Do you ever eat offsite when staying onsite?

[tampafan]

Sometimes we go to Golden Corral.

 

[eeyore0062]

If we aren't going to the parks that day, we may eat offsite, but we have found that by the time you drive to wherever it is you want to eat, you have wasted a big portion of the day. We would rather spend a bit more and have the convenience of not having to drive anywhere. You can find reasonably priced food at the parks. You should visit the menus at www.wdwig.com to get an idea of what is available and at what prices.

 

[chrissyk]

I really like Joe's Crab Shack, so we ate there the last time we were in FL. It was great! We don't have this chain in MA, so I enjoyed going there. Other than that, we have always eaten onsite. They are putting in another Joe's right outside of Celebration apparently...I highly recommend eating offsite at this chain. It's yummy, and the atmosphere is great!

 

[sha_lyn]

Well just as I started reading this, a comercial for Joe's came on. We're lucky that we have one 20 min. away. I'd rate them better value and food than a red lobster for certain. Not high class (or high priced) seafood, but good inexpensive food in a very fun atsmophere. They are owned by the same company as RFC, so I keep hoping for a RFC near by.

 

[Kallison]

Thanks for all the ideas - actually Trapped Parent I never said we had to save $$$ by eating offsite, just wondered if it was worthwhile. We will be there for 10 days with 7 people. I'm the frugal one, DH wants to sit down every meal. I just thought it might be an option on this trip since we will have my parents mini-van. Probably for DH the hassle of driving anywhere won't be worth it. I've never heard of any of those chains, so I guess they would still be an adventure for us.

 

[ducklite]

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.

What he said! (You like Macaroni Grill too, huh? )

When we are going off-site anyhow (like when we were house hunting) we would stop for lunch someplace (Taco Bell...mmmm....) but otherwise there are so many great places that I DON'T have at home, why leave?

Anne

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by chrissyk
I really like Joe's Crab Shack, so we ate there the last time we were in FL. It was great! We don't have this chain in MA, so I enjoyed going there.

But you have Legal Seafoods--YUMMY!!

Anne

 

[chrissyk]

Originally posted by ducklite
But you have Legal Seafoods--YUMMY!!

Anne

I am officially the only person in MA who doesn't like Legal Seafoods, LOL!! Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but the 1st time I went there, I had a terrible meal Give me Joe's Crab Shack anyday over Legal Seafoods

 

[NotUrsula]

At the very least, we'll go over to Celebration; there are several good restaurants there that are not chains, though they are branches of more long-established local restaurants.

I don't bother to go offsite to eat at a chain, but I like to try out local places if we venture out shopping.

 

[Howling Howie]

While we always eat lunch at the parks, I bet we save $50 each day by eating breakfast in the rooms and dinner off-site, most often using the entertainment card for buy one, get one dinners. I almost always decide in advance which restaurants to have lunch in, alternating between the pricey sit-downs and the more fun (at least for my kids) take-outs and then complementing them with the opposite for dinner; i.e., if we have a nice lunch, we might do pizza and salad for dinner and if we have hot dogs or hogeys for lunch, we have a nicer, read more expensive, dinner. There are even some nights that the kids (6 and 12) are so tired they prefer yogurt and fruit or something similar and the adults go somewhere real nice, that's a treat. Good luck in your choices. Most important is to eat what you feel like eating, when you feel like eating it, after all you are on vacation. Ever do ice cream sundaes for dinner -- my kids favorite!

 

[RussH]

When I go from WDW to USF a breakfast stop at Denny's for a slam or two fills me until way after lunch. For the money and time invested this is my Breakfast stop.

 

[cart-mom]

We eat off site everytime we are there at least a few nights. We go to Tony Roma's (best ribs around & onion loaf) and Logan's Steakhouse - great place for kids. They have peanuts you can eat and throw the shells on the floor. Good prices, too.

Sometimes we eat at TGIFriday's, too. It just depends on our mood and how crowded the places are.

Enjoy your adventure.

 

[IloveDMB]

We have a second home in Orlando but I haven't been there in 8 years. So we most often ate offsite. We always made sure to go to Kissimee Steak House, Jungle Jims, the Pasta House and a bunch of others. Last time I stayed at Courtyard in DTD, I made my friend walk over to Crossroads to go to Jungle Jims. Same great food that I remembered.

 

[Disneygrl75]

Some of our fav restaurants are off site.....and it gives us more $$$$ for shopping!

 

[Planogirl]

We enjoy going offsite to explore the other attractions in Florida sometimes. Plus many people enjoy the outlet shopping. I like to try places I'm unfamiliar with both on and offsite, and Bahama Breeze was nowhere near us until recently. Plus DS is so happy when I allow him to have a McD's fix no matter what I may think of the place.

Plus cheap Chinese or a good pizza is fun sometimes too.

 

[Muffy]

There are all kinds of old standby restaurants on I. drive. Some good ones are Cracker Barrel, Olive Garden, Bahamma Breeze and Ponderosa.

 

[cinmell]

We used to years back when Johnathan's (I think that was the name) was open on International Drive. Now we stay on site for the entire vacation.

 

[MrsPete]

Whether we're at Disney or some other vacation destination, when we're on vacation we don't want to eat the same things we can get right here at home, so we won't frequent TGIFriday's, Red Lobster, Golden Corral, etc. (though we do visit these restaruants at home).

We almost always eat out one "nice meal" per day, grab one fast food snack, and eat brought-from-home snacks for the rest. Limiting sit-down meals to one per day makes it affordable.

I think the time spent traveling to and from off-site locations rather negates the savings for a small family like ours.

 

[chrissyk]

I forgot to mention that you can get a 10% discount on your meal at Joe's Crab Shack with your AAA card. This also gets you a 10% discount in their little in-store shop (cool tie-die t-shirts!). There is also some kind of discount for Joe's with the Orlando Magicard (a free card), and there was a coupon for a free appetizer at Joe's in the Orlando booklet that was free at the rental car counters at MCO. HTH!