Disney Springs...wondering what it is like

[PanamaMike]

...my phone told me we walked 11 miles that day so be prepared. It's a huge area.

That's quite a feat, given that the walk from the Westside dock next to Cirque to the Marketplace dock next to Rainforest Cafe is less than 1 mile.

And OP...while I enjoy the Marketplace & loved Pleasure Island, the West Side expansion never grabbed me and as a whole, I am unimpressed with Disney Springs.

 

[Senk]

It is very similar to a mall. We have an upscale outdoor mall here that has many of the same shops and vibe. I think it would be nice for an afternoon and dinner on arrival day. We we did lunch at Homcomin on our departure day and could have easily spent a few hours there.
I wouldn't take a whole day for it though.

 

[KimBean]

Our last trip was two summers ago, before Disney Springs. We were big Pleasure Island fans, but never really enjoyed Downtown Disney. We are trying to decide whether or not to include a visit to Disney Springs on our next trip. What is there to do in Disney Springs besides shop and eat out?

I'm sure I am technically wrong but I remember this area as three phases - Pleasure Island, then it becoming Downtown Disney, then it becoming Disney Springs. Pleasure had a lot of fun stuff to do, night clubs, bars, different themes and a comedy show. Then it became DD and that was just primarily restaurants and shops. Now we have Disney Springs, which to me is just a better looking DD, with the addition of more stores I could care less about because I live in a big city and I can do all that stuff here...

Things I could not go a trip without doing no matter what they are currently naming the same area... World of Disney. Trip hasn't really started until we've gone there and we always go first evening. The many restaurants there that are so much better then most restaurants in the world.

 

[Aurora0427]

We usually only go to DS if there's a specific restaurant we want to try... next trip we are dining at The Boathouse and Paradiso 37. So we'll hit DS twice. We may walk around after one of the dinners, but we live in a major metropolitan city with most of the same shops- 10 minutes from our house. We don't waste time shopping at them at Disney!

 

[Victoria3]

I'm local and I visit about once every other week to see the entertainment, eat at Blaze.

I hardly buy anything from the stores.

 

[Summer2018]

Thanks to you all. All of this feedback is so helpful. For me, after walking miles and miles through the theme parks, not only going on rides but also eating and shopping, the last thing I want to do is wander aimlessly through an outdoor shopping mall. We enjoyed Pleasure Island because of the comedy club and the dance clubs. It made for a fun date night. I've found everything I've wanted to buy in the parks and resorts. I do love to resort hop and eat at those restaurants. Disney Springs will not be part of next year's itinerary.

 

[SaraVee]

I think Disney Springs is beautifully done, and we've found some of the best restaurants on property are now at Disney Springs. (Homecoming and D-Luxe burger are favorites. Looking forward to trying Boathouse on our next trip).

I'm actually not much of a shopper, but they do have some unique places I make a point to go in (Marketplace Co-op, Tren-D...) which have different merchandise than the generic stuff in many other stores at Disney.

Mostly I just find it to be a very beautiful place where you can take a break from the theme park madness for a bit. We don't spend an entire day in Disney Springs, but we do make sure to pop over there a couple times on each visit.

 

[North of Mouse]

It's a glorified high end outdoor shopping mall! Other than still enjoying going to Market Place we don't like Disney Springs. High end shopping is not on our agenda while on vacation at Disney World.

It's at most a 1-2 hour pleasant outing, then back to the parks for us.

 

[CAS239]

Disney springs now is great.

Only thing disappointing is that planet Hollywood changed their menu around and I don't think it's as good as it was

 

[AngiTN]

Our last trip was two summers ago, before Disney Springs. We were big Pleasure Island fans, but never really enjoyed Downtown Disney. We are trying to decide whether or not to include a visit to Disney Springs on our next trip. What is there to do in Disney Springs besides shop and eat out?

Nothing.

 

[Farro]

Nothing.

Cocktails!!!

 

[AngiTN]

Cocktails!!!

They go along with eating out

 

[Planogirl]

We've always enjoyed spending time in the Marketplace section and that hasn't changed. The World of Disney, Art of Disney, Lego Store and Once Upon a Toy are big favorites. I would rather buy stuff there if I can find what I want than in the really crowded park stores.

Dining is good too. We rarely head over to the West Side except to go to Splitsville which has also become a favorite. We decided to pass on dining at DHS during our last trip and had lunch at the House of Blues. It was good but it's such a hassle to get there from a park.

 

[yeheyprincex2]

Our main reasons to head to Disney Springs is to eat and shop at The World Of Disney store. Its just another out door mall and I can find all the new stores they built at home. Twice have ever stopped and enjoyed the entertainment but the main reason for that are my children who are incapable of sitting down or letting me shop in peace. The highlights from our last time there June 2018 were The coke store roof top and the view of the water right behind Starbucks a nice place to rest, Homecoming, Blaze pizza.

