Last year when
Disney Springs was first announced as the replacement for
Downtown Disney, someone questioned on
Disney Parks Blog
whether there would be anything for the 21+ crowd? The next night none
other than Tom Staggs answered in the affirmative. Since then nothing
has been announced except new construction featuring restaurants and
renovations of existing club buildings featuring more restaurants! So
it's easy to see why people are depressed over the lack of anything
remotely related to evening adult entertainment. But there is hope.
Save Pleasure Island Blog sources down on the
Island have
provided us with two nuggets of new information that could point us in the
right direction. While we have no specifics at this time, these appear
to be good omens!
First of all, we've been told that the contracts that are being signed by lessors for
Disney Springs require everyone to be open until 2am. This includes shops, this includes restaurants, this includes everyone. Currently and in the recent past, shops were only open until 11pm Sunday - Thursday, until midnight on Friday & Saturday. Table service restaurants were only open until midnight, if not earlier. Staying open until 2am was an option.
Secondly, we've been told that lessors can (generally) do what they want with their spaces as long as they don't interfere with their neighbors.
What does this all mean? The first nugget means restaurants which typically empty-out by 10pm as they always have, will need something extra to keep you or attract you for another 4 hours. And that is where adult entertainment comes in. That means bands, DJ's, singers, etc. Last week we posted
pictures of the after-hours club aspect at
Rocco's Tacos on Sand Lake Road. It's a perfect example of how a restaurant by day and evening can turn into a dance club late at night. That's a glimpse into the future at
Disney Springs!
The second nugget means that lessors can find ways to pay
Disney for those not inexpensive leases and they're apparently entitled by their contract to do what they want. Outdoor entertainment such as an outdoor deck at
The Boat House would be ok as long as it doesn't interfere with the outdoor entertainment offered at
Raglan Road, for instance. But it could also mean, for example only, that whatever restaurant ultimately comes to
Mannequins could clear-out the tables at night and use the space as a dance club! If they wanted to. So don't get depressed. Stay tuned to see how this plays out!
10 comments:
Hope - It's what keeps us believing, and right now that's all we have.
So true!
I'm trying not to be depressed but when the best we can hope for is restaurants staying open late and offering dancing tugs is nothing compared to what Mannequins was and these restaurants aren't even going to be operated by Disney so they won't have the benefit of Disney Imagineering to make them creative like Mannequins was. :-(. Actually we still have NO specifics from Disney what the nightlife will consist of.
Correction: When the best we can hope for is restaurants staying open late and offering dancing *this* is nothing compared to what Mannequins was... ( iPhone typo ).
I agree. It won't be anywhere near as good as what was taken away. Unless whatever goes into Mannequins really shocks us!
???, plz people, I spent too many nights at 8Trax & to a little lesser extent M'quins, to know that it really didn't get going till the 10 o'clock hour. So, this is great news! Walk into The Groove at 9:30pm, and let me know what you see. Then go back in at 11:30pm. #LikeNight&Day
I feel kind of sad for the shops staying open until 2. Not even PI did that.
Give the shops a reason to stay open til 2am. True nightlife with clubs!
Whiskey River in my city converts to a night club at night, and they are very successful. Hopefully we'll see similar success in Disney Springs. But if you have 30 restaurants all open until 2am, there is certainly a pretty good opportunity for a few late night "ghost town" places to have trouble surviving. They will need some very strong concepts in place to keep things alive. And they will need to compete with the new things coming to downtown Orlando. As we have already seen, there is quite a battle for night life market share and there will be losers. Pleasure Island having been dark for so long has certainly allowed plenty of time for additional competition to come into Orlando. From my view, that appears to have been a big strategic error by Disney. Someone should be *promoted* for that, haha.
You know Disney. Yes, they were promoted.
And yes, they squandered what they had and it will be a struggle to get it back. Much more competition out there than there was 5.5 years ago and former customers have found new places.
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