Elizabeth Swann
Premium Member
- In the Parks
- No
I know of two people.
-
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News Club 33 coming to Walt Disney World this Fall
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Naplesgolfer
Well-Known Member
The biggest cut is made just to get the interview. 25 to 1 .
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
TP2000
Well-Known Member
At least at Disneyland, there is also a sit-down interview with prospective members and club management. Here in SoCal there are folks who get as far as the interview because on paper they look acceptable, but then after spending 45 minutes in an interview they are denied membership. Most reputable country and yacht clubs do this, and Club 33 is no exception.
You can look fine on paper and in a background check, but after the first 10 minutes of chatting it can be very apparent you just aren't the right kind of person to fit in with the other members. If you aren't going to fit in, they don't let you in.
I would assume WDW's smaller version of Club 33 also does this in-person interview. But someone weigh in if they don't.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
Isn’t that partially because some members were basically selling access to the club a few years ago?
I’m guessing that’s a lot of what’s happening in the interviews. Making sure you’re not going to try to find some legal loophole to become luxury Disney tour guides with “exclusive access”
Josh Hendy
Well-Known Member
Is there such a thing as an exclusive club which is run by a corporation and not by the members? E.g. with a membership committee that screens resumes, interviews, short lists, has membership votes (the good old fashioned black ball) handles discipline and so on.
I know nothing about clubs except from reading British novels and biographies of British celebrities.
Do non Club 33 member Disney employees or management accept and expel members? What is an acceptable member? Other than being a non-criminal and not an opportunist who will cash in by selling access. Is there a Disney trivia knowledge examination?
I know nothing about clubs except from reading British novels and biographies of British celebrities.
Do non Club 33 member Disney employees or management accept and expel members? What is an acceptable member? Other than being a non-criminal and not an opportunist who will cash in by selling access. Is there a Disney trivia knowledge examination?
TP2000
Well-Known Member
They've been conducting in-person interviews for decades, so I don't think that was it. They caught on and eventually weeded out the shysters who were selling their benefits thanks to the miracle of the Internet.
I would think a decent background check, which nowadays would include your Social Media presence and history, would reveal those who may be willing to sell their benefits. From Club 33 members I've known, the interview is more about your social skills, your etiquette and demeanor and interest in others, and just good old-fashioned appearance and poise, or lack thereof.
If you arrive at the interview wearing a t-shirt and talk animatedly about squirrel hunting while you spill 18 packets of sugar on the table as you sweeten your iced tea, you aren't getting in.
If you can be kicked out of Club 33 and there's a waiting list for Club 33, it's not hard to imagine that even if you have the money, you may not get in...
www.delish.com
A Couple Sued Disneyland's Exclusive Club 33 After Getting Kicked Out
They claim the club booted them after they complained about bullying.
www.delish.com
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
If you can be kicked out of Club 33 and there's a waiting list for Club 33, it's not hard to imagine that even if you have the money, you may not get in...
A Couple Sued Disneyland's Exclusive Club 33 After Getting Kicked Out
They claim the club booted them after they complained about bullying.
Well that’s true...
...I do question the wdw clientele fitting the “pattern” established in Disneyland...however
Benjamin_Nicholas
Well-Known Member
The process in Orlando is identical to California.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
If you can be kicked out of Club 33 and there's a waiting list for Club 33, it's not hard to imagine that even if you have the money, you may not get in...
A Couple Sued Disneyland's Exclusive Club 33 After Getting Kicked Out
They claim the club booted them after they complained about bullying.
I forgot about them! Apparently that couple was an absolute freak show and a nightmare to deal with, but the behavior only revealed itself once they were on their second cocktail of the evening.
Even a rigorous screening process can miss issues like that.
I have to commend Disneyland's Club 33 team for having the backbone to stand up to them and evict them from the club, knowing full well people of means like that will hire a lawyer and a sleazy PR rep to try and get back at Disney.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
But is the clientele?
The process will conform to the customer if the customer is found to not conform to the process
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
Does Club 33 in Disneyland Park have a lounge? Like if you’re not dining can you just hang out and get a free coke?
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Disneyland's Club 33 has two lounges aside from the main dining restaurant, one in each park.
Salon Nouveau is in the part of the main Club 33 complex that was expanded in New Orleans Square almost a decade ago. It's primarily a cocktail lounge with live entertainment, but Platinum members do not need to have a dining reservation in the main dining room to pop in there for a drink or bar appetizers. Gold members (there are very few of them left) must have a dining reservation that day at Club 33 to be allowed into Salon Nouveau.
