Monday, July 17, 2017

PI Update: Is Mannequins Revolving Dance Floor Still Down There?

No subject creates more debate on Save Pleasure Island Blog than the fate of Mannequins famous revolving dance floor.  That floor plus the futuristic lighting and sound that Mannequins offered put the club light years ahead of any other club in Orlando!  So what became of it?
Mannequins closed in 2008 along with all the other clubs on Pleasure Island.  In 2010 someone left the building's side garage door open and we were able to obtain photos of the basically untouched inside.....including the revolving dance floor!
In 2013 an anonymous Blog reader sent us a dozen or so photos of the inside of Mannequins and the dance floor was still there then!  Several people challenged this saying the photos were old and the floor had been removed right after the club closed.  We stood by the validity of the pictures.
Most recently someone pointed out this picture that we published back in 2015 as showing heavy equipment on the dance floor as proving the floor must have been removed.  This was during the conversion of Mannequins into restaurant Morimoto Asia.  I don't get the assertion though as this backhoe is not over where the dance floor was located. It's clearly on the side of the club near where that garage door used to be located.  And to the rear of the equipment is the former under the stage CM back room offices and former kitchen, not the dance floor.
When Morimoto was first announced a source told the Blog that the (former dance) floor was so large and impractical to move that taking it out and all the mechanical equipment that went with it would leave a huge hole to contend with. We were told the plan was to leave the dance floor in place and cover it with a new floor. Now that Morimoto is open for business we see a new floor that could quite easily have been placed over the former dance floor.  If you have proof the dance floor was removed, please share it with us.  Until then, it is the Blog's position that the former revolving dance floor is still down there!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

A letter to the Disney Archives would likely settle this long lingering question once and for all... :)

Anonymous said...

Disney won't admit anything about our former Island.

Anonymous said...

LOL......worth a try to even potentially FINALLY put this debate to bed. :)

Anonymous said...

You really think the heavy equipment drove itself around the dance floor, into the back corner of the room?

That the piles of stone and dirt you can see around the equipment (were the floor would be) does not mean any thing.

Keep on believing it.. next thing I suppose you'll be telling us that 8-Trax is going to reopen.

Troy said...

As much as I'd like to believe it's still there, if I *had* to bet, I'd say the floor is probably gone. A lot of stuff was cleared out whenever the front of Mannequins was cut open and it was remodeled on the inside. I do, however, think the floor was there up until that point; but to do as much work as they did to get Morimoto in there, and as much of a gutting as took place, I can't imagine many scenarios where the floor stayed.

I am still hopeful that there is part of 8-Trax around, though, in that unused section behind the sandal shop. I was there last weekend and longingly looked down the alley there, hoping a door would open or something.

Anonymous said...

The only dirt piles I see are on the outside, not on the dance floor.

Anonymous said...

Find out what construction company did the work and then find a foreman from said company and ask him..or any one that may have been onsite for the work

Anonymous said...

Also the floor maybe have had to be removed for the fact there was a small lake under it from the leaking pipes and it always had standing water under it from what I had heard management talking..so for a restaurant to go in and have new construction going in they would have to bring up to code and fix the water leaks and what ever was growing under that thing from all the cleaning and drinks that had been spilled and became a toxic sludge that would have grown more mutant turtles

Anonymous said...

I am sure orange County would NOT allow this much of a span with out big time support.
and that would require more then really thin rails!
and would require a lot of welding. thing about it?

buy I do agree the "heavy equipment" light heavy equipment. is NOT on the old floor. and I bet that heavy equipment could drive on top of that floor with no real issues Other then cracking and breaking plexiglass.

with that said how wold they been able to build this floor In the new place with out heave equipment?

Anonymous said...

Seems like running some metal braces across the top of the old floor and then building the new floor across the braces could do it. Doesnt look like there's anything really heavy on top of the new floor.

Anonymous said...

@July 17, 2017 at 8:39 PM you seam to forget that floor had pneumatic tires under it to make it go round! and after a wile they will need to be replaced


"Doesnt look like there's anything really heavy on top of the new floor." uh the tiles ON the floor the seats tables and people NO nothing heavy.

and IF so why didnt anyone see this?
as some claim NO way they could have gotten the floor out with out anyone see it GO.

Anonymous said...

" and I bet that heavy equipment could drive on top of that floor with no real issues Other then cracking and breaking plexiglass. "


Trust me, anything "service equipment" over 800lbs, was not allowed onto the floor.
The floor stopped rotating with X amount of weight on it, because the tires blow out.

It's not there anymore