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General News - (4/30/08) La Nouba by Cirque Du Soleil is inviting Florida Residents to “Live it up” with a special discount price this spring. From May 1st to June 28th, Florida Residents can see La Nouba for 20% off the normal price of Category 2 seats, just $55 for child tickets and $69 for adults. Tickets are available at the box office or by calling (407) WDW-SEAT.
(4/18/08) You can find some fairly new pictures showing off the Caribbean Beach Resort pool renovation project and work on the Kingdom Tower at the Contemporary Resort posted to MouseSteps.
(4/16/08) Disney has released a couple of impressive photos showing off the famous Air Force Thunderbirds team flying right over the Magic Kingdom as well as Epcot earlier this month. Disney has also announced a new wave for guests to “make waves” all across the Walt Disney World Resort on the new Sea Raycer watercrafts. These mini powerboats seat two and are now available for rent at any Magic Kingdom Resort area marina.
(4/9/08) I’ve got a quick question for anyone who's had any experience with Disney’s Year of a Million Dreams prizes. Not to sound petty, but I had a sour experience with them on my quick trip to Orlando this past week and was wondering if anyone had insight or opinions.
The funny thing is I wasn't expecting anything since we were at Downtown Disney standing at the fountain in front of the AMC Theaters. I was off to the side video taping my two sons who were squabbling over who would carry the umbrella at the time when my wife spotted a small army of the prize people pointing at them and heading their way. I can only assume they were directed to give "X" prize away at "Y" time to anyone standing near the fountain, but in the end they walked past my family and gave away 33 exclusive sets of mouse ears to all the other people who happened to be walking by or through the fountain area. In the end, everyone else in the immediate vicinity of the fountain received the free hats... except my family. It’s kind of ironic since we were the only ones there in the first place... and when my son ran up to one of them to ask for a hat too they just said they were all out and walked off into the parking lot zipping up their duffel bags.
Now I know it's free... and I really don't care myself about the hats and would have been more than willing to give mine away to someone else, but as a parent I just couldn’t help feeling wronged here since out of the 33 hats they did give away, I'd say that only 3 or 4 of them actually went to children. Better luck next time I guess.
(3/7/08) Walt Disney World has launched a new Disney Water Parks mobile program where you can access a mobile experience on your phone before, during and after your visit to one of the water parks. LogIn to Disney’s website to read more.
(2/12/08) Longtime Disney World fans may remember an odd Disney resort offering, not far from the Marketplace area, that just sort of vanished several years ago. I’m talking about the old Treehouse Villas, a series of small round buildings set into a forested area that you can still see if you take a boat ride from Downtown Disney over to Port Orleans.
According to DVCNews.com, Disney has received approval for a plan to refurbish and rebuild the Treehouse Villas, replacing the structures with a new design that will actually take up less ground space and look even more like a Treehouse. Make the jump to read all the details and see the artwork.
(1/7/08) According to the Miami Herald, Walt Disney World has now banned children under 10 from dining in the resort’s most posh restaurant, Victoria & Albert’s in the Grand Floridian. This is currently the resorts only restaurant with a AAA 5-Diamond rating, and while kids are welcome everywhere else in the resort, Disney wanted to be able to offer a purely adult dining experience after numerous surveys and guest comments. According to Disney this shouldn’t be much of a change since on average they only had three groups come in with small children per month. Victoria & Albert’s has always been a high end restaurant with a dress code that requires men to wear jackets and dinners that can start in the $125 range.
Downtown Disney & Pleasure Island News - (4/28/08) Over the weekend we were sent names for two other possible projects on the way to Pleasure Island, though I’ve nothing to back either of them up yet. First up was the rumored addition of Disney’s first official Starbucks, and certainly this would be no surprise to anyone. I’m honestly more surprised that Downtown Disney didn’t get one years ago.
Our second rumor is more interesting and claims that Pleasure Island could become home to a new Harley-Davidson Café. As far as I know the only currently one of these in existence is the one in Las Vegas, though previously there was a location in New York City that has since closed down. I walked through the Vegas location and it looked interesting enough, though I didn’t have the time to actually stop in and try the food. The Harley name however is no stranger to PI guests however as they’ve had a Harley gift-shop on site for the last few years. I could almost see the current Motions club being turned into a Harley-Davidson Café myself, but that’s just speculation. Anyone know more?
