Anchors Away! The TCD Gang Has Another Dream (cruise)

[lightbikes 73]

23 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

This spot ended up being good for that.  We have been closer for these special finales, and you can't see it all if you're too close.

So, we were successful in seeing two fireworks shows on the 4th of July.

And, since we were ahead of most of the crowd, we were able to zip right out of there and catch the first bus back to POFQ.

TCD

I'd call two fireworks on any night a major WIN!!!

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Loved the fireworks photos, but that sunset!  Wow!!!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On ‎7‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 9:00 PM, caveat lector said:

Wow TCD, you're spoiling us with all the bonus material.

The thing that really sticks out are your pics of the fort pool on the 4Th. To quote Harrey Carey, "Hoooolly cow!" Those crowds are insane.

Yeah, that pool situation was pretty bad.

Imagine if you were a paying guest at the Fort and you wanted to enjoy the pool and walked up to see that.

For the prices they charge it is outrageous that management does nothing about it.

On ‎7‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 9:22 PM, Travisma said:

Good photos.  Mine from the Fort had someone standing in front of me the entire time.  The sound and narration were non existent at the Fort also.

That's how it was last 4th of July at the Fort too. 

There used to be a time when the management paid attention to small details like that.  Now, they only pay attention to their balance sheets.

On ‎7‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 2:14 AM, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

2 fireworks shows? I'm impressed sir!

Maybe you need a press pass.

We've done two fireworks shows before on regular nights.  As long as the monorail cooperates, it's not hard to see a 9:00 Illuminations and 10:00 Wishes.

I call BS on the whole press pass thing.  Those people were buddies with the boat CM's, and only had permission from them.

On ‎7‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 0:02 PM, we3peas said:

My dd was recently in Winnie Palmer (ORMC) hospital and we overheard 3 nurses talking in the elevator about the best free place to take the kids to the pool. You guessed it The Fort! They also discussed how much harder it was to get into the other resorts and Fort Wilderness was always open.

Wow.  I always suspected that locals are a big part of the freeloader population.  But on the holidays where they restrict parking, I still think it's CM families that are coming in.

I hope your DD is OK.

On ‎7‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 1:57 PM, bhall said:

Great TR. the pics of the freeloaders tick me off and I don't even use any pools.

Here's an update on that bonfire as of 5 minutes ago.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Now that's an impressive fire.

You'd be a huge hit in the 2000 lit with that.

On ‎7‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 2:36 PM, Travisma said:

What was worse than the crowds was the water was cloudy.  Either too many people or too much sun screen getting washed off.

 

I'll bet there was a lot more than sun screen in the water.

Gross.

On ‎7‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 2:56 PM, lightbikes said:

I'd call two fireworks on any night a major WIN!!!

Me too. 

13 hours ago, Momof6....aka Marty said:

Loved the fireworks photos, but that sunset!  Wow!!!

Thanks.

Sunsets in Florida this time of year are pretty spectacular.  It's all the moisture in the atmosphere.

TCD

[shoreline99 137]

Regarding the freeloading, I think I mentioned it a while back that there is definitely a blind eye turned to cast members using the fort pool and their families/friends (not staying on property) using those same amenities. I can tell you after speaking with someone firsthand that has used the pool in this capacity that this is the case.

I can't tell you if it is actively encouraged, but it definitely has not been discouraged and, from what I understand, was not a big secret either.

Perhaps things will change with the new manager.

Edited July 25, 2016 by shoreline99
bad grammar

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

1 hour ago, shoreline99 said:

Regarding the freeloading, I think I mentioned it a while back that there is definitely a blind eye turned to cast members using the fort pool and their families/friends (not staying on property) using those same amenities. I can tell you after speaking with someone firsthand that has used the pool in this capacity that this is the case.

I can't tell you if it is actively encouraged, but it definitely has not been discouraged and, from what I understand, was not a big secret either.

Perhaps things will change with the new manager.

This 4th of July would have been a good time for the new manager to do something about the pool freeloader issue.

And nothing was done.

