PI Update: Cruising To Mannequins

Time to take another cruise.  Destination: Mannequins.

Sailing daily from the Port of HOB, this is a great opportunity to give you a Downtown Disney update for those of you unable (or unwilling) to come see this for yourself!

Very smooth seas today as we sail pass the Island of Pleasure. One can just barely make out Soundstage Club and Adventurers Club along the Island's north shoreline.

And Paradiso 37, bringing you street foods of the Americas.

A tethered balloon ride, closed due to the winds aloft.

Our cruise takes us along the Island's east point, home to a future restaurant/shop complex and an outdoor entertainment amphitheater, last we heard.

If you've ever sailed out of the Port of San Juan, you recognize the imposing citadel El Morro.

Sailing past old ruins are a part of many cruises. Here we see the remains of Cap'n Jack's Restaurant.

Land ahoy! Great to be on terra firma again.

Oh....so this is where Magnetron ended-up!

Team Mickey's days are numbered as they're apparently turning this space into a farmer's market or something like that. I did notice a lot of baseball apparal on sale cheap over at the Disney Outlet store on Vineland Avenue when I was there last week.

Contrary to rumor that a Starbucks kiosk was going in next to World of Disney, that is not true. It's a full-fledged Starbucks store.

Circling around and crossing the No. 1 Bridge over to Pleasure Island.  The numerous kiosks on the bridge do a good job of hiding the fact you're crossing a bridge.

And finally reaching the pinacle of dance music clubs, Mannequins! It's still here!

PI Update: Celebrate Today, Celebrate Tonight

Continuing with our coverage of Pleasure Island after the clubs closed.  In our most recent article on the subject a couple weeks ago we talked about how PI had become a ghost town at night because not only had the clubs closed but so had the PI Live DJ booth (no more music) and the bars (no more people hanging around). By March, 2009, the booth had been reopened as had the bars. But those were the quick fixes. In April, 2009 something more permanent was introduced.  In conjunction with Disney's advertising slogan that year "Celebrate Today", late afternoons and evenings on Pleasure Island beget "Celebrate Tonight" taking place at West End Celebration Plaza.


Afternoon show.


Evening show.
DJ Willie is featured in both of these videos. Celebrate Tonight would draw crowds at times but there were also many times when a handful of kids would be the best they could do. The DJ's and staff worked hard in both the heat of summer and the cold of winter. In February of 2010 the Blog noticed that Celebrate Tonight had been taken off the Downtown Disney Guide Map and in June of 2010 they held their final show.  Another form of evening entertainment was coming to the Island instead. (to be continued)

Club Reports: Vixen, Vintage, Vanity, Suite B

Saturday night in the city and planning to visit the V-club trio beginning with Vixen Bar.

Resident DJ Knightlife was on the controls playing a really great House/Dance mix.

The small dance floor beneath the booth never had a steady crowd but people coming and going from the club would stop and dance to a song and then move in or head out.

Decent crowd in the house but I saw a number of patrons in here for one drink and then later saw them upstairs at Vanity.

We last saw DJ Knightlife this past November at Firestone for "Return of the Kings". Old timers may remember him though from his days at Orlando's famous club Blue Room.

Moving next door to Vintage Lounge.

Finding DJ A-Rock (Club 23, Tier Nightclub) on the boards playing Open Format. 

Open Format can quickly deteriorate into a night of Hip Hop but it was all EDM during my visit.

This was my first visit to Vintage since Dominick Morrison (EPCOT-China NYE) left his long-standing Saturday night shift here.

Time to move upstairs to new club Vanity because this is where all the people are!

Saturday night resident DJ Hilton Ferris aka Johnny Quest (180 Grey Goose Lounge) taking turns with.....

.....DJ Freefall (Vintage, Rok Room, Dragon Room).

The beautiful club's dance floor was completely jammed!

And there's been a great improvement to the music.  During prior visits to Vanity they'd play a House/Dance set and then they'd play a Hip Hop set.  Last night it was all EDM with an occasional Hip Hop song thrown in and even some of those were truncated.  I think the crowded club and the crowded floor shows they got it right!

Final stop was Suite B Lounge for the Ocala Dance Festival pre-party.

DJ Somatic was playing a great Progressive House set during my visit.

It's just that no one was dancing besides the official Go Go girl!

ODF takes place next month in Ocala with the date to be announced soon.

Spotted: Another dancer; that makes two.  And a good time was had by....both.

PI Update: Snacking On Pleasure Island

With the closing of Pleasure Island's last snack location, thought I'd go through the archives and see what other options existed on the Island over the years.  Certainly most of you would remember Stage Pizza. For the years I hung out on Pleasure Island it was located near Mannequins adjacent the No. 2 Bridge. There were always long lines for pizza around 2am.  After PI permanently closed in 2008, Stage Pizza was temporarily resurrected to help liven things up and was placed in this spot between Soundstage and Adventurers Club. It seemed like you could never find the girl that was supposed to be working in there; every time I was there she had snuck down the AC stairs behind the booth to have a cigarette!

