Note: ESPN Closed in 2018

The ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney is a great place to go eat, drink, and hang out if you are a sports fan. If you are not a sports fan, its still an impressive place to go. If you are a sports fan, all I have to say is 60 foot TV screen and TVs in the bathrooms and you are sold. Add to this really good food, several games and activities to participate in and you really have an incredible dining experience.

We arrived at the Zone at around 4pm. They asked us where we wanted to eat (there are two dining rooms). After having the difference explained to us we choose the screening room because it has the giant screen. The other room just has several different TVs throughout the room. The food is the same in both places. The picture on the left is of the screening room. On either side of the large screen are several smaller screens, and flanking those are statics and scores. Scrolling across the top is a sports news ticker.

Once you choose your dining room, you next choose your type of table (I am betting that once the Zone is crowded you do not get to choose, or you have to wait longer for some choices), but since we were there early we got to choose. You have three choices in the screening room. Normal tables, which offer a great view of the screen and are in the middle of the room. Leather recliners that are in the very front of the room and you look up at the screens. They are incredible to try out, but I could not picture myself eating a meal on them and it seemed incredibly akward to talk to the people around you when sitting in the chair. With the recliner you get to choose the audio you wish to hear, so you can switch stations as you want.

The third seating option is a booth, which is what we did. You get your own LCD screen and you become a director. You can choose which feed you want to watch (and listen too). You can also surf the ESPN websites for up to the minute stats and stories. On the left is a shot of what the screen looks like. The red buttons represent the various feeds, so you just touch it and the picture changes, you click the picture and it becomes full screen for you. As you are making your choices, the booth's audio changes to that channel too.

After making your seating choice you get down to the menu. Your placemat contains the days specials (along with a recap of sports scores and stories from the previous day). The menu is mostly comfort foods and sports bar food - chicken, beef, etc... The portions are fairly large (which they should be for the price). I ended up with the 1/2 burger because I did not feel to adventurous. I thought it was better than the one I got at the ESPN Club in WDW last time I was there, which surprised me because I figured it would be the same.

Also located on the lower level are several bars, a radio studio, and a television studio. As well as the gift shop.

Upstairs there are several activites and games you can participate in. These range from standard video games to virtual reality experiences (all with sports and athletic themes of course). You can take a spin in a virtual Indy car (which is a large Indy car on hydrolics in front of a projection screen. The detail is amazing, there are even LCD screens where the mirrors would be showing you your rearview. Or you can take a try at the rock wall. They time you and everything. (Bottom Picture on the left). Another cool thing about the rock wall is that is located directly above the bar and people sitting at the bar can look up and see you climb. The games are somewhat expensive. If I remember correctly it was $5 for 15 points, and you needed 24 points to do the Indy car or the rock wall, which were the two most expensive things.

If you plan to watch a sporting event be sure to allow enough time to be seated.

• The stone sport artwork on the sides of ESPN Zone are animated, for example the soccer player's head will bob from side to side

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