Monday, April 16, 2012

PI Update: Is An Adult Entertainment District Coming To DTD?

Could Disney be planning a new adult entertainment district for Downtown DisneySave Pleasure Island Blog roving reporter Thommy brought to our attention a post on the Disney Gossip website where the author has pieced together various internet forum posts and a lot of imagination for his theory that such a district is indeed coming.  Before continuing, read the article which is linked above.

There are several things problematic with the article.  First of all, the author says that Disney doesn't like all that money leaving property so they've decided that the best way to compete with Universal's CityWalk is to really compete with them.  But there is no explanation as to why Disney would have had to have had a major change of heart about nightlife.  We know Disney does not like money leaving their property every night; that's why PI was created to begin with.  But Disney wasn't naive when they made the decision to shut PI. They knew they would lose the club business to CityWalk and obviously were willing to let that happen. That posting does not say why they've changed their mind?

The next problem with the article is that supposedly the plan is for a two level entertainment complex. That's all great and all but we have to wonder how Disney would supposedly fill such a place with third party operated venues when they can't get even a single vendor interested in what is already there at Pleasure Island.  And what about Pleasure Island, a place that is already there and could easily accommodate night clubs with a minimum of expense compared to something entirely new?

Maybe Disney has finally noticed all the money leaving property each night, one rental car, one taxi and one bus load at a time. We know an expanded DTD is coming, we know a parking garage is in the future, we know an I-4 ramp to DTD is likely. Maybe the solution is indeed to put nightlife in a place separate from the shoppers.  Regardless, adult nightlife needs to return to Disney World asap and if that article is true, bring it on!  But the Blog has heard no rumors of such a thing, unfortunately.

5 comments:

Jeff - Gainesville said...

Seems a bit far out there. I'd imagine that if said feasibility study does exist that there would be some details about that floating around somewhere. It would have to be quite a study based on that photo!

Ace said...

Disney does have an uphill struggle to re-establish credibility among potential lessees. They have taken their dog-and-pony presentations to the best and brightest franchises and one-by-one have been rejected with yawns and guffaws. It may take huge investment to turn this around, but Disney can do it. There will come a time when even Disney executives will become restless and tired of the mostly black hole that Pleasure Island has become. The company takes great pride in creativity and development, and Pleasure Island represents a lot of unused land and potential. And the West End is ready for a refresh/makeover, Splitsville may only be the beginning. I would not be surprised if the West End and PI are candidates to eventually become one contiguous development, something that would be large enough to really benefit from the trolley we have seen depicted here on this blog in the past. The future can be very bright - but only with an adequate amount of investment and re-development. And that's what imagineers do, right?

Anonymous said...

Bring it to Anaheim, and relaunch The Grid. I'd love to see a Pleasure Island of sort in Anaheim with ElecTRONica around the park again. I don't care what Al Lutz, MiceChat or any of those other Disney fan blogs say, ElecTRONica was awesome and a huge success for Disney. Was sad to see it end for what I'm sure is going to be a complete bomb, Mad T Party

Anonymous said...

I love the name of this site(Disney gossip!! same as RUMOR!! yes! so no REAL truth to this!

More info said...

I would not be surprised if the West End and PI are candidates to eventually become one contiguous development, something that would be large enough to really benefit from the trolley we have seen depicted here on this blog in the past.