As promised oh so long ago, I will post now my review of Disney's Dine with an Imagineer Lunch.
The event starts with you as the guest arriving at the Hollywood Brown Derby at 11:00 to check in. It's at this time they give you a personalized name tag, and instruct you to return to the lobby at 11:30 for a quick tour of the building before beginning your lunch. (Note that the name you use on the reservation will be the name that they put on the name tag. So if your name is Stephen, and you go by the name Steve, make sure to make the reservation in Steve. Same goes the other way.) Once 11:30 rolls around and you're back in the lobby, you get to witness the opening of the restaurant for the day, and then are taken on the short tour and history of the building by a very knowledgeable cast member. After which you are taken to the private bamboo room and it is here you meet your Imagineer for the day. (In my case our Imagineer was Dan Flynn, who has been involved with projects such as the current DVC Resort being built in Hawaii.) Once seated and introductions have been made, the manager takes a group photo and you are then presented with your personalized menus. You are given a description of each item on the menu and place your drink orders, and then the real fun begins. Your Imagineer gives you a brief history of what he or she does, and who he or she is, and then it's question time. They are there to answer practically any question you can have, within reason. They aren't able to disclose any information that hasn't already been released, so it's not like you can ask them what the next major attraction will be at Disney's Magic Kingdom or if there are any plans to open another theme park in the United States anytime soon. You can however ask them about what it's like to do their job, where they like to go on vacation so on and so forth. At the same time, the Imagineer will usually want to get to know a little more about you. For example, Dan asked my group where we were all from and what we do for a living or plan to do in the future.
Let's talk about the meal itself now. This meal consists of 4 courses, the first course for me was a Sweet Zellwood
Corn Chowder with Applewood Smoked Bacon and Ancho Chili Oil, which was excellent. Course 2 was the Famous Brown Derby Cobb Salad, again excellent. (Which means even more coming from someone who is very picky on salad.) Course 3 was the main entree, which we had a choice on, option 1 was a Grilled Rib Eye Steak, option 2 was a Spice Rubbed Black Grouper, and option 3 was a Thai Noodle Bowl. I chose the Grilled Rib Eye and was very impressed with it. And finally we came to the 4th and final course, dessert. Our options there were a Crème Brûlée or the famous Grapefruit Cake. And I must say, the Grapefruit Cake was amazing. Just like many of the other table service restaurants at Walt Disney World, if there is something on the menu that you can't eat or would prefer not to eat, let them know and they will make accommodations for you without any problem. (One lady at my table didn't eat pork, so everything that had pork in it was removed. She was also able to substitute Chicken Noodle Soup for her Corn Chowder.)
Reservations for this event can be made up to 60 days in advance and are extremely limited to around 10 people per lunch. So it really is a very personal meal. The price is roughly $70 and includes everything mentioned above, including a name tag, a personalized menu, a group photo, the food, a signed plate, and the fabulous experience. Quite a deal if you ask me. If you are not done with your day at Disney's Hollywood Studios and would not like to carry around your plate, they will hold it for you at the Brown Derby, however they can not send it to your room due to it's one of a kind nature. (Once it's signed it becomes one of a kind and can not be sent to the room.)
I have included one photo here, but you can see more photos in Issue 3 of my newsletter at
http://www.DonaldsBoatHouse.com. I don't have a picture of the name tag up right now, but I will be sure to get one on here in the next day or so.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask, and I'll be sure to answer any that I can.
