Downtown Disney

Downtown Disney is an outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment complex located in the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, FL.  It originally opened on March 22, 1975 as the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village a shopping area for its guests staying in the Resort.  As the area grew with hotels so did the need for more shopping and in 1977 the area added some shops and restaurants and was renamed Walt Disney World Village.  In the 1980s Disney wanted to keep its guests on Disney grounds so to compete with Church Street Station in downtown Orlando they expanded the Village and added Pleasure Island with Night clubs and night life for adults that opened in 1989. The name of Walt Disney World Village was changed again to Disney Village Marketplace.   During the 1990s Disney World grew with tourist and guests and it was decided to add another section to the Village and changed the name to Downtown Disney that included three sections.  The Marketplace, Pleasure Island and the new West Side.  It opened in 1997.
Each section of Downtown Disney features entertainment venues, shops and restaurants with unique themes.
We do enjoy going to Downtown Disney.  It is free to get in and has a lot to see and do.  You can spend an entire day and still not get to everything.  The shopping is good and the restaurants are great!  Every time we are in the Orlando area we visit Downtown Disney.  This time we went to the AMC theater and saw the movie "The Grey".  It was different and a rather dark movie.  Let's just say if you are looking for a feel good movie with a happy ending than this one is not the one to see.  If you are looking for a suspense filled movie with some 'jump out of your seat' action then you must see it.  After the movie we walked around Downtown Disney.  The West Side has been renovated with new shops.  There are only two original shops left but all the restaurants are still there.  What was once Virgin Megastore is now being remodeled and a Bowling Alley venue and will be open by fall of 2012.  It should be a good addition to the area. Pleasure Island has a new shop and restaurant and Marketplace is going through some changes too.  When we got there, around 1:00 it was pretty quiet but when we got out of the movie, around 4:00 it was busy!  We were going to eat at Downtown Disney but we had so much popcorn at the movie we weren't hungry.  We left after checking out everything and will be going back sometime next week.  I figure we will be visiting Downtown Disney at least three more times before we leave. 
Today is the Superbowl, a sporting event held so we could all watch commercials.  At least this year it is for me since none of my teams made it.  I love football and will be watching it for the game too.  Let's go Giants!  Sorry Patriots fans but I like Eli more than Tom!