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| When living in a tourist town, sometimes you gotta act like a tourist! Friday night in the tourist district of International Drive. Not that many years ago there was a dearth of nightlife along I-Drive but that is no longer the case. First stop on a Friday night is the Pointe Orlando complex, formerly geared towards shopping but now much more of a restaurant and nightlife complex including BB Kings Blues Club. |
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| The BB King All Star Band was in the house as they nearly always are here. While there can be some "blues" the music is mostly older Top 40. And while no one was dancing at this moment, the floor does get pretty full. |
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| The venue is more of a restaurant earlier in the evening but is more of a club later on! Cover $5. |
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| Also in Pointe Orlando is the Greek-themed restaurant turns into club Opa. |
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| The DJ booth was on auto-pilot during this visit, playing Dance. |
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| Napkins are strewn all over the floor and many of the females like to hang out on top of the tables! There were fortunately no Greek austerity-measure riots taking place! No cover. |
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| First visit to Ice Bar Orlando which consists of both Fire Lounge and Icebar. |
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| $20 will gain you entry into the Icebar itself but it's only $12 if you buy your ticket on-line in advance. It's a nippy 20F degrees in the club and music from Fire Lounge is pumped inside. Drinks are pricy, extra and limited to different flavors of vodka. It's a really cool vibe....literally. |
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| Drinks are served in "glasses" made out ice! You may recall the Blog reported in December, 2009 that a rumored "Water, Fire & Ice" could be part of the Pleasure Island re-do, part of a Schussler Creative Winter Wonderland restaurant. We'll see if that actually happens! |
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| The adjacent Fire Lounge was pretty empty but I'm told it gets pretty crowded by midnight and Friday's "Siberian Nights" theme are a gathering place for the local Russian community. |
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| DJ Sher-Khan was playing music reminiscent of what gets played in The Groove. By that I mean a mix of Top 40, 80's, 90's, House, Hip Hop, all of it. No cover for Fire Lounge. |
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| OK, finally made it here for a review. Nothing else quite like the Frog! |
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| Normally associated with various cruise ship ports like Nassau, San Juan and Cozumel, Orlando now has one of its own Señor Frogs and it's exactly where it should be located, in the tourist district. The music is all Hip Hop and Latin. |
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| Crazy, crazy, crazy! |
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| No guys allowed on the stage! |
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| The place is 80% tourists and only 20% locals. Admission is $5 with local ID, $10 for everyone else! |
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| There is no parking. You either must use the free valet service and pay the expected tip or do as I did and pay to park at Pointe Orlando and walk. I'm told local towing companies are making a killing towing people from the various hotel parking lots in the area. I'm also told that various I-Drive powers are not happy this place is here and would like to see it gone. But after seeing all the money being poured into their coffers, that's not likely to happen anytime soon! |
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| Quick visit to Dave & Busters across the street. |
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| It's more like a sports bar with music but no DJ or dance floor. |
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| And of course it's mainly a game room; kind of a Chuck E Cheese for adults! I've attended a couple of work-related functions here during the day when it's not crowded and the place is a lot of fun! No cover. |
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| Final stop of the night at Backstage Nightclub located in the Rosen Plaza Hotel. |
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| The live band Top Secret was performing to an empty dance floor when I arrived. |
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| But it was late and the band ended and DJ La Pause took over. |
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| The floor quickly filled up to the Top 40/Dance mix being played. |
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| The place reminded me of the Why Not Lounge, but slightly younger. They do have cover charges on some nights but it was free last night. I-Drive is now a lot of fun and many restaurants (i.e. Fridays, Ale House, Funky Monkey) have open-air seating and even they were packed. |
