"Splitsville Luxury Lanes, Disney Springs' bowling alley/restaurant attraction, has enclosed its balcony space that overlooked the West Side neighborhood of the entertainment complex.
Turns out that Florida's great outdoors wasn't always so great for diners.
"We could only use it on days that weren't too hot or days that weren't too cold or on days that weren't rainy," says Ashley Evans, a Splitsville manager.
The changes include knocking down the outside/upstairs bar and its companion bar inside. The area was enclosed with floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Then, a larger bar was built in that space with eight new TVs, plus new furniture and carpet for the area, Evans says.
In the process, the 50,000-square-foot Splitsville gained more bar seating while maintaining about the same level of seats for dining, she says.
"It was such a great view, and we couldn't utilize it because Florida weather is so unpredictable," Evans says. "People come to Splitsville to escape the heat and to escape the rain."
Customers are happy with the change, she says.
"People are loving it. Believe it or not, we do have a handful of regulars, even in a tourist area," Evans says. "They're loving the view. They never went up there before. … They always wanted to, but when it's in the 90s, it's not an ideal situation."
Splitsville opened at Disney Springs in late 2012. It's located in the old Virgin MegaStore space, which folks will recall had a plank-style balcony that jutted out from the building.
A new 40,000-square-foot location is planned for Downtown Disney District in Anaheim, Calif. It will be where House of Blues was located. Splitsville debuted in in Tampa in 2003. Now its lanes have spread to locations in Miami, Cincinnati, Fredricksburg, Va., Foxborough, Mass., and Fairview, Texas." (
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