As we’ve covered before Disney has announced a change in plans for Pleasure Island. Goodbye to night clubs, hello to retail and dining. In the 19 years since Pleasure Island opened, a lot has changed in the habits of tourists and locals in terms of night time entertainment. Disney has done quite a bit of tweaking recently on the PI concept and apparently was unable to come up with a workable solution.

Never-the-less, there is a growing movement to save the Adventurer’s Club. It is the only attraction at Downtown Disney that was created solely by Disney Imagineers (Joe Rhode (of Disney’s Animal Kingdom fame, had a hand in it), it has a huge following, and some of the most unique 360 degree immersive theming found in a Disney attraction.

The bad news is, except for the original “Save Mr. Lincoln” letter writing campaign, I can’t think of a single Disney fan movement to save an attraction that has worked. (Okay, the mid-90s effort to keep Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-Through open may qualify.) I think Disney is happy to see fans get all riled up as it shows a passion in their fan base, it also means free publicity for them. But these days Disney makes decisions based more on business needs than the needs of providing a quality show.

The good news, this time may be different. When Disney announced it would be closing the Adventurer’s Club this fall, along with the other Pleasure Island clubs, there was quick reaction to the news with a lot of chatter on Disney fan sites, a Facebook group, and a petition with more than 3000 signatures in just a few days. There’s also the possibility that Disney just plans on moving

That’s a good start, but not yet the huge outcry of the type that might make Disney re-focus its ideas to rip out the attraction. To make a real difference, a letter writing campaign to Disney corporate and Themepark executives will need to be launched.

Here’s an open letter to Disney executives that was sent to me by Brian Spencer.

I have long been a fan of all things Disney. From movies to TV shows and music, Disney has long held a special place in my life. The heart of my fondness, however, resides at the Disney Parks and Resorts. The trips taken as a child with my parents, and now as an adult with my wife, have created fond memories and happy experiences that will last throughout our lifetimes.

Our most recent trip to Walt Disney World was for our honeymoon in January of 2007. It was an exciting trip, as it was the first of our married lives and it was the first time we planned and traveled alone as adults. Prior to that trip, I had learned about something at Walt Disney World that we had never experienced on any previous visits: The Adventurer’s Club on Pleasure Island at Downtown Disney. I was surprised that I had never heard of nor seen advertising for it, especially considering how many glowing reviews of the club I read online.

People said that it “wasn’t to be missed”. We decided to spend a night at the Adventurer’s Club based upon all of the positive comments we read. Not only were they right, but we were completely blown away by the experience we had there. I won’t go into minute details, but we found the Adventurer’s Club to be an experience that was not just humorous and interactive, but highly immersive as well.

The cast was top notch from the performers to the wait-staff and when combined with the detailed and highly-imaginative atmosphere, they made for a night that was truly magical. The experience was uniquely Disney; unlike anything we had seen anywhere, even within the realm of Disney itself. As our evening drew to a close, we vowed to return on subsequent trips, and talked of how much the rest of our family would also enjoy the club.

This past Friday I came across the press release announcing the closure of the Pleasure Island complex (and in turn, the Adventurer’s Club). The news stirred emotions from anger to disappointment and sadness; negative feelings I never associate with my Disney experiences. Almost immediately after reading the press release, the Disney communities online lit up with discussion surrounding the closure. I found, as you’d expect, that I was not the only one upset with the announced closure of the Adventurer’s Club. Reactions ranged from a few of humbled acceptance to several people canceling their planned Walt Disney World vacations. While I believe canceling a trip over this news may be a bit irrational, it testifies to the broad-reaching popularity of the Adventurer’s Club.

I do not consider myself against progress, nor do I believe that Walt Disney World is a museum. Progress has long been a characteristic of the Disney Company. Old, outdated park attractions have been replaced or updated incorporating the latest technology to provide guests with highly-immersive, magical and memorable experiences. In an interview with the press on Saturday June 28th, Kevin Lansberry, Vice-President of Downtown Disney stated:

“At this point, the Adventurer’s Club is closing. If it comes back in another form, I haven’t heard about that.”

