New Enhancements, Dining Options Coming to Disney’s BoardWalk

[RememberWhen]

Went yesterday around 4:30. There was no line - I walked in, no wait, ordered, and went outside to eat.

As a unit of measure, my place in Manhattan is a couple blocks from a Magnolia Bakery, with $10 slices, and I'm within walking distance there of probably half a dozen excellent pastry places. The best cake place I've ever been to is probably Maxie B's in North Carolina. You'd hip-check meemaw for a slice, which currently runs around $9.

I got the Birthday Cake ($23), the Raspberry Champagne Cake ($23), and a decaf Americano ($6), which was ~$55 with tax and excluding gratuity.

Both the cakes were baked very well. Tasty vanilla sponge. Buttercream icings were generous and uniform. Nothing too sweet. Slices big enough for two people. Technically very solid bakes, done by professionals.

I ended up with an espresso instead of an Americano, but hey, everyone has a first day on the new coffee machine.

"Birthday" is my favorite cake flavor, so I tried this one first. Again, technically this cake is well done. I just can't see paying $23 for it. And that's because you can't make a big-enough jump in quality from Magnolia or Maxie B's to justify the price difference. The $10 slices are already at 80-90% of everything you want in cake. There's just not that much to improve on in the "vanilla cake" category.

The Raspberry Champagne Cake is something special. They soak the sponge in champagne syrup. And they mix a delightful raspberry jam between layers. I wish I had more of that. Really good cake. Didn't eat all of the icing around the sides and top - there was a lot. But over tea and dinner, yeah, finished that slice of cake. I'm not going to go out of my way to pay $23 for cake, but if I did, I'd order that again.

I think the challenge for Cake Bake Shop is that everything they serve at those prices has to have that kind of 'wow' moment. And as I said with the Birthday Cake, that's really hard with cake.

Well, I’ll say this makes me slightly more inclined to consider stopping by for a slice to share on our upcoming December trip. Assuming there’s no line when we’re walking by. And the kids aren’t cranky from 10 miles of walking.
If we can grab a slice on the way to our room at Boardwalk and split it up then maybe.
As a BWV person I’d so love to see a reasonably priced place to grab regular food. Not fancy cake or fancy fish or fancy corndogs. Maybe they’ll do something down the other end in a couple years…

 

[BrianLo]

I didn’t actually vocalize this, unfortunately, but the Benedict’s pricing was what stood out to me most of all. It’s by far my preferred breakfast food, so it was my personal touch point as a pricing surrogate.

Honestly, the breakfast prices strike me as fine now. After the massive slashing. A 19$ Benedict is exactly what any frilly millennial breakfast place in Canada runs nowadays. I know our exchange rate sucks… but it seems like someone actually got sensible about breakfast. I think I might actually be willing to support this venue for breakfast.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Which is a shame because the Boardwalk offers a great venue for shopping, dining, and entertainment.

I think the major problem is that it is everything closes at 10, so with the exception of the bars and Jelly Rolls, there is little reason to go there.

But in fairness I wonder how many of the MK monorail resorts draw their guests from the park as well?

Why would you want to attract people to go there after 10?

I mean the area is nice, good place to see the fireworks, but it still is basically a hotel/resort area.

You have Disney Springs with tons of shopping, restaurants, live music, that you can leverage as a later night type entertainment location.

The boardwalk area, once 10PM hits, is going to be difficult to get non area hotel guests there and out. I also wonder how much does Disney want this to be a loud/night life area when it abutts a large number of deluxe level hotel rooms that people have spent money on and don't want to be kept awake late

 

[monothingie]

Why would you want to attract people to go there after 10?

I mean the area is nice, good place to see the fireworks, but it still is basically a hotel/resort area.

You have Disney Springs with tons of shopping, restaurants, live music, that you can leverage as a later night type entertainment location.

The boardwalk area, once 10PM hits, is going to be difficult to get non area hotel guests there and out. I also wonder how much does Disney want this to be a loud/night life area when it abutts a large number of deluxe level hotel rooms that people have spent money on and don't want to be kept awake late

Jelly Rolls is loud and open till 2AM and wildly popular, so it’s historically never been a problem.

Being sandwiched between and within walking distance of two parks, that each close at or around 9PM, no one is going to make the extra effort to travel to the Boardwalk to go the dining venues that will be closed or soon to be closing when they get there.

Using Disney Springs as a counter is also not ideal because it basically is shutdown by 11-11:30. It used to be open much much later for entertainment and dining.

