The Cast:
Me: 30 y/o Male, compulsive planner
DW: 31 y/o Female, likes to sleep in
Joe: My best buddy from high school. A theme park commando whose motto is "It's not a vacation, it's a competition!"
Lisa: Joe's wife and Queen of the Timeshares. She owns or co-owns 5 weeks at various Central Florida resorts.
Day 5 - Downtown Disney and "Dis-Pleasure Island"
Weather: Hot and humid again with our one and only thunderstorm of the week, low 90s.
We decided that we would break up the week by having Wednesday be our non-park day. We attended the optional Time Share Owners' breakfast at 9:30am, where we were surprised at how low-pressure the sales presentation was. The Owners' breakfast serves two purposes: it gives Vistana a chance to upsell existing timeshare owners to buy more and also gives them a chance to sell to guests of existing owners. Lucky for us the Vistana Resort is almost completely sold out, so there wasn't much for them to sell. We toured a couple of units, learned a little about their newer resort up the road and that was it. No pressure, free breakfast, and best of all they paid us $40 cash just for showing up! We all walked away having enjoyed the experience. That's the kind of salesmanship I like! If there comes a point when we want to purchase a timeshare, we will definitely give Sheraton a call.
From there we spent a few relaxing hours at the crowded pool. Apparently Wednesday is the off-day for a lot of families who also attended the breakfast. After drying off and getting dressed we headed out for DTD/PI. The main purpose of our Downtown Disney visit was for the girls to go shopping. A thunderstorn hit just as we arrived, so we made a beeline for the World of Disney where we spent the better part of an hour. It occurred to me that the DTD merchants probably love the rain because it causes a mad rush of people into the stores. I bought myself a Mickey mouse watch! Yay!
After the rain let up, Joe and I spotted the "Soda Fountain" sign outside Ghiradelli's. Spurred by a PBS special on old-fashioned soda fountains that we had watched the night before, we rushed over there only to be disappointed. While Ghiradelli's is a nice little candy shop/ ice cream parlor, it is by no means a real soda fountain.
Anyway, the highlight of our afternoon at DTD was the Christmas store. Two years ago DW bought a really cool Mickey ornament at that store. That season our Christmas tree toppled over in the middle of the night. Mickey Broke! 
Thankfully we were able to find the exact same ornament again, so Mickey will be restored to his rightful place on our Christmas tree this year.
For dinner we went to Planet Hollywood. The Concierge at the Vistana had given us "VIP" passes, which supposedly entitle you to the first available table in the restaurant regardless of the line outside. We were skeptical about the concept, but it worked! We flashed our pass and were ushered right into the restaurant ahead of all the people waiting outside. The atmosphere was pretty cool and the food was good but not spectacular.
Then it was time for Pleasure Island. Although Joe and Lisa are Disney vets, they had not been to PI so it was a new experience for all of us. We entered around 9pm and were startled at the number of children there. I thought PI was supposed to be an "adult playground." Guess we were wrong. We saw the 9:30pm show at the Comedy Warehouse, which was disappointing. I will give credit to the improvisational team who had some good lines, but overall the show was not very funny. They also could not venture into any adult subject matter, making their job even harder. Since improvisation is an audience-participation style, the actors had to admonish the crowd several times with "not on a Disney stage!" From Comedy Warehouse we walked over to the Adventurers Club. The show there was better than the Comedy Warehouse, but again there were times where they could have taken things in a more adult direction and did not because of the presence of kids.
We spent the rest of the night club-hopping. We barely spent more than ten minutes at any individual club. One place had kids on the dance floor (talk about a buzz kill!), while others were empty with the exeption of convention-goers who were drunk before they even got to PI. I guess we're at that funny age (early 30s) where we are too old for clubs like "Mannequins" but too young for places like "8Trax". We also found it highly disturbing that there were young women in skimpy outfits selling Jell-o shots on the street as children walked by with their parents.
Aside from the Comedy Warehouse, the biggest disappointment of the night by far was PI Jazz Company. The guy hardly played any Jazz
He played "Rockin' Robin," A song by the Archies (whitest band ever) and some weird electronic music. He hardly broke out any instruments! Most of it was on a Korg synthesizer. We left in disgust only to be subjected to the worst rock band ever on the West End Stage. "Kabang" proceeded to butcher dozens of popular rock songs before the New Year's Eve fireworks thankfully put an end to that debacle.
PI was the first and only WDW experience that left all four of us thoroughly disappointed. The music was bad, the clubs were lame and there were too many kids. We all agreed that PI should be an adults-only experience. Obviously Disney doesn't want to lose out on potential revenue from families with children, but that compromise makes the place less special. They also need to book better talent. After all, this is freaking Disney World! We expect top-notch entertainment everywhere we go. PI did not fit that description. We felt like we were watching people that weren't good enough to make the cut on American Idol.
I'm guessing that the day of the week (Wednesday) and time of year (May) had something to do with it, but that's not really an excuse. PI has a long way to go before we would spend our money there again.
Next up, Day 6: Typhoon Lagoon - "That's not my husband!"