(4/25/08) The Orlando Business Journal has backed up our new restaurant rumors with confirmed news that E-Brand Restaurants (the people behind Timpano Chophouse) plans to open a new location on WDW property next year. The article says it will be a 5,000 square-foot two-story location featuring Central and South American food, with a focus on specialty tequilas and wines. It will also feature an outdoor bar and seating along the lake as well, which seems to indicate that it wont be taking over the old Beach Club building, which was also three stories tall as well, unless the they are planning on demolishing it. Going back to my old rumor about the Timpano people, apparently they were looking to take over the BET Soundstage location, which does have a nice little pathway along the water as I recall that could be turned into an outdoor bar. Anyone know more?
(4/18/08) While I was in town earlier this month I figured I had better take a quick walk through Pleasure Island with my camera before Disney ends up changing it all and tearing down buildings and stuff. It’s been awhile since I’ve walked through anyway, so I was amazed and kind of depressed over some of the changes that had already taken place. There were enough pictures that I felt I had to make a dedicated page for them all so make the jump here.
(3/17/08) Lots of confusion about  which one of the Pleasure Islands clubs will close next. Some claim that BET did not finalize any kind of deal to extend the run of the club and that it may be the next to close down. Other solid source however have long indicated that Motion would be the next to close regardless. The bottom line though is that BOTH will close eventually and that the expanded Mannequins club site (after knocking down some walls to take over 8-Trax) will become the one and only dance club left on Pleasure Island.
(3/13/08) A few new tidbits on the Pleasure Island redevelopment have come together this week. First off I’ve heard that you may want to get some final pictures of the old Rock ‘n Roll Beach Club sooner than later, because apparently the whole building will be coming down before you know it. After that, the next two candidates for replacement / removal are Motions and BET Soundstage. While many have predicted that BET would be next and that their “contract” may be up this year anyway, I’ve also heard a rumor that BET may have extended their contract for at least another year. That said… it looks like Motions will be the next club shut down, but apparently this wont happen until the Beach Club has been reduced to rubble.
(3/10/08) A few new pictures of the Wolfgang Puck renovation can be found at MouseSteps.
(2/27/08) Rumors about yet another new restaurant coming to Pleasure Island have come in today, claiming that a new Mexican eatery is being talked about for the empty building site next to the Adventure’s Club across from the new Curl store.
(2/26/08) Not that this is a clear sign that DisneyQuest is saved, but I’ve been told that the Cheesecake Factory’s contract was simply up and Disney wasn’t interested in signing a new deal. The plan is to simply take over the food operations there themselves. As I said before, this doesn’t mean that DQ is saved by any means. In fact, I would think it may be even easier to do whatever they want to the building once Cheesecake Factory is out and wont have to deal with the headaches of early contract termination. Still... Disney has bigger fish to fry right now. There is still the issue of what to do with the Virgin Megastore if they pull out and according to the latest Jim Hill article, Cirque’s contract is also up for renewal and they are still looking for a site to place an Apple Store. The good news there is that Disney may opt to build the ESPN Zone into the Virgin Megastore building instead of DisneyQuest.
In other Downtown Disney news, the latest rumor is that Disney may have signed a deal to bring a new restaurant to a site near or in Pleasure Island from the Timpano Chophouse people. Apparently this has nothing to do with what Disney has planned for the former Rock ‘n Roll Beach Club location but is looking to be located on the other side of PI at or near the current B.E.T. Soundstage club. Anyone know more?
(2/22/08) Screamscape has been informed of some new developments over at DisneyQuest. Our sources tell us that a meeting was held where the crew was informed that the Cheesecake Factory Express will be closing down in June 2008. Nothing more was really said beyond this, but the big rumor in the shadows is that the old ESPN Zone plan is still in the works. One idea based on a previous development plan leaked a year ago claimed the entire attraction could be shut down by summer, giving them time to transform it into something new in time for the busy winter holiday season. Anyone know more? If a closing is only months away, I’m sure people would like some advanced warning to make one last trip in before it’s too late.
(2/4/08) The Wolfgang Puck Express eatery in Downtown Disney’s Marketplace side is currently closed for renovations and apparently some kind of expansion.
(1/23/08) The Orlando Sentinel talks a bit about the changes at Pleasure Island, confirming the closure of the Rock ‘n Roll Beach Club on Feb 3rd, a picture of the new two-story tall Curl by Sammy Duval store next to 8-Trax and talks about the impending announcement for something else new in a vacant building spot along Village Lake that used to house the old Harley-Davidson store.