He then went on to comment about a couple of the new additions planned for the island. It is startling to think that Disney is closing a very popular, one-of-a-kind, immersive and magical experience so that a Hanes ‘design your own t-shirt’ and other dime-a-dozen shops can take up residence in its place. I do not believe that this could even be remotely considered progress.

Mr. Lansberry also commented: “We’re making the changes that we’re making to Pleasure Island because our guests are asking us for more shopping and dining opportunities and other types of entertainment.”

I know that the majority of Walt Disney World’s market consists of families traveling with children and I can understand their aversion to high-energy dancing/night clubs and the atmosphere they can create. Part of me wonders if this was exacerbated when access to Pleasure Island moved from the “turnstile” method or entry to the “club-by-club” method and families might have mistakenly wandered into Pleasure Island. I do sympathize with their viewpoint of Pleasure Island being somewhat of a roadblock in getting from one end of Downtown Disney to the other and I can understand why they would want Pleasure Island to be changed. I believe, however, that closing the Adventurer’s Club is tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. While former guests of the dance clubs will merely drive to other areas of Orlando to enjoy an experience like what they had at Pleasure Island, the rest of us will be unable to partake in anything similar to the Adventurer’s Club, neither on nor off Disney property. As I’ve expressed throughout this letter: the Adventurer’s Club has no equal.

As a guest myself (and I believe I can speak on behalf of the 2185+ Adventurer’s Club fans that have expressed similar feelings in a petition on PetitionOnline.com) I ask you: Please spare the Adventurer’s Club. THIS is what WE as your guests want. We do not want our much-loved Adventurer’s Club to be replaced with under-imaginative shopping and/or dining experiences. It deserves better than that. The Adventurer’s Club is truly a one-of-a-kind experience that has created unique magic for thousands upon thousands of guests throughout its history. Despite what the Disney Vacation Club advertisements say, the Adventurer’s Club is truly Disney’s best kept secret.

I would be more than happy to further discuss my comments and feelings with you. Please feel free to contact me via the information below.

Sincerely,
Brian Spencer

Great letter, but I urge you to be shorter and more concise in your letters. I worked with Brian to come up with something that was short and used a lot of bullet points to get his point across quickly. That’s what he’ll be sending into Disney management.

* * * * *

I would very much like to see the Adventurer’s Club endure. I want Disney to save the unique brand of Disney magic you find there. The AC pushed Disney to the limits of its PG-13 sensibilities with slightly raunchy dialog, enough innuendo to fill up Fantasyland, and terrific improvisational humor that you rarely see on Disney property these days. Beyond the AC level of humor, Disney shifts into the Miramax brand.

Yet, of all the clubs that are closing at Pleasure Island the Adventurer’s Club is the most family friendly and the closest aligned with the Disney brand. You could plop the AC down at any Disney theme park or resort hotel and it would fit in just fine (although no alcohol would be available inside Disneyland). The other PI clubs would stand out like a sore thumb.

In fact, the AC finds its roots in one of Walt Disney’s best un-implemented ideas, a dinner theater combined with an audio-animatronic show. A never constructed Chinese restaurant at Disneyland and the The Tiki Room, which was originally planned as a dinner show with audio-animatronic birds as the entertainment, are the ancestors of the Adventurer’s Club.

19 years is a long run for a nightly play, especially one that is big on audience interaction and audio-animatronics (well puppetry, but still), but it’s still a popular play and one closely tied to the Disney brand. If you think of it more as an attraction than a club, it could easily live on for another 20-30 years with just a few updates every now and then, just like it’s theme park inspirations.

When they do get to work on replacing Pleasure Island, I’m hoping they create something uniquely Disney and not just import shopping and dining experiences the average guest can find elsewhere. A Balloon ride and a t-shirt shop is not exactly blowing me away with new concepts.

On the other hand, I’m not totally against outside dining when it’s done right. Look at the Downtown Disney experience over at the Disneyland Resort in California. They asked established outside companies to create unique experiences for guests. The result was magic.

Disney has to maintain that special brand of magic or it risks losing repeat business to other family entertainment venues that are located closer to where those customers live. That’s a very real danger as fuel prices rise faster than one of Disney’s famous fireworks. Apparently, more family friendly options is Disney’s solution.

