food IS a theme park
The global health crisis has had a pretty big effect on the entertainment industry.
The Rise of Skywalker at AMC
Just last week, we reported that AMC Theatres were working towards a summer reopening. Now, the movie theater chain has announced that they will be opening 450 U.S. locations on July 15th and the remaining 150 on July 24th.
There’s been a lot of speculation about whether or not AMC could survive the summer since they shut down all of their movie theaters in the U.S. as well as the U.K. due to the current global health crisis.
AMC Theater in Disney Springs Before Its Closure
And while the company had previously announced they would keep their theaters closed until studios began releasing new movies, they are currently working on a plan to reopen as many AMC theaters by July as they can.
In response to recent global events, theaters across the country have closed their doors. AMC Theaters in Disney Springs attempted to limit guest capacity for a short period of time before closing down temporarily.
AMC
But now that major film studios have pushed back premiere dates for several of their blockbusters, AMC decided to remain closed until these new films are released. Now — months into the closures — AMC shares the toll the shut downs have taken on their company.
There certainly are some interesting situations arising in the travel market as a result of the global health crisis.
Magic Kingdom
Perhaps the two most notable of these situations are the changes to the way that air travel works and the temporary and permanent closures that are currently affecting the tourism industry. We’re taking a look at how such massive effects could impact YOUR next Disney vacation and giving some tips to help. Let’s dive in.
Disney theme parks around the world have been closed for months. Shanghai Disneyland recently broke the theme park stand-still by re-opening, but Disney has not yet announced when the rest of the parks will re-open.
Shanghai Disneyland
In the wake of the closures, The Walt Disney Company furloughed employees and has been taking on debt to protect its financial future. Analysts recommended accepting equity agreements instead of additional lines of credit and Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund just offered Disney this opportunity.
Tomorrow, we’ll have to say “goodbye for now” to all the parks in Disney World until the end of the month.
AMC
Although you might not be able to hop on your favorite attractions or meet some characters, you can still have a great time exploring Disney Springs! But, if you have any plans to pop by AMC Theatre, you might want to make sure you snag those movie tickets ASAP!
The theme at Disney Springs right now is Beat the Heat. In the dog days of summer we certainly agree!
We scoured Disney World’s shopping and dining district and found what’s new so you know where to stop the next time you’re at Disney Springs for a cool drink, snack, meal, or air conditioned retail therapy!
Beating the Heat in Disney Springs
Welcome back Marc and Amy Stumbo for a review of the brand new AMC Fork and Screen Dine-In Theater in Disney World’s Downtown Disney!
The newly renovated AMC Dine-In Theater at Downtown Disney opened this week and we were fortunate enough to get an advanced screening pass to preview the theater on Friday, May 13th — ahead of the May 16th grand opening.
Amy and I were going to be staying on Disney property for the Destination D: Walt Disney World D23 Expo that weekend anyway, so obtaining the free screening passes felt like perfect timing. I discovered the event via twitter, the magical Disney news machine that everyone reading this should already be apart of (and following, among many others, AJ or possibly even myself if you get desperate enough, hehe). Signing up was easy enough, and luckily for us, I got registered quick enough to secure us a set of seats to see Tangled in the new theaters.
Atmosphere
Walking into the lobby of the movie theater, one is immediately struck by the notion that the space feels more like the lobby of a performing arts center than a local movie theater. The interior is bathed in warm tones and colorful lighting and the decorations feel a bit fancier than you’d associate with this type of entertainment establishment.
Gourmet Popcorn Options
Candy
Coke Freestyle Machines
Upon entering the lobby, guests head to the ticket counter same as any other theater. Interestingly enough, when you purchase your tickets the screen in front of the cash register lights up to show the available seats in the theater so that you can pre-select where you would like to sit. I found this very helpful and also guarantee that your party will all be seated together (and I’m sure allow patrons to feel comfortable in getting a few drinks at the bar without fear of losing a decent seat in the process).
Next, we grabbed a couple draft beers from the nicely appointed bar and found a couple lounge chairs to wait for our movie. The bar, MacGuffins, was very nice and clearly employing some sort of future technology that counter-acts the warping of the space-time-finance continuum generally found in the vicinity of theme parks in that they were selling the large draft beers for only $6.
It must be a mirage, because this bar was selling draft beer for $5-6 on Disney property. No word back yet from the lawyers on whether or not this is allowed in the Reedy Creek legal code.
