On our way back from Florida in November, my wife and I made a brief stop at Disney Springs. We had flown down to spend a few days cleaning out our damaged house in Fort Myers Beach and to retrieve our car that was stored nearby. We packed the car and started the long drive back to New England.

On our route home, I planned the first night to stay somewhere in Florida. I looked for an overnight stop that would provide something more than just a meal and place to sleep.

I had seen some videos on Disney Springs and thought it might be worth checking out. It’s right off I-4 just south of Orlando. I made a hotel reservation nearby and we spent a late afternoon evening exploring Disney Springs.

Background

Disney Springs is part of the Florida Disney World complex. It’s a shopping, eating, and entertainment area. It got started back in 1975 as Disney Villages Marketplace. It’s been redone and expanded over the years. It a big place occupying 120 acres just east of The Magic Kingdom area. There’s easy access to it right off I-4 and there’s plenty of nearby hotels.

Our Visit

We spent the night at the Holiday Inn Resort – Orlando just outside the Disney Springs area. We got to our hotel at around 3 pm and then drove about 2 miles to get to one of the free parking garages at Disney Springs.

This is one of the key benefits of Disney Springs – its free to park and there’s no entrance fees. We spent a few hours walking around the various areas scoping out what was available and checking out dining areas. See the map below.

Disney Springs looks like a Disney place and feels like a Disney place. There’s big walkways, open areas, and music playing in all those hidden speakers.. Its clean and well maintained. There’s also plenty of dining options. I counted over 60 places serving food on the Disney Springs website.

The Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant looked most appealing to me. They have live entertainment (Irish singers and dancers) performing throughout the dining hours from 5pm to 10 pm each day. By the time we were hungry, the wait time was over 90 mins. We’ll make reservations next time as it looked like lots of fun inside. Other places that looked good were The Rain Forest Cafe, The Boathouse, Planet Hollywood, and the House of Blues.

I didn’t take a camera with me but here’s a few from my phone.

There’s plenty of shopping at Disney Springs.

Overall it was a worthwhile stop. It easy to get to, it’s free, and its a nice place to walk around after long day sitting in the car. There are plenty of hotels just off I-4. The restaurants look like fun places to enjoy a leisurely meal.

I’ll stop again and now know to make a reservation for dinner as most of the restaurants were full with long wait times by the time we were ready to eat.