I am left wondering why if Disney wants to give families more to do on property at night, why do they not just extend theme park hours and improve the dining and entertainment offerings there? That’s what the majority of guests want — more time to enjoy the unique brand of Disney theme park entertainment. To get rid of Downtown Disney’s only example of that, is just wrong.

Finally, I’m currently scheduled to be interviewed on NPR’s Bryant Park Project tomorrow morning. If you don’t get the show live in your area, you should be able to find it online later.

In the meantime, here are some addresses to send your letter to:

Walt Disney World Guest Communications
PO Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

Mr. Robert Iger
Chief Executive Officer
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4873

Mr. James A. Rasulo
Chairman
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4873

Meg Crofton
President
The Walt Disney World Resort
PO Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

Al Weiss
President
Worldwide Operations
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
PO Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

Pleasure Island and Adventurer’s Club, some additional thoughts.

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This just in from Walt Disney World. They’ve sent along more details of their bold new vision for making Downtown Disney even more family friendly and removing all of the more adult-targeted entertainment.

Some thing to note, it looks like the ‘Pleasure Island’ name may stick around, although I imagine the final decision has yet to be made on that.

Finally, they explicitly don’t mention “The Adventurer’s Club” in the press release. That tells me they’re waiting to see if there is sufficient desire from the public to save the unique themed experience. So get the letter writing campaigns and websites launched if you want to save it for future generations.

Of course there is always the rumor that “The Adventurer’s Club” will be moved and used as part of the new boutique park “Night Kingdom”, or whatever they’re calling these days.

Update: well this FAQ on the Pleasure Island official page says that Adventurer’s Club will be closing. It also says that in lieu of admission to Pleasure Island they’ll be substituting a round of golf at Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course… hmmm.

Additional details below the cut:

Previously: Pleasure Island to Close its Night Clubs.

Walt Disney World Resort today unveiled a new vision for Downtown Disney, with extraordinary new shopping, dining and other experiences including a completely re-imagined Pleasure Island. Also planned are numerous enhancements to popular Downtown Disney locations, as well as additional theming and storytelling brought to life by Walt Disney Imagineers.

“We are committed to offering guests new and exciting experiences they can only have at Walt Disney World Resort,” said Downtown Disney Vice President Kevin Lansberry. “Our bold new vision for Downtown Disney reflects the feedback we receive from our guests each and every day and will enable us to continue to offer the high-quality entertainment that is our hallmark.”

Over the next year, the 120-acre entertainment-shopping-dining complex will add a number of one-of-a-kind, immersive experiences for guests. Downtown Disney will even get its own iconic attraction, in the form of a giant, tethered balloon that will take guests 300 feet into the air to view the amazing vistas of Walt Disney World Resort. Other new experiences include:

  • In fall 2008, guests will enter a world of prehistoric creatures at T-Rex: A Prehistoric Family Adventure. The dinosaur-themed family eatery will serve up pizzas, pastas, seafood and more, and will feature life-size animated dinosaurs that dwell among bubbling geysers, waterfalls and a fossil dig site.
  • Also this fall, a design-your-own t-shirt store from Hanes will add to the growing collection of merchandise guests can personalize at Downtown Disney.
  • E-brands Restaurants, an Orlando-based, multi-concept restaurant group, will premier its newest concept at Downtown Disney in spring 2009. The high-energy, casual eatery will feature authentic Central and South American cuisine, specialty drinks and live music along the waterfront.

Guests also will enjoy a brand new mix of shopping and dining experiences at Pleasure Island as it is transformed over the next two years.

“Our guests tell us they want additional shopping and dining experiences at Downtown Disney,” added Lansberry. “We are currently considering a number of unique concepts from around the globe as we re-imagine Pleasure Island and look forward to sharing our progress over the coming months.”

To make way for the new offerings, all of the clubs currently on Pleasure Island will close on Sept. 27. Other locations on Pleasure Island, including Raglan Road, Fuego by Sosa Cigars, Curl by Sammy Duval, Orlando Harley-Davidson and outdoor food and beverage locations, will remain open during the transition.

