Downtown Disney -- Beware

[MrKnight]

All this mess is primarily a direct result of the major construction going on, it should get significantly better once everything is built, has opened, and the dust has settled. There has never been enough parking at DTD and this is why they are building the garages, to ultimately allow more vehicles to park closer to DTD and not have to walk from Siberia.. If you are staying at a WDW resort I HIGHLY recommended taking WDW transportation to DTD, driving there is currently a hassle as indicated as long as the construction continues..

 

[L&Lfan]

Downtown Disney lost its appeal for us back when they stopped charging admission to Pleasure Island and it quickly became a hang out for local teens, gangs and other unsavory characters who I'd rather avoid on vacation as we see them enough in real life. Shopping has no appeal for us especially now that Disney merchandise has become so generic. So we only go there on occasion to eat and take a break from the parks as our vacations are never less than 8 days. Having said that we do have ADRs for Fulton's Crab House and the Boathouse in November. We will take Disney buses and hopefully things will be a little better then than they are now. We were last there in November of 2014 when we dined at Raglan Road. I remember walking through giant walls all over the place. We left as soon as we finished our dinner. Awful! No place we wanted to linger.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

So I know driving to DTD is a no go if you're staying offsite. What about if you're staying on site and catching a bus, it is still a nightmare even if you're on Disney transportation?

We stayed at CBR and took the bus to DTD on our arrival evening (approx 9 pm on a Saturday (May 16). The bus only took a few minutes, and dropped us off at the west side market area. It was somewhat crowded, but not so much that we couldn't walk or were runnig into people, and we didn't have to wait in a long line to catch a bus back to our resort.

We went to guest services to activate our military tickets, and only waited maybe 3 minutes to see a CM. Then we went to Earl of Sandwich; it was busy but not too crowded (there were available seats), and there were maybe 4 people ahead of DH in line to order. I went to WPE to get dinner, and there was no one in line ahead of me (also plenty of open tables). My brother went to a couple stores, and it only took him maybe 15 minutes to buy a few things. Overall, it seemed like there were plenty of people but it wasn't crowded enough to cause much inconvenience.

My parents also went back to DTD a couple more times later in the week, and I seriously doubt they would have done that if the transportation or crowds were bad.