Club Report: The Groove

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It was a bitterly cold Orlando evening Saturday night (52F degrees!) so I wondered if people would still come out to party. It started slow but by 11:30pm it was pretty packed. The girls were all dressed in the latest styles received for Christmas while the guys were wearing their typically ratty jeans we always do! DJ King was belting out a lot of 70's along with the current Top 40 hits. It was too cold outside to club hop so I stayed sequestered in "my spot" by the stage. It was a fun evening.

PI Update: Winter Wonderland Coming to PI?

TM Schussler Creative
Last September I reported on a party held by idea-man Steve Schussler up near Minneapolis in which Disney executives were wined and dined in order to get them to listen to restaurant concepts for Downtown Disney. Schussler Creative is the force behind 3 existing Disney restaurants, Rainforest Cafe, T-REX and Yak & Yeti. Within a month of the Disney execs returning from that party, they announced that PI clubs were going to be closed and replaced with restaurants and shops. Last month I reported on new rumors that Schussler restaurants Winter Wonderland (with an Ice Bar), Orange County Choppers Bikes, Blues & BBQ and Hot Dog Hall of Fame were coming to Pleasure Island. Here are a few other links PI fans should be aware of. You'll need to copy and paste the links.

In this first link, a columnist from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune attended the same party as the Disney execs and reported on it back in May, 2008:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/18822624.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

There was video from the party to go along with it. Disney execs appear about 1:38 into the video and notice the emphasis on motorcycle choppers:
http://www.startribune.com/video/18770829.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

Finally this excellent television show from St. Paul television station KSTP called On The Road. The first half is all about Schussler and during it he states that his Winter Wonderland restaurant is coming to Orlando. (Disney being in Orlando is used throughout this video.)
http://kstp.com/article/stories/S330612.shtml?cat=69

So there you have it! More evidence of what's coming to PI.

Blog Mission Statement & Disclaimer

The original goal of the Save Pleasure Island Blog was to rally support to reverse the decision to close Pleasure Island. There were Save Pleasure Island and Save The Adventurers Club petitions and letter/e-mail campaigns. Unfortunately, all that fell on deaf Mouse ears.

The current mission is to keep you informed about what is happening with the clubs on our beloved island. Factual information is provided when available but most of what is printed on here is rumor-based. Please understand that rumors by their very nature are very unreliable. Even if a rumor was true, it's possible that things change and it never becomes true. Thus, readers should consider the information on this Blog to be fiction and not rely on any of it in any way.

With PI closing so many people kept asking me where I would be hanging out that this Blog also evolved into reporting on nightclub alternatives and big concerts. Permanent listings in a format based on the PI clubs can be located at sister Blog www.orlandoclublist.blogspot.com

This is a non-commercial Blog. I don't make any money off this in any manner including any endorsements I make. Your comments are welcomed and appreciated. Post them in designated comment areas following each entry. You may also send comments, tips, rumors and photos to me via e-mail at kingbobofthenorth at g mail dot com. Thank you!

Club Report: Atlantic Dance Hall (NYE)

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A great New Years Eve party last night in Atlantic Dance Hall at Disney's Boardwalk. DJ Tony Z spent most of the night in Motion and 8TRAX but there was a good amount of time spent in Mannequins (yea!) and only a negligible amount of time in BET Soundstage! Elisa from Mannequins did another great job working the lights. Unfortunately no CO2 spraydowns!

Mannequins boys & 8TRAX girls! Techno Larry was not to be found. I think he moved to California.

The club was very crowded but not so bad that you couldn't move.

Confetti cannons were armed and ready for the midnight explosion. We got to witness the ball drop from Times Square via Disney-owned ABC.

Lots of dresses, leggings and tall boots! :-)

Happy New Year!!

As 2009 comes to a close, I present to you the #1 song in America according to Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 chart. This song furthers my theory that Dance music is merging with Top 40 and Hip Hop. A few months ago I presented Dance singer Cascada's (D) Evacuate the Dance Floor which included Hip Hop elements along with House DJ David Guetta (F) directly including Hip Hop singer Akon in his Sexy Bitch song. Here we have lily white girl Ke$ha (USA) singing Hop Hop directly to #1 with Tik Tok. Earlier in the year she sang with Flo Rida on his #1 hit Right Round. Happy New Year everyone!! Hopefully we'll hear some good PI news in 2010.

