Is Disney Springs a waste of time ?

Ed597

Mouseketeer
Joined
Sep 26, 2017
I’m planning a trip to WDW now with a 10 & 5 year old. Why would I go out of my way to visit Disney Springs ? This just takes time away from the parks. There are plenty of food and shopping options at the parks and resorts. I’ve been to Disneyland and at least Downtown Disney is on your way into the park. If you use the parking garage or stay on property. Disney Springs just seems so out of the way? Am I wrong ? I don’t have my flight yet and we’re going in December so if it’s a mid day arrival maybe we could go there and see the trees and eat and shop, but with younger kids they would probably want to head into a park.
Thanks for any help planning.
 
I think there are so many variables that make it different for every family. For us we'll be staying relatively close by at POFQ, we have 2A + DD16 on an 11-night trip. If I only had 4 or 5 days I probably would skip it. We're going for different food options, some shopping, a nice boat ride from the hotel, etc.

Edit: Disney Springs is far larger than Downtown Disney.
 
We always stay at POFQ so we love going up to DS by boat a few times during our stay. It’s so relaxing on the boat! If it wasn’t so accessible we would still go once for an evening as (despite many not liking it) the grandchildren like RFC or TRex as we don’t have them where we live.
 


We always take a non-park day in the middle of our stay. By day 3 or 4, we’ve hit all the parks, all the main attractions and have been in the parks from rope rope drop to closing every day. That day gives us time to relax, not rush and do things we don’t take the time to do in the parks. We usually wake up later, go to the pool then we take our time at DS to shop for souvenirs and have a few nice meals, and maybe go see a movie. If we stayed less than 7 days, or if we would never have been to WDW, we might not take a day there.
 
No! Unless you are only here for a short trip and spending all day, every day in the parks.
Otherwise, there are so many dining and shopping options.
 
I love Disney Springs and it keeps getting better and better. We usually like to do Disney Springs on one of our non-park days and usually take a half day to explore the shops and eat at one of the restaurants.
 


I’m planning a trip to WDW now with a 10 & 5 year old. Why would I go out of my way to visit Disney Springs ? This just takes time away from the parks. There are plenty of food and shopping options at the parks and resorts. I’ve been to Disneyland and at least Downtown Disney is on your way into the park. If you use the parking garage or stay on property. Disney Springs just seems so out of the way? Am I wrong ? I don’t have my flight yet and we’re going in December so if it’s a mid day arrival maybe we could go there and see the trees and eat and shop, but with younger kids they would probably want to head into a park.
Thanks for any help planning.
I think it's a good spot for a relax day mid trip like others have stated, but I probably wouldn't start my trip there. However, there is the Lego store which would be fun for little ones and you can pop into Ghirardelli for a free chocolate. Possibly the Characters in Flight balloon. If you're doing memory maker they have a studio in Disney Springs and that could be fun way to start your trip. Plus it might be neat to see all the trees and visit Santa.
 
Disney Springs ≠ Downtown Disney, not even close. IMHO Disney Springs is a great place to get away from the "in your face" Disney and still explore Disney. There are still plenty of kids things to do too. Plus, the food options are so much greater then what you will find at the resorts or parks. Depending on how long you are there, DS is a great way to break up the trip. Even if its just an evening we always try to get to DS.
 
My kids are looking forward to Disney Springs. We're planning on going on our departure day since we'll still have several hours available to us for fun before needing to set out. They want to see the toys stores, especially Disney's Lego store. They can't ever miss a Lego store.

They are also interested in food trucks, the water taxis, the hot air balloon, and The VOID. My 10 year old wants to see the NBA experience, too. We're looking forward to just waking around enjoying the scenery as well.
 
I think it depends on how much time you have and your schedule. It does have a lot of shops that I don't go into but I did enjoy World of Disney, Vera Bradley and getting a Starbucks You Are Here Orlando mug (so it saved me from having to do that at the airport). We ate at D-Luxe Burger. You wouldn't have to devote a ton of time there if you didn't want to. I will echo comments it's not Downtown Disney. The vibe of having shops there yes but the size and variety of shops make it different than Downtown Disney.
 
Sounds like you've already decided its not worth it for you.
To each their own.
I enjoy DS mostly for Earl of Sandwich and a bit of shopping because I don't like using my park time to shop for souvenirs.
Sure its not as convenient as DTD at DLR but you have to consider that DLR is tiny in comparison so that's why everything is walkable.
 
