what was wrong with pleasure island????

[cbarry26]

I seem to be in the minority here but I walked through it once, hated it and vowed never to go back, and I never did. We were in the midst of our first family trip, my wife and I and our 4 year old. It was dare I say the most magical perfect trip. We were dining at Portobello, which is now gone- I think Terralina is in its place. After dinner my daughter was sleepy and asked for a stroller. The stroller rental was on the other side of PI. So I chose to cut through to go get the stroller and left them on a bench outside Portobello.
It’s like I completely left the Disney bubble and entered some horrible other place entirely. Loud. Tons of drunks. Bad cover band blasting music. I couldn’t wait to leave and get back to the relative calm and magic of our Disney trip.
I get it. I’m not some stuffy prude. As a young adult I partied like the best of them, but, to me, it just didn’t fit the rest of the vibe that we had instantly fallen in love with. Good riddance. We’re still not all that crazy about going to Disney Springs for that matter. I can go to Anthropologie and Sephora at a local mall, when I’m at WDW, that’s the last thing I want to see.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Tons of drunks. Bad cover band blasting music.

Are you sure you weren’t at Epcot? sorry couldn’t resist!

I’m guessing you went when it wasn’t gated - that changed the atmosphere.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Well in fairness the post added was offering a unique and personal experience to the topic


I think the moderators are capable of deciding whether the thread should have been bumped or started afresh. I only say this as the other day I was looking forward to my upcoming trip in September this year and fancied discussing using a boat at Disney and chatting about it with anyone interested.

I knew I'd made a thread about it a few years ago and thought will I upset other posters if I start a new thread about boating at Disney. I couldn't think of a reason why it would as it can be ignored by anyone not into boating but then thought will I get a snarky remark from anyone remembering my completely uncontroversial thread about it previously and say "Didn't you post about boating 10 years ago"?

Instead I thought I'd bump my previous boating thread in the hope somebody would be interested in chatting about it with me and by not starting a new thread it would mean if anyone in the future searched for a boating thread that they wouldn't find two by me and get angry thinking "Who is this monster starting two boating threads in a ten year period". As it was I got one response this time and realised that in fact nobody was interested in talking boating at Disney and so sadly resorted to talking to my cats about it who looked bored and slunk off into another room and so have let the thread die a reasonably dignified death since then.

I was not aware that I was breaking any rules and ironically was trying to save upsetting people by not starting a new thread, apologies to everyone all round including to our two cats.

Don’t apologize. Some posters just have some inane/insane desire to question posts instead of discuss topics.

 

[mergatroid]

I seem to be in the minority here but I walked through it once, hated it and vowed never to go back, and I never did. We were in the midst of our first family trip, my wife and I and our 4 year old. It was dare I say the most magical perfect trip. We were dining at Portobello, which is now gone- I think Terralina is in its place. After dinner my daughter was sleepy and asked for a stroller. The stroller rental was on the other side of PI. So I chose to cut through to go get the stroller and left them on a bench outside Portobello.
It’s like I completely left the Disney bubble and entered some horrible other place entirely. Loud. Tons of drunks. Bad cover band blasting music. I couldn’t wait to leave and get back to the relative calm and magic of our Disney trip.
I get it. I’m not some stuffy prude. As a young adult I partied like the best of them, but, to me, it just didn’t fit the rest of the vibe that we had instantly fallen in love with. Good riddance. We’re still not all that crazy about going to Disney Springs for that matter. I can go to Anthropologie and Sephora at a local mall, when I’m at WDW, that’s the last thing I want to see.

Fair enough and it wasn't everyone's cup of tea but then again many liked it. I guess some youngsters or grown adults felt the same about a day at the parks with their family and Pleasure Island got them out of that 'Gee wiz' feeling in the parks and more to the "Let's drink and meet somebody" which some of them may have preferred.

When Pleasure Island was a ticketed gate advertising night clubs, adults and drinking alcohol, you could argue what would those going expect other than loud music, people drunk and general night club music? Had it been in the Magic Kingdom I could understand better but I'm not sure how paying to go to nightclubs you'd expect much different to what you describe.

My wife and I got engaged in Orlando (we're both Brits) at a Chinese restaurant, followed that by good seats at La Nouba and finished the night of our engagement at Pleasure Island. We saw less antics there than we did at an evening out at night clubs in England and whilst it wasn't all Mary Poppins and Princesses at worst we heard a few swear words and a guy feeling his girlfriend's butt as we queued to get into one of the clubs. Then again we're at a night club with people drinking and lots of 20 somethings so we didn't expect much different.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

What was wrong with pleasure Island-----nothing other than maybe it wasn't making Disney enough money

Pleasure island was probably #1 on big shot Bobby’s hit list…and oh how quickly it died.

It was everything repulsive: guaranteed costs without predetermined guaranteed revenue…and since it was drinks and fun…the employees who were supposed to be cost controlled by company decree just made too much money when it was busy. That concern went back to Michael…who insisted they have it. It made the other children restless and word gets around…

PI delivered life changing events for me…no doubt. I wish I had had “experienced” more of her…I mean…”them”

 

[Chi84]

Don’t apologize. Some posters just have some inane/insane desire to question posts instead of discuss topics.

Like your post?

 

[WDWmazprty]

Memories.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I never fully experienced Pleasure Island “back in the day” - but when it was a fully gated destination you had live music, comedy, nightly fireworks. There was a lot going on.

I’m still not sure what they were thinking when they built West Side the way they did. That’s what caused the need to open up the island at night and that changed the whole vibe I think.

Obviously I’m a huge fan of Adventurers Club and Comedy Warehouse - for those that fully experienced the island - what was the other highlights for you?

 

[DisneyRoy]

Not my idea. The TOS says older threads shouldn’t be bumped unless you have something of value to add. I’m assuming that doesn’t mean repeating what’s already been said.

But then that would not allow us to celebrate KatieBug thread day every year.

 

[Chi84]

But then that would not allow us to celebrate KatieBug thread day every year.

KatieBug is pretty much an exception to every rule in existence.

 

[Alice a]

I never fully experienced Pleasure Island “back in the day” - but when it was a fully gated destination you had live music, comedy, nightly fireworks. There was a lot going on.

I’m still not sure what they were thinking when they built West Side the way they did. That’s what caused the need to open up the island at night and that changed the whole vibe I think.

Obviously I’m a huge fan of Adventurers Club and Comedy Warehouse - for those that fully experienced the island - what was the other highlights for you?

I loved PI as a young adult on vacation (we did WDW for undergrad Spring Break each year).

I got plenty of actual debauchery working summers in the music industry as a merch girl and later as front line crew. I didn’t need/want it on spring break.

Pleasure Island was a fun way to continue the daytime joy at the parks with other youngish people.

Yeah, maybe if you were at the parks running herd on your young kids, it wasn’t for you. But for me in my early/mid-twenties, it was a fun, safe time for some small women to have after the parks that we could easily get to via Disney transportation.