Today may be Valentine’s Day. But when it comes to Pleasure Island, it’s clear that Disney World management has little love left for this once wildly popular night-time entertainment complex.
Want proof? Then let’s talk about PI’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Beach Club, which closed its doors back on February 3rd. Now I know that there have been rumors bouncing around the Web that the Mouse is considering gutting this live music venue so that it can then build a cosmic bowling alley. You know? With the glow-in-the-darks balls & pins and dance music and such?
Well, if that ever really was the plan for Rock ‘n’ Roll Beach Club, it ain’t the plan now. Earlier this week, word came out of Lake Buena Vista that Mickey is writing this PI facility off. Which is why — in order to contain costs — Disney just cuts off the building’s electricity as well as turning off the water that used to flow into this night club.
So now that the Beach Club has gone to Rock ‘n’ Roll heaven, Pleasure Island continues its downward spiral. Which began back on New Year’s Eve 2005, when the Mouse pulled the plug on PI’s long-running “Every night is New Year’s Eve” promotion. That move — coupled with the closing of the Pleasure Island Jazz Club as well as the demolition of both the West End & Hub Stages — turned PI’s once-lively streets into a virtually entertainment-free zone.
Photo by Jeff Lange
Oh, sure. There’s live music to be heard inside of Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant as well as fun watersports-related items available for purchase inside of Curl by Sammy Duval … But these new restaurants & shops represent a significant departure from what Pleasure Island used to be. Which was a highly themed collection of quirky night clubs.
These days, PI’s remaining clubs are on the endangered species list. As Mickey whittles away at what once made Pleasure Island unique so that this area can then conform to Downtown Disney‘s new battle plan. Which will transform this corner of the WDW resort into a faux big-city environment that’s ” … alive with excitement, unique shops, restaurants and entertainment!”
So where once WDI’s main concern was making sure that this Disney Village Marketplace expansion area was as quirky as possible (hence the Island’s whole Merryweather Pleasure backstory), now Disney’s goal for PI is improve its sightlines & flow-thru. Which is why a footbridge to the West Side as well as a water taxi dock were added to this section of Downtown Disney early last year.
But for those of us who remember what Pleasure Island was like in the early 1990s, it’s been kind of tough watching this once ambitious entertainment complex spin in. Seeing one-of-a-kind eateries like the Fireworks Factory slowly give way to ridiculous Rainforest Cafe clones like T-Rex.
Photo by Jeff Lange
But let’s be honest, folks. The handwriting has been on the wall for quite a while now. When PI’s Disney-cast-members-get-in-free night changed from “Thursdays Only” to “Thursdays & Mondays” to “Sunday through Thursday” to what it is today (i.e. Any WDW cast members with a valid ID can now get in free to this night club complex seven days a week) … It’s pretty obvious that Pleasure Island isn’t nearly as popular as it once was. Which is why some changes clearly have to be made.
Which brings us to the Adventurers Club. Perhaps the most quirky of all the clubs found on the Island, the AC is much beloved by tens of thousands of WDW visitors. Who would surely raise holy hell were the Mouse to ever try & close its doors.
And yet — if Mickey is to proceed with its slowly-kill-off-all-of-PI’s-nightclub plan, so that Downtown Disney can then be one continuous span of ” … unique shops, restaurants and entertainment” — the Adventurers Club really does have to close its doors someday soon.
Or does it?
What if I were to tell you that — come 2011 — the Pleasure Island version of the Adventurers Club will be closing? Only to then be reborn somewhere else on property in a much grander manner? Where the Club would then serve as the gateway to a brand-new type of Disney theme park adventure?
Intrigued yet? Come back tomorrow and I’ll give you the full details.