So What's Coming to the New Pleasure Island?

[LovelyPrincess]

Does anyone know when the new DTD stores will be opening? I'm assuming the removal of the clubs was to make more room for shopping? And to be "family-friendly"...I'm going in August ans was hoping something besides Characters in Flight would be opened..

 

[TDC Nala]

Personally I am not interested in AC as a "dinner experience." I doubt many AC fans will want to go on a regular basis if it's a full-blown dinner show.

 

[doconeill]

Personally I am not interested in AC as a "dinner experience." I doubt many AC fans will want to go on a regular basis if it's a full-blown dinner show.

AC as a dinner show vs. no AC? I'll take what I can get.

I'd prefer my original idea - make it BOTH. Actors can slide in and out of the dinner and bar/library areas. AC benefits from increased revenue and exposure of the restaurant.

 

[Scurvy]

AC as a dinner show vs. no AC? I'll take what I can get.

I'd prefer my original idea - make it BOTH. Actors can slide in and out of the dinner and bar/library areas. AC benefits from increased revenue and exposure of the restaurant.

I agree.

What I'd really like to see is one of these:
Turn Soundstage into an Adventurers themed restaurant, servers can be "in character" like at Prime Time but not playing the roles of the actual Adventurers from the Club. Club characters could wander through occasionally. Leave the Club itself as is but add a cover charge. People who ate at the restaurant get in free or get a discount.

or

Turn Soundstage into a dinner theater. From 6:00 till 8:00 (or whatever timing works) have an Adventurers themed dinner show, using the actual characters from the Club. After that, open the Club till 1:00 (or so) and leave the Club as it has been. Again, have a cover charge and give a discount if you've gone to the dinner show. The dinner show could be family friendly, and the Club itself could stay more adult oriented.

I've heard rumors that were variations of each of these, and I'd be quite happy with either one. I would rather have the Club in some form than no Club at all, but I would really prefer that it not be strictly a dinner show. That would mean it would no longer be a good place to spend each evening of a trip, which is what we used to do on most of our trips after dinner.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

Keep in mind that should it be true that any of the clubs are going to reopen, they will each have to pay their own way. AC in it's old form did not make a lot of revenue because it didn't need to. It was just part of a package that people purchased that included many things. PI's overall revenue subsidized it. Keep in mind that AC is a labor-intensive operation; i.e. expensive. So the only hope for the place is for it to earn revenue in the form of food, beverages and souvenirs. That pretty much means a mandatory dinner of some sort.

Does anyone know when the new DTD stores will be opening? I'm assuming the removal of the clubs was to make more room for shopping? And to be "family-friendly"

Except for the Paradiso 37 restaurant/night club,the adjoining Street Foods of the Americas food court and the upcoming move of PI Live from it's old location at the Hub over to the Laffers Cantina area, you won't find anything new on Pleasure Island when you visit this summer. The clubs closed and whatever was actually planned fell through. There are rumors of a third party operator possibly reopening a couple clubs plus a rumor of Disney reopening AC in 2010. Other than that, the only new things in DTD that I can think of are the Balloon ride (Westside) and the Tren-D store (Marketplace).

BobK/Orlando

 

[TDC Nala]

Disney dinner shows cost in excess of $50 per person. That's not even doable on every trip, much less every night. That would make the AC only slightly more accessible to its fans than it is now. Sure it'd be great to have it back, but not so much if I can't spend time there. Especially if CW is reopened in its prior form without alteration.

A combo with dinner and separate show works, as long as access to the show is not completely restricted to those who purchase a full meal.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

A combo with dinner and separate show works, as long as access to the show is not completely restricted to those who purchase a full meal.

Few would go to the more expensive dinner show if you could go to an inexpensive non-dinner show.

I peeked into CW the other night and it is stripped and full of junk. They appear to be using it as storage space. We don't know if the rumors about AC, Mannequins and 8TRAX are legit or bogus but there are absolutely no rumors that I've heard about CW reopening.

BobK/Orlando

 

[doconeill]

Few would go to the more expensive dinner show if you could go to an inexpensive non-dinner show.

I would presume the cover charge would still be in effect.

