Fun After the Parks Close

MouseStation 386 - Fun After the Parks Close

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On today's show, Mark and Mike talk about late-night entertainment for when the parks close early.

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Feature: Fun After the Parks Close

Mark and Mike talk about late-night entertainment for when the parks close early.

It used to be that the place for after-hours entertainment was the clubs at Pleasure Island. However, now that they've closed down the clubs, we need to find other places to have fun.

Downtown Disney

While Pleasure Island clubs are gone, there are still lots of great themed shops that stay open until 11 or 12 every night, depending on the season. There's also themed dining with entertainment at locations such as Raglan Road, House of Blues and Bongos, as well as places like Rainforest Cafe, T-Rex Cafe and Planet Hollywood. Wolfgang Puck's, Portobello, and Paradiso 37 are also open for late dining.

The Characters in Flight balloon also provides rides late into the evening. DisneyQuest is open fairly late, and you can get a deal on specially-discounted tickets that are valid for just the last couple of hours each day. For a late movie, you can always check out the AMC Pleasure Island 24. The last Cirque du Soleil show of the night starts at 9:00 p.m., and runs until about 10:30.

Boardwalk

JellyRolls is a great duelling-piano bar, with great entertainment, audience participation, and teams of pianists ensuring non-stop music. The ESPN Club stays open late, with all of the sports action that you can handle on loads of screens all around the place. (For some reason, Mike thinks that the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet is a sport.)

Live entertainment on the Boardwalk will run until fairly late, as well, perhaps until midnight.

Every once in a while, there will be events at Atlantic Dance. This year, the dance hall is hosting a special Valentine's Day Chocolate Dinner for Tables in Wonderland members.

Fantasia Gardens will often be open until 11 or 12 so that you can play miniature golf after the sun goes down. A short walk from there is the Swan and Dolphin, which have such locations as Kimono's (home of karaoke) and the martini bar at bluezoo.

Coronado Springs

Rix Lounge has made a great effort to provide night life that not only for the convention crowds at the resort, but also for locals. They often host special themed events, and there are many premium options including reserved seating and bottle service.

Resorts

All Disney resorts offer entertainment such as lounges and pool bars. Arcades are often open late, and the pools are available for a late-night dip (though please don't mix it with heavy drinking at the pool bars).

Elsewhere

Of course, if you've got your own transportation, you can leave Disney property and to go the Crossroads near Hotel Plaza Boulevard, or head over to Universal's CityWalk. There's also now an ice bar in Orlando.

What do you think? Let us know by sending us an email or calling our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278)!

Twitter/Facebook poll questions

Here are the responses to some questions that Mark was asking on Twitter and Facebook in the last week. If you'd like to get in on answering these questions in the future, you can follow Mark on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.

What is your favorite (non park guide) Disney book?

We got lots of great answers here, with great suggestions for everyone to read.