 

[UNCgolf]

Went yesterday around 4:30. There was no line - I walked in, no wait, ordered, and went outside to eat.

As a unit of measure, my place in Manhattan is a couple blocks from a Magnolia Bakery, with $10 slices, and I'm within walking distance there of probably half a dozen excellent pastry places. The best cake place I've ever been to is probably Maxie B's in North Carolina. You'd hip-check meemaw for a slice, which currently runs around $9.

I got the Birthday Cake ($23), the Raspberry Champagne Cake ($23), and a decaf Americano ($6), which was ~$55 with tax and excluding gratuity.

Both the cakes were baked very well. Tasty vanilla sponge. Buttercream icings were generous and uniform. Nothing too sweet. Slices big enough for two people. Technically very solid bakes, done by professionals.

I ended up with an espresso instead of an Americano, but hey, everyone has a first day on the new coffee machine.

"Birthday" is my favorite cake flavor, so I tried this one first. Again, technically this cake is well done. I just can't see paying $23 for it. And that's because you can't make a big-enough jump in quality from Magnolia or Maxie B's to justify the price difference. The $10 slices are already at 80-90% of everything you want in cake. There's just not that much to improve on in the "vanilla cake" category.

The Raspberry Champagne Cake is something special. They soak the sponge in champagne syrup. And they mix a delightful raspberry jam between layers. I wish I had more of that. Really good cake. Didn't eat all of the icing around the sides and top - there was a lot. But over tea and dinner, yeah, finished that slice of cake. I'm not going to go out of my way to pay $23 for cake, but if I did, I'd order that again.

I think the challenge for Cake Bake Shop is that everything they serve at those prices has to have that kind of 'wow' moment. And as I said with the Birthday Cake, that's really hard with cake.

Maxie B's is fantastic!

 

[UNCgolf]

I think the biggest issue for cake Bake Shop, beyond the pricing, is during the daytime. Despite its location by EPCOT, it has been proven by every other restaurant that has tried to make it on the BoardWalk, that most EPCOT guests are not willing to leave the park to go there.

I said this somewhere above too.

I think it's going to be incredibly difficult for them to succeed at lunch service for reasons beyond price, but the pricing exacerbates the issue.

Problem is, based on the menu, it's really more of a lunch place than a dinner place. They have a couple of entrees that feel like a dinner meal, but it's mainly burgers and sandwiches. I'm not sure how many people they'll attract for dinner to have a $35 po boy or a $27 croque-monsieur.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I didn’t actually vocalize this, unfortunately, but the Benedict’s pricing was what stood out to me most of all. It’s by far my preferred breakfast food, so it was my personal touch point as a pricing surrogate.

Honestly, the breakfast prices strike me as fine now. After the massive slashing. A 19$ Benedict is exactly what any frilly millennial breakfast place in Canada runs nowadays. I know our exchange rate sucks… but it seems like someone actually got sensible about breakfast. I think I might actually be willing to support this venue for breakfast.

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I like OEB - but definitely visit rarely due to cost! But surely a market for that price range, always busy.

 

[UNCgolf]

The breakfast prices are kind of a weird mix now. They were too high across the board, but after the cut some seem fine (like the eggs benedict) and some still seem incredibly overpriced, like the $20 breakfast sandwich that apparently comes with no sides of any kind, or $8 for a side order of bacon or sausage.

The eggs any style is $3 less than the breakfast sandwich but you get essentially all of the same things plus more, just not in sandwich form.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

The eggs any style is $3 less than the breakfast sandwich but you get essentially all of the same things plus more, just not in sandwich form.

This is something I’ve noticed at a lot of restaurants all over the country - you can often save lots of money by ordering things differently.

One breakfast place I really enjoy… you can order a side of scrambled eggs, a side of hash browns, and a biscuit from the “sides” menu and save like $9 vs. the “American breakfast” or whatever they call it.

 

[SplashJacket]

Disney does not price gouge to this level. There's expected theme park pricing mark-up (that every theme park is guilty of, many to a worse degree than Disney, honestly), but this goes beyond the pale. It feels strongly of, "this is fancy because we say it is," which certainly works for some people, but I question the long-term viability.

Exactly. Go to six flags and the worst burger you’ve ever eaten is $17.50. Got to Sam Eagles BBQ and you get a legitimately good meal for several dollars less. A lot of disney prices are actually very reasonable

 

[Mickeytb357]

 

[James Alucobond]

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The review itself is actually generally favorable. Negatives mostly speak to the dining situation at Boardwalk more than Cake Bake itself.