The lobby was full of small groupings of lounge chairs and high top tables and very attentive servers. I think we were approached no less than three times to make sure that we were doing well and had everything we needed. After enjoying our beers for about 15 minutes and talking to the theater manager on how the preview was going, we got up and headed to our theater for the film.
Theater
The stadium seating had all of the chairs set up in groupings of four seats in a row so that the wait staff can easily get to any guests in the theater. Every seat in the house was a plush leather reclining chair that felt much larger than your standard movie theater seat. Additionally, if you are the type of person who values leg room or hates the cramped nature of normal movie theaters this is definitely the place for you. There was a lot of room to really stretch out.
Inside, the theater was clearly employing electronic interference technology to prevent high def photos… or my camera settings were not appropriate for the low light. Jury is still out.
Directly in front of you was your table with inset rope lighting to provide a soft glow to eat by. After getting settled, the waiter promptly arrived and took our drink and appetizer orders. I believe we must’ve been channeling AJ at this point because normally we rarely order appetizers but ordered two of them this time… both involving cheese.
I promise this is a hi-res photo… the theaters were full of fuzz to add a layer of mystique and ambiance I believe.
The wait staff was very friendly and willing to answer any questions we had on the menu since the fork and screen concept was so new to the area. In short order, our drinks and appetizers arrived and we all ordered our entrees. (Editor’s Note: see the full menu for the Fork and Screen Theater here.)
Fork and Screen Menu Sample 1
Fork and Screen Menu Sample 2
Eats
First, the beer was tasty… but when is it not? Second, the chips and queso tasted great to me, but in retrospect I’m not sure if it was due to a great flavor or because it was a cup of molten cheese and I love cheese.
I’m going to go with the latter here because while the cheese made for an excellent dip, it wasn’t anything particularly special. It was spiffed up with a little diced tomato and multi-colored corn chips, but remained your standard chips and queso found just about anywhere.
Mmm… cheese. Appetizer Chips and Queso
The cheese sticks really saved the appetizer selection as far as I was concerned. They were crispy and perfectly fried to a nice, golden color. The cheese was deliciously gooey without tasting greasy in the slightest. In a final touch, they even sprinkled Parmesan cheese on top of them as they came out of the fryer to double up on the cheesy goodness.
Cheese Sticks with Marinara. Mmm… cheese again. Mmm… they also sprinkled cheese on the cheese.
For entrees, we ordered the classic cheeseburger, the mushroom Swiss cheese burger, the pepperoni flatbread pizza and the fish ‘n chips. Amy and I both were in a good old fashioned burger sort of mood so we were happy to see them on the menu.
My burger tasted somewhere between a Disney quick service burger and a Disney full service restaurant burger in terms of quality and taste. The grilled mushrooms and melted Swiss cheese were a great accompaniment to the burger as always, and neither of us was disappointed with the food.
I do have to say that the fries were especially good as they were perfectly crispy on the outside while remaining fluffy on the inside. We couldn’t stop eating them despite the large quantity provided with the meal and our better judgement.
Mushroom Swiss Burger. I know, I know… another food item featuring cheese. Don’t hate, its delicious.
Amy’s parents ordered the Fish ‘n Chips and the flatbread pizza, and both reported that they tasted very good. The flatbread pizza was about a foot in length and in the thin crust flatbread variety.
Flatbread Pizza
Operationally, each pair of seats had a little red button that you could push to call the wait staff so that they were always just a few seconds away, but remained unobtrusive to not interrupt the show.
Similarly, the bill is brought to the patrons with about 20 or so minutes left in the feature so as to not interrupt the ending of the film. Even though the bill comes at this time, guests are able to continue ordering food or drink up until the end of the film and have the ticket modified.
The Verdict
For the cost of an average movie (around $11 for adults), guests to the newly renovated Downtown Disney AMC Dine-In Theatres can experience a good movie, good food, and good drinks all at the same time (food and drinks cost extra, of course).
The bar and the food options were both very reasonably priced for an on-property Disney location. All of the food was delicious and worth eating again (especially the French fries).
The only issues we could see were that the tables were about one to two inches too high for me to eat at comfortably (it wasn’t bad, but just a little high), and the burgers only had the option of being cooked well done. Other than that, we would definitely take in another movie and meal at the AMC Dine-In if we were down in the Disney area again.
Until next time, happy eating and feel free to follow us on twitter via @PlazaAndMainSt for more Disney fun and to get in on these Disney events with us.
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