Like with a lot of things at the Fort, as long as people keep packing the place, they're not going to bother with it.

I keep thinking that they are going to raise the prices and cut services so far that people will stop coming.  But, so far, that hasn't happened.

And, the staff obviously love this amenity that is paid for by the guests.  So why change it?

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I still have a bit more bonus content.

This is from the end of our July 4th trip.

We were checking out this morning-July 5th.

Twin #1 worked her magic the night before and called for a late check-out, and we got a noon checkout.  That extra time is nice.

As usual, I let the girls sleep, and I did some exploring.

I spent some time in the Scat Cat lounge, which is not serving in the morning, but is open for seating.  It's a nice space:

This is the new Southern Tastings menu.  Note that prices are not posted.  That is never a good thing:

Disney announced a while back that the POFQ quick serve area was going to close down in July for a long refurbishment.  Like until October, or something.  Which is not a good thing if you're staying there.  I wondered what they would do about providing food service for their guests.

Over the weekend, I peeked inside the doors you see here, which were not locked.  I saw that they were installing what looked like ordering stations in this space, which is the former location of a sit-down restaurant that they used to have at this resort:

My suspicion was that they would open up this space as their temporary food service location.  Well, that is exactly what has happened.  It's not a bad space, but it doesn't provide as much seating or as extensive a menu as they used to, but it's not bad.  I intend to visit there again some time while the refurbishment is happening to give it a try.

While waiting for the girls to get going, I took a final stroll around the resort.

This is the playground- it's similar to the playgrounds at the other WDW resorts- generic playground equipment:

Some walkway views:

Eventually, the girls got up and going.

We decided that it would be nice to eat lunch before the girls headed back to their colleges. 

I had been busting to take the boat to Disney Springs.  I suggested that we give D-Luxe burger a try.  The girls agreed to that.

We cleared out of the room, and stashed our stuff in our cars, and then we headed to the boat dock.  It was hot, and I hoped we wouldn't have a long wait.

Fortunately, we didn't.

A boat was heading toward the dock right as we walked up.  We headed to the entrance ramp, and were first in line.  Then a couple walked up, and went in through the exit and headed out to the dock before the boat had docked and unloaded:

Those two had come through that exit gate and walked down the stairs, which is a no-no:

Over here is where you're supposed to wait for the boat:

The boat captain gave those two major grief for coming in through the exit and being out on the dock like that. 

It was 12:04 pm as we pulled away from the dock.  These are the canal side POFQ rooms- that brick building is not guest rooms.  It is disguised to look like them, though.  I wonder what it is?  A laundry facility, perhaps:

The boat ride is pleasant.  We drove past some wilderness:

Then the treehouses:

The treehouses have a boat dock, but we did not stop there.  I am not sure if that is normally a stop and we skipped it because no one was there, or if they have a separate boat route for them.

This fellow thought he'd take care of some foot maintenance while we motored along:

I've never been sure how long the boat ride is from POFQ to Disney Springs, or whether the bus is a better option.  I guess it depends on your timing- I think the wait for the boat could take longer.  But, today, it went pretty quick.  Here we are looking at Disney Springs at 12:14 pm, which was 10 minutes after we had pulled away from the dock:

There's the Saratoga Springs resort over there on the left.  We have stayed there a couple of times, and like it fine.  It has a nice pool and nice food choices, but it is very spread out, and it seems like you're far away from the parks.  But, with all the new stuff at Disney Springs, it might be a fun place to stay:

I wasn't sure where our boat would dock, or where we wanted to dock to be close to the D-Luxe burger.  But, we clearly were going to head past the West Side area, which is anchored by the big Cirque Du Soleil building.  The skyline of Disney Springs is still new to me, but there are a lot of old landmarks that remain.  Here, you can see Planet Hollywood, the big Pineapple at Bongo's.  The big building you see under construction to the left of Planet Hollywood is the new Edison restaurant:

There goes an Amphicar.  They seem to do OK with the rentals on these:

