Epcot will expand dining options
Amid signs that theme-park visitors are poised to spend more money this year, Walt Disney World is preparing to boost the restaurant capacity of Epcot’s World Showcase section by 20 percent.
Disney is adding a 300-seat gourmet pizzeria to the two dozen or so existing eateries in World Showcase, which serve everything from Canadian cheddar-cheese soup to Moroccan roast lamb meshoui.
It also is rebuilding a waterside Mexican cantina, boosting it from about 288 seats to 400. The still-unnamed eateries will open in September.
In addition, Disney during the weekend began testing extended dining hours at three Epcot restaurants, each of which will now stay open until 10 p.m. — one hour after the park itself closes to guests.
The extended-hours dining will run for two weeks, through the typically busy Easter-holiday travel period.
A rendering of the rebuilt Mexican cantina at Epcot. (Courtesy of Walt Disney World)
Disney is banking on the moves to help ease pressure on Epcot’s other restaurants, which are as much a part of the theme park’s appeal as its rides. Tables at those restaurants, however, are often booked months in advance, particularly with a growing number of visitors buying advance “dining plans” from Disney as part of their vacation packages.
“We think adding this is going to be a big guest satisfier,” said Dan Cockerell, the Disney vice president in charge of Epcot. Even with the extra seating space, he said, “we know there’s not going to be any lack of demand.”
A rendering of the soon-to-open Italian pizzeria at Epcot. (Courtesy of Walt Disney World)
The restaurant expansion follows a prolonged period in which theme-park visitors, squeezed by the global recession, have been more frugal during their vacations. Per capita guest spending shrank by 4 percent at Disney World during the company’s 2009 fiscal year, which ended Oct. 3.
There are signs that travelers may be about to loosen their wallets. IBISWorld Inc., a market-research firm in Santa Monica, Calif., projects that theme-park industry sales will inch up 1.7 percent in 2010, after plummeting 8.6 percent last year.
Both of the new restaurants are being built by independent contractors who lease space in Epcot from Disney. The pizzeria will be operated by Patina Restaurant Group, which also runs Tutto Italia in Epcot’s Italy pavilion; the cantina will be run by San Angel Inn LLC, which also has the San Angel Inn eatery inside the park’s Mexico pavilion.
A scenic banner covers the construction site for a new sit-down pizzeria in Epcot's Italy pavilion. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
The expanded Mexican eatery will pull double duty: Previously a counter-service restaurant selling quick meals such as tacos and burritos, it will remain a quick-service facility during the day. But each evening, the indoor portion — about 250 of its 400 seats — will be converted into a more-expensive, sit-down restaurant.
“Usually we need more QSR [quick-service restaurants] for lunch and more table service for dinner. So this was a creative way the industrial team” addressed that, Cockerell said.
It will be the first “flex” restaurant in Epcot and will serve as a precursor to an even larger facility slated to use the same approach: the Beauty and the Beast-themed “Be Our Guest” restaurant that will be part of the broad Fantasyland expansion under way in Disney’s Magic Kingdom park.
Jason Garcia can be reached at 407-420-5414 or jrgarcia@orlandosentinel.com.
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