Downtown Disney Questions

[AnthonyJPreston]

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[kathy884]

I'm sure you'll hear from other people that are Downtown Disney fans, which is good so that you'll get a balanced perspective.

I personally don't care for the place. We go high season, and it has always been wall to wall people. One time Christmas week and one time mid June, we ate there. Every resturant except for the Rain Forest cafe was all booked for the night (no availability). This was checking at about 6 p.m. The Rain Forest cafe (which I'm really not too crazy about) said they could take us at 9, so we took that. Strange that that is the only place we've ever been able to get into, and both times they gave us a three hour wait time. We came back at 8:45 p.m. and were seated at about 9:45 p.m. I personally avoid the place like the plague these days.

Note, though, I'm not that into shopping. They do have a nice music store. Some kids like the lego store too. But to me it's not that exciting a place, and the crowds high season are unbelievable.

Opening up an additional area can only be good. They certainly high season at least have the crowds to support it.

 

[Art 1]

We like Bongo's.

 

[TDC Nala]

I miss the Adventurers Club terribly (it was really my only reason to go there) but that Hyperion Wharf thing must be better for it than what is going on there now (which is a lot of nothing)

I like the pizza at Wolfgang Puck's but I liked it better when they had spicy chicken pizza. Puck's does have good sushi. The one time I tried the upstairs dining room I liked it. Raglan Road has some good beers and a knockout bread pudding. I like the House of Blues. Bongos had great mojitos but the food wasn't all that. I've only been to the bar at Rainforest. They served a bloody mary with potato chips in it. Actually it was good.

They do have a nice music store.

Not anymore - it closed in 2009 I think.

 

[Fantasmic23]

We've only eaten at Fulton's and Raglan Road. DH loved both places but I didn't care very much for either one. The food was very good but I thought that the portions (For the amount of money that you paid) were very small. I did love seeing the Irish dancers outside of Raglan Road ... DD danced with them, too (!), as she has been taking Irish dance for years.

I'm dying to try The Earl of Sandwich, as I've heard nothing but great things.

We usually hit Downtown Disney around lunchtime. We love The World of Disney store and do the majority of our "souvenir shopping" there. We like browsing in the other shops as well.

 

[racechick8293]

I'm looking forward to trying Earl of Sandwich this weekend. The reviews are outstanding.

 

[ZiPaD3doDAH]

I LOVE DD.

My favorite places to eat are at the T-Rex resturant, Earl of Sandwich (I don't eat sandwichs but they are soooo good there), and Bongos.

Haven't tried anywhere else because I love those 3 so much.

I think its worth visiting if you like to buy disney stuff or just want to look around and relax.

I usually go the first day of my vacation so I see everything the stores offer, that way, if i'm in a park & i'm deciding whether or not to buy something I know ahead of time if I saw it at DD and i can make up my mind about it or if I have to buy it right away.

 

[kaybird]

We have eaten at nearly every restaurant in DTD. Favorites remain Wolfgang Puck Express, Rainforest Cafe, Capn Jacks and Bonos. We also enjoy Foultons, sometimes more than others.

We love browsing the shops; The kitchen store (Mickey's Pantry), Goofy's Candy, the Art store, World of Disney, and the Pin shop are big favorites. If you have the time in your schedule, DTD is a lot of fun. If your schedule is tight, your visit would still be complete by enjoying the parks.

 

[grafxgirl]

I'm dying to try The Earl of Sandwich, as I've heard nothing but great things.

We love Earl of Sandwich and eat there every time we go down.

 

[Eljay]

I love Raglan Road and Earl of Sandwich. House of Blues is good too. I heard a while back that they gave a AAA discount at EoS, it would be worth a try, but things may have changed.

 

[WizardLarz]

Have only eaten at Planet Hollywood and Earl of Sandwich. I found Earl to have great pricing for the great food. Hollywood has awesome decor, after I ate I spent at least 20-30 minutes wandering around to look at all the movie stuff!

I hope that they decide to bring back the Adventures Club to the new Wharf!

 

[vettegirl]

Raglan Road and Cookes of Dublin have amazing food, the scallops IMO are worth the trip.

 

[Luv2Camp]

We love going to DD on every trip. Our favorite places to eat are Earl of Sandwich and Wolfgang Puck Express!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

We don't normally go to DTD but our past trip I needed to do Christmas shopping so we spend a half a day in DTD. We ate Fulton's for the first time and now we need to go back to DTD b/c we loved Fulton's so much.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

My family and I love to shop at the World of Disney, Disney's Pin Traders, Once Upon a Toy, Team Mickey and The Art of Disney. For dining our favorite place is Earl of Sandwich and for dessert we enjoy getting Strawberry Sundaes at Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Portobello, Earl of Sandwich, House of Blues.

La Nouba is stunning.

 

[YodaGirl]

I'm not a fan of DTD, but I'm not a big shopper, either.

We'll go there once a trip to eat at Earl of Sandwich (wonderful!) and to get a personalized Chirstmas ornament.

My mom, on the other hand, could spend the entire day roaming the place...

 

[HarborBlvd]

We loved DTD. We've only been to WDW once so far. It was last January and the parks closed early at 8 and 9pm. So we went to DTD every night until about 11 or so. It was a nice extension of our day in the parks. And it wasn't crowded that time of year at all. Course, last January was an awful cold spell, which I think tamed a lot of the crowds in general.

We loved Earl of Sandwich. We ate there several times in our ten day trip. I liked to buy a couple of their fruit salad bowls to take back to our hotel for snacks or breakfast the next morning. We're not early risers and it was nice to have something to munch on while we were taking our time getting ready for the day. I got a little giggle on another thread about the stampede at rope drops, cause we miss it by hours each day.

DH swears the best burger he's ever had was at Planet Hollywood. I liked the decor and the food was satisfactory. I could take it or leave it.

We hated Rainforest Cafe. The wait was astronomical! Considering we were there in the off-season, I can't imagine that place in high season. We didn't care for our food. Honestly, the biggest thing for me at RC was the cleanliness issue. I admit, I'm a germophobe, but I couldn't quit thinking about how dirty and dusty all those leaves and vines must be, and the fact that they're swinging around over our food. We were seated at a table up against the big fountain with Atlas. It was damp and humid, and smelled strongly of chlorine. I know I'm sounding like I'm really picky, but all these small elements really added up to an unsavory experience for us, especially considering the money we spent in that place.

All in all, the big winner for us in EoS. We continually liked their food and you can't beat their prices. We'll go again and again every time we visit WDW.

Shopping was fun. We liked the World of Disney, the Little Missmatched sock shop, and the art gallery. Loved looking at the Lego displays.

 

[Mouse's Shadow]

If you like shopping or even window shopping, you'll more than enjoy DD. I think it's a lot of fun. I've eaten in several of the restaurants, and have enjoyed all of them. Again, I love most of the Disney restaurants. For me, it's just as much for the experience as the food. We usually go in the off season when the parks close early, so we enjoy spending most evenings at DD.

 

[BelleRocks]

Wolfgang Puck served my favorite meal ever at Disney - macademia crusted chicken breast with garlic mashed potatos.

We also had dessert at Ghiradellis, which was great.

DTD was nice, but I thought it was too "stretched out" with too much walking. I wouldn't go there again except I HAVE TO HAVE THAT CHICKEN AGAIN!!! (Is there an icon for someone salivating???)