(1/18/08) Fans of DisneyQuest will be happy to know that for now, it seems like Disney is planning on keeping the attraction. A reader who mentioned into the giant cube building for the first time in about five years last week discovered it to be quite busy and noticed that they were still selling annual passes. As I said, our reader hasn’t been in awhile, but made some observations about some changes they did notice that I wasn’t aware of either. Anyone familiar with the older attractions will remember the Treasure of the Incas game on the first floor where guests would drive RC controlled jeeps through an underground (under the plexiglass floor) maze looking for treasure. That area and the maze have now been covered up with new flooring and several copies of a large new two-player shooting game have been replaced it. Elsewhere you can find a new Global VR UltraPin virtual pinball game, a unique concept where they fill a pinball cabinet with a custom sized LCD monitor server as the “table” portion of the game which can then be turned into virtual recreations of 12 classic Bally/Midway tables, completely rendered with original graphics and soundtracks. The lineup of games includes popular classics like Black Knight 2000, Pinbot and Funhouse.
Now if Disney is thinking of keeping DisneyQuest for the future… I’d like to offer a few of my own suggestions. How about removing the Buzz Lightyear bumper cars and replacing the area with a Buzz Lightyear themed laser tag areas? You could add some turrets to the balcony area above for people to get in on the action without having to go into the maze itself too. I’ve also been dying to see the old Virtual World Tesla Pods systems (complete with Battletech and Red Planet software) dropped into DisneyQuest. These interactive game systems would be another great addition to DisneyQuest that could prove very popular over several years and draw in a crowd of ‘regulars’ who would be willing to compete in tournaments. Of course, I’m not sure if new pods are even produced anymore, but apparently the software side of things is still alive as well and I know I spent countless hours at the San Diego location back when it was still around. (Any old VW Pilots still around?)
(1/15/08) Several Screamscape sources have reported in that the Rock ‘n Roll Beach Club will close down on either 2/2/08 or 2/3/08. I’m not sure, but I believe that this means that the last night of operation will be Feb 2 (Saturday) and when it closes at 2am on the 3rd, that’s it. Along with all the other rumored club closures, we’ve also heard that the BET Club is also likely on the way out and that the contract with BET is said to expire sometime in early 2008 anyway.
(12/18/07) The latest rumors surrounding the rumored next phase of redevelopment at Pleasure Island indicate that the Rock & Roll Beach Club is slated to be the first club to close down. Again… this matches the rumors I heard a couple of years ago when they were looking to put a club-style bowling alley concept in there. If the timeline holds true as well, we could see the Beach Club closed by January. The next two likely victims will be 8-Trax and Motions, though their fates may be very different. According to one source, they may be planning on finding a way to merge the 8-Trax space with Mannequins to create an even larger space. I’ve no idea if this means a new bigger Mannequins or if the new will be merged into an entirely new concept.
(12/14/07) Fans of the Pleasure Island nightlife will want to take note of this latest rumor. According to Screamscape sources we’ve heard that there could be some fairly significant changes to Pleasure Island starting in 2008. In fact, as early as January we could see Disney begin the process of shutting down the various nightclubs one by one. I don’t know if this is just for remodeling, a total revamp of the PI concept, or something else entirely. I’m also not sure if the term “club” applied to just the drinking/dancing clubs or if this rumor also applies to the Adventurer’s Club or the Comedy Warehouse.
I know that in the last year or two Disney completed a new remodeling of Pleasure Island to allow foot traffic to better flow through it from the West End to the Marketplace side. This along with the admission changes were supposed to be just the first step of many for a complete overall remodel of the Pleasure Island concept. Back when that was all still just a rumor I had heard at the time that Disney was in talks with Lucky Strike Lanes to convert the Beach Club into one of their high-end bowling clubs. I’ve got to wonder if that deal is still on the table or if it was just one of many that were in the works. Can anyone shed a little light on just what might be going on?
(11/5/07) A Screamscape source has confirmed that they’ve heard Virgin is making plans to eventually close the Orlando Megastore. Between this and the the uncertain future of DisneyQuest, we’ve heard that Disney is looking to make some big deals to draw in some big companies to liven things up on the West Side.
(10/30/07) The rumors surrounding the status of the Virgin Megastore in Orlando may have to do with some uncertainty about the future of the company as the entire North American chain of Virgin Megastores were sold off to a pair of New York based real-estate developers (Related Companies & Vornado Realty Trust) with a variety of interests. It also seems that many of the Megastores have closed down or are in the process of closing down at this time. Apparently they’ve closed down 7 or 8 Megastores in the last year or two including Boston, Chicago and Salt Lake locations, so some have to wonder about the future of the Orlando location in this age of digital downloads. Of course the tourist heavy locations like Orlando, New York and California may survive future cullings.
 Fall 2008 - T-Rex: A Prehistoric Family Adventure - (5/9/08) Things must be progressing ahead of schedule over at T-Rex as the company is already looking to hire staff.
(5/2/08) Several new pictures showing off the outside of T-Rex has been posted to MouseSteps.
(4/18/08) While I was in
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