Here's a bunch of new stuff in the area that is now called the Landings- the big blue building is the Boat House; the brown domed building to its right is the Jock Lindsay Hanger Bar; and the big building behind it with the Springs Bottling Company sign on top is the Morimoto Asia restaurant.  All the way to the left, you can see what used to be Fulton's, which is being changed over to a venue which will be called Paddlefish:

Here's a look at the old Fulton's boat.  That mountain you see in the background is the T-Rex restaurant:

It was 12:19 when we docked at the Marketplace dock, which is by Rainforest Café.  That made it a 15 minute ride.  It could have been longer if we had to stop at the Treehouses.  Still, not bad.  Better than the bus  for me:

We knew that D-Luxe burger was not in the Marketplace area.  I think it's considered part of the Town Center area, which is kind of central.  It's not a horrible walk from here to there, but there was an internal boat pulling up as we arrived, and we chose to save our feet and a walk in the sun.  There's our ride:

We had to get in line on the dock behind some guests waiting there.  There's a nice crepe myrtle in bloom over there:

It looks like everything in Disney Springs has been spruced up-not just the new stuff:

And we're off:

This boat headed all the way across to the West Side first:

Which meant we rode past the entire length of Saratoga Springs Resort again:

The West Side dock is near the House of Blues:

After our stop at the West Side, we continued on toward the Landings.  That took us past the big Pineapple again:

There's Planet Hollywood, which is currently closed and being rethemed into something called The Observatory:

This is the soon to open Edison restaurant.  It has a prime waterfront location, and looks like it's going to be pretty big:

The Landings dock is located on the side of the Hanger Bar, and that's where we are heading:

There's the Paradisio 37 restaurant.  It doesn't seem like there's very much information out there about this place- it seems to be overshadowed by all of the new places which have opened in the past few months:

Here's another look at the Edison construction.  This place is going to be huge:

We finally made it to the Landing.  It was 12:33 when I snapped these photos.  So, about 30 minutes total to get from POFQ to here.  Check out the poor CM who was filling his hat with ice water so he wouldn't die:

This is a good place to stop.  Next, we will head to D-Luxe burger, and finish up with a visit to the new World of Coke building, which had just opened over the weekend.

TCD

[Memphis 105]

You should have flashed your FortFiend press credentials.  Wow Two fourth of July fireworks on one day.  You regularly pack more into a Disney trip than anyone I have ever heard of.   

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

POFQ looks nice.  Back in 2004 for Matthew and Erica's wedding we chose POR over POFQ.  I've regretted that decision many times.

Looking forward to your D-Luxe burger report.  

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

I know the there's a boat from Saratoga Springs that goes to the Tree houses and back to DS. We road that last year and if I remember correctly there was a different boat service for PO.

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[caveat lector 181]

I am so glad that the captain chewed on those jack wagons for entering through the exit. The world would be a better place if there were repercussions for idiot acts.  I do my part, much to the chagrin of my DW.

Loozing very forward to the burger review. Thanks again for all the bonus material.

[Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie 119]

All caught up again, how date I take a vacation during a TCD TR.

Anyhow great cruise, almost makes me want to try my motion sickness out on one.

Fort for the Fourth seemed a bit of a fail. When we were there in February the weekends always brought in the freeloaders, extremely frustrating.

Fireworks looked great but mercy you had to really work at it to see them, not very relaxing but relaxing wasn't really your goal.

I love Port Orleans. Your pictures bring back great memories of our honeymoon stay there. 

The boat ride from Port to DS is a favorite of mine, very peaceful. 

I look forward to hearing how your lunch was and if you ordered a Beverly Float. Yuck!!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

18 hours ago, Memphis said:

You should have flashed your FortFiend press credentials.  Wow Two fourth of July fireworks on one day.  You regularly pack more into a Disney trip than anyone I have ever heard of.   

I should make up a set of fake press credentials.  I wonder what that security guard would have done if I flashed them?

We do get a lot done at Disney World.  But, we rest a lot too.  We didn't ride a single ride on July 4th, and the only park we actually entered was Epcot.

17 hours ago, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said:

POFQ looks nice.  Back in 2004 for Matthew and Erica's wedding we chose POR over POFQ.  I've regretted that decision many times.

