In my WDW 2006 travelogue, I mentioned wondering why the Adventurers Club was the only “themed” piece of Pleasure Island. Mary (thanks!) found this article describing how PI has changed, and how the “story” behind it has been nearly lost.
Walt Disney once told Imagineer John Hench when discussing the stories behind the park attractions that, “If the guests don’t understand the story, then it is not their fault. It is our fault because we have not told the story clearly.” A story cannot be maintained and embraced if it is not frequently told. Certainly one of the challenges facing the Disney Company today is that cast members are unaware of the story about their location and how they are part of that story. For a decade or more that has been true of the Pleasure Island cast members, so they have been unable to communicate the rich history of the island to guests.
Perhaps the story for Pleasure Island was unnecessarily convoluted and complicated to begin with in order to encompass everything from a nightly celebration of New Year’s Eve to a Jessica’s of Hollywood lingerie shop to an Avigators Supply shop that featured the original Pleasure Island mascot of a flying alligator.
Recently as I walked through Pleasure Island, I saw the memorable leg-wagging sign of Jessica in a dumpster and buildings with plaques telling the story of Pleasure Island torn apart behind construction walls and a line of porta-potties dubbed by cast members as “PortAPotty Row.” Filled with sadness at what has been lost slowly over the years, I felt maybe as a final farewell, I should recount the original storyline of the Pleasure Island as it was written when the area opened in 1989 for future Disney historians.
I’ve seen some of those plaques (there’s one on the Portobello Yacht Club, among others). It’s a pity that, in trying to make PI a “hot spot” for young folk to party down or people to drive out to from Orlando and the surrounding area, they’ve jettisoned much of the storytelling that makes Disney so unique.