Do you ever eat offsite when staying onsite?

[Kallison]

My parents are driving down and for the first time ever we will have wheels while at the world. Is it worth it to save some $$$ to eat offsite a few meals while staying onsite. We will be at the BC. If worthwhile - where and how long to get there?

 

[Planogirl]

I don't know if you'd save much but Bahama Breeze (http://www.bahamabreeze.com/index.html) on International Drive is a great restaurant. The key lime pie from this chain is to die for. I see a lot of posts from people praising the restaurants at the Crossroads like Pebbles for example. I hope that they post because the only other offsite experience has been McDonald's for my son unless you count Universal.

 

[grinningghost]

We do! Frequently. We especially like the buffet breakfasts at restaurants like Ponderosa on Rt. 192. We save a lot of money by eating offsite, and honestly, with our picky DD, we also save a lot of aggravation. We do eat in the World, but have a great time picking offsite restaurants to try to.

 

[sshuttle]

Bahama Breeze is GREAT and there is a new one just outside of Downtown Disney/Disney Marketplace on the other side of I-4 (please get better directions before heading out), which isn't nearly as far as International Drive. Also, Macaroni Grill is very good which is also just outside Disney Marketplace but to the West (left at the main light), in addition there is a Joe's Crabshack which I have heard good things about and has a playground outside for the kid's to play while the food is being prepared.

 

[hercamore]

Oh sure, all the time.

this past January, the parks closed early at 7 p.m., so we took the bus back to OKW and then took the car down to the dt disney area.

Pizzeria Uno, Steak/Shake, lots of choices. We always lunch n the parks, tho.


herc.

 

[Richyams]

Jungle Jim's at the crossroads is very close to OKW. I guess its off site. Its cheap, fun and good. There is also a mexican place right there that is good.

I have too many favorite on site breakfasts to eat many off site.

 

[Rafikifan]

The Crossroads area is not far. It's near Downtown Disney and they will be happy to give you directions at the BC even to offsite places. We love Chevy's at the Crossroads for Mexican food. Good food, and prices, and service has always been good. Romano's Macaroni Grill is down the road from there and we enjoyed it. Haven't eaten at Joe's Crab Shack in Fla. but have other places and is good for reasonable seafood. I've often read good things about Jungle Jim's at the Crossroads for burgers, sandwiches, and casual fare. We eat the majority of our meals onsite but dine offsite at least once during our stays since we have a car and like to make a trip to the grocery store in the Crossroads while we're out.

 

[JudySue]

We eat off site all the time - there are a lote of really good, not very expensive places close by. We really like Jungle Jims, pebbles and Perkins in Cross Roads as well as Bahama Breeze and Landreys just behank Cross Roads. Can't wait to try Emerils new place (Chops chop (sp???) If you haven't tried his Universal restrant you've missed an outstanding restraunt (ok, it's not money saving, but you can do appatizers at lunch and not go too far overboard on the budget - and the potrions are huge!!!).

 

[Uncleromulus]

Well-I guess you can save $$ that way. And those are some nice places.
But I eat at places like Macaroni Grill, etc all the time, so when at WDW I prefer to stay "onsite" and try some of those fine WDW spots.
Only eaten offsite once--at cafeD"Antonio, in Celebration.

 

[MrsMud]

Posted by sshuttle:

Bahama Breeze is GREAT and there is a new one just outside of Downtown Disney/Disney Marketplace on the other side of I-4 (please get better directions before heading out), which isn't nearly as far as International Drive. Also, Macaroni Grill is very good which is also just outside Disney Marketplace but to the West (left at the main light), in addition there is a Joe's Crabshack which I have heard good things about

LOL! I am not staying onsite, but have gotten (or in the process of getting) GCs for these three restaurants. Glad to hear you like 'em! I guess great minds...

 

[sha_lyn]

Originally posted by Uncleromulus
Well-I guess you can save $$ that way. And those are some nice places.
But I eat at places like Macaroni Grill, etc all the time, so when at WDW I prefer to stay "onsite" and try some of those fine WDW spots.
Only eaten offsite once--at cafeD"Antonio, in Celebration.

