I'm on vacation at Disney World in Florida, and I've been taking note of all the pianos I've seen while on vacation.
Disney Springs - All of the pianos were digitals. I saw a Roland on one of the outdoor stages, and in the Boathouse restaurant, two piano lounge guys were using Yamaha P125s hidden in shells that looked like acoustic pianos. This music was all pop, showtune, and standard piano bar music. I had a great time listening to it, and stuck a lot of fives in tip jars.
The Hoop-de-doo Review at Fort Wilderness - they had a lovely acoustic Yamaha U3, and the player was absolutely charming and great at ragtime.
Then I went to Jellyrolls at the Boardwalk resort to see the Duelling Pianos show, which was basically a couple of guys on digital Kawais in piano shells singing basically karaoke tunes, but it was a fun time. It was clear that these were all musical theater kids all grown up and making a living doing this. One young man, on a dare, did the confrontation scene between Javert and Jean Valjean from Les Mis. It was surprisingly great.
Right now I'm sitting in the lobby of the Grand Floridian, where someone is playing a Hamburg Steinway D.
I have both a digital and an acoustic piano at home so I posted here on the acoustic forum because it's my favorite of all the performances I saw, and I REALLY looked and listened. We each have our favorite thing, and although I loved every genre I heard, and respected the players deeply, and loved them the way my squishy heart loves people, my soul is at the Grand Flo, with that performance where I heard the kind of music I most want to play - classical arrangements of American standards and tunes from movies. I have walked, and walked, in the heat of Florida to hear as much Disney World piano music as I can without going into the parks (we do no-parks on off years), and it's in the spectacular lobby of the Grand Floridian that I finally found my "home," (although Jellyrolls was a fine time, and I intend to go back).
