Leave resort area to eat

[mondragon]

do any of you ever leave the resort area to grab something to eat for dinner. I really do not like the food they serve in the park. Where do you like to go? For example, we love going to the downtown celebration area and eating down there. Some great restaurants there.

 

[itchin2go]

Recent threads here:
http://disboards.com/threads/for-those-paying-oop-for-food-do-you-venture-outside-of-disney.3423544/

and here:
http://disboards.com/threads/off-property-restaurants.3412381/page-3#post-53815455

You may find more information generally on the Orlando Hotels and Attractions board:
http://disboards.com/forums/orlando-hotels-and-attractions.15/

 

[danny1649]

You might want to post your question on our Dining Board also,those folks have a wealih pf knowledge on all dining in or out of WDW. Danny

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We always eat on site. No car plus the sheer number of available restaurants makes choosing a new place daunting. Our goal is to try every TS on site.

 

[ZoZo]

I don't like to leave the parks for meals because of the amount of time involved (travel time both directions, plus the time needed for the meal itself). Also, we don't have a rental car, so it would be difficult to go outside WDW for meals.

I guess the question is, are you planning to return in the evening, after dinner, to a park? If not, then I think it makes sense to do some off-site meals. But if you're going out simply for a meal, then going back to a park, to me it would take too much time from my previous park touring hours!

 

[Disney93]

We always have a rental car and going into Kissimmee for some meals is one of the reasons. We spend 12 to 14 days @ Disney each trip and don't feel the need to budget our time so we can spend every hour in the parks. There are so many great restaurants within 15 minutes of Disney to visit. A couple of our favorites are Cracker Barrel for a great breakfast and Gaylord Palms for a great steak. You can go to Golden Corral if you have a larger group where everyone can find something to their liking. Pizza Hut and Red Lobster are also very close. The road is lined on both sides with restaurants, just take your pick.

 

[kathy884]

Because of how vast WDW is, I always feel trapped into eating their overpriced food even when I have a rental car when I stay onsite. I hate their food court food in particular. I like many of the table service restaurants, but feel they are vastly overpriced. And when I've stayed onsite even though I've really wanted to, I've never been willing to take the time to drive offsite just to eat. Now if I'm staying at Disney and spending the whole day offsite, that's another story. These days I tend to stay offsite, have a big breakfast before going to a Disney park, bring my own food in for lunch, and just have a Disney counter service dinner at one of the parks and a Mickey Bar snacks on any Disney park day.

My favorite offsite restaurant is Café Tu Tu Tango. It's a really fun place. It's not cheap. Usually comes out to be about the same price as Disney table service, but seems like a much better value. For economical chain restaurant fare, our favorite is Sweet Tomatoes.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

I don't like to leave the Disney bubble. The real world is out there.

 

[trivial]

We never rent a car, and my schedule is kept pretty tight out of necessity, so it's all on-site for us. I don't have any trouble finding great food in the parks/resorts, but I'm not exactly a hard-core foodie (although I think there are plenty of worthy options for those who are).

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

do any of you ever leave the resort area to grab something to eat for dinner. I really do not like the food they serve in the park. Where do you like to go? For example, we love going to the downtown celebration area and eating down there. Some great restaurants there.

Nope, we did on an early trip that was 9 days in length, but haven't since. I go to WDW to escape, plus I don't want to "waste" any of my precious Disney time. I can eat in any number of chain food restaurants at home or on other trips. IMHO

 

[OKW Lover]

We regularly eat off site, even before we moved to FL. Some good areas to head are just past the end of Hotel Plaza Blvd in Lake Buena Vista and down in Kissimmee along 192. You can find just about every chain restaurant you've ever heard of, and a lot you haven't heard of.

For more upscale restaurants, there are some good choices in the Hilton and Waldorf Astoria in the Bonnet Creek area. But Restaurant Row along Sand Lake Blvd is probably the biggest collection of upscale restaurants.

 

[mondragon]

You might want to post your question on our Dining Board also,those folks have a wealih pf knowledge on all dining in or out of WDW. Danny

Yea I am very familiar with the Kissimmee/Orlando area since I lived up there for 5 years before coming to Miami. I want to know if there are any particular restaurants anyone likes dining at (we don't do buffets or cheap chain restaurants). For example, we love dining at Columbia in celebration and at seasons 52 which is not too far from disney. We always have a car with us since the drive is only about 3 hrs from our home to Disney. We stay a lot on property just don't care for the food. I compare it to something like ruby Tuesday's/tgi fridays but at a much higher price.

 

[mondragon]

We regularly eat off site, even before we moved to FL. Some good areas to head are just past the end of Hotel Plaza Blvd in Lake Buena Vista and down in Kissimmee along 192. You can find just about every chain restaurant you've ever heard of, and a lot you haven't heard of.

For more upscale restaurants, there are some good choices in the Hilton and Waldorf Astoria in the Bonnet Creek area. But Restaurant Row along Sand Lake Blvd is probably the biggest collection of upscale restaurants.

Yea I am familiar with those restaurants along sand lake. That's where seasons 52 is. I heard the dellagio town center is a nice place to go and eat.