Review of Downtown Disney

Planet Hollywood - Orlando Walt Disney World

Planet Hollywood Interior

Inside Planet Hollywood, you'll find numerous props from your favorite movies and stars.

The Marketplace seemed to be the liveliest in the day, as guests were grabbing a bite to eat and bustling from shop to shop. Throughout the Marketplace there were numerous sights to catch the eye, ranging form immaculate LEGO statues to the various character statues situated throughout the various shops. The other two areas of Downtown Disney also feature a few select shops, but the Marketplace is where you'd go to find a large selection of Disney-specific merchandise.

Pleasure Island takes over at night with a wide variety of clubs offering comedy and dancing. In total, Pleasure Island showcased seven clubs: BET SoundStage Club, catering to hip-hop and R&B; 8TRAX, offering the sounds of the 70's and 80's; Rock 'n' Roll Beach Club, a club showcasing a selection of live bands and Djs; Motion, a top-40 club; Mannequins Dance Palace; providing a variety of pounding techno; and Adventures Club and Comedy Warehouse, both of which are comedy clubs.

I only poked my head into each of the dance clubs, and for the most part you can get a feel for what they're like simply from looking at the front of the building. It should be noted that each establishment is definitely a club, and even though Pleasure Island is in the heart of Disney it may not be appropriate for children. I never noticed anything offensive during the day hours. However, at night there did tend to be a heavy amount of public drinking, and all it entails, featured in the streets of Pleasure Island. As for the comedy clubs, you'll be very familiar with the Comedy Warehouse if you've ever seen "Whose Line Is It Anyway?". The performers did a decent job of working with what they had, and for a twenty minute, improv routine it wasn't too bad.

The Adventure's Club featured a very character driven time of musical hilarity. Set up as an initiation of the audience into the famed Adventure's Club, this show is extremely participatory; and extremely entertaining. And considering that you can get into all of the clubs of Pleasure Island for free using one of the Park Fun More option on a Magic Your Way ticket, Pleasure Island is definitely worth exploring even if you only find one establishment that suites your tastes.

Downtown Disney's West End housed more mainstream dining and shopping, such as Planet Hollywood and Virgin Megastore. Along with dining and shopping, there was also a wealth of entertainment in the form of Cirque, AMC, House of Blues and DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park.

Much like the clubs of Pleasure Island, DisneyQuest admission can be covered by a Water Park Fun & More option on a Magic Your Way ticket. Inside DisneyQuest you'll find five floors of video games that can be played with no additional charges. A variety of virtual reality games, completely immersive experiences, traditional arcades and even creative areas were all found throughout DisneyQuest. As is the case with most virtual reality games, the ideas seemed to be a bit too advanced for the current technology, or were made by sub-par game designers. However, the arcades more than made up for the virtual reality; they even had an area dedicated solely to old-school Namco games. If you're a fan of video games, then you could easily spend an entire day at DisneyQuest, making it more than worth the cost of admission.

If you visit Disney it is highly recommended that you at least browse through Downtown Disney at least once. It costs nothing extra to simply walk through, and with a vast amount of dining, shopping and entertainment featured in the area you're sure to find something to pique your interests.