I’m planning a trip to WDW now with a 10 & 5 year old. Why would I go out of my way to visit Disney Springs ? This just takes time away from the parks. There are plenty of food and shopping options at the parks and resorts. I’ve been to Disneyland and at least Downtown Disney is on your way into the park. If you use the parking garage or stay on property. Disney Springs just seems so out of the way? Am I wrong ? I don’t have my flight yet and we’re going in December so if it’s a mid day arrival maybe we could go there and see the trees and eat and shop, but with younger kids they would probably want to head into a park.
Thanks for any help planning.

It sounds to me like you've already made up your mind, but I'll give my 2 cents anyway.

First off, DLR and WDW cannot be compared in terms of proximity from one thing to another. Sure you can walk to nearly everything at DLR, but aren't they MUCH smaller than WDW? Why would you go out of your way....is there someone or something that's making you feel that way? So far out of the way? From what? That depends on what resort you choose to stay at. It only takes time away from the parks if you choose to do it on a day in which you have park tickets. My son and I are there for 5 days this time instead of just 4. Normally, we would do 1/2 day in MK on our checkout day and spend a couple of hours in what was then Downtown Disney. This time we are there for 5 days. I've got 4 day Discovery tickets for the parks. Now I can have four FULL days in the parks. We'll take our check out day and head to Disney Springs for a few hours before making the drive home. Depending on how many days your trip is should make it easy for you to decide if you want to dedicate one day to Disney Springs. If you're only doing a 4 day trip, I wouldn't bother. 5 or more....then I would suggest doing Disney Springs on a "rest" day from the parks.
 
DS is a must do for us BUT I'm a shopper. With that said though, at night now they have tons of free entertainment of all kinds which in itself makes it worth the trip.

DTD in Anaheim is very small compared to DS, and it seems it's always growing and changing.
 
I’m planning a trip to WDW now with a 10 & 5 year old. Why would I go out of my way to visit Disney Springs ?

First off, comparing Disneyland and Disney World's general areas is like comparing Apples to Oranges;

With Disneyland being first - Disney only had the land Disneyland sat on at first, their Downtown came ages after. It's mostly luck and deep wallets that allowed that to happen - as for decades Disney had 0 control on what happened to be opened around Disneyland's space.

Whereas Disney almost virtually owns the entire area WDW sits on, to the point that it's almost virtually it's own mini-state. Disney Springs was almost always in the plan for WDW. It's very close to one of the entries into the Disney resort area - while it's near the edge of the *massive* land space Disney owns. The Springs is probably at worst 10 mins away from any of the parks by car (maybe 15 for Animal Kingdom)

Speaking from memory of my first trip to WDW, Disney Springs is a fairly calm introduction and primer for kids to the experiences they are just about to have. On my very first day to WDW we were encouraged to take the early morning at what then was "Downtown Disney" - you don't have to rush to rides and can take things at your own pace. There's aspects of Disney imagineering that sort of starts to give an idea of what to expect once you head to the parks. I have very fond memories of having McDonalds while getting used to the sights and sounds of Florida (I suppose these days Chicken Guy! or Earl of Sandwich would be that sort of spot now)

As for what's available at the Springs. December is probably one of the best times as Disney dresses it up much like they do the parks, There is also the Christmas Tree walk, they'll usually have live choir concerts in the evening or a mini christmas party event. The LEGO store has a free-play area too and there are interactive water fountains. Plus World of Disney is fun even if just for window shopping, and there's a Christmas store open year long there if you wanna see some specific Xmas merch.

Other things you can do but might have to pay a bit extra; ride the miniature train, bowling at splitsville, watch a movie, order a flight of coke floats or international flavours at the rooftop coke bar, try some new foods without the massive trek around a theme park beforehand. Raligan Road also has live entertainment good for all ages during the day to go with it's Irish Pub theme.

The only downside is since the garages have been added + the conversion from Downtown to Springs started. The added car park capacity means Springs doesn't have as much of a calm atmosphere as Downtown Disney used to have. But it's still a pretty good place to go if you want a little bit of Disney charm but the family troop is still recovering from a previous day's trek around EPCOT or MK.
 
I do think the restaurants are better there but it's not worth it for our family. I don't really have a need to shop much less drag my husband and kids through the stores. Last time we went down on our last day for lunch and a movie but I would have preferred hanging out at the pool. Some people really love the boat ride from POR. I found it to be painfully slow!
 

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