Our amazing Club 33 visit

As anyone who has a little bit of Disneyland knowledge knows, in New Orleans square there is a private club originally built by Walt Disney for entertaining VIPs.
Membership to the club is extremely exclusive, with the waiting list to join stretching multiple years before membership is offered.  
Being invited to dine at the club is the ultimate dream of every Disneyland fan.  On Feb 24th 2013, Theresa, Ruston, Jacob and I all had that dream come true!



Not only were we going to be at Club 33 today, but Feb 24th was also Dapper Day at Disneyland.  What is Dapper Day?  From the DapperDay.com website:

Inspired by the original Disney park designer's illustrations, which often featured extremely well dressed guests enjoying the park, DAPPER DAY events celebrate the tradition of stepping out in style.

While not an official celebration hosted by Disneyland, they do recognize it and they even created a pin for it this year.

Our Club 33 host thought it would be a great idea to have a breakfast brunch for a large group of friends to celebrate the day.  We couldn't agree more!
Early in the morning at 7:30, the entire group met at the west floodgate and chatted until the Club 33 manager came to greet us.
Theresa and I were looking forward to all the great experiences we were going to have at Disneyland today.

Jacob and Ruston are looking quite dapper.  Ruston even pulled out his grandfather's old bow tie to wear.

Before heading to the club, we all posed for a huge group photo in front of the castle.  (Click the photo for a much bigger version that you can actually see people's faces).

We were led through an empty Adventureland by the Club 33 manager.

Then we walked through the empty New Orleans square onto Royal St all the way to door 33.

After all the years imagining it, we were inside!  

This morning is going to be epic!

Once at the top of the stairs, we walked over to the main dining hall to enjoy a delicious breakfast.

We walked through another hallway over to the Main Dining Room.  

All the tables were set up and waiting for us.  

Our breakfast buffet consisted of the following:

Mini quiches, Eggs Benedict, Macerated berry compote crepes, Lyonnaise sliced potatoes,Grilled sirloin steak, Clove studded honey ham, Assorted Juices, coffee, tea and milk, Assorted cereals, Mini Danishes, Croissants, muffins, scones, brioche with marmalades and preserves (all baked at the Disneyland hotel bakery!), Season fresh fruit, and Regional cheeses

We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast and great company, talking with our table-mates Dale, Grace, their daughter and Dave DeCaro.

Can you believe I didn't take a photo of my plate?  The eggs benedict were delicious, along with the clove studded ham and sirloin steak.  Actually it was all fantastic.  There wasn't a single thing I got that I didn't like.

Our time in the club was passing much too quickly.
It's time to go explore!
Here's one of the porches off the Main Dining room in the club.  It's great looking out over the square and having the view from up here.

Looking back across Royal St towards the entrance to the club, just to the right of the Blue Bayou restaurant.

 
That building on the left houses the Disneyland Dream Suite.  Click here and you can read all about our amazing overnight stay there back in July 2012. 

Just a few photos on the balcony overlooking the Rivers of America.
Theresa and I.

Plus Jacob.

Plus Ruston!  The whole crew is complete!

Let's go explore the rest of the club!
Going all the way back downstairs to the entrance, this is what greets you as soon as you enter the door. 

Even the required signage looks period specific.  And Club 33 by the way is the only place inside Disneyland the serves alcohol.

Of course, the best way to experience the room is with a 360 degree view of it.  Make sure you press "F" to see it in full screen!  Make sure you use the +/- keys on the bottom too to zoom in and out.  There's lots of detail here.

Dominating the room is an elevator to take you up to the 2nd floor.  You could take the stairs, but what's the fun in that?

Continuing up the stairs, we reach the top of the elevator.

All around the club are these great classic pictures of Walt.  Oh to just have more time here...

The door to the right in the photo above has this sign on it. When we did see someone going through this door, it looked to lead to a second balcony inside the Blue Bayou restaurant.

The lunch menus were waiting for the next group of Club 33 members

That Filet Mignon with truffle mac and cheese looks like it could be delicious.

Even the light sconces are decorated with the Club 33 logo.

The next room we visited was the trophy room.  This is the room I envision in my head whenever I think of Club 33.  In this room, there is an animatronic vulture in the corner that was designed to interact with guests.  In the light fixtures were microphones that would allow the operator to listen to the conversations and talk back and forth with the guests.  In the end, it was never implemented though.  Who would want someone potentially listening to their conversations?

How about an awesome 360 view of the Trophy Room?

Here's that animatronic vulture.

This "eagle" is sitting in front of a sign showing the capacity of 33 for the trophy room.

In the center of this light fixture is one of the microphones.

And here's a closer view of all the items around the room.

Just outside the trophy room is a real working phone booth from the movie The Happiest Millionaire.

Theresa learned that this is actually a real working phone when she picked it up.

Heading back down the hallway to towards the main dining room.

This harpsichord was custom built for Lillian Disney.

And the lid was painted by Disney artists.  We were trying to figure out where the scene was based.  We can see a paddleboat in the scene along a waterway.  Our guess was that this is some southern plantation in New Orleans overlooking the Mississippi river.

We continued to the balcony overlooking Orleans St.

And of course no trip to Club 33 would be complete without a trip to the restroom.  This is the men's restroom.  Napkins are sitting on table at the exit.

Looking toward the sinks.

There wasn't anything too special about the men's room.  The toilet was your typical white porcelain.

Now let's head to the women's restroom.  Theresa took over with the camera and headed in.  Looking back towards the entrance.

There is a powder room at the entrance with a full length mirror.

Plus a small vanity.

The picture in the photo above reminded me of a very similar one I saw in the Dream Suite.

In a separate room was the rest of the restroom.

It's all very fancy in here.

Sadly, after only 2 hours in the club, it was time to leave.  The club had to set up for lunch and needed us to clear the area.
Our table-mates Grace and Dale.

But there was one more treat in store for us. 

A ride down in the elevator! 

It was a little bit of a squeeze, especially since the door opens inward, but we all rode down together!

Once outside of course we had to get some shots in front of the door.

Dave DeCaro has posted his photos from the day as well.  You can see them (along with us in a few of them) here.
http://davelandblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/disneyland-trip-report-dapper-day-and.html

We had a fantastic time visiting the club! For all the people who helped make our dream come true, thank you so much!