Downtown Disney is an outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment complex located at the Walt Disney World Resort. Downtown Disney is open to the public, requires no admission fee and offers entirely free parking and transportation to all Disney resorts. The large outdoor complex is divided into three areas: the Marketplace, Pleasure Island and the West Side.

Each area features a selection of entertainment venues, shops, restaurants and themeing. Notable tenants include Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba, Disney Quest Indoor Interactive Theme Park, the House of Blues, Planet Hollywood, the Lego Imagination Center, World of Disney, AMC Pleasure Island 24, and Rainforest Cafe. Downtown Disney began life on March 22, 1975, as the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, a shopping complex intended to serve the planned residences within Walt Disney World property.

As the residential units evolved into more resort hotel space, the complex became more focused as a shopping destination for all Walt Disney World visitors, and renamed Walt Disney World Village in 1977. With the advent of new management under Michael Eisner in the mid-1980s, Disney began looking for ways to keep vacationers on Walt Disney World property longer, and entice them with offerings to prevent them from leaving for entertainment beyond Disney's borders. To compete with the popular Church Street Station clubs in downtown Orlando, Pleasure Island was announced on July 21, 1986, as an expansion to the Village for highly themed, adults-only nightlife.

Construction began the following August, and Pleasure Island opened on May 1, 1989, (the exact same day as the Disney-MGM Studios theme park) featuring unique clubs with the Disney touch for quality and creativity. That same year, the Walt Disney World Village was once again renamed as the Disney Village Marketplace to reflect the ever-changing nature of the area. In the mid-1990s, the growth of Walt Disney World once again created the potential for expansion of the offerings around Village Lake at Pleasure Island and the Disney Village Marketplace, so on June 20, 1995, major enhancements and expansion were announced for the area.

The Disney Village Marketplace and Pleasure Island would be folded into a newly-branded district called Downtown Disney, with the former renamed one more time on September 7, 1997, as Downtown Disney Marketplace. Just a few days later, on September 15, Downtown Disney West Side opened as a third shopping, dining, and entertainment zone featuring more eclectic venues such as La Nouba (a permanent show which is part of Cirque du Soleil), DisneyQuest, and Virgin Megastore. Major changes for the complex also included the conversion of the somewhat sedate Mickey's Character Shop into the bustling World of Disney, becoming the world's largest Disney store, and the expansion and upgrade of the AMC Pleasure Island Theatres.

Downtown Disney gained a sister district on January 12, 2001, with the expansion of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and similar complexes known as Disney Village on April 12, 1992, at EuroDisney (now Disneyland Resort Paris), and Ikspiari on July 7, 2000, at the Tokyo Disney Resort. A fifth version is in planning for the most recent Disney destination, Hong Kong Disneyland. The Village/Marketplace and West Side have always been free to enter, while Pleasure Island required the purchase of admission.

Pleasure Island was also closed during the day. Starting in the summer of 2004, Pleasure Island became free to enter and only those entering the nightclubs paid admission charges.

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