By Jeffrey A. Rendall, Photos by Jeffrey A. Rendall
We knew when we booked a visit to Orlando that it probably wouldn’t be possible to completely avoid Disney, and throughout the week we were in the city we had an itch or two to go over to the big theme parks and see what we could gather just from being close.
Thankfully for us, there was something in between. Regular visitors to Orlando know there’s a place called Disney Springs that appeared sometime since we’d last visited. Or it was there even then, but we just were too busy going to the big parks that there wasn’t time for anything else.
We’d heard from folks-in-the-know that Disney Springs was quite a place with shops, outdoor entertainment acts, live music, attractions and all the restaurants you’d need for years’ worth of visits. The people who work with/for Disney know how to bring in the tourists, and they have ingrained the best ways to make them spend money.
Everything the Disney creative team learned over the years from operating theme parks they applied to Disney Springs. It turns out I was wrong about when it was built. From Wikipedia, “First opened on March 22, 1975 as Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, it has been expanded and rebranded over the years as Walt Disney World Village (1977), Disney Village Marketplace (1989), and Downtown Disney (1997), becoming Disney Springs in 2015. A similar complex is being developed on the opposite side of Walt Disney World called Flamingo Crossings.
“The 120-acre (49 ha) complex includes four distinct areas: Marketplace, The Landing, Town Center, and West Side. Buses and water taxis operated by Disney Transport provide transportation between Disney Springs and other areas of Walt Disney World.”
Upon taking the offramp from I-4 to reach Disney Springs, we were directed towards the “Orange” parking garage, which looks a lot like those structures at Disney World (and Disneyland). The Disney brains have even mastered the art of constructing massive parking edifices complete with attendants and a digitized parking inventory system with little red and green lights marking open/taken parking spaces. Why add a boring lot when you can build up and save the space for… more stores and stuff!
All of this at a shopping area? What won’t they think of next?
Upon procuring the elevator to reach ground level we spotted a couple semi-wide pedestrian avenues with stores featuring large signs and well-maintained facades beckoning us to enter.
It didn’t seem all that apart from strolling down “Mainstreet, USA” at Disneyland, though the pedestrians didn’t have mouse ears and the crowd seemed decidedly… more mature.
Disney Springs also lacked some of the “buzz” typically associated with amusement parks, as visitors aren’t there expecting something to happen or rushing to wait in lines. Folks were decidedly more relaxed and ready to enjoy the good vibes.
Our vibes included heading straight to our restaurant of choice, the T-Rex Café, which would offer a non-typical dining experience and the perfect place to celebrate a special occasion – a birthday. Seeing as much of Disney Springs feels like being at a Disney park, it wasn’t surprising to see the Café itself looked like a place where… dinosaurs would hang out and maybe… eat.
It was almost as though we’d happened upon a theme ride and were about to get in line for it. There were faux dinosaur bone fossils in the rock outside and switchback ropes set up to organize would-be eaters. Signs at the entrance advertised “Build a Dino”, which offered the chance to “build” your own souvenir – clearly a sibling to Build-A-Bear, a popular store for kids, kiddie parties and date partners seeking remembrances.
Unlike most restaurants, T-Rex Café had its own gift shop in the front of the store, just like you’d find when exiting a Disney ride at the real thing.
I say this as part of the description of the establishment, not a judgment. But if you come to Disney Springs, you’ll get your share of the “experience” in addition to the food offerings. On the walk to the Café, it was evident there were a number of more traditional food-only restaurants as well for those who seek just the meal without the omnipresent “Show”.
We weren’t able to make a reservation to the always popular T-Rex Café, so we simply hoped to be added to a waiting list. Somewhat surprisingly, we were offered a table for our party right away, which was welcome news to the hungry guests.
Upon examining the menu, it became evident that this wasn’t going to be a “regular” dining hall. The food offerings were geared towards “comfort food” type seekers with a host of meat-centered choices for burgers, chicken, ribs, shrimp and accompaniments. And, of course, alcoholic (and non-alcoholic) drinks which could be served in a souvenir glass if you desired it. With prices to match!
