posts by Touring Plans promoting it, there’s really no reason to go there with children. It’s an adult playground/outdoor party and not really for kids at or around dinner time. Honestly i saw Cirque earlier this year and I would never go to DS again. It’s just like downtown in any city, during the day it’s fine but dinner and later you need to get out. The difference is that i’m not spending 10k to go to a downtown city during the day.
It really depends on the kid. My six-year-old would rather go to Disney Springs than go to the Studios at this point, because at the Studios there literally is only two attractions (Toy Story and Muppetvision) that she’s willing to do because she doesn’t like scary rides or stage shows. If we were flying in, we’d probably spend the morning at the Studios, take a pool break at the resort, and then spend from about 3 PM-8 PM over at Disney Springs because there are quite a few things she likes doing there.
The big things on her list are the splash fountains, especially when they have their kids’ dance party, the merry-go-round and train, doing a custom treat at Goofy’s Candy Company, looking at the fish tanks in the shop at Rainforest Café, and watching the Living Statues.
She likes doing some shopping, but she’d easily spend a couple hours at the Lego store with their activities, too.
She would like to bowl at Splitsville, and I want to take her to see the Polar Bear meet and greet at the Coca-Cola building and maybe on the Amphicars. We did DisneyQuest, and it really didn’t work well for her. We’ve also done dinner at Raglan Road, which she enjoyed watching the dancers.
We haven’t done BBB, Characters in Flight, or Cirque, but none of them really scream out to us as something we’d want to do.
I do agree that the West Side is much more adult-focused, and that’s probably where we spend the least amount of time.
But there’s enough to keep us busy for several hours, plus a better selection of restaurants than in most of the Theme Parks for our family. Plus, you can’t beat the price of admission. For us, like the Studios, Disney Springs is a half-day park.
Maybe a mechanism can be set up for us non-twitterers to participate?
If you vote on the Facebook page or leave a comment here in the blog comments, I’ll be happy to add that in and crunch the numbers accordingly. 🙂
Family of six that loves to play miniature golf.
However, just to keep the action moving we divide up as 3 boys vs 3 girls and play just two balls (and two putters) with alternating shots.
At Disney, they don’t let us do that without charging all six of us to play. Oh well, I’ll just spend that money on a pontoon rental.
Excited to hear about the results next week, as we are doing three out of the four things on our next trip in May 🙂 everything but mini golf