Oh I agree. My mother was just telling of a converstaion she had at work (she actually gave out copies of the itenery I made). Some couldn't believe all the places we ate at(all onsite). My mother told them that to us, eating someplace new was part of our vacation.

However if anyone watches the food network show $40 a day, they did one in Orlando a few months ago. I'm dying to try the place she had breakfast at.

 

[poohangel]

last year we ate breakfast at ponderosa for breakfast one morning because it was like 3.99 each and we ate one night at TGIF because that is husbands favorite place. But then that was our first time ever to wdw.

poohangel

 

[kdibattista]

We always make it a point to eat at TGI Friday's in the Crossroad's shopping center once or twice.

 

[TRAPPED-PARENT]

So many of the places off-site are just like those at home ... I want to try something that is not available where I live. We stay on-site and tend to stick with the places in the "World".

Having said that, we will stop for take-out if we happen to have just been to Typhoon Lagoon or off-site for the day.

Part of the charm of staying on-site is the lower amount of traffic and not having to drive. We find that once we get close to DTD the traffic gets heavy ... and once offsite, just awful.

Many of the full service restaurants you hear about on the boards are expensive ... but many have sandwich choices which are not as expensive if you wish to keep the cost down and still dine at that particular restaurant. I guess I'm not sure why you're paying extra to stay on-site if the few extra $$ for meals make a difference? The frustration/expense of driving may just eat up any savings you get.

 

[sshuttle]

I'm sorry trapped parent but I have to disagree. I would gladly pay more to stay on-site and then save some money on food by going offsite. The restaurants we have mentioned in this thread or about 2-5 minutes away from Downtown Disney. I don't think the person asking the question was going to eat off site 24/7, I just think they wanted some alternatives. I have found that Disney does have some nice restaurants and we always try to pick one really nice one per trip to visit and the rest of the time do our best to coserve. For example, we almost always eat breakfast in our room. The food at Disney is expensive, it's a fact. Thankfully they do their best to give you many options. If you're talking about staying for a week, the cost can be substantial.

If you have children (or just love the characters), by all means pick a good character breakfast/dinner, if you want a really special meal chose California Grill or Jinko's or someplace at EPCOT, but for those of us who can't afford or just don't want to waste the money always eating on Disney property, going off-site on occasion is a great alternative. That said - don't go too far, trapped parent is right about the traffic and it can kill the "vacation" mood pretty quickly.

 

[sgtdisney]

We eat off property rather frequently. We go to Orlando every year and like to explore other parts of the area. In my opinion, the food quality at Disney in some places has fallen off over the years and in others the menu's are just way too fussy for my tastes. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good places to eat on property, but there are as many if not more good places ot eat off property for about 1/2 the cost.

 

[Rafikifan]

I agree about not eating at chains you have at home. However, there are a lot of chains as simple as they may be like Chevy's or others near the Crossroads area that we don't have at home so they're new to us. I wouldn't suggest eating a lot of meals offsite but if you are offsite anyway for a grocery or gas stop, or a day at Sea World etc. then it is practical and does save some money. More to spend the next night at Ca. Grill lol.

 

[JetMom]

On our last trip, I had earned some GC's from a rewards program for Beni-Hana. It is in one of the hotels near DTD (Sorry, I don't remember which one). It was actually my DS's (9,7, and 3 yrs old) favorite meal of the whole trip.

Between the free GC's and a 10% off coupon from the Sentinel, the meal only cost us about $20.

It was definitely a meal worth repeating on future trips

 

[WDWorBUST]

I like eating onsite....the theming even in the restaurants is great. But we always eat at Red Lobster our first night and we have two of those right here in Tulsa. In fact my best friend asked me why we never went out to eat at Red Lobster here - of course I did point out that we did eat there for hubby's birthday in January - but other than that we just really don't eat out all that often. In Orlando we have to eat "out" whether it's fast food or what have you so saving a few bucks by eating offsite is still a treat. Just my $0.02

 

[Kae]

We Emeril's & can not wait to eat at Tchop Chop. I also like the Nascar Cafe I thought it was priced well. We just love Cafe tu tu Tango. check out their site cafetututango.com it is in front of the Castle hotel by the info center.

Kae