8 traxx Opens In Atlanta

Former 8TRAX at beautiful Pleasure Island

Several readers have commented about 8 traxx, a new disco that has opened in the Buckhead nightlife district of Atlanta. I haven't located a website for the club but the internet articles I did find mention that it's a 70's & 80's night club for those that missed that era the first time around or for those that want to relive it. As much as I loved Mannequins, the 8TRAX at Pleasure Island is one club that deserves to be reopened at Hyperion Wharf, Disney-run or outsourced. The music of that era is truly family-friendly; every age group knows the words to the songs.  I still think they could run it for all ages early in the evening and then make it adult-only after 10pm or so. I'm ready to invest in the idea if they'd just give me permission! Looks like the Atlanta venue avoids copyright problems by separating the 8 from the traxx, keeping the traxx all-lower case and using two x's. Brilliant! Looks like a visit to Atlanta may be needed. FIELD TRIP!

PI Rumor Update

Here is a bunch of information that one of our informed readers has shared with the Save Pleasure Island Blog. Please treat these as rumors as I have no substantiation for any of it but it does make for interesting reading!

1) If you recall from the Blog's Februrary 28th article, I reported on a possible water and light show that was being designed for Village Lake. It's purpose was to draw patrons to Downtown Disney where they could enjoy the free show but then stick around for dining and shopping. This was not a duplicate of the new World of Color show at Disney California Adventure but it would have involved intricate fountains nonetheless. Well, those plans are on hold as the Hyperion Wharf redo takes place instead. But the lake will be gaining 5 new water fountains that will have motion, but nothing like what was planned.

2) In that same article, I mentioned concept art that displayed a yellow trolley system operating at Downtown Disney. Apparently that plan is on and will use the same equipment that is planned for Disney California Adventure. The trolley track(s) will run along the edge of DTD along with a reworked parking lot. The track would be landscaped and there would be some walls; a fire lane would also coexist. They would love to have it run west to Old Key West Resort and north to Saratoga Springs Resort but the cost of including that length would probably prohibit it from happening.

3) In conjunction with a trolley system, the DTD internal boat transportation system would be eliminated. Boats would still operate between DTD Marketplace and some resorts to the north though.

4) Rumors continue that House of Blues will be leaving Downtown Disney West Side and moving to downtown Orlando, possibly to Church Street Station. I previously reported from a different source that HOB was closing but this makes more sense that they would just be relocating. One question is whether Amway Center has any kind of non-compete clause with Live Nation for music concerts. Live Nation has owned the House of Blues chain since 2006. This would be a fantastic addition to downtown!

5) Moving into a then vacant HOB building would then be another Schussler Creative concept; a motorcycle-theme restaurant. The Blog previously reported on Schussler's Backyard BBQ featuring Orange County Choppers restaurant coming to DTD but perhaps switching to the Harley Davidson Cafe brand allows the existing Orlando Harley store to operate in conjunction with a restaurant of the same brand.

6) Those poles around the new waterfront amphitheater are actually screens which can display old style posters during the day and videos at night.

7) They want to make Downtown Disney into more of a lifestyle center; a destination for locals and tourists alike rather than just a shopping center. Thus, expect more festivals and special events. Valet parking will be an important addition. There apparently is a big internal debate going on whether to charge everyone to park at Downtown Disney, just as CityWalk already does.

Big thanks to the reader that contributed this information. We'll see how things play out!

AAHZ Encore This Wednesday Night

If you are a fan of Mannequins from back in the old days when they specialized in real techno, trance and progressive house music, then you should NOT miss the AAHZ Encore taking place this Wednesday night, Thanksgiving Eve, at the Beacham Theater in downtown Orlando.  The Beacham is now better known as Tabu. 

Last year I went to their AAHZ Reunion on a kind of cool, drizzly night in Orlando. I got there about 10:30pm expecting to be standing around with 20 or so other people.  That was hardly the case. The line was already long and when I finally got inside, the place was packed!  By midnight you could hardly move in the place as DJ's Dave Cannalte (Mannequins) and Kimball Collins (from all over!) recreated their beloved night club AAHZ in the very building where it existed 20 years prior.  All ages were represented in the crowd although it was generally older considering the club existed in the late 80's and 90's. Lots of Mannequins regulars there.

