{"id":9469,"date":"2006-06-29T15:45:33","date_gmt":"2006-06-29T22:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/06\/29\/the-lost-pleasure-island.html"},"modified":"2014-11-10T11:04:51","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T18:04:51","slug":"the_lost_pleasu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/06\/29\/the_lost_pleasu.html","title":{"rendered":"The Lost Pleasure Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my WDW 2006 travelogue, I mentioned wondering why the Adventurers Club was the only “themed” piece of Pleasure Island<\/a>. Mary (thanks!) found this article describing how PI has changed, and how the “story” behind it has been nearly lost<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[263,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disney","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13151,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/07\/09\/no_more_adventures.html","url_meta":{"origin":9469,"position":0},"title":"No more adventures","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 9-Jul-08 7:33am","format":false,"excerpt":"Given the flailing about that Disney has done in trying to turn its Pleasure Island area of Downtown Disney (Walt Disney World) into a popular (but not teen-hangout-friendly) area, this...","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/adventurers-club1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3368,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/12\/13\/night_out.html","url_meta":{"origin":9469,"position":1},"title":"Night Out","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Dec-02 2:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We had our date night before last. After fobbing off the Kitten, we took a romantic boat trip down to Downtown Disney. We strolled along, wandered onto Pleasure Island, and...","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1140,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/11\/i_havent_posted.html","url_meta":{"origin":9469,"position":2},"title":"I haven’t posted something today","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Oct-01 7:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I had some fun. There was only one of the three Gartner sessions this afternoon that had any interest for me, so I said, \"Screw it,\" and went back...","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6854,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/12\/20\/wdw_day_6_wedne.html","url_meta":{"origin":9469,"position":3},"title":"WDW – Day 6 – Wednesday, 15 Dec 04","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 20-Dec-04 12:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Wednesday was designed to have a slow start. Margie had a half-day session. I was footsore, and Kitten was tired. She and I dawdled over breakfast, took a walk around...","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9562,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/06\/05\/and_astonishing.html","url_meta":{"origin":9469,"position":4},"title":"And, astonishingly, our virtue and family remained intact","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Jun-06 10:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd had no idea that our trip to WDW coincided with this year's \"Gay Days\". Remarkably enough, we weren't forced witnesses to sodomite debauchery, Katherine wasn't stolen by Lesbian Gypsies,...","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11856,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/18\/people_scared_of_being_we.html","url_meta":{"origin":9469,"position":5},"title":"People scared of being … well, scared at a scary place","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-Jan-08 7:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Political Correctness and coddling squeamish visitors to the Haunted Mansion at both Disneyland and Disney World's Magic Kingdom?\u00a0 How fiendish. Reportedly in response to guest complaints about goofy but...","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/haunted-mansion.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47542,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9469\/revisions\/47542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}