Disney Dining Serving up the latest Disney Eats, Treats, News, and More!
Unlike Walt Disney World Resort, which is primarily made up of out-of-town visitors, Disneyland Resort’s main visitor base consists of locals who live just a couple of hours away from the theme parks. Locals spend thousands of dollars per year purchasing Magic Keys (Annual Passes), limited-time merchandise, and specialty food and beverages.
Then, there are the Disney lovers who are in the upper-echelon of income earners, and they want to celebrate their love for The Happiest Place on Earth in an elite way.
They become members of Disney’s Club 33.
Credit: Disney
Related: Disney Makes Its Exclusive Club 33 Available for Everyone in Unprecedented Announcement
Club 33 is a private dining club located within Disneyland Park, specifically in New Orleans Square. Sometimes, Club 33 members can be seen hanging out on the balcony, watching guests get in line to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, dine at Café Orleans, or ride the iconic Haunted Mansion. Many Disneylanders dream of being a member of Club 33 or even getting the chance to experience dining there once, but it most likely won’t come true.
For one Club 33 family, that dream was achieved, but it is now just a distant memory.
Credit: Disney
Related: Intoxicated Club 33 Guest Starts Fist Fight at Disneyland
Scott and Diana Anderson were dedicated members of Club 33, visiting Disneyland 60 to 80 times per year. They happily paid their annual membership — which was $31,500 — and spent whatever it took in travel and hotel expenses to get their Disney fix.
However, in 2017, Disney revoked their membership, claiming that Scott was drunk in the parks.
Scott and Diana did not want to give up, calling Disney’s actions “a stab in the heart.” They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, fighting for Disney to reverse its decision.
Credit: Disney
Related: Mickey Mouse’s Sobriety Squad: Disneyland Cracks Down on Drunken Guests
Unfortunately, on September 3, an Orange County jury decided that Disney had every right to revoke the Anderson’s Club 33 membership, leaving the couple devastated.
At about 9:50 p.m. on Sept. 3, 2017, security guards found Scott Anderson near the entrance of California Adventure displaying signs of what they took to be intoxication, including slurred speech and trouble standing, according to trial testimony.
A Disneyland security guard said that Mr. Anderson “smelled of alcohol quite a lot.”
Credit: Anderson Family
Disney quickly tossed the couple out and revoked their Club 33 membership. However, the Anderson’s lawyer, Sean Macias, said that security did not do its due diligence.
Macias said Scott Anderson had two to three drinks and that Disney did an incomplete and slipshod investigation, with no Breathalyzer or blood tests and no videos of Anderson’s behavior that night.
“They have not established that Mr. Anderson was intoxicated,” Macias said. Instead, he argued, Anderson’s symptoms were the result of a vestibular migraine, which can be triggered by red wine — among the drinks Anderson consumed that day.
Credit: Disney
Macias accused Disney of discriminating against Mr. Anderson because of his medical condition. Macias hired a medical expert to confirm that Mr. Anderson was suffering from a vestibular migraine, which could be confused with being intoxicated. However, Disney’s expert testified that Mr. Anderson’s symptoms were due to him being intoxicated and not having a migraine.
Disney’s lawyer, Jonathan E. Phillips, said that Scott Anderson knew he was drunk, but he and his wife did not want to pay the consequences of not following the rules. Members of Club 33 know that they are not allowed to be intoxicated in the parks.
“They did not want to pay the consequences of failing to follow the rules,” Phillips told jurors, adding that Scott’s conduct “cost his wife of 40 years her lifetime dream of having access to Club 33.”
Credit: Inside The Magic
Phillips also said that Disney’s security guards were more credible since they had no reason to lie about Anderson’s behavior. However, the security guards no longer work for Disney, and Mr. Anderson claimed that he was targeted because he had complained about another member.
The couple had reportedly been on the Club 33 waiting list for more than a decade. They were finally removed from the list and granted access to Club 33 in 2012.
Scott Anderson said that the lawsuit has cost him approximately $400,000, but his wife wants to keep fighting. Diana said that she would “sell a kidney” if it meant that she could keep fighting for her membership in the elite club.
Do you think the Andersons should have won their case? Or were they lying about Mr. Anderson being drunk? Let us know in the comments!