We cheated a little bit, having previously viewed a YouTube review video where the narrator suggested the meals were large enough to share, which would alleviate the need to take back the leftovers. Finding no takers to my overtures of sharing, I decided to order the “Boneyard Buffet”, which included a half a rotisserie chicken and a half a rack of St. Louis-style pork ribs, along with Coleslaw and rice. When the meal came, it had French fries substituted for rice.
Others had Chicken with Alfredo sauce, some variety of shrimp and, of course, a big burger and fries.
Intermittently during the meal, T-Rex Café “came alive” with a meteor shower, together with loud sound effects, mild vibrations and the various animatronic extinct reptiles coming to life, roaring and doing what they do several times an hour. Because of the animated features, the place was rather noisy and the impressive number of patrons and staff coming and going contributed to a bit of a busy – not necessarily chaotic — atmosphere.
What else would you expect from the primeval world? The only thing missing was dinosaurs fighting with and consuming other dinosaurs. But this wasn’t “Jurassic Park”, either.
I didn’t notice a capacity limit at the T-Rex Café, but I would say they pack ‘em in there. Our waitress didn’t seem like she was hurrying us but did check for our order status at regular intervals. These high-volume theme restaurants employ a lot of staff and depend on serving customers fast – and quick table turnaround. I can only imagine the kitchen in these places. There was a big wall in one of the dining segments that had many, 
many rotisserie chickens roasting and browning. How many rib racks do the T-Rex handlers go through every day?
The meals were ready mere minutes after our orders were taken, which didn’t leave much time for conversation and sharing of experiences. T-Rex Café, with the almost constant noise, the low hum of servers and guests walking around looking at the dinosaur displays – this wouldn’t be the choice for those seeking an intimate evening – or a slow-paced drawn-out presentation.
A Chef’s table this was not.
But the young kids seemed to love the “living” theater elements. I would’ve thought they’d be terrified of the big, toothy and scaly extinct reptiles, but maybe kids today are so used to being wowed by animation – they didn’t mind it at all.
T-Rex Café is a sister-restaurant to the Rainforest Café, which was near the T-Rex. This restaurant company must enjoy constant business. I’m guessing there are only two seasons at Disney Springs – “off” season, which is still very busy, and “tourist” season, where you fight for every inch of walking or standing territory and never appear to run out of patrons.
They’d need wheelbarrows to cart around the credit card receipts. But does anyone still use paper?
The food was fresh, tasty and hot. As previewed, the portions indeed were gigantic. The sizes of the animals that provided the meat… it must’ve been impressive as well. I decided to halve the different elements of the meal and take it for later. There simply was too much food, though the burger connoisseur chipped in that his item wasn’t especially large and “wasn’t that great”.
But if you go to a place like T-Rex Café, you go there for the experience, which I would rate an “A”. The rest? The food was good but overpriced, and there was quite a bit that ended up being wasted since we couldn’t bring everything with us. Two of our party ordered drinks, and we were told to show the bill receipt at the gift shop to redeem for a clean souvenir glass.
The total for six of us came to over $250 (including tax and 18% gratuity, automatically added to the check), which I present as a means to compare at other grand theme-type restaurants. Was it satisfying? On the whole, yes. Though I’d hesitate before going there again, simply because there are so many interesting-looking eateries to try at Disney Springs (and elsewhere), some of which would not be quite as expensive.
Maybe Costco should install animatronic dinosaurs and they’d get double the price ($20!) for a pizza that feeds five or six. Just saying.
Because we were able to get right-in and not wait at the T-Rex, it wasn’t even five o’clock when we finished the meal. Feeling quite full and ready to face the rest of Disney Springs – or more accurately, a small portion of it – we headed to the nearby Disney store for a little shopping.
In the hour or so we were eating dinner, the Disney Springs crowd had swelled considerably. What had been a fairly pleasant and uninhibited stroll through the park was now a virtual competition for available space between visitors, many of whom were seeking “stuff” at the Disney store.
I saw one middle-aged guy struggling to keep up with his wife while following youngsters over-stimulated by the trinkets specifically designed so young and immature minds would uncontrollably crave them. This is today’s Disney for you.
