While we’ve made a few trips into the parks, today was our first walk through Downtown Disney since the start of the holiday season. While there is no ice rink this year, the area is still very festive with a beautiful tree and ornament displays and decorations.
Christmas Tree in Downtown Disney
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Love these displays!
In other news, great progress is being made on the new Splitsville Luxury Lanes, where House of Blues used to be, set to open early in 2018. The Disney Dress store is another new addition since our last visit to the area. In security news, the line was quite long and slow this morning, but a Cast Member said they are working on bringing a “bag-free” line (hooray, finally!) similar to those at Walt Disney World in the near future. They are allegedly trying this out on Harbor Blvd. side sporadically, and it sounded like some Guests in front of us later in the day had used it successfully to avoid the masses.
Splittsville Luxury Lanes
Holiday Security Lines
Finally, Downtown Disney has again updated their parking policy. Originally, Guests could park 3 hours for free, and then 5 hours with movie or dining validation. This then went down to two hours & 4 hours respectively, and then required Quick Service purchase to avoid any fees at all. Now, it’s back to three hours validation with any $20+ purchase at Quick Service dining or merchandise (for example, a T shirt at World of Disney, a breakfast for whole family at Earl of Sandwich or make up at Sephora will get you validated 3 hours) and 5 hours with table service or AMC validation. Please note that anything at the Resort Hotels is NOT included in this validation policy – Trader Sams, Storyteller’s, Napa Rose, etc – for those, they want Guests to park at the hotel facilities, which do offer validation for sit down dining. We are anxious to see how this new policy unfolds in the midst of the usual Disney Parking drama! 🙂
Handed out to DTD Parking Guests
We Cain Travel 