Waterfront District "Hyperion Wharf" Set to be added to Pleasure Island

[bingie]

The only way around the island that I know of was a dimly-lit sidewalk next to the street between PH and where McD's was. Not an easy walk.

The old walkway which bypassed Pleasure Island, before they tore down the West End Stage (and the Hub Stage) and rebuilt the Bridge in 2006:

 

[Lee]

The old walkway which bypassed Pleasure Island, before they tore down the West End Stage (and the Hub Stage) and rebuilt the Bridge in 2006:

Oh, yeah!
I totally forgot about that one.
(You can tell I never tried to bypass the island....)

 

[lazyboy97o]

Does anyone know of any plans to expand parking, to go along with this rehab?

There is plenty of parking over by the West Side that Disney seems to have totally forgotten about.

Nope again.
The only location issue they had was that it was seen as a blockage between Marketplace and Westside for families with little kids. That demo doesn't want to walk past bars and clubs, and would avoid making the trek through PI. A nice walkway around the area would have solved that problem nicely.

Even with all of these announcements, Disney continues to try and ignore addressing the issue of the West Side. I will be very surprised that, even if it is a huge hit, that Hyperion Wharf will encourage people to trek out into the West Side.

 

[trr1]

The old walkway which bypassed Pleasure Island, before they tore down the West End Stage (and the Hub Stage) and rebuilt the Bridge in 2006:

I don see any pictures

 

[Rob562]

It's a shame though that all they'd really need to do would be to add the AC and a dance club back and they'd have almost everyone in line with these new plans. There must be pretty substantial business reasons for them to not do so. Remember, their whole existence is to make money. They wouldn't get rid of something just to disappoint the fan base.

This is what I'm thinking the West End of the Island could still be used for. BET Soundtsgae could defintiely still exist as a dance club (even though Mannequins is definitely the far-superior facility).

They could have the Comedy Warehouse still be a comedy club... Here in Boston we have quite a few stand-up comedy clubs that bring in crowds on a regular basis. Start booking touring comedians, have 2 or 3 shows a night with whatever ticket fee the market will support. And on nights where there isn't an act booked, you can have your usual troupe of CW actors doing shows for a cheaper admission fee, but let them have longer show lengths.

As for the AC, I'm not sure how that would work... If they tweaked things a little, and did some number-crunching, they could make it as if it truly were a "members club" where you either pay annual dues to join (an AP) or you could be added onto Hathaway's "guest list" for a small fee... I dunno... Not sure, from a business sense, whether the AC would be able to stand on its own as a stand-alone business unit.

-Rob

 

[Flip83]

Not that anyone actually knows for sure, but what kind of stores are we talking here? I love the idea of this place, could really give Downtown some new pop. I'm sure some new places to eat will go there, which could be nice... I'm just asking because are we looking at Disney oriented stores, or the same kind of stores that were at West Side, like that cheesy magnet store, and the one with hollywood memorabilia crap. Not much at West Side really caught my eye... Except the cigar store and some restaurants.

 

[TP2000]

The only location issue they had was that it was seen as a blockage between Marketplace and Westside for families with little kids. That demo doesn't want to walk past bars and clubs, and would avoid making the trek through PI. A nice walkway around the area would have solved that problem nicely.

Bingo! It's a trek from the Marketplace to the Westside. So why make people walk? Disney should have installed a themed and beautifully designed trolley system to take people from one end of the mall to the other, adding kinetics to the entire development and making it look and feel unique to most visitors.

Gorgeously designed trolley systems are already in place in several upscale malls in Southern California.

There's a fleet of double decker trolleys winding through The Grove shopping mall in west Los Angeles, California.

The Grove shopping mall trolleys

Over in Glendale, California, not far from Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters, is The Americana mall that also has a fleet of single-level streetcars plying the thoroughfares of that center. On busy days they add trailers to the lead cars to increase capacity. This is where Imagineers working up the street stop by after work to do some shopping, or grab dinner.

The Americana shopping mall trolleys

Dare I say it?.... These modern electric trolleys are as finely detailed and themed as anything currently in a Disney theme park? And the mall trolley conductors wear very fancy uniforms and are polite and courteous, looking even snazzier and being more polite than Disney CM's are in the parks. And these trolley systems operate at... shopping malls.

If a mall can do this, and do it at a level that meets or exceeds Disney theme park standards, then why can't Disney do this? Downtown Disney at WDW is big enough and sprawling enough to need an internal transit system. A trolley running from Cirque de Soleil, along the Westside, through Hyperion Wharf, and then circling back at the Marketplace seems a no brainer to me.

Or have my standards and expectations for Disney World been set too high by the local mall?

.

 

[jt04]

Not that anyone actually knows for sure, but what kind of stores are we talking here? I love the idea of this place, could really give Downtown some new pop. I'm sure some new places to eat will go there, which could be nice... I'm just asking because are we looking at Disney oriented stores, or the same kind of stores that were at West Side, like that cheesy magnet store, and the one with hollywood memorabilia crap. Not much at West Side really caught my eye... Except the cigar store and some restaurants.

I'd bet money that the "West" gets attention and possibly sooner than later. Eddie Sotto has reached the same conclusion. It never ceases to amaze me the lack of an ability many have to project where trends are leading. I think it is a failure of imagination in the vast majority of cases. In others, it is just bitterness or cynacism. It will all make sense in time. People will be amazed by DtD.

Bingo! It's a trek from the Marketplace to the Westside. So why make people walk? Disney should have installed a themed and beautifully designed trolley system to take people from one end of the mall to the other, adding kinetics to the entire development and making it look and feel unique to most visitors.

Gorgeously designed trolley systems are already in place in several upscale malls in Southern California.