 

[Jason71]

Nothing about the AC lends itself to a dinner show format. The longest skits were 20 minutes, I'm not sure a 60-minute show could be cobbled together. In any case, the skits themselves flowed from the free-wheeling nature of the Club, they would seem forced--and frankly, even cornier--in a more formal theater setting. Besides, the best part of any night, the part that made it worth visiting time and again, was the off-the-cuff interaction with random guests who just happened to be passing through the bar and had no idea what they had stepped into. All that is lost if you make it the Hoop De Doo with Sam and Hathaway.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

Very true, but don't forget that AC is completely lost right now and if there is any chance that the rumor is true and AC returns as a dinner show, you gotta take the bad with the good. There surely are ways to do the show as an interactive dinner show.

BobK/Orlando

 

[Jason71]

As of last night, the DJ booth has moved to above Laffers. There are also new "Celebrate Tonight" signs on the light poles (just a variation on the "Celebrate Today" ones, but I liked them--two star balloons with a Mickey balloon).

The DJ described the area around the West End as "Celebration Plaza" but not sure if this is an official name change or if he was just ad-libbing.

Magicians/jugglers have been gone from the steps of the AC since Sunday, not returning. Music acts remain in the West Side.

Most interesting to me, apparently CMs were trying to install a small stage in the corner to the right of CW. But it didn't fit. Still, another hint where they are going with this plan.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

That expression "you can't put lipstick on a pig" seems to fit here for some reason!

BobK/Orlando

 

[zulemara]

I checked out the island tonight. I saw the new area and noted the CW signs are now gone from the front of the building. They were still hooking up the electronics for the dueling djs format. They are apparently having an adults version of the kid dance party at MP and it will be starting Sunday. When asked why they are doing this since they do not apparently want adult entertainment, one manager said "the transition is taking longer than anticipated and guests are complaining about the empty space"

They have also put up those temporary shrubbery things in front of motion between RRBC and sosa cigars. You can walk through the little tunnel they have created or just go over by Raglan road to get back to the bathrooms, but it's obvious they are tring to reduce the traffic over there. The pathway from Motion to MP has also been closed off again.

Absolutely no movement in 8-trax and we are at about 3 weeks now since we first heard of order being restored. If that's true, they sure are dragging their feet. I'm about ready to give up hope.

 

[Luv2Roam]

and guests are complaining about the empty space

Guests or other tenants?

 

[UnNamed Project]

Celebrate Tonight is supposed to start tomorrow night- Dj's and bars - another no budget lame attempt at putting one over on the guests

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

Anything to liven up the island has to be good overall. But one can't hide all those large buildings sitting there empty. Believe it or not, most people from out of town (and out of the country) did not hear the news that they closed the clubs. They don't scrutinize the news about the meaning of every cut wire like some of us do. Many PI fans continue to show up and only then learn, to their great disappointment, that everything is closed. Celebrate Tonight and dueling DJ's likely will create a diversion. But again, you can't hide those large empty buidlings.

BobK/Orlando

 

[Jason71]

"Stage" is up in the corner. They stole 3 of the TVs from the pole across from the AC, also have "electical spheres" up ("Tesla Orbs" maybe? not sure the actual name for them). All set to go tonight, will try to file a report.

 

[zulemara]

"Stage" is up in the corner. They stole 3 of the TVs from the pole across from the AC, also have "electical spheres" up ("Tesla Orbs" maybe? not sure the actual name for them). All set to go tonight, will try to file a report.

those spheres were moved from the old PI location. They have the R2 intelligent lights in them. They used to hang over by PI live on that bridge that goes above people and connects to the tower by PI live bar. When I was there they didn't have things up and running yet, but tonight is the big premiere. I work at 9:45pm so I'm debating heading over there before work to check it out.

 

[doconeill]

"Stage" is up in the corner. They stole 3 of the TVs from the pole across from the AC, also have "electical spheres" up ("Tesla Orbs" maybe? not sure the actual name for them). All set to go tonight, will try to file a report.

I believe the generic name is "plasma lamp", but they were indeed invented by Tesla originally.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

I got to experience the first half hour of tonight's PI Live entertainment at Celebration Plaza. Besides the guy in the booth they had one DJ on the ground that I was told used to work at RRBC before they closed. They also had a stilt walker and 3-4 other employees out there to interact with the crowd.

Some passers-by actually did stop and stand around to see what was going on. Some others clearly did not stop in order to avoid being grabbed for some kind of interaction with the DJ.

Still, it's better than the alternative which was pretty much nothing. The fun begins at 5pm and I'm not sure how long it runs. They're going to have to come up with lots of ideas though to keep this lively. For instance, tonight's first question to the crowd had to do with family reunions and who here was traveling with the most family members?

BobK/Orlando