Universal Premier Pass

Quite a few Pleasure Island residents migrated over to Universal's CityWalk entertainment complex last year when PI closed down. Universal cleverly offered a FREE 6-month CityWalk Annual Pass to any PI annual pass holder. A lot of PI people took advantage of this offer which provided free admission from the time PI closed until March 31st, 2009. Everyone expected though that CityWalk would follow that up with an Annual Pass offer of its own. A lot of PI people would have bought one plus they would have sold a lot of them to their own regulars. But as March came to an end, CityWalk didn't end up coming out with an AP. As we move into 2010, I'm told there are no plans to offer one this coming year either.

But this brings up a point that regular reader Ken mentioned in a Comment a few months ago: The Universal Premier Pass. If you're a regular at CityWalk, this Pass really needs to be considered because it includes CityWalk. Let's do the math: If you plan to go to CityWalk once every-other week in 2010 and you buy the all-club Party Pass, that's 26 visits @ $11.99 = $311.74 + tax spent. But the Universal Premier Pass is just $289.99 + tax. For slightly LESS money you not only get unlimited visits to CityWalk but you also get unlimited visits to the two theme parks, free valet & regular parking, free Express Passes after 4pm, free bottled water, food and merchandise discounts, AMC movie discounts, 2 for 1 well drinks, a Halloween Horror Nights ticket and a lot more! And the first year is the only time you pay that full price; the renewal option this year is $199.99 + tax.

Do the math with your personal situation. You may find it's a great value. And don't forget that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be arriving soon as well.

PI Update: Inside the Clubs

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The clubs continue to have small amounts of interior lighting which allow you to peer in after night falls. Motion is the easiest to look into and as far as I can tell, the club has not been stripped of equipment but there is no way for me to know for sure. There is still a podium on the stage with a pumpkin sitting on top. (Photo Upper Left) At Comedy Warehouse, it looks like a lot of the junk that was stored in there has been cleared out however the wood seating is still in there just like it always was. No real signs of active renovations. Soundstage has definitely been stripped of equipment down to bare walls. That's more fitting to a building about to be demolished. We know AC has been stripped of most artifacts too. Over at 8TRAX the interior looks the same as it always has; you can easily see the different levels, the fencing, even the old Twister game on the floor. What was most interesting though is I spotted an employee of Paradiso 37 go into the 8TRAX downstairs door with a cart of what looked like junk and then come out with an empty cart. Apparently they are using 8TRAX for storage! No renovations in sight. I did not look inside Mannequins this trip but you can see on the outside that the former upstairs fire escape door area has been smoothed-over compared to my prior posting and this is now ready to be plastered over. (Photo Upper Right)


I just can't stay away from Celebrate Tonight though; the 5:30pm edition tonight included the Electric Slide and some kind of blind baseball game. They have definitely stopped asking people "What are you celebrating?" because that question rarely generated decent answers.

New Years Eve Options

This is basically a repeat of my December 5th article, updated where applicable. Please consider this a basic overview only that should not be relied upon; visit the websites of the different venues for exact details. For EPCOT, see December 19th article.

Will there be any PI club reopenings for NYE this year? LOL....you gotta be kidding! Heck, there won't even be any fireworks at Downtown Disney this year. Thousands of guests will be wandering around DTD just like they did last year, expecting them but not getting them. Silly guests. But I'm sure Celebrate Tonight will be open.....and it's FREE.

The only remaining Disney-operated dance club at Disney World, Atlantic Dance Hall will be hosting a ticketed video dance party featuring our favorite DJ Tony Z. The $35 admission fee includes party favors and champagne toast. Tickets go on sale Dec 29th at 6:30pm in the ADH lobby and you have to act fast because they sell out quickly. You can't even get near the place on NYE if you don't have one of only 550 tickets being sold this year. Last year they sold around 750 tickets but felt it was too crowded. Price includes a free parking pass. Special VIP seating upstairs with dessert $65. Tickets also Wednesday and Thursday nights until sold out. 8pm-2am.