Looking forward to your D-Luxe burger report.  

POFQ has a much better scale than Riverside.  I like Riverside, but I understand why some would not like how big and spread out it is.

The D-Luxe burger report is coming next.

13 hours ago, Cortezcapt (Derek) said:

I know the there's a boat from Saratoga Springs that goes to the Tree houses and back to DS. We road that last year and if I remember correctly there was a different boat service for PO.

Thanks for that input.  I figured that maybe they have a separate boat for the Treehouses and Saratoga Springs.

12 hours ago, caveat lector said:

I am so glad that the captain chewed on those jack wagons for entering through the exit. The world would be a better place if there were repercussions for idiot acts.  I do my part, much to the chagrin of my DW.

Loozing very forward to the burger review. Thanks again for all the bonus material.

I am under strict instructions from the TCD girls to not personally address any idiotic behavior I witness at WDW.  I am allowed to take photos, though.

The burger review is coming up next.

26 minutes ago, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said:

All caught up again, how date I take a vacation during a TCD TR.

Anyhow great cruise, almost makes me want to try my motion sickness out on one.

Fort for the Fourth seemed a bit of a fail. When we were there in February the weekends always brought in the freeloaders, extremely frustrating.

Fireworks looked great but mercy you had to really work at it to see them, not very relaxing but relaxing wasn't really your goal.

I love Port Orleans. Your pictures bring back great memories of our honeymoon stay there. 

The boat ride from Port to DS is a favorite of mine, very peaceful. 

I look forward to hearing how your lunch was and if you ordered a Beverly Float. Yuck!!

I love the Fort on the 4th of July, but with the heat and crowds, it's not the most appealing time to go.

Trying to see the fireworks at two parks in the same night is not the ideal way to enjoy them.  We did it just to see if we could.  If I had to pick one show to see, it would be the MK fireworks.  But, I'm kind of at a loss to suggest where the best place to view them would be.  Inside the park would be very crowded and not pleasant.  TTC really wasn't very good.  I haven't tried the Polynesian Resort since they built the bungalows.  That used to be my favorite, but I'm afraid it would be very crowded and unpleasant now.

No worries about the Beverly Float.  I'd do it on a dare, if someone else was buying.  But, no way would I pay to torture myself.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Update time.

It's still Monday, July 5th, and we are heading to the new D-Luxe burger at Disney Springs to have lunch.  The girls and I have heard a lot about this place.  The main thing I've heard is that it's overpriced.  I love a nice burger, but I wasn't looking forward to the overpriced part.

I still have a hard time finding my way around all of the new stuff at Disney Springs.  I kind of had an idea where D-Luxe Burger was, but not how to get there exactly.  It is right over there across the pretty, fake spring:

The new Homecoming restaurant is there on the right- it wasn't open as of July 5th, but it has since opened and sounds pretty good.

Here we are outside of D-Luxe burger.  This is a brand new building, which was built to look like an old Florida farm house.  That's part of its elaborate backstory cooked up by the Disney Imagineers:

I appreciate a place that specializes in a few food items and tries to make them well.  That's the concept here:

Note that they offer six different dipping sauces for your fries.  I had heard those were good, and we weren't sure which one(s) to order.  I told the girls to each pick one, and I would see if we could get two dipping sauces to try.

In addition to the burgers and fries, they push milkshakes here, and offer a few specialty flavors and also milkshakes with alcohol in them.  Those are all expensive though.  There's a sign up there on the wall with the shake flavors.  This is a quick service place where you order and pay, and then are issued a pager to come back and pick up your meal.  I like that because it means that they aren't pre-cooking the meals:

This sign on the wall caught my eye, and the twins and I discussed it.  Some of Mrs. TCD's ancestors were involved in ranching in Florida, and I have some familiarity with its history in the state.  I had never heard of any of these ranch names, and figured they were all phony names cooked up by the Imagineers.  I meant to Google the names later to see if I was right:

I like the artwork and décor in this place:

