Downtown Disney

After Ohana, we took the bus to Downtown Disney to window shop for a few hours until it was time to get ready for our evening at Magic Kingdom. 

I was bound and determined that on this trip we would get at least one picture for a Christmas card. I'm happy to report that Disney got several via PhotoPass, but I tried to capture some myself, as well.  Below is one of those opportunities.  Will is clutching his shopping bag with his Lightning McQueen Christmas ornament.  He and I both picked a favorite ornament as a souvenir.  

 

Downtown Disney is basically just an outdoor mall.  It's got shops, restaurants, and bars.  It has the world's largest Disney Store and a Lego store.  We stopped at the Lego store, but ironically the guys never made it inside.  They were building little cars outside the store while I did a lap through the Disney store.  When I went to find them I realized they hadn't moved yet.  I went inside and found these full size Buzz and Woody characters made from Legos.

And on the river there was this dragon that reminded me of the one at our hotel.  Behind it you can see the water taxi.   They went only to the two Port Orleans hotels, so we did that instead of a bus when we were done shoppoing.

This is probably a good post to throw in something about MagicBands.  These are Disney's way to make you spend more money!  You can link everything to it: room key; theme park tickets; credit card for purchases; food credits if you're on the dining plan; Photopass account; and Fast Passes.  You use it throughout the property and parks to make purchases and to get you in everywhere.   I never had to take my wallet with me anywhere.  You attach a pin code to it for identification purposes that you have to enter everytime you make a purchase.  There has been a lot of discussion on Disney blogs about how they don't work consistently from a technology standpoint and that by loading your FastPass on in advance it's ruining the spontaneity of the trip.

We had zero problems from a technology standpoint.  The bands worked every time we wanted to buy something; everytime we wanted to get into a park; and everytime we wanted to use our Fast Pass.  As far a spontaneity, I don't think a Disney vacation lends itself to that.  I am perfectly content to make my ride selections 60 days in advance; I know what my favorites are that have long lines that I want to skip.  We even had some ride reservations we chose to skip because of other plans, and I just got on my phone app and rescheduled for a later time.  It was no problem at all.  It may have been easier since November is not very busy at the parks so we could walk on to lots of rides without much wait, but in all, no complaints.