Club 33, A Dream Come True

Have you ever had something happen where still, to this day, it doesn’t seem like it was real? That’s what happened to us during our last trip to Disneyland. It started on Friday the 13th, which most people believe is an incredibly unlucky day. For us though, it was the BEST DAY EVER! (Minus our wedding day and the day Beckham was born of course.) One of the luckiest things that could happen to us, happened! WE GOT TO VISIT CLUB 33! If you haven’t heard of Club 33 or don’t know much about it click here.

A lot of you are probably wondering how we got to visit the famous club. No, we are not members and to get in to the club you have to have a reservation made for you by a member or go with a member or be a member. We were lucky enough to know someone who knows someone who knows someone etc. that was able to make us a reservation!

So the wonderful lucky and a little bit unlucky Friday the 13th arrived. We were so STOKED. There isn’t a strict dress code for lunch but we wanted to dress up because, you know, it’s CLUB 33! We had the first reservation of the day at 11:00. We decided to take it easy that morning and not hit the parks before our reservation. We left our hotel in our nice fancy clothes around 9:45 that morning just to make sure we weren’t rushed getting there. When we arrived at the park to go through security, THE LINE WENT ALL THE WAY TO HARBOR BOULEVARD… Friday the 13th had struck. We waited in that darn security line in 95 degree weather, sweating through our fancy clothes for an HOUR and FIVE minutes! I started to panic a bit because every security line was moving faster than ours and I was stressed we were going to miss our once in a lifetime chance to visit the club!

Once we finally got through security, the lines to enter Disneyland weren’t too long. Feeling a bit better about our time (we still had about 10 minutes to make our reservation) we picked a random line. We made it all the way up to the entrance with just one group ahead of us when… Friday the 13th struck again! It was the group’s first day at the park so they had to register their tickets and get their photos taken and sign their tickets and the worker’s scanner STOPPED WORKING! Like it just stopped working and decided to break. Plus the lady’s phone that had all the tickets on it was having problems pulling up the tickets and every other line was moving faster than ours but it was our turn next so we didn’t want to get out of line and wait again and basically Rach and I were about to hyperventilate. It was all fine though because eventually the scanner started working and we made it into the park! Hooray!

We made it to the beautiful Club 33 door and took a few family pictures as we waited for the rest of our party to get through that dang line. When we rang the doorbell it actually opened and we got to go inside and it was AWESOME. I tried to film as we were walking in but it wasn’t allowed so I could only snap pictures. So we went through the door and little lobby area and entered into the Court of Angels where there’s the beautiful blue staircase. They were celebrating the Tiki Room’s 55th anniversary so there were fun tiki decorations everywhere. We were a little rushed since our party was a bit late so we didn’t get to enjoy the area down below for too long though. We walked up the beautiful staircase and got to enter Club 33. Right when you enter there is a front desk where you can check bags or coats before you head to your table. The guestbook is also there as well as the area where you can purchase the merchandise. We were led down a gorgeous hallway that is kind of like a bridge that connects where you enter to the dining room. The hallway had floor to ceiling paintings on one side and massive glass windows overlooking the park on the other side with gorgeous chandeliers hanging above. We walked passed Lillian Disney’s harpsichord that supposedly Elton John and Paul McCartney have played on and entered the dining room. It was so light and bright and fancy! In my opinion we had the best table in the house. We were seated directly by this huge window that overlooked Rivers of America. It was so beyond to cool to look out and see everyone enjoying the park.

So as we were being seated the hostess came around and placed our napkins on our laps and gave us the menus. It was all so posh and fancy. Texas Roadhouse or Olive Garden are more our scene so this whole fine dining experience was completely new to us. As we opened up our menus we kind of panicked a bit. We had read blogs about the club and watched youtube videos about the menu so we would be prepared and know what to order but our waitress said we were getting a special seasonal menu that day and not the regular menu that we had prepared for. Okay so I don’t know if Rach and I are just super uncultured or what but we could barely pronounce anything on the menu and we didn’t know what anything was! The waitress went over everything on the menu with us but Beckham was being wiggly and we were trying to keep him occupied so we couldn’t focus solely on the menu. Side note: Honestly if I could do it over again and if it were a possibility I would have left the baby at home. It was cool to take him and snap pictures but he won’t remember it and we spent a lot of time trying to entertain him instead of really enjoying the whole experience. All of the staff was incredible to Beckham though and they went out of their way to help us keep him calm and entertained.