Having been raised in a generation more akin to the “old” Disney animated movies – like Snow White and Fantasia, it was eye-opening to appreciate how the more modern Disney entertainments had evolved. I recall “The Little Mermaid” when I was in college, but now the Disney Company includes the Star Wars franchise and a bunch of newer-vintage characters I didn’t know. And people really wanted to buy this stuff?
There were Toy Story items, too. I recognized those. The store was relatively full and the line to purchase your selections was quite long as well. There was an area to wait to check-out. This place was pretty unbelievable. And it’s not like the merchandise was on sale at Outlet-type prices.
Once set free from the Disney depot, we weaved around people to visit a “Lilly Pulitzer” store. “No bargains in this place”, a member of our party commented. The lady celebrating the birthday in our group decided to try it anyway. We spent a good chunk of time examining the high-quality clothes items… with prices to match. Birthday girl took her time making her selection and hauled out the credit card, the single-most popular tool in all of Disney Springs!
The dress wasn’t like a souvenir, but how would anyone forget where she got it?
Once we’d concluded the shopping, we decided to walk a bit. By that time the crowd had morphed to Spring Break proportion. It was almost unfathomable that this amount of humanity could coexist in one relatively large but confined area.
The visitors just kept coming, too. The sun was setting and the bands started playing. It felt just like being at a Disney park. We decided it was time to head to another local favorite – Gideon’s Bakehouse – which offers huge cookies and other sweet-type treats to fill what might be left of your stomach capacity. We’d purposely avoided dessert at the T-Rex for just such an occasion.
The line for Gideon’s stretched practically as far as we could see but were told we could get inside in about 20 minutes. I was somewhat surprised people would wait that long just to order a cookie, but this place came with a reputation earned by many prior visits. The jam-packed Disney Springs crowd apparently agreed.
Known for its Gothic décor as well as its cookies, Gideon’s seemed like one of those places that would never run out of inventory. I “only” wanted a traditional chocolate-chip cookie and the members of our party similarly ordered their preferences, the total of which came to almost $40 for five or six cookies.
It was either scarf the cookies down on the spot or head towards the parking garage so as to try and escape the getting-to-be oppressive throng of visitors. The stores still seemed to be pretty full of folks and there was some thought given to stopping at the Coca Cola store – but we didn’t know how long it would take to escape the area traffic-wise.
The spring break Orlando crowds had arrived and it seemed like a lot them converged on Disney Springs on that warm Friday evening in early March.
By the time we reached our timeshare unit, everyone had had their fill of food and desserts. We headed to bed and left Orlando the next morning.
Note: Unknowingly, I left a credit card at Gideon’s, which was the last charge – ever – for that particular account. We cancelled the card – no harm done!
We were glad to have visited Orlando for the college students’ spring break. No trip is perfect, and this one had its not-so-great moments, but on the whole, the decision to make a Disney-less (mostly) vacation was worth it. We didn’t break the bank and the memories will last a long time. We’ll return to Orlando again, and we’ll do research on Disney-alternatives. You should do the same!
Florida Spring Part I – Family friendly major league baseball spring training and why we decided to avoid Disney: https://www.golfintheusa.com/2041-2/
Non-Disney Florida Excursion: Day Two brought more baseball in Lakeland Florida, visiting the Detroit Tigers’ facility: https://www.golfintheusa.com/non-disney-florida-excursion-day-two-brought-more-baseball-in-lakeland-florida-visiting-the-detroit-tigers-facility/
Non-Disney Florida Excursion, Day Three — Touch an iceberg and live at the Titanic Artifact Exhibition: https://www.golfintheusa.com/non-disney-florida-excursion-day-three-touch-an-iceberg-and-live-at-the-titanic-artifact-exhibition/
Non-Disney Florida Excursion, Day Four — Hidden gem Wild Florida Adventure Park – where the African Savannah meets the Florida Everglades: https://www.golfintheusa.com/non-disney-florida-excursion-day-four-hidden-gem-wild-florida-adventure-park-african-savannah-meets-florida-everglades/
Non-Disney Florida Excursion, Day Five — Sea World combines animal trick show entertainment with modern amusement park thrills: https://www.golfintheusa.com/non-disney-florida-excursion-day-five-sea-world-trick-show-entertainment-with-modern-amusement-park-thrills/