PI Ungated?

[Chuck S]

OK, this was just posted in a thread on the GayDay.com forums site. It just seems like it has to be an unfounded rumor. It makes absolutely no sense to me to allow access to walk through the area, but have to be ticketed to enter a club. Unless there is some sort of construction that makes this detour necessary during the summer. Has anyone else heard about this?

from Disney Mail to the Travel Industry:

From May 23 - August 14, Downtown Disney's Pleasure Island will temporarily operate as an un-gated area, allowing people to free-flow through Pleasure Island during evening operations, without admission and enjoy Pleasure Island shops, restaurants, Westend Stage entertainment and the nightly midnight "New Year's Eve" fireworks display.

Admission will still be required for entry into any of the eight Pleasure Island nightclubs and is included in the Ultimate Park Hopper Pass or can be purchased for $20.50 (before tax) per adult.

 

[OnWithTheShow]

Interesting. The turnstiles do roll back for during the daytime hours. I am wondering how they will control access to the clubs. They must have a new wireless ticket reader. It seems like their attendance must be hurting and they are hoping that letting people walk through the area will sell more drinks and tickets. I personally think it is a bad idea considering the behavior of some who frequent PI.

 

[Luv2Roam]

The 3+ months we were living WDW, we were very close, straigt south of DTD.
I was surprised never to hear the fireworks from there. Yet we always heard Illuminations and sometimes other goings on.
I wondered if the fireworks are kept low key since they are late and hotels are nearby.

 

[cristen]

We were there on Friday. We bought our tickets, and walked in. Nobody ever asked to look at them. Is that how it works? No turnstile or anything? My husband commented that we could have walked right by the booths and never gotten a ticket. They never asked for them in the AC.

 

[Chuck S]

cristen, what time of day/night did you go to PI?

 

[cristen]

We got there about 9:45p.

 

[PoohPooh]

PI currently has open gates from 7-9, during the "sneek preview," which basicaly lets people roaming from the West Side to the Marketplace check out what happens on the island; and as it currently stands, guests can only go into the Ad Club during the preview (ticketed or not)! PI will be running a 3 mos test starting May 28, and keep the island un-gated from 7 to close. And during this test the Ad Club will no longer let non ticketed guests enter the club. PI will be just like City Walk during this test (free to roam, but pay to get in the clubs) and I assume that just like City Walk, PI will do their darndest to try and sell as many tickets as possible to get people into the clubs.

p.s. as a side note: for the past year all of PI, shops and food vendors, have been closed untill 7pm

 

[caseymaureen]

It doesn't seem too unreasonable to me...There are plenty of things in PI, such as the stores and restaurants, which would do more business if the people who only wanted to shop or eat did not have to pay a cover charge. That's the same as it is in most "real" club areas in other cities. Here in Baltimore there is a street with about five clubs that occasionally offer a one price admission on drinking type holidays, they don't charge you to get on to the street, just into the clubs. On regular days each club charges seperately, which I wouldn't put past Disney. They may want to charge more for the more popular clubs, and less on the less populated to try to fill them up. Just a thought...

 

[OnWithTheShow]

The only "restaurants" I recall in PI are the Pizza Cart outside the Jazz Club and a small hot dog joint.

 

[Lewisc]

I wonder if Disney is thinking of just having 1 bus stop at PI for the entire DTD area. Maybe they think moving people from the West Side and the Marketplace through PI to get a bus will help PI business.