Everything You Need to Know About Disney’s Club 33
Everyone enjoys a love/hate relationship with the velvet rope. When said rope blocks your path, you feel shunned, denied your rightful spot among the elite.
When a bouncer removes the velvet rope and lets you inside, you feel tall, worthy. You’ve been selected much like The Claw picking one of the Little Green Men in Toy Story. It’s a glorious sensation.
Disney theme parks have several versions of the velvet rope concept. The most famous example is more than 50 years old. Disneyland opened it the year after the company’s founder died, and it’s become a symbolic example of the divide between the one percenters and regular park guests.
Here’s everything you need to know about Disney’s Club 33, the most secretive Disney club.
Photo Credit: DisneyNerds.com
The Mystery at the Heart of New Orleans Square
Disneyland’s first major expansion occurred at New Orleans Square. This themed land featured a pair of world-famous attractions, although neither of them would open until a couple of years later. 4
The original one came in 1967, nine months after New Orleans Square opened. It was Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe you’ve heard of it. In 1969, another one called Haunted Mansion arrived. Maybe you’ve heard of it, too.
With two seminal anchor attractions at New Orleans Square, guests flocked to the themed land and kept it operating near maximum capacity for half a century. What many of them never even realized is that a restaurant is hidden in plain sight in this themed area.
To the casual observer, Blue Bayou Restaurant is the upscale establishment that signifies the ultimate in theme park dining. Disney fanatics know better, though.
Right next to Blue Bayou on 33 Royal Street is the most exclusive restaurant in California. Disney’s Club 33 is a members-only dining experience that prices all but the uber-rich out of the building. To eat at Club 33, you must sign up, and signing up costs more than a lot of people make in a calendar year.
The average American income is $59,055. Club 33 costs $25,000 just to sign up, and then members must pay annual fees in the range of $10,000-$15,000. Yes, three years’ worth of Club 33 usage is more expensive than the normal American citizen earns in a year.
At Disney’s Club 33, guests enter a deluxe restaurant that embodies the will and vision of Walt Disney. During the 1964 New York World’s Fair, Disney loved the special corporate lounge that the exhibition hosted. There, the elite could hang out and do business in a private setting.
Uncle Walt wanted to transfer that idea to Disneyland. While he died before he could see this dream turned into a reality, it opened less than six months after his death. In its own way, this exclusive establishment is his final legacy.
Photo Credit: Tim Rue – TravelandLeisure.com
What You Get with Club 33 Membership
You’re probably wondering what Disney offers Club 33 members that could possibly justify that lofty price. The first answer I’ll give is the harsh reality of it.
Members receive exclusivity, a place where they can escape the hectic nature of a day at Disneyland. From their idyllic restaurant setting, they can avoid the riffraff in the same way that Thurston Howell III wanted to avoid Gilligan and the Skipper.
The food at Club 33 is also world class, on a par with Victoria & Albert’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. It doesn’t have the same reputation and critical reception for a simple reason.
Your regular TripAdvisor or Yelp reviewer doesn’t have access to Club 33. It’s reserved for billionaires and A-list celebrities.
What Food & Wine Magazine can’t tell you is that Disney’s Club 33 experience is inimitable. The perks are otherworldly, too. You’ll definitely feel like a plutocrat when you join. Club 33 members receive a pair of Disney Premier Passports, the ones that give the holder access to Disneyland AND Walt Disney World.
They also receive “free” parking at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa so that they can enter the parks without additional charges. Of course, they’re already as much as $40,000 invested by the time they enter the restaurant for the first time.
My favorite benefits are the ones that improve the park experience. Club 33 members receive a set of 50 single-day admission tickets annually, allowing them to invite their friends to spend the day at the Happiest Place on Earth. There’s potentially a second benefit to this.
Members receive a set number of daily FastPasses automatically! Simply by showing up, they can skip straight to FastPass line on several of their favorite attractions, including the hardest ones to get like Radiator Springs Racers.
Amazingly, this benefit carries over to their guests. Yes, when Club 33 members give their friends single-day admission tickets, they can also get their friends those daily FastPasses.
The only catch is that the member has to be with the guest.
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The only benefit of Club 33 is that members get to book their tables ahead of time. This may not seem like much of an advantage, but it’s actually huge. The popularity and longevity of Club 33 is such that’s a tough table to book, even for the elite who participate in the program.
Disney’s introduced a tiered system wherein gold members receive an earlier booking window. Silver members can book at a later date, assuming there’s availability. Yes, at Club 33, a SECOND velvet rope system is in place.
The Florida Version
A few years ago, The Walt Disney Company made headlines when they announced their intent to bring Club 33 to Walt Disney World.
While Tokyo Disneyland had its version for many years and even Shanghai Disneyland featured one when it opened in 2016, Orlando had to wait until 2017.
Photo Credit: http://disneybythenumbers.com/news-applications-membership-club-33-walt-disney-world-sent-select/
Of course, Walt Disney World has something special that isn’t available at the other places. EACH of the four gates at Walt Disney World will have its own Club 33 restaurant. Disney’s done this for a couple of reasons.
The most important one involves what we just discussed, availability. Disneyland’s version of Club 33 has a multi-year waiting list and operates near capacity most of the time. Since it’s a secret building, it also lacks room for expansion.
Walt Disney World receives many more park guests annually. The scale of the place dictates that Club 33 allow more guests. By hosting four different restaurants under the Club 33 umbrella, Disney can sell four times as many memberships. And those memberships are NOT cheap.
Photo by Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
According to Orlando Weekly, the prices start at $33,000 to join and then cost $15,000 more annually. That’s $48,000 just to enter the door of a Club 33 restaurant for the first time. You could get a Tesla Model 3 for that price! Of course, the people who can afford a Club 33 membership are more likely to get a Tesla Roadster.
Of course, the benefits at Walt Disney World are better, too. Club 33 members get five daylong VIP guided tours in addition to the 50 one-day admission tickets. They receive more FastPasses, too. The reported number is at least 12, although I was unable to confirm that on the record.
Imagine having your choice of 12 FastPasses each day at Walt Disney World! And they aren’t park-specific, either! You could head straight from Avatar Flight of Passage to Slinky Dog Dash and then to Frozen Ever After before ending your day at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train! How’s that for maximum Disney fun?
The next time you’re at Walt Disney World, you may want to look at the new Club 33 restaurants. Alas, that’s easier said than done. You’ll never see a sign for Club 33 at any of the parks. Like the original at Disneyland, they’re hidden in plain sight.
What we know is that the one at Hollywood Studios is located near the Brown Derby while Epcot’s version is on the third floor of the American Adventure. Magic Kingdom will have one near Skipper Canteen, and the Africa portion of Animal Kingdom will host the final Club 33 at some point in 2019 or early 2020.
Of course, we’ll never know exactly when any of these opens or how crowded they are. Disney has banned cellphone usage or any sort of recording devices within Club 33 restaurants.
They want to respect and maintain the privacy of the exclusive guests who pay tens of thousands of dollars to eat in a special dining area. It sounds ridiculous to you and me, but that’s the beauty of being crazy rich!
My question is: To your knowledge, are Club-33 members expected or required to visit the Club a minimum of times per year? Obviously Disney would make more profit if they simply paid for membership and never used it, but in the grand scheme of things, I doubt if Club-33 is a huge contributor to overall Disney corporate profit. So I would imagine Disney would “encourage” members to make use of their membership, or if not, to cancel their membership and make way for someone on the wait list, right?
Anyway, just curious if you know anything about whether such a requirement exists or not?
Great article by the way.
Thanks!