Downtown Disney & The Adventurers Club

I guess it should come as no surprise that Disney has announced the closing of one of our favorite places to go in Downtown Disney: the Adventure's Club. 

It shouldn't be a further surprise that the websphere has already, within hours of the announcement, posted an online petition asking for Disney to spare it the fate of so many Yesterland attractions.

I have to say, I am of a mixed bag on this one.  I REALLY like what Joe Rhode and the rest of the Imagineers did with the original club concept.  Even at the height of Pleasure Island, the Adventure's Club has always been an eclectic mix of brash and sometimes borderline bawdy humor, all still very tongue and cheek of course, but always a good time. 

After all, there is nothing quite like seeing your brother-in-law called up on the stage to sing and dance to Samantha Sterling belting out a tune with Fingers pounding away in the background.  Thankfully for him, all the digital images of the event in question never came out, but his 11 year old daughter thought it was a hoot!

We will miss the Hoopla!, the crotchety old Colonel Critchlow, the fun characters and of course the club theme song and to many others to mention.

The Island opened in May of 1989, almost 2 DECADES ago and at a very different time in Disney history however.  For instance, then:

• Pleasure Island was competing directly with the now mostly gone Church Street Station (at least gone from it's original incarnation, which included the very popular Rosie O'Grady's), which was wildly popular 
• MGM-Studio's opened essentially on the same day but the Animal Kingdom wouldn't exist for almost another decade
• Disney World had only about 5 Disney owned hotels (none of them in the value category and only one moderate)
• No DVC (Old Key West wouldn't open for another 3 years)
• The property only had 1 water park which also opened in 1989(Typhoon Lagoon)
• Downtown Disney's West Side didn't open for almost another 8 years (1997)
• Universal wouldn't build CityWalk for another 5 years!
• Gas was less than a buck a gallon!

So Walt Disney World in 1989 was JUST beginning the transformation into the all encompassing resort it is today.  Frankly I think at a time when people enjoyed clubbing, bar hopping, dancing, etc., more than we do today, Disney really had nothing to compete with the late night crowds leaving the resort area for Rosie's.  Especially given that a huge number of guests were already having to stay off property due to the limited number of 'affordable' accommodations on property. 

No doubt the folks at Disney haven't taken this decision lightly.  I really believe they don't just do these things for fun and to torture us.  There is always some reason, or reasons: 

• the limited hours that places like the Adventures Club is open
• not enough people because of those hours through the turnstiles to make the few club's left a long term profitable enterprise
• most of Pleasure Island lost its exclusivity long ago
• Church Street Station by the late 1990's was in a downward spiral with the growth of Disney, SeaWorld and Universal, that it basically imploded just a few years ago, so its no longer a factor
• the general resort area is more than TWICE as large as it was in 1989 and almost always has late night entertainment someplace the guest has already probably paid for (Extra Magic hours anyone?)
• changing guest tastes, buying habits and visit composition (larger family groups, more families with younger children, etc.)

It seems obvious then that some though decisions had to be made.

So we bid farewell to a dear friend, we hope for something cool and unusual to sneak out of Disney into the area in compensation; something more than a highly stylized or themed restaurant maybe. 

And we sure hope Jim Hill is right in stating that the Adventures Club concept is not dead, just waiting for a new park opportunity to spring forth and once again give this great but soon to be forgotten gem new life.

Until then friends, 'Kungaloosh!'