Monday, November 18, 2013

PI Update: Behind Those Construction Walls

It's still called Pleasure Island baby!  Why aren't you here?
Taking to the air with the Save Pleasure Island Blog Skycam to look over those walls to see what's going on!  Great view here of the new PI bypass causeway.
Let's visit 8TRAX first. You're already aware that the front portion of the building was razed a few months ago and then the demolition stopped. The building is weathered-in.  The new holiday edition of the Downtown Disney Guidemap does not show the building there but really, it's there!
Zooming in a bit, we see that the lower entry door still sports the 8-track cartridge and the lower entry door is still downstairs; I mean the hill is still there and 8TRAX at the front is on a higher level than 8TRAX at the rear.  If there are plans to remove the hill, it hasn't happened yet.
Moving over to the West End Plaza area, we know that Comedy Warehouse and the adjoining Laffers Cantina have been demolished. 
You know that there was a cast member only area below the Plaza and this is readily visible here towards the middle where you can see the drop-off from West End Plaza/Celebration Plaza upstairs and what was the lower level of Comedy Warehouse downstairs. 
Moving back the other way towards Mannequins, we see the area where Apricot Lane most recently stood. Nothing new going on here either. To the upper left you can see the small drop off which is where PI Live Bar was located slightly below grade.
Of interest here is in that brown area of Mannequins where the upstairs "smokers patio" doors are still part of the building!
This area was the first to see demolitions (Motion & Rock'n'Roll Beach Club) and the first to see new construction. We previously reported on the construction taking place at the rear of the parcel.
Moving closer though, this does not look like the supposed lighthouse style restaurant. It's very small, has a few doors but no windows?  There are stairs to an upstairs level.  We will continue to watch this.
When Fuego closed at the end of September the access to the WC facilities behind Raglan Road ended. You can see both bathroom doors open in the beige building; maybe the construction workers can still use them. Interestingly, that same building once housed a shop of some kind, a long time ago.  Nothing has been in there for years and it appeared unused. Nonetheless, we see a special construction wall that allows employees to exit the side of Raglan Road and go towards those glass doors.

Lastly we have a great view of Fulton's Crab House from our perch 400ft up. Disney Springs concept art shows two smokestacks returning to Fulton's. That would be a great way to give this place the Empress Lily river steamer look she once had back in the early Disney Village days! Come visit and see all this for yourselves. For those readers around the country and around the world, stay-tuned to Save Pleasure Island Blog for all the latest information about our beloved (former) home!

3 comments:

Jeff - Gainesville said...

Nice aerial views!!

Anonymous said...

well MAP has NO building where 8trax is was! and the 8Trax player still UP! kinda tells ya it's not done coming down yet I mean the WHOLE building! I mean the WHOLE thing Mannequins ALSO.......

KingBob said...

What in the world makes you think they're going to tear down 8TRAX and Mannequins?