If you're in Orlando and don't have plans, this one really is not to miss! This is the rave of all raves!

Mannequins To Be Replaced By Silk Road?

The WDW Magic website has two pieces of Hyperion Wharf concept art that are not displayed on Disney's official website and thus I'm not able to reproduce here. One of them shows the view entering the former Pleasure Island via the #2 Bridge. On the right, Raglan Road. On the left, the former Mannequins. Not only has the building been significantly renovated to look like a warehouse, but the sign prominently features the name and logo of Silk Road, a Las Vegas restaurant famous for $20 breakfasts. Have to assume that this is actually coming if they're using their logo. Makes you wonder if Zach Divine, the name on the first piece of concept art located in the current Harley Davidson space, is a real name too. Will we be partying at ZD's?

The other piece of concept of art there shows the view from the #1 Bridge from Marketplace, but up high, showing how pedestrians will encounter shops if they follow the new pathway behind Raglan and to the left of Portobello. That website also reports that PI will be divided into three neighborhoods from the 1920's. Fulton's Crab House will look like its docked at a ferry terminal, the Mannequins area will be the industrialized warehouse district and the west end near the #3 Bridge to West Side will feel like an amusement pier.

Check it out for yourself at: http://www.wdwmagic.com/Attractions/Hyperion-Wharf/Gallery/18Nov2010-Hyperion-Wharf-concept-art.htm

Club Reports: Dragon Room & Independent Bar

Continuing to expand my horizons, visited Dragon Room in downtown Orlando with Saturday night DJ Freefall (Vintage). Small, narrow club with a decent sized dance floor featuring Hip Hop & Top 40. A shadow dancer performs above the main dance floor.

Return visit to Independent Bar with DJ Indie John and 80's Old Wave/New Wave on Saturday nights. Great music and pretty packed this evening!

It was the Florida Classic football weekend in Orlando with Bethune Cookman College playing Florida A&M University at the Citrus Bowl Stadium. But that leads to tons of hip-hoppers downtown and a high demand for that music. Both Vain and Bliss caved and turned their Techno/Dance music Saturday nights over to them! A number of streets were blocked to traffic with a lot of OPD security in force.

Hyperion Wharf: Let's Take A Closer Look

After more than 2 years of waiting, Disney finally announced what they plan to do with Pleasure Island. We finally learned this week that the Island will take on a nautical wharf warehouse-district theme of the early 20th century. Should we be upset?  Right now, the answer is NO. Why?  Because other than the theme and some artist renderings, nothing was announced that should cause anyone to be upset....yet. No shop names, no restaurant names, no entertainment options. So all we can do right now is remain hopeful and speculate. Let's look at the rendering above looking towards the Hub. First of all, we see that the Hyperion Wharf sign is facing the wrong way. That's only done so you can read it. We see Harley Davidson is no longer located at the corner. We see the Mannequins building has had some porthole type windows added to the 3rd floor. To the left we see that the Sosa Cigars building is still there and a refreshment stand kiosk is adjacent a waterfront seating area where small entertainment acts such as the fire-breather pictured perform. RRBC is obviously gone.

Zooming in closer, we see the former Harley shop now has a second floor and there are people hanging around up there. Are they drinking and dancing? We don't know. Light cannons point to the sky. The Hyperion Wharf sign is now properly facing the parking lot. There is some sort of LED billboard displaying Mickey. Paradiso 37 is still in business to the right.  And the 8TRAX building has shop window fronts with red awnings.

