Mouse Extra

One main initiative of Walt Disney World’s marketing and planning over the last twenty years has been to try and appeal more to adults and not just those with small children.  Disney World had gained a reputation as a place to stay away from if you didn’t like the sound of screaming kids and the company didn’t like that much at all.  It was time to tap into a broader market.  On May 1, 1989 they took the first and most drastic step towards ending that impression with potential tourists.  They opened Pleasure Island.

For a place where alcohol was pretty scare 10 years earlier, opening bar-central was quite a leap of faith.  Sure, Epcot Center had offered adult beverages and the hotel lounges did as well, but those things were somewhat subtle.  Nothing, and I mean nothing, about Pleasure Island was subtle.  It was an in-your-face drink-fest with people selling mixed drinks of all sizes and colors on the streets and a New Year’s Eve party every night.  There were comedy clubs, dance clubs and more.  You couldn’t walk ten feet into a club without someone offering you some sort of unidentifiable alcoholic beverage that was probably glowing neon colors.  It was a fantasyland of a whole new kind.

Now guests had something to do after dark.  While families were going back to the hotel exhausted, and their feet burning, to put the kids to bed, other adults were getting ready for the fun to begin.  This was something entirely different at Walt Disney World and it made the experience an exhaustibly long but raucously fun time.  The only problem was if you had too much fun at Pleasure Island, riding Space Mountain the next day could be a whole new adventure…ouch!