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| If you want to let the memories begin, what better place for them to begin than beautiful Pleasure Island! |
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| Having cleaned up the Boardwalk of mayhem, our favorite Disney crime fighter Cheryl has returned to PI to rid the Island of alleged thugs, street gangs and roving bands of teens! Once this is completed, the clubs should be able to be reopened. |
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| The new grassy knoll remains secluded behind barriers awaiting further word on how Island renovations are going to progress. |
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| The new sidewalk/pathway remains uncompleted at this juncture. |
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| The new service entry at the rear of Portobello is the only active construction on PI at this time. |
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| The Lily Pad area is nicely decorated with flower pots and a lot of people stop to take pics. |
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| Finally.....a new human statue has arrived at the West End Ultra Lounge area! |
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| Meanwhile over at Planet Hollywood, DJ Tony Z (Atlantic Dance Hall) will play all your favorite requests! |
That's some mighty fine grass.
ReplyDeleteYeah, they spent alot of money on flowers for PI to not look so dead. What do you send to funerals? Flowers.
Bob, I've been on the island the past couple of nights and noticed some relatively new acts taking place -- namely some latin-esque music on PI/West Side and a magician of sorts outside the World of Disney store. Nice to see the powers-that-be continuing to 'invest' in some new acts to keep things relatively fresh. Anyway, why are the acts so adamant about ending before 10:45pm? Why doesn't Disney management let them run until 11:00pm? The acts typically say something like, "oh, we have to wrap things up by 10:45" so something is up. Any ideas? Also noticed RideMakerz is still pumping out cars on the West Side, any word on their move?
ReplyDeleteJoe, I like the flowers. If they're not going to put musical acts there right now, it's a nice filler.
ReplyDeleteAnon, thanks for the report. I thought the musical acts on PI did run until 11pm. Maybe that's only on Friday and Saturday nights? I'm not aware of anything taking place overnight. Even when they do overnight work, it's after 2am when DTD is officially closed. There has been nothing new about RideMarkerz. If 3rd parties are really getting the opportunity to open/reopen clubs, then lots of revised moves could happen. Maybe that Iron Chef restaurant will actually come!
http://www.mousesteps.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=583&Itemid=65
ReplyDeleteBob, here's a good look at the new Dine In Theaters at Downtown Disney. The link is from Mousesteps.com.
Ridemakerz was supposed to close, but honestly, I think Disney has no idea what will fill the Virgin Megastore gap (it's a huge space to fill, so I get that). So, Ridemakerz is status quo for now.
ReplyDeleteThe VP of DTD, Keith "Billy" Bradford, did an informal career development presentation for the Cast at Saratoga several weeks ago. He mentioned that they are in contract negotiations right now for five new operating participant run restaurants, an announcement for the Virgin/Ridemakerz building is forthcoming, and that there is discussion about how they can further improve/plus the plans they have for the Wharf area.
ReplyDeleteDiscussion switched to how the Entertainment Department is happy with the ability to book acts that aren't typically Disney approved (or unionized) and that the lounge area has proven to be a decent attempt to hide empty show buildings. Explicitly did not mention anything about the clubs - (went out of his way to call it Pleasure Island when asked) and just gave the standard "Our guest wants food/dining" mantra for closure reasoning.
He was proud to point out the very high average wait times to be seated during dining periods at Downtown Disney restaurants and also the fact that more people visit the World of Disney store in a year than Animal Kingdom. Makes me wonder if Kevin Lansberry's tenure during the two years before/after PI's death and his short seven month stint at Animal Kingdom has anything to do with diminishing turnstile clicks at both. That or just TDO's overall lack of planning and foresight to accurately/effectively run the entire 47 square mile property.
Thank you very much for that report! Will have to read that several times to digest it all. Interesting stuff. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteAt T-Rex and RFC, sure. During Christmas week and Spring Break, sure. But Mothers Day--busiest day of the year in the industry--no lines at Paradiso or Raglan. Didn't walk down to Bongos/HoB but doubt they were slammed (if they were, HoB wouldn't want out).
ReplyDeleteBradford watched a little too much Nemo I think. "Just keep spinning, just keep spinning..."
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ReplyDeleteDon't forget Lansberry was VP of Transportation when the monorail accident happened
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