Over at DCA, they have the 1901 Lounge in the Carthay Circle complex on Buena Vista Street. 1901 is more casual; a speakeasy-style series of smaller rooms with a full cocktail bar and substantial casual food menu available. Like Salon Nouveau, Platinum members may pop in to 1901 at anytime even on days they do not have a reservation at Club 33's dining room in New Orleans Square.
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TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
Disneyland's Club 33 has two lounges aside from the main dining restaurant, one in each park.
Salon Nouveau is in the part of the main Club 33 complex that was expanded in New Orleans Square almost a decade ago. It's primarily a cocktail lounge with live entertainment, but Platinum members do not need to have a dining reservation in the main dining room to pop in there for a drink or bar appetizers. Gold members (there are very few of them left) must have a dining reservation that day at Club 33 to be allowed into Salon Nouveau.
Over at DCA, they have the 1901 Lounge in the Carthay Circle complex on Buena Vista Street. The 1901 lounge is more casual; a speakeasy-style series of smaller rooms with a full cocktail bar and substantial casual food menu available. Like Salon Nouveau, Platinum members may pop in to 1901 at anytime even on days they do not have a reservation at Club 33's dining room in New Orleans Square.
Thanks for the photos! So before the remodel it was just the restaurant?
It surprises me there isn’t a club 33 restaurant in Florida. Of course maybe there will be, they could always take over the brown derby if they wanted to when membership gets to the numbers to support it.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
You want them to take over the only decent restaurant in the park?!?
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Yes, prior to the big expansion in the 2010's it was just the main dining room, plus a smaller banquet room and a long hallway connecting the complex that was used for buffets. There was a small entry lobby downstairs. You could certainly get a cocktail served at your dinner table, but there was not a dedicated bar or cocktail lounge space prior to 2012.
The real star of the show at Club 33 is still the main dining room, now called Le Grand Salon. Preferably for a fancy candlelight dinner instead of a more casual lunch, although Sunday brunches are famously good. The dining room was redecorated (from a previous 1980's redecoration) and slightly enlarged during the big expansion of 2013-14, but maintains the same basic footprint and feel it has had since opening in 1967.
The Club 33 expansion of 2013-14 added a much larger downstairs lobby and courtyard, plus expanded dining and bar facilities upstairs (in addition to the satellite speakeasy 1901 over at DCA), and that all allowed them to allow more people to join as members due to the increased capacity. It was that influx of new members that caused some issues with many old members who had been there since the 1970's, and a change in management also led to them thinning the ranks of those older members who were primarily responsible for selling their benefits via dining reservations.
The 2013-14 refurbishment also greatly expanded and modernized their kitchen facilities, which hadn't changed much since 1967. Their dinner menu at Le Grand Salon is quite extensive and impressive, as they obviously have a top-notch kitchen facility at their disposal. Here's a recent look at their Prix Fixe options for a five course meal, but they also offer a la carte.
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TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
Of course not! I didnt want them taking over my Chase Lounge either! (That I used all of once a year If there wasn’t a line to get in lol). I just can see them doing that.
Elizabeth Swann
Premium Member
- In the Parks
- No
They have the money. They are extremely well off. I suspect it is their personalities. I also know someone who you would not think could afford it and they are a member. They live in an apartment and drive a 2003 Honda Civic and works at WalMart.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I was surprised they were trying to launch the Club 33 concept at WDW back in 2017 without a restaurant.
It's now even more surprising to me that three years later as I randomly check in on this thread that they still don't have a single dining room at WDW, nor are there any rumors of one on the way anytime soon.
I have been to Disneyland's Club 33 a handful of times; in the 1990's for dinner a few times through an affiliation with Standard Oil, and then over 15 years later to the expanded version of Club 33 and the Grand Salon dining room twice through some friends who were or still are members. I have been to 1901 once and had a cocktail (well, two
) there through those same friends back in 2015. So I am not a member nor am I an expert on Club 33, but I have some personal experience dining there over the last 25 years in both of its formats. And I do know the Club 33 at Tokyo Disneyland is a direct lift of the 1967 Anaheim concept in format and execution, so it works identically in Tokyo.And with that said, I have absolutely no idea why you would have a Club 33 without a proper dining room and fine dining restaurant experience. It just makes no sense to me.
But I have to hand it to WDW management if they've been able to pull it off for several years and get people to pay that dues money for a few modestly designed cocktail lounges, with "free" parking and complimentary rain ponchos.
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