Area hotels get extra Disney hours
Seven hotels near Disney Springs will make extra time in the Walt Disney World theme parks available to its guests in 2018.
They will be part of Disney’s official Extra Magic Hours program, which adds time on to the beginning or end of regular operating hours at select parks on select days to hotel guests who have purchased park admission.
Included in the hotels, grouped as the Disney Springs Resort Area Hotels, are B Resort & Spa; Best Western Lake Buena Vista; DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Orlando; Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace; Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista; Holiday Inn Orlando; and Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista. They are located on Hotel Plaza Boulevard and Buena Vista Drive, near Disney’s dining, shopping and entertainment complex. a captain’s cocktail party, a first-class dinner and re-enactments of the night of the Titanic disaster. The gala dinner costs $69 per person ($42 for children ages 10 and younger). Florida residents can get a $10 discount.
Admission to Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition is $21.95 ($13.75 for ages 5 to 11); premierexhibitions.com or 407-248-1166. University chemistry professor. The bluetifulthemed activities are included in regular Crayola Experience admission. Tickets are $22.99 ($19.99 when purchased online); crayolaexperience.com.
Few people know what goes on behind the doors of Club 33 in Disneyland because membership to the private club at the Anaheim theme park is limited and expensive.
But a lawsuit filed this month gives a rare peek at the strict rules and code of conduct for members of the exclusive club, which has operated in Disneyland’s New Orleans Square since 1967.
An Arizona couple who joined Club 33 in 2012 sued the theme park in Orange County Superior Court, saying Disneyland revoked their membership because they had been speaking out about bullying and harassment of other members at the club.
Disneyland rejected the allegations.
“In this case, the termination of membership was due to multiple violations of Club 33 rules,” a spokeswoman said.
Disney World confirmed in April that Club 33 locations are planned for all four Disney World theme parks; no opening date has been set.
Walt Disney dreamed up Club 33 as a place to entertain dignitaries, investors and other VIPs. Members get perks such as passes to the park and exclusive tours, but it doesn’t come cheap: The initiation fee is $50,000, and dues cost $15,000 a year, according to former members.
Scott and Diana Anderson, who head a consulting company in Arizona, claim in the lawsuit that problems began in July 2016 when a new general manager, Luke Stedman, took over at the club. Their suit alleges that Stedman let “favorite” members bully and harass other members and staffers.
The couple also said in the suit that Stedman falsely accused them of videotaping a performance in the club, against club rules.
In September 2017, the lawsuit said, Scott Anderson had a “medical episode” at Disney California Adventure that made him “disoriented and acutely ill.” According to the suit, Stedman accused Anderson of being intoxicated. The following month, the couple was banned from all private lounges at Disney parks and their membership in Club 33 was terminated, the suit said.
The couple contend their membership was revoked because they had been complaining to Stedman about harassment.