Standing in front of Paradiso 37 and looking in the direction of Motion, we see that Motion is no longer there and the main pathway makes a curve to the right to head towards the #1 Bridge and Marketplace. What the Blog reported long ago as a Lighthouse fast food restaurant and bar is there on the corner where Motion and RRBC used to meet, but we don't know what is in there. To the left of it is the new Mahogany Bay Classic Old Boats and Great Food restaurant, or whatever they end up calling it. To the right we see the red-awnings of shops in the 8TRAX area and some table seating. Anything adult-only? We don't know.
Photos © 2010 Walt Disney Corporation -  From WDW website - fair use claimed

Club Report: Atlantic Dance Hall

Friday night at Atlantic Dance Hall. Good-sized crowd on hand under the auspices of DJ Tony Z (Planet Hollywood) who pretty much avoided Hip Hop until the final hour. Not a lot of the regulars on hand this night but plenty of people whom I did not recognize. ADH is the only dance club on Disney property still operated by Disney and is located at Disney's Boardwalk Resort. Tony Z will be back Thanksgiving night while DJ G-Clef (Red Coconut Club, Celebrate Tonight) will be running the place next Friday night.

PI Update: Calm Before The Storm

Time for an update from beautiful Pleasure Island before its impending demise.

The new Latin chicken restaurant Pollo Campero opened earlier this week in the building formerly housing the Downtown Disney McDonald's. There have been extensive renovations and it looks pretty impressive inside. There is a separate bakery, smoothie station and indoor/outdoor bar.

Bridge #1 construction has concluded and it's open for business. This should facilitate demolition equipment being able to enter Pleasure Island to take down Motion and Rock'n'Roll Beach Club which are coming down first. I'm told that most construction will take place at night; there won't be any wrecking balls per se as everything will be systematically taken apart piece by piece and then removed via barges on Village Lake. The rumored "light house restaurant" supposedly will just be a waterfront lighthouse with no bar or fast food restaurant associated with it.

Construction at the Lily Pad entertainment area continues but the walled-off area is now very small.

The directional sign adjacent Mannequins has been updated for Christmas.

I tried hard to locate some dancing on Pleasure Island but there was none to be found. For that it was necessary to visit CityWalk where all the clubs were surprising full for a Thursday night in mid-November. The three pics above feature 80's Night at The Groove, Red Coconut Club and Latin Quarter.

BREAKING NEWS: PI to Be Replaced By Hyperion Wharf

Photo © 2010 Walt Disney Corporation - fair use claimed/ Photo from WDW website

Disney made the big announcement today that we've been waiting for!
SEE:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-disney-pleasure-island-changes-20101118,0,2869804.story
As you can see, the name Pleasure Island will be phased out and the construction will take a couple years. Artist renderings show the name being changed to Downtown Disney Hyperion Wharf. Another shows the view from the waterfront with the current Paradiso 37 to the right and something different located where Harley Davidson is currently housed. No venue names announced today. We've previously reported on the Schussler Creative concept restaurants that are likely coming.

Nothing in today's announcement says that the Mannequins/8TRAX building is coming down and indeed, the new name is prominently placed on top of the Mannequins building where the current Pleasure Island sign is located. A big disappointment, yes? But other than the name itself, there are no surprises here since the Blog reported on the nautical concept and the thousands of dollars in lighting previously. The Mannequins - 8TRAX building remaining has been reported on here as well.

UltraFest 2011

The largest Dance music festival in the United States is the Ultra Music Festival at Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami. It is usually held in March on the final weekend of Winter Music Conference (WMC). Earlier today Ultra informed WMC that they will not be holding the music festival in conjunction with WMC this coming year!  According to a WMC press release, “We were blindsided by Ultra’s last minute announcement this morning.” Winter Music Conference is being held March 8-12th but Ultra is being advertised as taking place March 25-27. If there is anything good coming out of this it's that there might be better hotel availability with the events separated. However, will the big name DJ's still be as available with the events now spaced weeks apart? If you've already booked a hotel for the earlier dates, please check into making changes.

Groove Cruise

This past weekend I got to vicariously experience Shiprocked, a heavy metal Rock'n'roll fest on a cruise ship. It was not a planned encounter; I only learned the event would be on my cruise the night before I departed. Rock is not my cup of tea but it was interesting to see how such events play out.  If only they'd do something like that for us House music fans!

