I think most of us who were holding onto any glimmer of hope that they might have something that resembles what pleasure island once was have finally given up all hope.
I know I can't wait to go to WDW to shop in an outdoor mall with all the same 3rd party stores selling the same stuff I can get at the malls at home or online then go over and go bowling or see a movie just like I can at home as well.
Wow...this is a sobering and 100% accurate account of the reality at downtown.
Pleasure island is as dead as river country or discovery island.
And the reasons are classic Disney trying to reinvent the wheel. The bars were never busy enough to meet what their legion of accountants deemed they should be...but you never see a bar go out of business... Pretty easy to survive when they make $150 worth of drinks out of a bottle of vodka...but not good enough
I know when I was an employee... There was alot of rub between the bartenders who worked PI and the corporate idea of what the employees should make. They just couldn't be tolerated. One of the largest tourist locations on earth selling highly overpriced drinks making good money... We just couldn't have that. Tips and wdw always comes down to the same fundamental problem... They are basically a minimum wage labor market for everyone else ( wasn't always that way) and they pay their managers nothing. They highly defend their management wages as "competitive"...but the reality is its more like "below industry standards". PI messed with those things. They have slashed waiter hours and table assignments over the years as well to attempt to limit this "problem"
I guess you can't foresee that your waiters are gonna make $90K if you put them in a place where people pack in at $30 a head for eggs and run out in a half an hour to go on rides, huh? While the manager makes $33k on a 50 hour salary. (Oh dear...have I given away the secrets?)
The other thing is the "local" issue. Management has always dealt with locals with "necessary disdain "...they want them around when the planes aren't flying in to OIA packed with free spending tourists...but want them to go away the minute they're not needed. Locals never would spend at PI the way they wanted them to...it's orlando (big and poor) and they could never afford it. There was some blame linked to "bad behavior" in this regard..but that's a smokescreen. There were relatively few incidents...and anytime you mix a chemical compound of alcohol, estrogen , and testosterone...there will be the occasional firework anyway.
But the reality is that they probably feel they'll get more pound for pound out of a banana republic and an apple store from locals/Florida residents than they ever did out of the adventurers club.
They are probably right.
Just a couple of thoughts.
PI lost its champion when Eisner was shown the gate and his parkhopper was seized. He always pushed ( and rightly so) that there was nothing wrong with adult entertainment options too if structured properly... It's part of the condition and doesn't have to be always a giftshop
And a character meet and greet.
But park operations appear to be more and more run by a select group
Of people...and those people are 25 year old green Wharton MBAs and factory managers who make pins and vinylmations outside of Shanghai