Walt Disney World With Kids (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [95]
Downtown Disney West Side
The West Side is home to a variety of shops and restaurants, a 24-screen AMC theater, and two major attractions: DisneyQuest and Cirque du Soleil.
Bongos Cuban Café offers an Americanized version of Cuban dishes, a wild tropical decor, and throbbing Latin music. The House of Blues serves up Cajun and Creole cooking along with live jazz, country, and blues music. The Gospel Brunch at 10:30 AM and 1 PM on Sundays is an especially good choice for families. Prices are $36 for adults and $18 for kids 3 to 9. Call 407/934–2583 (407/934–BLUE) to buy tickets.
Wolfgang Puck Café serves terrific pizzas and sushi downstairs. Request the upstairs dining room for tonier adult dining. The giant blue globe of Planet Hollywood holds movie props, and even the menus—printed with high school graduation pictures of stars—are entertaining. Film clips run constantly on giant screens and the atmosphere is loud and cheerful.
DisneyQuest
Most people call DisneyQuest an arcade—and within its five levels, you will, indeed, find classic arcade games. But you’ll also find high-tech interactive experiences that almost defy description.
Favorite games include Pirates of the Caribbean, where you take the deck to battle phantom buccaneers, and Virtual Jungle Cruise, an exhausting river-raft ride in which you paddle through the rapids of a prehistoric world. During your stay you can also battle comic-book villains, shoot foam balls at your competitors in a bumper-car war, and become a human joystick in a hockey-style pinball game.
Helpful Hint
DisneyQuest is large and loud and each play zone has steps leading to other levels. In other words, it’s easy to lose your kids. If you’re going to let older kids and teens explore on their own, pick a designated time and place to regroup.
The centerpiece attraction of DisneyQuest is CyberSpace Mountain, in which you design your own virtual roller coaster. You can build in as many flips, spirals, and hills as time and distance allow; program in the speed of the car; and even get to name the sucker. When you’re finished, your coaster is given a scariness rating from 1 to 5, meaning that you can either design a gentle, rolling grade-1 coaster suitable for kids or a flip-you-over, slam-you-down grade-5 coaster. (If your coaster gets a rating that’s too mild or too wild, you can always redesign it.) Then you enter a booth where you’re strapped into a capsule, and you ride a virtual re-creation of your design.
Time-Saving Tip
DisneyQuest gets crowded in the evening, on weekends, and on rainy days. To make sure you have the chance to try out everything, visit at opening time on a weekday, which is usually around 11:30 AM.
Needless to say, preteens and teens can get hooked on this stuff very fast, and DisneyQuest is primarily designed for the age 10–20 set. But there’s entertainment for younger siblings as well, and any age can enjoy the arcade games or the Create Zone where you can design your own toy or learn to draw a Disney character.
Helpful Hint
No strollers are allowed inside DisneyQuest, and there are a lot of stairs. Plan accordingly.
DisneyQuest usually opens at 10:30 AM during the on-season and 11:30 AM during the off-season. A single entry price ($42 for adults, $36 for kids 3 to 9) lets you play as long and as much as you like—an alarming thought for the parents of a 12-year-old boy. Admission is also included with the Water Park Fun & More option and, if you’re willing to buy in advance, online discounts are often available as well.
Cirque du Soleil
After a week at Disney World, probably the last thing you’re itching to do is to buy an expensive ticket to watch an acrobatic show. But the Cirque du Soleil show La Nouba positively wowed the families we surveyed.
Although the athleticism and agility of the troupe will amaze you, it’s their ability to use props, sets, costumes, and