Me: 30 y/o Male, compulsive planner
DW: 31 y/o Female, likes to sleep in
Joe: My best buddy from high school. A theme park commando whose motto is "It's not a vacation, it's a competition!"
Lisa: Joe's wife and Queen of the Timeshares. She owns or co-owns 5 weeks at various Central Florida resorts.
Day 5 - Downtown Disney and "Dis-Pleasure Island"
Weather: Hot and humid again with our one and only thunderstorm of the week, low 90s.
We decided that we would break up the week by having Wednesday be our non-park day. We attended the optional Time Share Owners' breakfast at 9:30am, where we were surprised at how low-pressure the sales presentation was. The Owners' breakfast serves two purposes: it gives Vistana a chance to upsell existing timeshare owners to buy more and also gives them a chance to sell to guests of existing owners. Lucky for us the Vistana Resort is almost completely sold out, so there wasn't much for them to sell. We toured a couple of units, learned a little about their newer resort up the road and that was it. No pressure, free breakfast, and best of all they paid us $40 cash just for showing up! We all walked away having enjoyed the experience. That's the kind of salesmanship I like! If there comes a point when we want to purchase a timeshare, we will definitely give Sheraton a call.
From there we spent a few relaxing hours at the crowded pool. Apparently Wednesday is the off-day for a lot of families who also attended the breakfast. After drying off and getting dressed we headed out for DTD/PI. The main purpose of our Downtown Disney visit was for the girls to go shopping. A thunderstorn hit just as we arrived, so we made a beeline for the World of Disney where we spent the better part of an hour. It occurred to me that the DTD merchants probably love the rain because it causes a mad rush of people into the stores. I bought myself a Mickey mouse watch! Yay!
After the rain let up, Joe and I spotted the "Soda Fountain" sign outside Ghiradelli's. Spurred by a PBS special on old-fashioned soda fountains that we had watched the night before, we rushed over there only to be disappointed. While Ghiradelli's is a nice little candy shop/ ice cream parlor, it is by no means a real soda fountain.
Anyway, the highlight of our afternoon at DTD was the Christmas store. Two years ago DW bought a really cool Mickey ornament at that store. That season our Christmas tree toppled over in the middle of the night. Mickey Broke! Thankfully we were able to find the exact same ornament again, so Mickey will be restored to his rightful place on our Christmas tree this year. For dinner we went to Planet Hollywood. The Concierge at the Vistana had given us "VIP" passes, which supposedly entitle you to the first available table in the restaurant regardless of the line outside. We were skeptical about the concept, but it worked! We flashed our pass and were ushered right into the restaurant ahead of all the people waiting outside. The atmosphere was pretty cool and the food was good but not spectacular.
Then it was time for Pleasure Island. Although Joe and Lisa are Disney vets, they had not been to PI so it was a new experience for all of us. We entered around 9pm and were startled at the number of children there. I thought PI was supposed to be an "adult playground." Guess we were wrong. We saw the 9:30pm show at the Comedy Warehouse, which was disappointing. I will give credit to the improvisational team who had some good lines, but overall the show was not very funny. They also could not venture into any adult subject matter, making their job even harder. Since improvisation is an audience-participation style, the actors had to admonish the crowd several times with "not on a Disney stage!" From Comedy Warehouse we walked over to the Adventurers Club. The show there was better than the Comedy Warehouse, but again there were times where they could have taken things in a more adult direction and did not because of the presence of kids.
We spent the rest of the night club-hopping. We barely spent more than ten minutes at any individual club. One place had kids on the dance floor (talk about a buzz kill!), while others were empty with the exeption of convention-goers who were drunk before they even got to PI. I guess we're at that funny age (early 30s) where we are too old for clubs like "Mannequins" but too young for places like "8Trax". We also found it highly disturbing that there were young women in skimpy outfits selling Jell-o shots on the street as children walked by with their parents.
Aside from the Comedy Warehouse, the biggest disappointment of the night by far was PI Jazz Company. The guy hardly played any Jazz
He played "Rockin' Robin," A song by the Archies (whitest band ever) and some weird electronic music. He hardly broke out any instruments! Most of it was on a Korg synthesizer. We left in disgust only to be subjected to the worst rock band ever on the West End Stage. "Kabang" proceeded to butcher dozens of popular rock songs before the New Year's Eve fireworks thankfully put an end to that debacle.PI was the first and only WDW experience that left all four of us thoroughly disappointed. The music was bad, the clubs were lame and there were too many kids. We all agreed that PI should be an adults-only experience. Obviously Disney doesn't want to lose out on potential revenue from families with children, but that compromise makes the place less special. They also need to book better talent. After all, this is freaking Disney World! We expect top-notch entertainment everywhere we go. PI did not fit that description. We felt like we were watching people that weren't good enough to make the cut on American Idol.
I'm guessing that the day of the week (Wednesday) and time of year (May) had something to do with it, but that's not really an excuse. PI has a long way to go before we would spend our money there again.
Next up, Day 6: Typhoon Lagoon - "That's not my husband!"