• One Day At Disney by Pam Brandon is my favorite, with Since the World Began by Jeff Kurtti as an extremely close second.
• How to Be Like Walt by Pat Williams
• Kingdom keepers series by Ridley Pearson! Fictional yet so Disney! Fictional yet u can see every place whilst u read it!!
• Rethinking Disney: Private Control, Public Dimensions by Mike Budd (Editor), Max H. Kirsch (Editor)
• My favorite right now is Walt Disney: An American Original, by Bob Thomas, though I'm currently reading a really interesting one that's becoming a favorite based partially on the presentation of the material: Disney Treasures by Robert Tieman. It has copies of a lot of the trinkets that you might find in archives, like letters to Lillian, opening day tickets, etc.
• My daughter likes the Kingdom Keepers books and I'd have to say they have been my favorite as well. Another favorite of our daughter is the Peter and the Starcatchers series. Am I sensing a theme here? Perhaps I should have just said anything Disney related written or co-written by Ridley Pearson.
• I loved "Disney War", which detailed Michael Eisner's rise and fall.
• Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, and Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the Magic Real by The Imagineers.
• Disney The Mouse Betrayed Greed, Corruption and Children at Risk... By Peter & Rochelle Schweizer...Tells the story behind the magic... Not reccomended for children. I like the Kingdom Keepers books ... My only issue is that a lot of the facts bout Disney World and Disney Land get mixed up...I am looking forward to the third book which comes out this April
• The Art and Flair of Mary Blair. Love those images.
• I thought Lee Cockerell's "Creating Magic" was good.
• Just one?!? Okay, "Disneyland: Inside Story". Or "Disneyland: The Nickel Tour" if it doesnt have to be a book actually published by Disney.
• Inside the Dream: The Personal Story of Walt Disney
• The Disney Mountains: Imagineering at It's Peak by Jason Surrell
• Book "Illusion of Life" I read it religiously when experimenting with animation as a kid. Still one of the best.
• Love the question for this week! Looking forward to book recommendations! There are so many Disney books, it's hard to find best!
• Loved Hidden Mickey by Nancy Rodrigue and David Smith. Also love @loumongello's trivia books!
• The original Mouse Tales by David Koenig.
• Neal Gabler's WALT DISNEY: Triumph of the American Imagination
• Kingdom Keepers!
• It has got to be the Unofficial Guide-no discussion needed! Duh, you said non park guide! correction: the Walt Disney World Trivia Book (hoping you don't consider it a guidebook)
• david koenig's realityland
• Favorite Disney book is Disneyland: The Nickel Tour. Others: Disneyland: Inside Story, Disney's America & Walt Disney's Epcot Center
• The best Disney-related book in my collection is Spinning Disney's World: Memories of a MK Press Agent by Charles Ridgway
• At this time, it's The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney by J. Jeff Kober. I love that book because I can apply some of the principles to my every day job and life, for that matter.
• I think I've read almost every Disney book I could get my hands on. All the Walt biography’s, imaginer books etc. However, the book I found the most fascinating, therefore I would say is my favorite Disney book is Disney War by James B.Stewart. This book gave the reader some insight into the inner workings of the Walt Disney Company from a corporate perspective. The book primarily focused on Michael Eisner and other Disney executives and the constant backstabbing and power plays that occur regularly. The book also discussed Eisner and Roy Disney's efforts to have Eisner removed as CEO.
• My favorite "Book" is not a book. I like to go to certain websites and get an encyclopedia worth of info. My favorite sites are:  1. mouseplanet.com; 2. Allearsnet.com; 3. mousesavers.com
• I'm not much of a book reader so there isn't a whole lot for me to pick from and since the Unofficial Guide to WDW doesn't qualify as an answer to this week's poll I would then have to say, Since the World Began Walt Disney World the First 25 Years by Jeff Kurtti.
• For the question of the week, in terms of books about WDW, I like: 1) Walt Disney’s Railroad Story by Michael Broggie. It’s an amazing book for anyone interested in Walt’s interest and relationship to trains. 2) Disney World’s Epcot Center by Richard Beard. This is a fascinating book, published before the opening of EPCOT, about what we would have expected to see when it opens. To me what is of most interesting is not what exists today, but the things that never made it (at least as far as I know) or items that are there, but we cannot see today. An example of the former is the roller coaster for Japan and example of the later is the book store that was above the meet-and-greet location for Belle in the French pavilion. I know you wanted only one, but I couldn’t decide between the two, sorry.
• Are you still taking requests for favorite Disney book? If so, the best Disney book that I've read lately was "Disney War" by James Stewart. It tells the story of how the company transitioned from being run by the Disney family to the Eisner / Wells era to the Eisner era (in my opinon two very distinct eras) and finally to Bob Igor. The book not only covers just the theme parks, but all of the the Disney organizaion and contains interesting stories such as how ABC had first dibs at the TV show Survivor; however, Eisner wasn't convinced about it and turned the show down. It's a great read and I highly encourage it!

Mike's top books are the Kingdom Keepers series, Jeff Kober's book, and any of the Imagineering books.

Mark has a wide variety of books that he likes, and can't narrow it down to a single book, since his preferences vary with his mood. He enjoys Imagineering books like Walt Disney Imagineering, Designing Disney, The Imagineering Way and The Imagineering Workbook. Books about Walt Disney himself are faves, including Bob Thomas' Walt Disney: An American Original. Books about the business including Disney War are of interest, as are books about the design and construction of the parks such as Since the World Began and Walt Disney's EPCOT Center. For a fictional take, he also likes Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow.

Next week's question: What Disney movie are you most excited for in 2010 and why?

What do you think?

March of Dimes

For the second year in a row, Mark has been named the top walker for the March of Dimes in New York's Capital Region, and second overall in Northeastern New York (above the counties of Westchester and Rockland). MousePlanet readers and MouseStation listeners have helped Mark to raise over $15,000 for the worthy charity over the last four years. This year, his goal is to raise $5,000 again. But that's not all! This year, you can walk with Mark, either in person or virtually, by joining Team MousePlanet! Mike has already signed on to walk as well. You can go to Mark's fundraising page to sponsor him, Mike's fundraising page to sponsor him, or the Team MousePlanet page to join in and walk yourself! Help us to provide a better chance to prevent prematurity and to help those babies that are born prematurely!

Wrapping up

We've put together a new listener survey to help us learn more about you and what you like most about this podcast. This one is much more targeted than the old Podtrac survey. Please take a few minutes to fill it out and let us know what you think.

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Thanks to our audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.

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