So for lunch we had a four course meal. First there is an appetizer, then the soup or salad course, then the main entree, then dessert. Even though the waitress had explained the food, half the time I didn’t understand what she was saying. Our party had 11 people in it and the waitress came to me as I was holding Beckham and trying to calm him down and she said “I’m going to start with you.” It was kind of hard because I hadn’t had time to fully decide what I wanted and Beck was freaking out so I ordered my first course but I didn’t understand that I was supposed to have each course picked out and ready to order. So she was just standing there looking at me and I was like “I haven’t even looked at the other courses.” So I hurried and just looked at the menu and picked the words that I knew. Haha oh well right?

In between the courses we were able to just walk around the club or go out on the balcony and that was just incredible. It’s really interesting as we were out there on the balcony not many people noticed us unless we were being loud. The only time people saw us was when Beck started making noises. Somebody called up to us and asked if we could get them into the club (I wish) but other than that no one else really saw us. It’s just really neat because you kind of feel like you’re not at Disneyland but you are at the same time. I don’t know how to explain it but when you’re up there on the balcony you realize how cool of an experience it really is to visit the club.

After we were on the balcony and took about a million pictures we went back inside and ate our first course. I had the Baked Ricotta Gnudi, which was delicious and  Rachel substituted her first course for a kid’s grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup that we got for Beckham. We all shared and it was way yummy. The portions were pretty small but they were displayed really well.The tomato soup was seriously so good. It came in a cute little teacup and both Rach and I were wishing we could have ordered each course off the kid’s menu. For the second course, we both ordered the Tricolore Salad with creamy roasted garlic vinaigrette. Let me just say that  salad was DI-SGUS-TING. Out of the 11 people at our table, the only one who liked the salad was Beckham but I feel like he’ll eat anything. It kind of makes me want to barf thinking about it again. I literally couldn’t eat the salad, I was just chewing and chewing on this one bite but it wouldn’t go down my throat. I legitimately could not make myself swallow. I don’t even know how to explain why it was so bad, but it just was. The other option was a cold peach soup that one member of our party ordered and said it wasn’t much better than the salad. So if you get to visit the club, beware of the salad. You have the option to substitute a course during your meal for a cheese course and we were all wishing we’d have done that during the second course. For the third course Rachel and I both ordered Angus Beef Rolatini with artichokes and cabernet jus. It was just really thin beef rolled up with seasonings and a filling inside. It was displayed beautifully and tasted delicious. There was almost too much of it though, neither Rach or I could finish it. For the final course we had dessert and it was by far both of our favorite courses. Rachel got a Fresh Marinated Strawberry Cannoli with a Basil Gelato and it was so good. I preferred mine even more though. I ordered Affogato Mascarpone Gelato which was ice cream with amaretto cookies. I’d never had this type of cookie before but they were INSANELY GOOD! Also, ice cream is probably my favorite food EVER and this homemade ice cream was sooooooo yummy!

As we were finishing up our dessert, Friday the 13th struck AGAIN! The ceiling right above where Rachel was sitting cracked and started dripping water everywhere. I guess the air conditioning was overworked because it was so hot outside that it started leaking all over the place. The workers brought out this way fancy goblet lined with cloth napkins to catch the water. Then they brought out these gold plated caution signs to warn the other guests. It was funny to see how this classy place, when something not classy happens, handled it so well. Unfortunately it happened right at our table so we had to leave a little bit sooner than we wanted. It was good though because honestly Beckham was so done at that point.

We headed back down the pretty hallway and signed the guestbook and purchased some merchandise. I honestly wanted to buy it all because this was a once in a lifetime experience and we’ll probably never get to go back again but I managed to keep myself in check. Some of the merchandise is only available for members to purchase so there were some things we wanted but we couldn’t get them. We ended up buying a pair of Club 33 ears of course, because what’s a Disney trip without Mickey ears? We also got a pin with the club’s logo, and two super awesome ornaments that we were so excited for. One ornament is of the old Club 33 entrance before the remodel and the other ornament has the club’s balcony on one side and on the other side it has a little dining table. We both love the second ornament so much, it’s definitely our favorite. It’s such a fun way to remember our trip to Club 33. They also let us take home a kids menu as a keepsake. 

As we headed out we visited the super fancy bathrooms that you aren’t allowed to take pictures in, grabbed a paper towel with the club’s logo on it, and snapped a few more pics on the stairs and in the Court of Angels. We spent a lot more time in the Court of Angels because we knew when we left, we wouldn’t get to go back inside. We found this darling little lantern that had Tinker Bell inside. It was so cute! I just love all the details Walt put into Disneyland. It really does add so much to the magic. Luckily, Friday the 13th didn’t strike again for the rest of the day.  Overall we had an incredible experience and we just loved it. It was so cool to be able to have this opportunity to do something that not many people get to do. I’m so grateful to the wonderful family that got us in. We LOVED our visit to Club 33!