More is More

Yes, we actually went to Club 33 last night!  

We saw it as once in a lifetime opportunity.  We were invited by friends Dave and Dana who had a cancellation in a party of 10 they were going with.  One of the guys in the party had the tickets through a corporate membership and they had been to dinner there before.  Three of the couples (including us) were Club 33 newbies.  Boy were we wide eyed and in awe!

This door is next to the Blue Bayou Restaurant.  You put a key card in a slot and push an intercom button.  Once they confirmed our reservation a hostess came and escorted us in.  We then had the choice of walking up a staircase or going up the glass elevator two at a time.  Of course Curt and I wanted to go in the old elevator!  There are two dining rooms once you get upstairs – the main dining room and the trophy room where we sat.  The Trophy Room is smaller and was originally designed to be Walt Disney’s private entertaining space.  The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is just on the other side of the wall of this room and we got to peek through a door onto a balcony and into the ride.

I must say that the service at Club 33 was the best service I have ever had in any restaurant!  Our waiter Louis told us that he has worked at Disneyland for 17 years and over 15 of those years have been at Club 33 AND he’s low man in seniority on the wait staff there.  Wow!  We were able to get up and walk around to look at things any time throughout dinner which lasted about 3 1/2 hours.  The funny thing was that any time you left your seat, when you returned you would find your napkin re-folded and sitting on the table in a little tent fold shape.  One of the girls in our group mentioned that she felt really bad that she kept getting up and Louis had to keep re-folding her napkin, so the next time she left the table, he came and did a super fancy fold for her which totally cracked me up.

The food was certainly yummy.  I had a New York Strip and Curt had Duck.  Several people in our party had a 5 course pre-fixe menu with a wine pairing.  I don’t drink much and certainly couldn’t appreciate a wine pairing.  Instead I got a non-alcoholic Pirate Punch with light up Tink!  🙂 Oh and I wasn’t the only one at the table to get one of these.  You can’t tell in the photo, but Tink lit up a bright green!  For dessert we had a creme brulee (because all the chocolate options seemed to have fruit associated with them – blech!).

I have to share something funny – the bathroom freaked me out slightly.  It was beautiful, but when I went in the stall the toilet looked almost like a big wicker chair/throne type thing.  The first stall I went in had the lid down and it literally looked like a chair.  I was so confused!  I went to the next stall where the lid was up.  *phew*  I’ve never seen such a thing!  LOL!

There were several souvineers with the “33” logo available for purchase, but we decided we didn’t need any of those (espeically after we paid the dinner tab – yikes!).  We did get a few little freebies though.  Little matchbook like notepads came along with chocolates at the end of the meal.  And when the waiter brought the credit cards slips for everyone to sign he brought each couple a Club 33 pen for us to keep.  I’m a total pen freak so this would be my first choice souvineer anyway!  He told us that up until about 10 years ago the matchbooks would be embossed with each person’s name, but it was such a tedious task that they finally stopped doing it.  I asked if they still had the embosser because I’d be more than happy to do mine myself!  LOL!

  I also took a couple of logo paper hand towels from the bathroom.  We kept joking all night about the things we were going to take to sell on ebay so Louis told us the hot tip was to take the hand towels – that they sell well.  Too funny!

Here’s a picture of us with our friends Dave and Dana.  Curt has been friends with Dave since Jr. High and I’ve been friends with Dana since first grade.  We fixed them up on a blind date (a classic pay it forward if you know our story) about 8 years ago.  The funny thing is that it was my Mom’s idea. I don’t think it would have ever occured to me to put them together.

Speaking of blind dates – if you are following my Blind Date Saga from March 11 – 20 years ago today it is Tuesday – 10 days after our blind date – and HALLELUJAH Curt called!  Apparantly Bill waited till the very end of the work day and as he was leaving he threw out a casual “hey you should really call Jami”.  Curt hadn’t been at all sure that I liked him so he had been hesitant to call.  Not sure how that happened – I thought I was clear with my signals, but I guess not.  I worked evenings at Arthur Murray so he called me at work that evening and asked me out for the upcoming Saturday night.  Let me tell you, for this date I planned to get a new outfit and put in a little more effort!  WooHoo!!  So check back with me on the 25th for our Second First Date!

Hope you are having a great weekend.  We have another dinner out with friends tonight and poor Curt has an awful cold. I’ve got to run change my clothes and get going.  Thanks for stopping by!

-Jami