 

[Westcoastwild]

It's like a high end, Disney esque outdoor mall. Better than DTD if you like that sort of thing. But kind of fails at what it actually tries to be imo. I browsed a bit- wasn't impressed by even the chains I like elsewhere, like Johnny Was. It feels a little like some chains may be testing the waters, and the customer service and selection is not up to par with the price point. I feel like I may be their target audience? Someone who does shop higher end and indie and wants something other than world of Disney. But I don't know. I wasn't really into it except the Lego store, and I wasn't crazy about the food options. If I wanted rainforest cafe, I could go to my local (ghetto) mall. And some of the stuff is odd- does anyone really buy uggs at Disney? Or l'occitane or Cigars?

But it's a fun way to kill a few hours, it's pretty, and good people watching. I'd probably go back.

 

[BigredNole]

For my family, it is a complete waste of time. We do not shop at the places that are there, so 60% is wasted space for us. We won't do Splitsville or the NBA Experience ever so that is 2 huge wastes. I am not into $7-$10 beers so most bars are out. That leaves the 3-4 Disney stores as the only draw for us. It is just not enough to plan a long trip there. We went twice on our 2 week trip. The first was to activate our APs and to kill a little time until our room was ready. The second was to just kill 2 hours.

I do have to say that we thoroughly enjoyed Blaze Pizza. Wolfgang Puck Express is still great as well.

 

[yulilin3]

Of course everyone one has their own opinion but to me DS is more than just shopping and dinning and simply put it comes with the entertainment in the evenings (after 7pm)
I don't think a regular upscale mall, other than Mall of America, has such a wide array of options. You got rappers, a capella group, spanish guitarrist, latin band, bluegrass trio, electric string quartet, blues duo, they guy that plays the didjeridu, DJ kids dance party, living statues and I haven't checked out the new offerings that started in June
Once the Edison building opens we will have more entertainment there
I agree that the Town Center area is full of high end stores that I will probably never shop in but Uniqlo is the exception, they have great merchandise and it's reasonably priced
I will always go into Art of Disney store, World of Disney, Once Upon a Toy, The Christmas store, Superhero Headquarters (Marvel store) and Galactic Outpost (Star Wars store)
So while I don't think you can make a day out of it without getting bored I can see how you can have a fun evening without buying a thing

 

[mom2rtk]

We don't get to WDW that often. So when we're there, we hardly ever do anything we can do at home. We do stop into the Marketplace area for World of Disney and Earl of Sandwich, and maybe a couple of the other Disneyfied shops, but don't even visit the west end. No bowling or movies for us either. Just not how I want to spend my limited Disney time.

 

[bmalonef45]

I would agree with the other posters that it is mainly a shopping destination and probably not worth an entire day. We do try to make it there at least once on our trip. We tend to hang close to the market place area and hit our old favorites. We have however had a great meal at Splitsville and ventured down on one trip to see a movie at the AMC theatre. We are DVC members so we go to WDW pretty often and try to take things in at a slower pace with that in mind. If we were not there as often I'm not sure I'd take much time out of a trip to visit Disney Springs. I would also agree that the earlier in the day you can go the better because it tends to get really crowded in the early evenings and stays that way until pretty late.

 

[Summer2018]

It's like a high end, Disney esque outdoor mall. Better than DTD if you like that sort of thing. But kind of fails at what it actually tries to be imo. I browsed a bit- wasn't impressed by even the chains I like elsewhere, like Johnny Was. It feels a little like some chains may be testing the waters, and the customer service and selection is not up to par with the price point. I feel like I may be their target audience? Someone who does shop higher end and indie and wants something other than world of Disney. But I don't know. I wasn't really into it except the Lego store, and I wasn't crazy about the food options. If I wanted rainforest cafe, I could go to my local (ghetto) mall. And some of the stuff is odd- does anyone really buy uggs at Disney? Or l'occitane or Cigars?

But it's a fun way to kill a few hours, it's pretty, and good people watching. I'd probably go back.

This is the thing...I'm not looking to "kill a few hours." We work very hard to save up for our trips to WDW every 2-3 years. We make major sacrifices to stay at the Deluxe resorts and have the BEST experience we can in 7 days time. I arduously plan down to the second because unlike other vacations, getting the most out of WDW seems to require that. I want to get the most bang for my buck. I can "kill a few hours" at home. At WDW, where there is more to do than can be accomplished in 7 days, I cannot waste one moment. Oh, and by the way, I can get cocktails at any of the spectacular restaurants in whichever Deluxe resort we stay in next time.

Everyone has different priorities for their vacation. Disney Springs might be just what some people are looking for, especially if they are locals who go to WDW regularly.