Originally Posted By Ohana well, as a Disney fan and a local, i like the restaurants at GW and yes, they are busy. Hans, are you a Disney fan? its hard for me to tell since you are trashing both Anaheim and Orlando.
Originally Posted By dshyates "its hard for me to tell since you are trashing both Anaheim and Orlando." To be fair to Hans, if you already live in a major metropolitan area then its easy to do. But of you live in Ogdan, UT, or Needles, CA. then Anaheim is the big city.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt Since when do you have like Orlando and Anaheim in order to appreciate Disney? I detest both cities because they are ugly, poorly designed, and neither has anything worth seeing beyond their theme parks. Seriously, what is there to like about International Drive? The area around DLR has made substantial strides in the past ten years, and GW is a significant and important part of that change. Still, GW must have missed the mark, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation. The place is basically a glorified strip mall (which the developer has plenty of in its portfolio). I believe that there just isn't much of anything compelling there to attract large numbers of Disney bound visitors. As others have said, the last thing Orange County needed was another mall with cookie-cutter shops in it.
Originally Posted By Ohana thats all fine, thats why im asking. i dont like everything that Disney or Anaheim do, but when you say many people "hate" Orlando and it seems like you're on that side, I wonder what you do like. I'm new so i'm learning the personalities in here.
Originally Posted By SFH While there is a certain comfort in having (inter)national chain restaurants you know from home, when my wife and I leave SoCal, we try to hit places we can't find at home: Steak & Shake, Avanti's (the wife went to school in central Illinois), Biaggi's <a href="http://www.biaggis.com/" target="_blank">http://www.biaggis.com/</a> (one of the owners is practically family)... Bob Evans, Cracker Barrel. When I visit family in Sidney, Ohio, I eat at The Spot. GW would be doing better with packed hotel rooms, but also with some local flavor. In-n-Out comes to mind, as does El Cholo. Did you know that people will take a shuttle during a layover at LAX just to get food from a local In-n-Out? So, they could have a mix of "fast" food and fine dining that is local, as well as a few familiar chains. I also agree about access from Harbor, and in a previous thread a while back, someone mentioned that a Walgreens would have been a smart idea. If there are enough hotel rooms nearby with "kitchens", a Trader Joe's would be good, too.
Originally Posted By LOVE-DCA "Why would a tourist waste valuable Disney time walk half a mile to eat at Bubba Gumps or go bowling? The people who planned that place were incredibly short sighted." ********* wait .. i think that if i was a tourist i would eat at bubba gump! tourists are tourists--maybe to them the bubba gump is a cool place and different place to eat..maybe they don't have one in there city or state. but hans has a point-- it's cookie cutter shops, same shops in the same strip malls.. come one give us something new!!!
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "I'm new so i'm learning the personalities in here." Welcome to LP.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "wait .. i think that if i was a tourist i would eat at bubba gump! tourists are tourists--maybe to them the bubba gump is a cool place and different place to eat..maybe they don't have one in there city or state." Okay, granted Bubba Gumps isn't as prolific as Starbucks, but there are enough of them in the LA area to make another one adjacent to DLR redundant. More importantly they seem to gravitate towards touristy locations, so anyone who has been to NYC, San Francisco, Orlando, or New Orleans has most likely already seen one. <a href="http://www.bubbagump.com/locations.html" target="_blank">http://www.bubbagump.com/locations.html</a> There are also a handful of Bubba Gump locations in Japan, Mexico, and China. Really, I think that GW could have done better.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy I stopped eating at chain restaurants about 2 years ago. You get so much more variety by finding local places to dine.
Originally Posted By LOVE-DCA I did not know that bubba gump was a chain..i just thought it was a anahiem thing.. I never even heard of the place until it was put in at GW. But im sure in places like iran they don’t have one or Australia they don’t have one—and we have tourists from those places!
Originally Posted By LOVE-DCA ..GW should of done better in picking restraunts..i mean seriously how many cheesecake factories does NY have? Or Chicago? Or even so cal? ..and by the way, I have seen days where the seat attendants for bubba Gump are outside picking there noses waiting for customers, and or I have seen customers/tourists walk up to the menu sign on the side walk for McCormick’s and read the menu and then see the prices and walk away!
Originally Posted By LOVE-DCA HERE is the address to W if anyone wants to explorer the site! <a href="http://www.anaheimgardenwalk.com/" target="_blank">http://www.anaheimgardenwalk.com/</a>
Originally Posted By Dabob2 For this guy who now visits as a tourist, there's nothing currently at GW that makes me want to make that walk. If they put an in-n-out there? Hell yeah I'd make that walk!