The Cake Bake Shop Review at Disney's BoardWalk: Forks Not Pitchforks

Head out to Disney's BoardWalk with us for our The Cake Bake Shop review of Walt Disney World's newest restaurant!

blogmickey.com

 

[DisneyNorthFan]

The Blog Mickey review is very helpful. It won't be for everyone, but for their $200 investment, they actually got a lot of good qualify food. That's a lot of money, certainly, but dining out ANYWHERE is expensive. This is certainly a special place, for a target audience looking to have an immersive splurge.

 

[aladdin2007]

I think the biggest issue for cake Bake Shop, beyond the pricing, is during the daytime. Despite its location by EPCOT, it has been proven by every other restaurant that has tried to make it on the BoardWalk, that most EPCOT guests are not willing to leave the park to go there.

it would help it probably if they allowed you to park there to come in for it, but they don't, so that's going to be a short life span for it more than likely. resort guests are not going fill this place. this would have been better off at GF, the boardwalk needs something that belongs there for all day dining. They have no desire anymore to do what is needed or fitting. This should have been a Disney managed resort dining location, but they are too cheap anymore to want to manage anything they don't have to. An outside third party was not the answer for the BW.

 

[James Alucobond]

it would help it probably if they allowed you to park there to come in for it, but they don't, so that's going to be a short life span for it more than likely. resort guests are not going fill this place. this would have been better off at GF, the boardwalk needs something that belongs there for all day dining. They have no desire anymore to do what is needed or fitting. This should have been a Disney managed resort dining location, but they are too cheap anymore to want to manage anything they don't have to. An outside third party was not the answer for the BW.

On the plus side, if it fails, you actually have much better bones for something that fits in nicely than you did with ESPN, unless Gwendolyn rips out the carousel in a blind Karen-rage. Repainting, swapping in some less formal light fixtures, replacing some of the soft goods and furnishings, etc. could genuinely result in something that feels at home at the Boardwalk.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Jelly Rolls is loud and open till 2AM and wildly popular, so it’s historically never been a problem.

Being sandwiched between and within walking distance of two parks, that each close at or around 9PM, no one is going to make the extra effort to travel to the Boardwalk to go the dining venues that will be closed or soon to be closing when they get there.

Using Disney Springs as a counter is also not ideal because it basically is shutdown by 11-11:30. It used to be open much much later for entertainment and dining.

I don't know the last time you have went to Jelly Rolls, but at least in the post covid era, i don't think i have ever seen enough people there on a consistent basis to call it wildly popular. Maybe one night out to the week with some type of special event, but not with any consistency.

"Being sandwiched between and within walking distance of two parks, that each close at or around 9PM, no one is going to make the extra effort to travel to the Boardwalk to go the dining venues that will be closed or soon to be closing when they get there."

That is my point. The location doesn't make it ideal to be a destination in and of itself. Even if there were dining venues that were open later (and I honestly question the need for a large number of sit down restaurants that are open after 10) unless you are staying within walking distance, why are you going to eat on the board walk, and then trying to find private transportation back to your resort?

As to Disney Springs, yes it is shutting down between 11-12. But how late are you looking for places to be open? WDW isn't a late night/bar club type destination. Do you think that Disney springs was open later and had good demand for late night services post 11-12PM, and that Disney was making money with it but just decided to stop? Or is it more likely that they the return on keeping things open late night wasn't there, so they decided to shut it down and close earlier.

 

[Chef idea Mickey`=]

I see the Boardwalk vibe for people who have completed their park days. Or want to hang around after 9:30ish because to them assuming is when Epcot is closed or Hollywood Studios. Before their park days or first day of vacation possibly but don't think they'll want to dine there.

 

[SplashJacket]

IMHO, the boardwalk and the Epcot resort area as a whole is the most criminally underrated area of any themed location in the world.

Hollywood Studios is far from perfect, but if you view Hollywood Studios, Epcot resorts, and Epcot as one big entity, it’s only topped by Tokyo and Disneyland, but I’d honestly argue WDW becomes better when you view it like that.

Make MK, AK, springs; and the resorts secondary, and WDW becomes a lot better.

 

[MisterPenguin]

View attachment 822385

Justified.

If those are chilled diamonds.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

As predicted they will line up to spend stupid money

That… doesn’t look like a very long line to me? What is that, all of three people in line?