To complement these new experiences, many popular Downtown Disney locations will undergo enhancements.

  • Beginning this summer, Portobello Yacht Club will be transformed into a Tuscan Country Trattoria. The refreshed menu features authentic Italian dishes and signature favorites and a re-designed interior along with an outdoor dining space.
  • This fall, Goofy’s Candy Company will add a special new room that will enable families to host one-of-a-kind birthday parties at Downtown Disney.
  • The Marketplace Stage will be completely replaced with a larger, covered stage this fall to welcome even more entertainment to Downtown Disney and serve as a new premier venue for Disney Magic Music Days.
  • Fulton’s Crab House will update its interior fixtures and furnishing and exterior in Spring 2009. The enhancements include a refreshed third floor deck dining area to offer additional Disney guests and larger private parties the traditional Fulton’s experience.
  • Next year, Wolfgang Puck Café will update its interior fixtures and furnishings and will feature an enclosed glass patio offering guests a year-round outdoor dining experience.

These efforts come on the heels of recent enhancements at World of Disney, Wolfgang Puck Express, Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop, Earl of Sandwich and Cap’n Jack’s Restaurant.

Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

More Details on Changes coming to Pleasure Island and Downtown Disney

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disneyworld.png Google adds a 3D tour of Disney World to the latest version of Google Earth (4.3), which lets you "zoom down Main Street, USA, fly around Cinderella Castle, explore Spaceship Earth and climb the Tree of Life."


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We previously covered the announcement that American Idol would open as a new attraction at Walt Disney World’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. Disney has now revealed a website to promote the “American Idol Experience”. View it at DisneyWorld.com/idol.

Also you can catch American Idol winner David Cook’s “I’m Going To Walt Disney World” commercial on the site. Congrats to DC and I look forward to seeing him when he makes it to Orlando.

Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

American Idol and Idol Winner David Cook coming to Walt Disney World

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200805201717.jpg For my Internet dollar, no one is funnier than James Lileks, and he's in top form here with his trip report from Disneyworld.


Dinner was large. The portions are huge. They might as well put the plate down and say “here’s more than you can possibly eat, and here’s nine potatoes on the side. Would you like another gallon of high fructose corn syrup? Okay, well, don’t forget to leave room for six pies.” There’s something a bit sad about seeing childless adult Disney fans, lanyards spattered with pins, eating slabs of prime rib thick as a Tolstoi novel, the chairs about to splinter from their enormous fundaments. On the other hand, what gives them happiness? Food and Disney. This is the happiest place on earth after all -- even though there seems to be a subset of Disney nerds who appear immune to the very thing they've come to experience. But that's another story for later.

Off to Downtown Disney, which we hadn’t visited before. Sheer marketing genius: an open-air shopping center designed to extract the last possible penny from every molecule of the Disneyverse. I loved it. As I’m sure I noted last year, you’re either immune to the Mouse or you get it, and if you get it that means the white-gloved hand has closed around something deep in your emotional constitution and squeezed, and squeezed hard. It’s best to get the Mouse and still maintain critical distance, because then you’re not just wallowing in the warm bathos of nostalgia and the murky brew of ersatz Americana, you’re laughing with delight at its innumerable manifestations.

We found the giant World of Disney store, and there (G)Nat was entranced. Me too. Behold the zombie Thumpers, screaming for BRAAAAINS.

Link

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Star Wars Weekends run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from June 6 to June 29, 2008. If you’re a Star Wars fan you really should make a point of dropping by Disney’s Hollywood Studios for at least one weekend. There’s the parade, trivia contests, photo opportunities, and great celebrity appearances.

If that’s not enough to convince you, now you’ll also be among the first to experience “The Clone Wars” with a special preview for the latest film from the Star Wars universe. “Behind the Force — Experience The Clone Wars,” is an in depth exploration of the creation of this groundbreaking Star Wars feature film. Disney and Lucasfilm are promising an experience like no other with this.

“The Clone Wars” hits theaters August 15th.

More details at StarWars.com and DisneyWorld.com.

Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

“The Clone Wars” preview coming to Star Wars Weekends

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