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Old 24 Aug 21, 09:46 AM  
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The First Trip 1993 – Day Twelve – Belz Factory Outlets and Pleasure Island – 21st September 1993

Not much to report today as we headed up to the Belz Factory Outlets on International Drive for a bit of retail therapy. I recall that we didn’t get any breakfast and we simply headed up the I4 with a view to eating when we were there. The factory outlets consisted of 5 or six different buildings and we went from one to the other picking up things as we were going along. I remember my wife bought a pair of Levi 501’s which were all the rage for half the price in the UK and was offered a second pair for $5 which she bought for her sister.

We headed over to the food court which was a new experience for us as we hadn’t come across anything like that in the UK and had a late breakfast/early lunch. I have no idea what we did for the rest of the day, but in the evening, I know we went to Pleasure Island.

Pleasure Island which turned into Downtown Disney and eventually Disney Springs was Disney’s adult entertainment area and didn’t resemble anything like it does today. It was reached by a bridge and was a series of bars, clubs and disco’s and a place where it was New Year’s Eve every night.

The legend the Disney Company created is that Pleasure Island was based on the fictitious owner, Merriweather Adam Pleasure, and was carried on into one of its clubs, The Adventurers Club. Merriweather Pleasure was an industrialist and explorer that decided to move his family to Florida and start a new sailmaking and yacht construction business on the island during the 1920s through early 1940s. He enjoyed throwing parties for his employees and friends after hours, but eventually, he was lost at sea, his sons failed at running the company without him and the island was mostly destroyed in a storm. As the story goes, Disney would rediscover the ruins of the Pleasure complex and establish a nightclub district to carry on Pleasure's merrymaking spirit.

Every night at midnight, "New Year's Eve" was celebrated at Pleasure Island with a fireworks show. This tradition lasted from 1990 through New Year's Eve 2005. It officially opened on May 1, 1989. In September 2008, all of its clubs were closed, but its retail stores and restaurants remained open. The area is now called The Landing and is the central part of Disney Springs. - Wikipedia

We decided to get a taxi there so we could all have a drink, showed our tickets, we were given a wrist band to wear and with that we were in.



We explored a few of the clubs, had some drinks and decided to sit down in the Jazz Club as my friend professed a liking for Jazz. Whilst we were sat there, we got some more drinks and the band were warming up with each band member just testing out their instruments. They all finished this and the audience clapped as it was some free form jazz session where each member played their own thing and it was meant to come together as a piece! We all looked at each other and decided to drink up and leave. My absolute favourite place to go was The Adventurers Club which I still think could have a place in Disney Springs. Taken from Wikipedia:

It was styled after a private club for world travelers and explorers and was set in 1937. The walls of the club were covered with artifacts and photographs from various explorations. The Adventurers Club featured animatronics, puppets, and a cast of adventurers who performed in shows and improvisational comedy while mingling with the club's patrons. Shows and conversation were often laced with innuendo, and the patrons might have been welcomed as guests, given fictitious names and "recognized" as fellow adventurers, or simply referred to as "drunks" - Wikipedia


We thought that it was just fabulous with the animatronics speaking to people in the bar area, actors mingling with the crowd talking to you about their adventures, 5 or 6 different rooms to visit and then you were ushered into another room with a theatre where there was a short cabaret style show. There was a whole list of characters that would turn up and if you look at Wikipedia they are all listed. You could buy mech, there was a greeting “Kungaloosh!” and the Adventurers Song. It was just a really cool place to go. For the real Disney nerds, I believe there is still a link to The Jungle Cruise and when you are in the queue, the trunks have labels on them that relate to the Adventurers Club characters.



It was obviously shut to make way for the huge development that was taking place there, but also I think it no longer fitted what Disney was about. It was an adult themed area and club so when the actors mingled and improvised with the audience and people in the Club, there was a lot in inuendo and interaction, some of which probably wouldn’t be acceptable to some now and the PC brigade. Years later when we were on another trip to Florida with our children in 2008, the place had changed dramatically and we passed a building that I thought could have been the Club. It was covered up by huge bushes and trees in planters by Disney to obviously disguise the unused building. When nobody was looking, I fought my way through the bushes and sure enough I was stood at the entrance to the Club that you see in the photo above.

We came out of there as it was approaching midnight and sure enough there was a show, music and fireworks and streamers after a countdown to midnight. We went into some of the other venues – I remember there was a 70’s club straight out of Saturday Night Fever and they had professional dancers mingling with the crowd on the dancefloors to get people up. About 3am we were done and we jumped in a taxi back to the hotel.
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Trip report 1993: The First Trip 1993
Trip report 2008: The Stacey J Aswad Memorial Tour
Trip report 2013: What No Stacey?
Disneyland Paris 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2014
Florida 1993, 1997, 2008, 2013
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Old 24 Aug 21, 11:07 AM  
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We never really enjoyed pleasure island much, we always went once each trip but more for a wander around than for the clubs .
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Old 26 Aug 21, 12:52 PM  
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Loved PI and Adventurers Club was a fave along with 8 Trax and the Comedy Improv Club. Spent a few New Years there also listening to the West Side Band covering various good 70's and 80's tunes. One year Tone Loc guested and sang Funky Cold Medina. Many other famous bands played aswell but didnt see any of them. Last time we went before it closed there were only a couple of places open, it was a sad sight.
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