Universal CityWalk is offering the most extensive (and expensive) NYE celebration. Tickets cost $129.99 although Universal AP holders pay $99.99. That price gets you an all-you-can-eat buffet with various food and carving stations, live performances by The Temptations and The Four Tops plus DJ
entertainment in the CityWalk clubs: DJ Doc Wells (8TRAX) will be spinning in The Groove, DJ G-Clef (Celebrate Tonight) in Red Coconut Club, DJ AJ in Pat O'Briens, DJ King in Rising Star, DJ Leony (Sirius XM BPM) in Latin Quarter, DJ Spice in Bob Marley's and DJ Bo Wilson in Margaritaville. Hours 8pm-2am.

Wall Street Plaza downtown offers Moon Street Bash, one of Orlando's major NYE parties. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. DJ Digital will be on the elevated main stage outside and there are 8 clubs within WSP to hop around to, some with their own DJ's. You usually won't find much techno here which is why you don't see these clubs mentioned much on this Blog. Nonetheless, this is a big event and you should be aware if it. Hours 8pm-3am.

The other big downtown event is the NYE 2010 Street Party at Church Street Bars. Admission ranges from $39-$99 depending on what kind of drinking you'd like to do. (Click on flyer for details.) As this one is the only one to include your drinks, it can be an incredible value! Church Street is blocked off, you get admission to Antigua, Chillers, Big Belly Brewery and Latitudes. There will be a Times Square simulcast and Orlando's now-famous Orange Drop takes place here! DJ Smooth of RadioDanz will be in the booth doing video projections across Church Street! Hours 8pm-3am.


There aren't a lot of pure Dance music options on NYE so even though the dance floor at Vixen downtown is smaller than my spare bedroom, I still have to list this as an option because if DJ Jimmy Joslin is spinnin', there's going to be great Dance in the House. $10 cover makes this a cheap option and you're just around the corner from the midnight Orange Drop. Free CD's, free champagne at midnight. Yowsah! 7pm-3am

Bliss Ultra Lounge is also holding a block party of its own on Church Street in front of their club featuring live band Urban Achievers. You can click on the flyer to your left to view the drink packages that they're offering. Basic admission including champagne toast is just $20. Not sure what's happening inside the club but DJ Mickey Bono won't be spinning that night. Hours 9pm-3am.

Over at Tabu Night Club, hip hop radio station Power 95.3 is sponsoring their NYE party with DJ Slique. Ladies are just $15 while guys pay $20. Because this is likely to be a sell-out, advance tickets are recommended from either the Tabu box office or Wanttickets.com. Champagne toast at midnight is included; all the hip hop you can dance to & drinks from 9-10pm are just $3.50. Hours 9pm-3am.




BB Kings Blues Club is way more than Blues. Their NYE party costs $75 including a 3-course dinner, reserved seating , champagne toast and party favors. Dance to live music from BB King All Star Band. General admission without dinner or seating is $40.
Hard Rock Live is doing another one of their Classic Albums Live on NYE. This year it's the "Best of Woodstock" and includes dinner and the show.
Techno Dance singer Abigail (GB) will be appearing at Parliament House on NYE. P-House knows how to party so watch out! I have fond memories of her hits "You Set Me Free" and "Could It Be Magic".
Have fun, Be Safe, Don't Drink & Drive, Arrive Alive, etc. etc.

PI Update: Celebrate Tonight

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It's been way too long since I visited Celebration Plaza to check out Celebrate Tonight. So I went to the 7:30pm edition this evening and oh what luck....I got to watch (yet again) DJ G-Clef do his 1-Cent, 5-Cent, 10-Cent A Dollar song! There were a lot of people in DTD this evening; parking spaces were scarce. But I watched most just pass by the "celebration". In the past the DJ's had a difficult time gathering victims, er, I mean volunteers for the routines, but this has cleverly morphed in asking passersby if they'd like to be "VIP's". That seems to work better. Following the Dollar song they did a rendition of Survivor which was kind of fun. The stilt-walkers were out in force on this chilly Orlando evening, as were University of Wisconsin Badger fans here for the Champs Sports Bowl.

