Downtown Disney

A stroller-friendly shopping, dining and entertainment district with free parking (if you don’t mind hunting for a parking spot on a Friday or a Saturday night), Downtown Disney might be one of the main reasons why many Orlando visitors don’t need to venture far from Disney property. Over the years Downtown Disney has undergone a few changes; the most notable one being the closing of the Pleasure Island nightclub district within Downtown Disney, which is currently being reworked into a more family oriented area,

On Downtown Disney’s West Side, visitors can enjoy a performance of Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba, engage in interactive arcade adventures at Disney Quest (where the dim lights can make you feel as if it is nighttime even in the middle of the day), dine at Planet Hollywood or even catch a first run feature film at the AMC 24 Theater. The guests who visit this side of Downtown Disney tend to have older children who can fully appreciate these attractions.

On the other side of the Pleasure Island area (which still has several food and beverage establishments that are open for business until the grand reopening in 2011) is the most crowded area of Downtown Disney, known as Disney Marketplace. This is where all of the major themed restaurants can be found, from the T-Rex: A Prehistoric Family Adventure, Rainforest Café, Fulton’s Crab House, the Portobello Italian restaurant plus a very popular McDonald’s, which is rumored to be closing down to accommodate a Guatemalan fast food chain known as Pollo Campero.

Families who come to the Disney Marketplace to eat also find themselves spending a lot of time with their kids purchasing souvenirs at the World of Disney store—the largest Disney character store in Walt Disney World Resort—or the nearby Lego Imagination Station, where children of all ages can be found playing with Lego sets or climbing through the preschool playground area. No matter what you are in the mood for after a day at the Disney theme parks, Downtown Disney delivers.