This is supposed to be an old Florida ranch house.  It's very nice and I like the style, but the Imagineers obviously have never been in a real old Florida ranch house:

They have Coke products here, and unlimited self serve refills.  None of those dumb chips in the cups like they have at the resort quick serve locations:

Since we were coming here straight from the resort, I had thrown some sodas in my backpack from the stash we had in the room fridge.  I know how much a Disney soft drink costs, and figured I'd save myself a few bucks by bringing our own drinks.  Since we had heard so much about the shakes, I offered to purchase the girls each one, but we agreed to share one just so we could try it.  They make the shakes to order right here. It takes a while for the milkshake man to keep up with the orders:

There's more seating back here and also tables outside under cover.  The outdoor seating will be nice when it isn't summer.  I didn't want that Buckeye kid in my photo, but he was taking forever getting condiments, so he ended up in my shot.  This shot also shows the details on the ceiling and some of the light fixtures, which I really liked (even if they are far from authentic) :

I planned to include a rant about the prices they charge here, so I took a photo of my receipt- $50 for three burgers, one order of fries and one shake.  It would have been more if we each ordered a drink:

But here's something that will come as a shock to you- I am not going to rant about the prices they charge.

How can I pick on D-Luxe burger when they charge about the same for the much lower quality burgers at the Disney quick serve locations in the parks?  A couple of prominent examples:

Yes, I can rant that Disney food prices are ridiculous.  But, I can't say that D-Luxe Burger is as big a rip off as some of the other Disney quick serve places.  At least the food and atmosphere here is really good.

Here are is the large order of fries that we shared, and all six dipping sauces.  When I ordered, I asked the CM if it would be OK to order two dipping sauces since we weren't sure which to order.  She said it was OK to order all six.  So, I did:

The six sauces are: Garlic Ranch, Horseradish; Chipotle Mayonnaise; 3 Mustard and Honey; Buffalo Blue Cheese and Curry Ketchup.  We liked all of them.  I really liked the Horseradish sauce.  The girls didn't like the Curry Ketchup as much as the rest of them, and I agreed with that assessment.

Here are the burgers:

They were a nice size.  Definitely much bigger and fresher than the frozen burgers sold at all the Disney quick serve locations. 

We really enjoyed the meal a lot more than I thought we would.

And here's some bonus-bonus content-  As I got ready to post these photos, I remembered that I had never Googled those Florida ranch names from that poster that was on display in the restaurant.  I just did, and came up with nothing on the first few names I checked.  But, then I got a lot of hits on the Glowing Oak Ranch name.  It turns out that I had missed the fact that this was the name of the ranch of the fictional family that started this restaurant, and I also missed all of the details inside the restaurant about this.

I found an article with some detail on the Burger Business site: http://burgerbusiness.com/inside-disneys-fast-casual-burger-joint/

D-Luxe itself looks like a small-town ranch house that is larger inside than it appears. Disney has described the counter-service restaurant’s interior as “eclectically comfortable Florida ranch-inspired.” That translates to a lot of distressed wood, vintage lighting fixtures and a pressed-tin ceiling. There are booths and tables inside and a covered outdoor patio where diners can watch the springs bubble. A row of stool seats covers one wall, with a ledge for plates and recharging outlets with USB ports. Rolls of paper towels on tables function as napkins. And the walls have memorabilia from “Glowing Oak Ranch” because, being a Disney creation, D-Luxe has its own backstory (“Glowing Oak Ranch was made into a burger restaurant after introducing a very popular hamburger at the fictional World’s Fair that was held on the West Side in 1950).

I hit the mother lode of information on this site, though: http://www.mousesteps.com/dining-mainmenu-84/52-dining-reviews/2001-d-luxe-burger-review-disney-springs-quick-service-location-blends-great-food-storytelling

I highly recommend that Mousesteps article, as the author has lots of photos showing design details in the restaurant which I completely missed.

After the burgers, we still had one more place we wanted to check out- the new World of Coke store.

I'll save that for a separate update.

TCD

[Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie 119]

Looks pretty yummy and since it's lunch time I am now drooling. 

