Disney Springs
It’s interesting that in years and visits past; Disney Springs was a distraction…the place you didn’t want to give any of your precious time to so you could maximize your time at the parks. Now, as we age, we see Disney Springs as the paradise it is! A dining, shopping, and entertainment haven.
We have stayed at the Swan/Dolphin Disney Resorts on past trips and they are lovely, but when we did the math, we just felt like we were paying a premium for a room that we were hardly in. And once we made it back to the room, we were too exhausted to re-mount an expedition to fight our way over to Disney Springs for a nice dinner and world-class shopping.
So, this time we deliberately targeted some of the lesser-known Disney Resorts that are just a 5-minute walk via sky bridge to Disney Springs and we feel like we hit the lottery with our 5 nights at the Wyndham Resort at Disney Springs. No, it’s not quite as nice as Swan/Dolphin, but it’s pretty close to that quality level AND (again) just a 5 minute walk to Disney Springs for awesome dinner options.
The room at Wyndam was great, as was their hotel eatery and pool area. Best yet, it was a third of the price of Swan/Dolphin and most of the other Disney resorts! We got our room for $110 a night and booked about 2 weeks out from our visit (about 3x that price at most of the Disney resorts per night) and we were DELIGHTED with the accommodations, the pool, the shuttle service to the parks, and most of all, our next door status to Disney Springs with THE BEST dinner options, in our opinion.
The kids never tired of classic NYC Style pizza from “Maria Enzos” at Disney Springs and Lyssa and I enjoyed a wonderful (and kid free) dinner and drinks at “The Boathouse”, with a world class sunset/water view. We also met a friend for drinks at the waterside “Lava Lounge” at Rainforest Café. There are SO MANY awesome eateries and bars we wanted to try but time and energy level were our biggest obstacles after VERY full days at the parks. “The Edison” was on our list, as was the “Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar”…there is just never enough time. All of the establishments I’ve listed and in our pics are true to the Disney mandate of transporting you to another time, another place. Just magic.
In fact, Disney Spring’s was so awesome…Lyssa and I wouldn’t mind a “kid free” 3-day weekend down there next time for some romantic dining and shopping…perhaps some golf. Disney can be many things beside the 8 hour forced marches through amusement parks…the options are endless.
