Downtown Disney California

By alantvuong on June 1, 2022

Last month, after visiting Knott’s Berry Farm, a friend and I wanted to visit Downtown Disney to check out the area and have dinner with a local friend. Downtown Disney is an outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment complex at Disneyland Resort. It is a lot smaller than Disney Springs so we only need a few hours to see all of Downtown Disney.

Getting There

Since we were coming from Knott’s Berry Farm, (which was in Buena Park), we had to take an Uber to Downtown Disney. If we were coming from our hotel at Motel 6 Maingate, it would only have been about a 20 minute walk/stroll.

Uber dropped us off here

We got our Uber to drop us off at the huge parking lot as we were to meet our friend by the entrance there. I remember coming here 7 years ago, and it seemed to be a lot busier then. It could be that we are visiting on a Wednesday evening.

Downtown Disney

directory map

Downtown Disney opened in January 2001 as part of the Disneyland Resort and Disney California Adventure Park expansion. Downtown Disney connects the 2 theme parks with its 3 hotels and does not have an admission cost. We found our friend at the entrance and I was looking forward to see how much the area has changed in the 7 years since I last visited.

meet up at the entrance

Restaurants

was easy to get in and get a table for the 3 of us

The first thing we all decided we wanted to do was to eat. We didn’t want to go to a fast food place and wanted a sit down restaurant so we can all relax and chat with each other. Looking around, I already noticed that the huge Rainforest Cafe restaurant I ate at in 2015 was not there anymore. We decided to eat at Splitsville Luxury Lanes because it looked like a cool place to try out.

one of the bowling lanes

Splitsville Luxury Lanes opened in 2018 and has 2 floors with 20 bowling lanes and a very modern and nice looking interior. It wasn’t too busy as we got a table right away. I had the Salmon Poke Bowl and it really was delicious. The prices at this restaurant are quite high but the taste and quality of the food does justify it.

food was pretty good at Splitsville

Shops

at the Lego Store

After we ate, the 3 of us wanted to browse around some of the stores at Downtown Disney. Even though it’s a lot smaller than Disney Springs, there were still a lot of shops to visit. The huge Lego Store had giant Disney Lego sculptures inside and outside the store like Toy Story, Aladdin and more.

Star Wars Trading Post

Star Wars Trading Post is a new store that recently opened in the former Rainforest Cafe. If you are a Star Wars fan then you would love this store as it has everything from clothing to toys to home products that features the Star Wars universe.

Halloween costume for wheelchair users

We did check out some of the other stores before visiting the huge World of Disney Store. It has all types of souvenirs from all the brands from Disney including Pixar, Disney, Marvel and Star Wars. The store was quite busy and the checkout lines were long.

World of Disney Store

Attractions & Entertainment

Since it was a weeknight when we went, the entertainment was quite limited. There was a small audience at a live stage that featured a local group singing cover songs. We watched for a bit but did not stay too long as we wanted to continue exploring the rest of Downtown Disney.

live entertainment

Other entertainment choices includes a Jazz club and bowling at Splitsville. ESPN Zone and the AMC Theaters shut down since I was last here so that took away 2 major entertainment options.

Downtown Disney

Final Thoughts

We had a great few hours hanging at Downtown Disney. Although it is a lot smaller than Disney Springs, it is still worth checking out if in the area or passing by when visiting one of the theme parks. A whole day at Downtown Disney is not needed or expected so it is easy to see everything if pressed on time. I would definitely come back next time when I am in Anaheim.