The Mousesteps folks do a really good job on their postings. I know you don't like the way they talk over each other on their videos but I really enjoy what they have to offer. 

[shoreline99 137]

How did those compare to IN-N-Out burger?

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I'm drooling too.  Did you like the vinegar-soaked fries?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

3 hours ago, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said:

Looks pretty yummy and since it's lunch time I am now drooling. 

The Mousesteps folks do a really good job on their postings. I know you don't like the way they talk over each other on their videos but I really enjoy what they have to offer. 

The food was very good for a Disney restaurant.

I don't read the Mousesteps blog much, but their post on D-Luxe Burger is very well done.

1 hour ago, shoreline99 said:

How did those compare to IN-N-Out burger?

Hmmm.

That's a good question.  I would say that D-Luxe is more of a fancy burger that In-N-Out.  I also feel like the burger serving size is much bigger at D-Luxe Burger, and the meat is probably higher quality.  I like both places.  In-N-Out is unquestionably a much better value, and if I had to choose between the two, I would pick In-N-Out.  But, sadly, there are no In-N-Outs anywhere close to me.

57 minutes ago, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said:

I'm drooling too.  Did you like the vinegar-soaked fries?

To be honest, I had no idea the fries had been soaked in vinegar until I heard that and read that in the Mousesteps blog post.  The fries had no vinegar taste at all.  It makes me wonder if they really soak them in vinegar for 24 hours.  It seems like there would be at least some vinegar taste detectable if they did that.  I liked the fries a lot.  Way better than the ubiquitous Disney fries that are the same at every single Disney quick serve location (and now almost all of the sit down locations too).  And, the dipping sauces were good and added some variety.  But, there are local burger chains that serve better fries.  Like Five Guys- they're better.  And a lot cheaper.

TCD

[bhall 115]

The looks of the burger kinda of reminds me of Fuddruckers.  I know there are a couple in the Orlando area so I'm not sure if you've ever ate there or not and are able to compare.  I've never ate at the Orlando locations either but have at at one in VA and one here in Chambersburg, PA and Hummlestown (Hershey), PA.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

Those burgers look good. The price really isn't that much more than the burgers at Red Robin.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Good to know they're at least replacing some dining during refurbishment.

Those burgers look good. It's a place I'd try for sure.

My trip to Disney Springs was very disorienting. New mixed with old threw off my direction. But I'm a big fan of food and love the choices expanding.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

15 hours ago, bhall said:

The looks of the burger kinda of reminds me of Fuddruckers.  I know there are a couple in the Orlando area so I'm not sure if you've ever ate there or not and are able to compare.  I've never ate at the Orlando locations either but have at at one in VA and one here in Chambersburg, PA and Hummlestown (Hershey), PA.

I think it is kind of similar to a Fuddruckers, but with a farmhouse theme.  We used to have a Fuddruckers very close to us in Clearwater, Florida, but it went out of business quite a while ago.

11 hours ago, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

Those burgers look good. The price really isn't that much more than the burgers at Red Robin.

I'd say the burgers were similar in quality to Red Robin burgers.  But, Red Robins' steak fries are way better (and you get free refills on the fries at Red Robin).  I love Red Robin.

9 hours ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

Good to know they're at least replacing some dining during refurbishment.

Those burgers look good. It's a place I'd try for sure.

My trip to Disney Springs was very disorienting. New mixed with old threw off my direction. But I'm a big fan of food and love the choices expanding.

If you want to see more about what's currently going on with the food service at POFQ, Mousesteps coincidently has a write up and photos: http://www.mousesteps.com/extra-features-mainmenu-64/parkresort-updates-mainmenu-65/2062-sassagoula-floatworks-and-food-factory-at-disney-s-port-orleans-french-quarter-being-refurbished-food-court-moved-to-former-bonfamille-s-cafe-photos

I know what you mean about being confused at Disney Springs.  It's odd to see places that clearly have not moved, like T-Rex Café, Raglan Road and Planet Hollywood, surrounded by all the new construction.  I have tried to figure out what used to be in place of some of the new places, and it's really hard to do. That giant meandering fake spring doesn't help things, because you can see things but you can't walk straight to them.  I know I'll get it all figured out, but it's strange now.  I actually consider this a compliment to the Imagineers who reinvented this place- it really is a new experience, and I like it a lot better than Downtown Disney.