Well they do and it's called the Groove Cruise, offered by Miami-based Whet Travel.  And it's coming this January 21-24, 2011 on the Norwegian Sky, pictured above docked in Nassau this past Saturday. They have run a Groove Cruise several times from Miami and Southern California and I believe one time this year from NYC. What is Groove Cruise?  It's DJ's on board instead of bands. In the past they've had private shows that only passengers who booked through Whet Travel got to experience. What makes this coming Groove Cruise different is that there has been such high demand that they've chartered the entire ship! Visit whettravel.com if you want more details. I am not endorsing it, just telling you about it. UPDATE: George Acosta & Darude just added!

More 8TRAX Photos

8TRAX fans will enjoy a few more photos we obtained from the inside of the defunct club. The third photo shows the extent to which unknown merchandise and literally junk is being stored in there. You know, the place could be earning Disney money. Didn't I read somewhere that revenue was down this past quarter?

Ship Club Reports: Shiprocked & S32 (MSC Poesia)

I felt like I was at a night in Rock'nRoll Beach Club that never would end and there was no way out! Such was this weekend's cruise on the beautiful ship MSC Poesia. About 1000 of the 2000 passengers on board were there for Shiprocked, a hard rock cruise. (getshiprocked.com)  Most of their rock concerts were private in the various lounges and in main ship's theater. But several were outdoors by the main pool stage and everyone on board could attend. It was interesting to see that many younger people are into rock music now, not just the aging rockers that were on board too. Bands included Cinderella, Sevendust and Tesla. I don't know much about them except they definitely have followings and their groupies were pretty hot! Watched one of the band members head into a show with 3 girls hanging onto him. I asked a Shiprocked crew member if that guy was somebody important. She told me that he was....and that one of the girls was staying in his cabin and the other two girls were in the cabin next to him!

The S32 Disco is the on-board club and had so much potential. But with half the passengers following the rock concerts and many others elderly, that left far too few to go to the disco. My picture does show an empty dance floor but it did get dancers a bit later. DJ Federico (I) did a good job playing a lot of House & Dance and mostly skipped the Hip Hop. I did not understand though why the monitors displayed music videos that did not match the songs being played. And the dance floor is made up of other monitors which had the potential to flash colors during his 70's Disco set but instead displayed that same lunar image all night.

DJ Paul Oakenfold in Orlando Thursday Night

DJ Paul Oakenfold (GB) returns to Orlando Thursday night for the second time in 2010 with a concert at club Firestone Live. When he played at Firestone in February, he promised the club's owner he would return later in the year. And here he is. The club was wall-to-wall packed last visit and I expect more of the same this time. I had planned to go but will be on a weekend cruise instead. If the ship has a good disco, I'll certainly let you know!

ELSEWHERE: The internet website Mouse Planet this week quotes the Save Pleasure Island Blog's article about the Mahogany Bay restaurant coming to Pleasure Island. It also adds new information: Supposedly the restaurant's theme is "old boats and root beer floats". Is this for real? See there article at this link:

http://www.mouseplanet.com/9434/Walt_Disney_World_Resort_Update

BREAKING NEWS: 8TRAX Interior Shots

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE
You know how every once in awhile you see a story in the news where excavators are doing some digging and they discover an old house buried in ancient times by a volcano. And everything in the house is exactly as it was the moment the volcano blew. Well that's kind of how I feel looking at these 8TRAX interior photos. You see, it looks as though the club is standing still in time, appearing as it looked that fateful night over two years ago when it was closed and locked-up! Bring in some lights, bring in some tech and sound equipment and bring in some elbow grease and 8TRAX could reopen this weekend!

As you can see for yourself, not much has changed. It looks like the place is being used for some sort of merchandise storage in the lower area. But the dance floor looks the same. And contrary to a rumor I published a year or so ago, that downstairs bar was not removed; you can see it's still there! The 8TRAX sign appears ready to list some drink specials. The Great Gatsby poster reminds one of better times.

Come on Disney, let's reopen the place! That 70's music is cross-generational; it meets your very own definition of family friendly. It returns night life to Walt Disney World and a $5 cover charge brings a long line of patrons back up the Lombard Street stairs! It brings a whole lot of people back to Pleasure Island.