DS Update: Remembering The Virgin Building

Always a great place to kill an hour or two in Downtown Disney, the Virgin Megastore met its demise along with the rest of the Virgin Records chain in 2008. With the Pleasure Island clubs closing in September of that year, the dead Island and this empty storefront created a large gap of darkness to pedestrians moving across DTD.

To partly fill the gap, Disney quickly rented the Virgin building to the Princess Diana Museum. It was a place to see her gowns among other personal items. The venue met great criticism as it was about as non-Disney as you could get.  It closed by November of 2009.

Equally desperate, it was replaced by Ridemakerz. Occupying about half of the downstairs space and nothing upstairs, it was a place to make small racing car toys.

While there was always doubt that Disney could fill a space that large, they did.  The Splitsville upscale bowling alley opened in December, 2012 with lanes on both the ground and upper floors. It seems to be holding its own!