TCD

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Thank you for all the information, TCD.  I don't know if D-Luxe Burgers would have been on the to-do list for my next Disney trip if i had not read this TR.  But now it is.  You really should get a press pass.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

1 minute ago, Momof6....aka Marty said:

Thank you for all the information, TCD.  I don't know if D-Luxe Burgers would have been on the to-do list for my next Disney trip if i had not read this TR.  But now it is.  You really should get a press pass.

Thanks.  So that we are all clear, I wouldn't make a special trip just to eat there.  It's a good burger, maybe the best you will find at a quick serve location on Disney property, but it's still just a burger.  I'll bet there are better places in your home town, and off Disney property as well.  And there are so many food options at Disney Springs now that I personally don't see myself going back to D-Luxe Burger for a while.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I'm going to hijack my own thread for a moment to add a bit more to the discussion about D-Luxe Burger. I haven't paid much attention to the details relating to all of the new restaurants which have popped up at Disney Springs, but I have always thought that they were all outside companies that lease space from Disney to operate their locations.  That was and is the case with Earl of Sandwich, Wolfgang Puck Café, the Rainforest and T-Rex Cafés, Raglan Road, etc.  So, I assumed that D-Luxe Burger was another one of the gourmet burger chains that are everywhere lately.  As I've looked into this more, though, I don't think it is.  I think it is owned and operated by Disney.  Which seems odd to me.  Surely they could have attracted an existing burger chain as a tenant.  This restaurant is a huge departure from how they operate all the other quick serve locations on property.  I wonder if it's an experiment on Disney's part?

Also, Disney Springs has been attracting a lot of national attention with all of the new restaurants.  Here's a nice write-up that appeared in my local paper just this morning (the on-line version was published on Monday):

For the past few weeks national media have been swooning over the newly unveiled Disney Springs, the shopping-dining-entertainment complex formerly known as Downtown Disney.

USA Today waxed rhapsodic, Travel + Leisure called it "a theme park for food." As with most Disney projects, it afforded the Imagineers an opportunity to come up with an elaborate (and largely ersatz, but heck, that's why they're Imagineers) backstory, with a series of neighborhoods — Town Center, the Landing — centered around a "natural" spring, its story something about a cattle rancher finding a water source in the mid-1800s.

I reported when Morimoto Asia opened, that STK was debuting and that Fulton's Crab House would become Paddlefish. But it wasn't until mid-July, when I got to see it firsthand, that the full magnitude of the assembled dining options really hit me. It's stunning, with a range of cuisines, price points and architectural styles, all supported by some of the biggest names in the American culinary world.

I sat down first with Art Smith, who spent years as Oprah's chef before winning a James Beard award and appearing on Iron Chef America, Top Chef and Top Chef Masters. He has just opened Homecoming: Florida Kitchen and Shine Bar. And next, I walked around the corner to sit down with megastar and multi-Beard winner Rick Bayless, who has just debuted Frontera Cocina, an offshoot of the high-end Mexican place he pioneered in Chicago in 1981.

Here's what they had to say about coming to Florida, how their cooking has evolved, and what the future of food is.

* * *

You can read the rest of the article here:

http://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/food/dining/chefs-rick-bayless-and-art-smith-talk-about-their-disney-restaurants/2286736

So, there are two new restaurants that are being opened by famous chefs.  Where did D-Luxe Burger come from?

TCD

[djsamuel 322]

You are correct.  D-Luxe Burgers is a Disney restaurant.  

 

I think Disney saw the business that Earl of Sandwich gets and wanted to duplicate that model with different food.  That model is decent food in a nice atmosphere served as a counter service restaurant at a decent price compared to other places at Disney.  I just hope they will extend this model to other areas as well.