Tuesday, July 26, 2011

PI Update: AC Artifacts Appearing Everywhere But Pleasure Island

Big thanks to Canadian reader Belle who alerted us to the fact that the new Disney Aulani Resort is going to apparently have parts of the Adventurers Club included in their kids club known as Aunty's Beach House. In this interview below conducted by the website DIS Unplugged, the Imagineer gives some hints about what's coming. Skip to around 22:00 for the AC connection.

Artifacts stripped from Pleasure Island's Adventurers Club have now appeared at D-Street in Downtown Disney West Side, Trader Sams in Anaheim, Aunty's Beach House in Oahu in addition to the originally reported destination of Hong Kong Disneyland! No recent reports on the Colonel though. You'll recall he was for sale a few months ago at Disney Property Control but when it got publicized, he was suddenly removed from sale.

12 comments:

ReelJustice said...

I've been told the Colonel is now safely sitting in someone's office in WDI Florida.

Anonymous said...

OK what is WDI Florida?

Ace said...

In the video, the Imagineer tells us she is 'senior show producer,' etc. and then she uses the name 'Penelope Perkins' instead of 'Pamelia Perkins.' What's up with THAT mistake from an IMAGINEER who is supposed to be intimately familiar with the backstories? Hmmmmmm... In any case, I think we can definitively declare the Adventurers Club at Pleasure Island, as we knew it, has truly been relegated to the past despite the fact that it lives on in the hearts of many Imagineers and the public-at-large. So very sad...

Anonymous said...

Penelope might be Hawaiian for Pamelia.

Anonymous said...

There are two colonels and neither one is sitting in Hong Kong

Anonymous said...

I saw the colonel today in Orlando. He was on the bucket full of fried chicken

71 said...

For what its worth, a former adventurer in CA swears everything in Trader Sams is a replica. With the only artifact being mentioned in the video being a letter from "Penelope Perkins" (similar to the letter from the Colonel in Trader Sams), I'm wondering if Hawaii will be the same. In other words, all the real stuff may still be in Orlando--still not doing anyone much good.

KingBob said...

ReelJustice, thanks for the info.

Ace, I hope they realize the potential for the original location right there on Pleasure Island.

Anon at 12:41pm, if neither are sitting in Hong Kong and ReelJustice says one of them is in Florida, hopefully that means both are still on-property.

Anon at 1:46pm, LOL....love it!

71, was the stuff that used to be in AC actual artifacts or was it replicas made to look like authentic artifacts? If AC stuff were replicas, then are you saying the stuff at Trader Sams are replicas of replicas?

Joe said...

71, is the ship in the bottle at Trader Sam's a duplicate?

Bob, a bunch of the stuff at AdvClub were real artifacts; some replicas.
I've always heard rumors that some of the stuff was from Joe Rohde's personal collection. No doubt, he helped collect a bunch of it for AdvClub. I saw him in there a couple times sitting at the bar. Pretty cool.

71 said...

Basically, what Joe said. I've heard basically the same thing about Joe Rohde--"half the stuff he bouught with Disney's wallet, half with his own". For the most part, I think a lot of it, other than the obvious special effects, was real, albeit found at garage sales and swap meets.

Haven't been to Anaheim myself, but one friend who has says the ship in a bottle is a replica, not from PI.

Bill said...

FWIW, 71 and Bob and all, I heard the same story about all the AC stuff in Trader Sam's being replicas of the AC props directly from a CM at Trader Sam's. Take it with however many grains of salt you prefer.

Ace said...

I can confirm that the ship-in-a-bottle is not the same one from The Adventurers Club. It is a new model of The Wicked Wench pirate ship from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The Adventurers Club ship-in-a-bottle was used as a model from which to build the new/updated version in Trader Sam's. The original Adventurers Club ship-in-a-bottle, due to its age and condition, was deemed not reuseable.

Trivia: The ship used in the original Adventurers Club ship-in-a-bottle is a common everyday plastic sailing ship model which may still be purchased in ordinary hobby shops today.

New Thing to Watch For: One of the future "enhancements" planned for Trader Sam's includes new and unique tiki mugs for each of the several specialty cocktails currently being served. The mugs are currently being sculpted, reviewed, tested, etc. before being authorized for release to manufacturing. My estimate is that, if the concept survives review and is approved, it could be 6 or more months before we would start seeing unique Trader Sam's drinkware. These would likely become very popular among tikiphiles out there.

Interesting Thing to Look For: Somewhere in Trader Sam's you will find an authentic limited-edition Miehana mug displayed on a shelf. The Miehana mug has a very unique history, backstory, and companion cocktail. It was designed and created to commemorate its birthplace. To date, the Miehana mug in Trader Sam's is the highest-priced Miehana mug to have ever been sold -- it was acquired by Disney on eBay for $150. Prior to this relatively recent purchase by Disney I personally held that record. Mine has since been personalized with my name and signed by the sculptors/designers.