There's a fleet of double decker trolleys winding through The Grove shopping mall in west Los Angeles, California.

The Grove shopping mall trolleys

Over in Glendale, California, not far from Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters, is The Americana mall that also has a fleet of single-level streetcars plying the thoroughfares of that center. On busy days they add trailers to the lead cars to increase capacity. This is where Imagineers working up the street stop by after work to do some shopping, or grab dinner.

The Americana shopping mall trolleys

Dare I say it?.... These modern electric trolleys are as finely detailed and themed as anything currently in a Disney theme park? And the mall trolley conductors wear very fancy uniforms and are polite and courteous, looking even snazzier and being more polite than Disney CM's are in the parks. And these trolley systems operate at... shopping malls.

If a mall can do this, and do it at a level that meets or exceeds Disney theme park standards, then why can't Disney do this? Downtown Disney at WDW is big enough and sprawling enough to need an internal transit system. A trolley running from Cirque de Soleil, along the Westside, through Hyperion Wharf, and then circling back at the Marketplace seems a no brainer to me.

Or have my standards and expectations for Disney World been set too high by the local mall?

.

Umm, DtD has a "trolly" system. It floats rather than using rails. And once the waterfront is opened up the views will be even more beautiful. People will use the service just for the awesomeness of the lights and not just for transportation.


And I see the naysayers have their weak talking points in order and they are again parroting ideas that were discredited two years ago and now are completely buried. Yet they march on in lockstep. Sad. I'm going to bump a thread where I think the WestSide may be heading. IMO.

 

[Atomicmickey]

A trolley running from Cirque de Soleil, along the Westside, through Hyperion Wharf, and then circling back at the Marketplace seems a no brainer to me.

Or have my standards and expectations for Disney World been set too high by the local mall?

.

Great idea! I think you've really hit on something, there.

However, you've got it a bit backwards--your local mall is coming up to meet the standards set by Disney.

I'm struck--taking my kids to WDW, how, when I was younger, NOTHING was themed/plussed/designed like Disney--now, it's pervasive. You are correct that WDW needs to be sharp and on top of things, because things like the trolley at your local mall--a direct descendant of Walt Disney's ideas--are pushing back and competing for attention, dollars, etc.

The theming of America started someplace, with someone, and we all know who that is! (not that it didn't exist before, but, ya know . . . )

 

[MKCP 1985]

I must agree. I once questioned all of the "lower quality" talk on this Forum until a few years back. My father visited EPCOT for the first time since the late 80's, and he spent an hour telling me that the quality of the park had declined miserably. I just hadn't noticed because of the frequency of my trips. I think it's similar to the way that you don't notice your daily weight gain until someone who hasn't seen you in a while looks at you and says, "man, you look like a cow".

There's a friend! :lol:


As a matter of curiosity, what examples did your father give for his opinion that the Epcot park experienced miserable decline in quality? Epcot in 2010 is a lot different from Epcot Center of 1988, there is no debating that fact, but that is a harsh statement.

 

[Mouse Detective]

One of the rumors a year or so ago was that there would be a trolley type train running back and forth between Marketplace and West Side, along the road the currently runs immediately adjacent those venues. That certainly fits the time era that Disney is trying to invoke here.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Anybody else catch the Disney ad on the side of the trolley? :lol:

 

[JEANYLASER]

yeah! Disney need to ad in the trolley!

 

[Mouse Detective]

I wonder if Hyperion Wharf is just the current "working name" and something else will actually get deployed when they're ready. I say this because I just typed in www.hyperionwharf.com and Disney doesn't even own it. We all know Disney buys dozens of website names in advance in order to lock them up. To think there would have been an oversight on something that critical is hard to believe.

 

[vonpluto]

The announcement was posted to the Disneyparks blog on 11/18.

The Mouse aside, 11/18 is also the birthday of one Merriweather Adam Pleasure, (November 18, 1873 to 1941(vanished))

"Fun for all, all for fun"

Happy Birthday Mr. Pleasure

 

[Captain Chaos]

I wonder if Hyperion Wharf is just the current "working name" and something else will actually get deployed when they're ready. I say this because I just typed in www.hyperionwharf.com and Disney doesn't even own it. We all know Disney buys dozens of website names in advance in order to lock them up. To think there would have been an oversight on something that critical is hard to believe.

Interesting find... Even if it were a working name I would think Disney would still buy it with the idea that, once this was announced, people would run to buy the domain name and be a squatter...

 

[Disneykidder]

2013, huh? I wish it were sooner. It looks very nice. Reminds me of a Boardwalk style pier. Like SantaMonica pier or something. I really like it. It's a much needed improvement to the tumbleweeds that are there now.

 

[Krack]

I wonder if Hyperion Wharf is just the current "working name" and something else will actually get deployed when they're ready. I say this because I just typed in www.hyperionwharf.com and Disney doesn't even own it. We all know Disney buys dozens of website names in advance in order to lock them up. To think there would have been an oversight on something that critical is hard to believe.

That is weird. I don't think they would have made an announcement without being fairly certain that was the name they were going to go with, but how does a billion dollar company forget to register a domain name? They register hundreds of useless domain names a year.

 

[MKCP 1985]

Did Disney own pleasureisland.com? noooo. . .

You'd think Disney is going to keep people going to their disney.go.com site for all things Hyperion Wharf, Downtown Disney, or otherwise.

 

[MKCP 1985]

oops, double post.

since I can't delete it, I'll just say it IS quite a coincidence the announcement came on the fictitious birthdate of the fictitious founder of Pleasure Island.

And I was there on the last night of Pleasure Island clubs - they had a Dee Jay telling everyone "Pleasure Island is not closing." yeah, right, Baghdad Bob . . . :lol: