While traffic is still a huge mess on Buena Vista Drive, Disney continues to make progress on the parking situation at Disney Springs. We visited twice recently and were very pleased with the new Orange Garage located in front of the AMC Movie Theater. The picture below shows the available parking spaces on each floor. It looks like floor 5 was not open, and a sign inside said that floor 4 was for employees. The 429 is the number of open spaces on floor 4. The digital display wasn’t very camera friendly and didn’t show the full number of spots on floors 2 and 3 as well as the “O” in Open but to the naked eye it’s very nice.
Disney does not disappoint in its technology for this expansion of parking at Disney Springs. Each spot has a device that monitors occupancy on any spot. Green means empty, red occupied and blue is handicapped. We did not notice security cameras, although there are so many parking sensors I wonder if I simply overlooked them. Or, if perhaps, the sensors double as cameras.
Lighting was bright all the way from the bottom floor to level 3 as we drove up the ramps enjoying the newness of it all. Parking spots were, in my opinion, normal size and not the cramped shopping mall garage types as you can see by the pictures attached. Signage was clearly displayed on each row, on each floor and easily viewed from anywhere in the garage. The floors and rows don’t show any Disney character references like the Ticket and Transportation Center but perhaps that is not necessary here.
The garage had stairs, escalators and elevators and even with some stair ways closed (as yet not complete) there was no trouble moving from floor to floor onto the temporary walkways into the West Side of Disney Springs. Temporary construction structures covered some walkways as we exited but the sidewalks are even and lighting is good. As with all Disney areas, it was clear of debris and absent of stock piles of construction materials.
As you pull up to each row, there is none of that rushing up and down each row hoping for a spot to be open as you trail a line of 5 cars only to find 4 spaces open and nothing for you. You can look up at the end of the row and see an easily viewable sign with the number of parking spots open, then just look for the green light and go.
There is still a huge amount of construction going on in and around Disney Springs, including Buena Vista Drive, a new off ramp from I-4 to alleviate traffic from the 535 exit by the Cross Roads Shopping Center, most of the old Pleasure Island, and a second garage is in the works.
But these last few trips to Disney Springs have been quite nice, not having to park across the street in the parking lot for the Cast Member Building. We wont miss the bus to get dropped off near Cirque Du Soleil, or the long walk across Buena Vista Drive waiting for the cross walk signal with the millions of cars clogging the road. Driving into the new garage for the first time felt very welcoming with the typical cast members waiving guests to the correct ramps to the next level and answering the lost tourist questions along the way. We were very excited to see what Disney had designed and we were very pleased with what’s completed to date.
I may expand my review on my next blog to show more of Disney Springs and the stores as they open to the public. As a teaser I will say that some of the areas are totally unrecognizable and new walkways are exposed that never existed before. Big things are coming for this quaint little town of Disney Springs.
Doug
Very informative! Thanks, Doug!
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