My favorite snack location was the Missing Link Sausage Company, located along with several shops in the building that now houses Paradiso 37.  It was a great late night place for burgers and hot dogs as well as a large order of fries around 1am to soak up the alcohol!  The place closed around 2006 and the building was entirely gutted for a future use never revealed.  Disney apparently didn't know either because in 2008 when P37 contracted to go in there, the building had to be gutted entirely again to meet their needs.

That brings us to the Adventurers Club Cart, located appropriately enough next to Adventurers Club.  This was a place to get popcorn, sodas and Mickey popsicles.  During the 2011 purge on any buildings that still had PI club name signs on them, Adventurers Club Cart became simply Adventures Hut.  The picture above was taken less than a week ago when it was still closed one early afternoon.  But unless they've relocated AH to some other place on the Island, it must be permanently closed now since its location is blocked by those new demolition walls!

8TRAX Reunion Coming Next Month

8TRAX then.

Retro Room now! Our 3rd annual 8TRAX Reunion will be held on two nights, Friday, February 14 and Saturday, February 15, at Retro Room. That's Presidents Day weekend. Relive all those fun times you had at 8TRAX on beautiful Pleasure Island.  And we'll be featuring former 8TRAX DJ Pete Haynes! Admission will be FREE!
More details coming soon but please put this event on your calendar.

This Weekend In Techno Town

SATURDAY JAN 11
Kick off the new year with the official pre-party for Ocala Dance Festival 7 this Saturday night at Suite B Lounge. DJ Fusion, DJ Somatic. Some Breaks, some House, some good times!
($5)

For those more inclined towards the Dubstep side of EDM, DJ Hayden Kramer aka Herobust (USA) is also playing this Saturday night at Roxy Nightclub.
($10)

Breaking News: No. 4 Bridge Closed

Save Pleasure Island Blog roving reporter William yesterday evening reported that the No. 4 Bridge to Pleasure Island (from Downtown Disney West Side) has been permanently closed.  Pedestrian traffic must now take the bypass causeway around Pleasure Island.  Supposedly with pedestrians removed from the entire west side of the Island, demolition work can continue including the removal of the entire upper deck of PI; i.e. West End Plaza/Celebration Plaza. The No. 4 Bridge itself will also be coming down, perhaps first, since it leads from ground level on the West Side to that PI upper deck.  There is a demolition wall up on the West Side at the bridge entrance. Near 8TRAX there is a wall blocking pedestrians from that direction.  In addition, personnel at Paradiso 37 have an additional rope block near the bypass entrance and only those going into Paradiso to eat/drink can pass the rope.

PI Update: Oh Baby It's Cold Outside!

OMG, it's been cold the last couple mornings!  How cold was it yesterday on beautiful Pleasure Island?  It was so cold that someone made a snowman!

It was so cold that a few guests visited using skis!

It was so cold that you could see steam coming out of the volcano!

It was so cold that there was a dusting of snow atop T-REX Cafe!

And it was so cold that DJ Elliot had to use his headphones as earmuffs! But maybe that's it for winter this year; mid-70's tomorrow and mid-80's on Saturday!

DTD Update: Bar-B-Que A Comin'

When we visited House of Blues last fall this ramshackle building was being used as the box office for HOB music events.

In November we reported the ticket office relocating to new windows at the House of Blues Company Store building because the old building was becoming a barbeque take-out restaurant. At that time the word "TICKETS" had been removed off the marquee.

Now the sign reads BARBQUE, which fortunately has the same number of letters as TICKETS.  Mmmmm. Can't hardly wait!

PI Update: Barge Dock Installed

Construction is well underway at the western end of Village Lake for this new barge terminal.

Island sources tell Save Pleasure Island Blog that barges will be used to transport construction equipment and supplies to the Island when the heavy construction phase of Disney Springs begins.

Makes sense that they would be able to barge-in building materials to the construction zone where Rock'n'Roll Beach Club and club Motion used to stand and debris could be removed off Pleasure Island every night. But not sure how the Adventurers Club and BET Soundstage buildings fit into future demolition plans since barge access to those two buildings is now blocked by the new pedestrian bypass.

Comedy Warehouse Shows End Today

For the past two weeks the original crew from Pleasure Island's Comedy Warehouse has been running improv shows at Disney Hollywood Studios. Today is the final day for performances as the huge holiday crowds visiting Disney subside. Hopefully they shall return again next Christmas and even better, return to a new comedy club somewhere in the future Disney Springs!