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'''Disney Springs''' is an outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment complex at the [[Walt Disney World]] Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Covering about 120 acres along the shore of Lake Buena Vista, it contains more than 150 shops, restaurants and entertainment venues arranged in four districts: the Marketplace, The Landing, Town Center and West Side. The complex has operated under several names since it first opened on March 22, 1975, as the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, and took its present name on September 29, 2015.

== History ==

=== The shopping village years ===

The original Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village was conceived as a retail centre for the planned community of Lake Buena Vista and for guests of the nearby Walt Disney World hotels. Its first shops, which included the Pottery Chalet and a character merchandise store, opened in March 1975 on the site of what is now the Marketplace. Visitor numbers were initially disappointing, and in 1977 the complex was renamed Walt Disney World Village to tie it more visibly to the resort.

Through the 1980s the village grew along the lagoon. A significant change came in 1989, when the Pleasure Island nightclub district opened on an adjoining site and the shopping area was renamed the Disney Village Marketplace, pairing daytime family retail with an adults-oriented nightlife zone next door. In 1997 the combined complex was unified under the name Downtown Disney, divided into the Downtown Disney Marketplace and Downtown Disney West Side, the latter a new expansion with larger entertainment venues. A Virgin Megastore, a large AMC cinema and the Cirque du Soleil theatre, which opened in 1998 with the resident show ''La Nouba'', anchored the West Side.

Pleasure Island's nightclubs closed in 2008, and the area stood largely quiet for several years while replacement concepts were tested, including the short-lived Hyperion Wharf proposal.

=== The Disney Springs transformation ===

On March 14, 2013, Disney announced that Downtown Disney would be doubled in size, given a unifying design and renamed Disney Springs. Imagineers devised a backstory of a fictional Florida pioneer town that grew up around a natural spring, which allowed the four districts to be presented as neighbourhoods built in different eras. Construction proceeded around the operating complex between 2013 and 2016, adding two large parking garages, new bridges and roadworks, and a new bus terminal. The name Disney Springs became official on September 29, 2015, and the new Town Center district, built largely on former parking lots, opened on May 15, 2016.

== The four districts ==

The Marketplace, the oldest part of the complex, holds the large World of Disney store, the LEGO Store, the Rainforest Cafe with its volcano feature, and the T-REX Cafe dinosaur-themed restaurant. The Landing occupies the former Pleasure Island site and concentrates on restaurants and bars in converted industrial-style buildings, including The Boathouse, with its display of vintage boats and amphibious car rides on the lake, Morimoto Asia, Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar and Raglan Road Irish Pub. Town Center, the 2016 addition, contains the majority of the complex's non-Disney retail brands in Spanish Revival-style buildings arranged around the springs themselves. West Side holds the entertainment anchors: the AMC Disney Springs 24 cinema, the Cirque du Soleil theatre, home since 2021 to ''Drawn to Life'', the joint production between Cirque du Soleil and Disney that replaced ''La Nouba'', a House of Blues restaurant and concert hall, and the NBA Experience building, which closed in 2020.

== Transport and access ==

Admission and parking are free. Disney resort guests reach Disney Springs by bus from their hotels and by boat from [[Disney's Port Orleans Resort]], [[Disney's Old Key West Resort]] and [[Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa]], the last of which is also connected by a walking path. Unlike [[Downtown Disney]] in California, the complex is not within walking distance of the theme parks, and no direct bus service is offered between Disney Springs and the parks, a policy intended to prevent its use as free park parking.

== See also ==

* [[Walt Disney World]]
* [[Downtown Disney]]
* [[Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa]]

[[Category:Walt Disney World]]
[[Category:Shopping districts]]
[[Category:1975 establishments in Florida]]

Disney Springs - Revision history

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