Downtown Disney!

Kind of sad today because this is my last planned post on this blog. I might come up with some ideas in the future but I don't know. What I plan to write about today is the area known as Downtown Disney. It is an area that has shops, restaurants, shows and a bowling alley called Splitsville. One cool thing is that it doesn't require you to have a WDW reservation. You can go to Downtown Disney just like you can go to any shopping mall across the country. It is of course Disney themed and is on Disney property so it sort of soothes that Disney itch every once in awhile. However it is like an appetizer the hunger for more still resides in the hearts of those, like me, who require more from a Disney visit.

When my nephew got married in Florida we were traveling down to share in the festivities (July of 2012) we decided to get the new couple's wedding gift at Downtown Disney because it was on our way anyway. Okay I confess we did have to make a slight (200 mile) detour to get to DD. However that is not the point, The little time we took in the rain soaked area of Disney made me, and fortunately my wife, wanting to plan our next trip. Which we did for this past summer and it was a spectacular time:)

This area has gone through a lot of changes since I first visited the area in 1994 back then there was an exclusive shopping area and a nightlife area where my wife and I saw a really good improv comedy show. When we came with our clan in the summer of 2009 we visited it and the two areas had been combined to form one area.

We make a trip to DD every time we go to WDW for our planned souvenir shopping. Always telling ourselves we will not by anything in the parks which turns out to be a farce in planning because we always pick up something at the parks. Actually Downtown Disney has a couple of my favorite places to eat in all of WDW. Fulton's Crab House and  the Earl of Sandwich which are special in two totally different ways. Fulton's is a place I wrote about in the Where to Stay? post and it serves really good seafood, the Earl of Sandwich is just as the name implies a sandwich shop. One time we were on our last day of the trip and we were going to DD and then in the afternoon we would head back to North Carolina and we realized we still had a numerous amount of Disney Dining Plan meals left to use. So we each ordered numerous sandwiches at Earl's and placed them in our cooler to munch on during our trip home.

One thing I'd be amiss if I didn't mention it would be the different types of shops at DD. There is a huge Disney Store (called the World of Disney Store) (duhhhh) and many more check out the selection by visiting the below link...
Downtown Disney Shops

One thing I forgot to add was that there is a ride there called Characters in Flight where you go up in a balloon which is on a cable straight up and at the top you stop for roughly five or more minutes and you get a view of Disney World, all of Disney World. My oldest and I went up and we saw all of the parks from our perch and it was a hazy day/ The cost was, in 2012, $18 for an adult it might be more now. I would like to do it again sometime maybe next April:)

Enjoy the time and maybe someday we will see each other at Disney!