Fall Break in Downtown Disney

                            

OPENING SIDENOTE: This post is long overdue, but I figured in true procrastinating spirit, better late than never!

            For me, fall break roughly translates to Halloween Horror Nights. And if you’ve never heard of Halloween Horror Nights, you are missing out on one of the most thrilling experiences of your life. I kid you not. HHN is a Halloween event hosted by Universal Studios, where guests can scream their way through seven different horrifying haunted houses. It’s exciting, but it, of course, only starts in the nighttime.

            I had planned to spend the entire day in Orlando with a few of my friends that go to the University of Florida. We greatly miscalculated how long we would spend at the Mall at Millenia and were left with a three-hour gap before HHN opened. With so much extra time, I had the brilliant idea to visit the typically overlooked Downtown Disney.

         From Legoland to a hot air balloon ride, Downtown Disney is full of a lot more excitement than you’d expect. We started off in the candy store because why not? If you go to Disney, you’re clearly not going for the healthy food. And let me tell you, this candy store did not disappoint. It was filled with Disney-themed sweets including, but most definitely not limited to, cheshire cat cake pops (delicious), Mickey Mouse candy apples (even more delicious), and Mike Wazowski-shaped cookies (I need more adjectives than delicious). We eventually decided to make a valiant effort to drag ourselves away from these glorious, glorious treats.
        The most interesting part of Downtown Disney to me was, not surprisingly, the art gallery. They had the typical intricately painted Disney landscapes that you would expect, but they also had a surprising amount of contemporary art. These pieces were more centered around the artist’s unique perspective of Disney and its impact on American culture. My absolute favorite was a set of two paintings (pictured below) that depicted only a few aspects of a Disney character, such as their hair or their foot, and given only those visuals, one could easily tell what Disney character it was. This forced me to think about how embedded these characters are into the American mindset.

 

          After visiting the art gallery, we ended up strolling around Downtown Disney, which is actually incredibly large. We passed by Legoland, a hot air balloon ride, the largest Disney store I think I've ever seen, and even a Christmas store. Before long, our three extra hours in Orlando were over and we were on our way to Universal Studios. The trip in total was very fun and I would definitely recommend Downtown Disney to anyone in the greater Orlando area. However, I can only take the bubblegum "magic" of Disney for so long and by the end, I was ready for one thing: ZOMBIES!!!!