Club Report: Atlantic Dance Hall

I planned to go watch DJ Mark Sanchez (USA) at Suite B last night but first I needed to swing by ADH to verify New Years Eve details. I never left. Although the crowd never made it past moderate in size, there were just too may PI people there to leave. And that remains the main attraction of Atlantic Dance Hall; you nearly always run into Mannequins, 8TRAX and Motion friends. The music mix absolutely sucked last night; the Saturday night DJ is horrible IMO. I mean, who else would have the dance crowd moving to a Top 40 hit and then leave them hanging with a Swing song! Fortunately NYE will feature DJ Tony Z, someone who knows how to blend music. I'll be repeating NYE details in tomorrow's article.

This Weekend In Techno Town

With Christmas on a Friday this year, it's a relative short "party weekend." All the usual spots are open tonight. I do wish to point out that Orlando DJ Mark Sanchez will be spinning techno tonight at Suite B Lounge in downtown Orlando. Sanchez is one of the two techno DJ's at EPCOT on New Years Eve. Breaks DJ Eric Berretta is going to be there along with DJ Ashley who I don't know. This begins at 10pm.


And if you're off Monday, don't forget Service Industry Night at House of Blues on Sunday night featuring DJ Sandy. Anyone in any service industry gets in free with paystub or employee ID, including but not limited to theme park employees. Others $8. Doors open 10:27pm.

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone has a nice holiday. Thanks for tuning-in to the Save Pleasure Island blog.

Bob Sinclar Coming To Orlando

DJ Bob Sinclar (F) brings his Born in 69 world tour to Orlando on Tuesday, January 5th at Club Firestone Live. This must be a recent addition to the concert register because I saw no mention of this event until yesterday. Some of Sinclar's songs have an Afro-Caribbean flavor to them such as hits World Hold On and Love Generation. He's an acquired taste, IMO. But since some of his songs do get dance club play, I mention it in case you're interested. Update: I heard part of Sinclar's satellite radio show on Saturday night and it was not tropical music in any way. Great set!

PI Update: Pizza Cart Closing / Clubs Coming Down Very Soon!

Save Pleasure Island roving reporters William and Thommy were both on the Island this past evening and heard that Stage Pizza, currently located between Soundstage and Adventurers Club, is closing after New Years Eve. And they also heard that the waterside clubs are coming down shortly after that! Overnight work appeared to be taking place inside the Mannequins and 8TRAX buildings which, according to my previously-reported rumors, are not coming down. These are all just more rumors though!

You know, it occurred to me that this Blog has had over 14,000 hits since the flag counter to the right was added at the end of July. Why do so many people care about something called Pleasure Island? And I do mean care. Hugely disappointed about the clubs closing; hugely interested in what is replacing them. Come on Disney!

Brittany Murphy: Faster Kill Pussycat

Presented as a small tribute to Brittany Murphy who starred with DJ Paul Oakenfold (GB) in this 2006 video. This song made it to #1 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart. A reminder that Oakenfold visits Orlando on Saturday, February 6th at Club Firestone Live.

PI Update: Comedy Warehouse

To avoid any copyright problems, they're calling it Comedy Where? House. But the message is clearly there.....former CW performers doing familiar comedy to a CW-starved audience. The first session was last night but there will be at least three more...December 27th, January 3rd & January 9th. Tix are $15 for this Parliament House event and help feed starving comedians. Click on image for details.

Lada Gaga Concert Moves to UCF Arena

The upcoming Lady Gaga concert at Hard Rock Live is being moved over to UCF Arena. It's been sold out at HRL since tickets first went on sale. Promoters obviously saw the demand and the opportunity. Three weeks ago resale tickets on StubHub started at $150. Two weeks ago they were at $250. Last week when I checked the cheapest resales were at $350...each! Those who purchased tickets through official channels now have to arrange to swap them for tickets at UCF Arena. Those who want to go but couldn't get tickets can now buy them beginning at 5pm this Wednesday. They will be available at the UCF box office and on Ticketmaster. UCF Arena is much larger and has seating. Thanks to "None" for alerting me about this. Update: Sold Out Again!