Mouse Extra

When Pleasure Island first opened, it was a real departure for Disney. The home of Mickey Mouse opened up a venue of adult-oriented nightclubs and bars where scantily-clad woman danced on stage while employees sold test tube shots to passersby. Various nightclubs have come and gone, have been renamed, or re-themed, and now Pleasure Island is set for a significant overhaul. Through the years though, the Adventurers’ Club remains the most Disneyesque of the establishments there.

The decor is straight out of an old movie. The place is jammed packed with curios, trophies and knickknacks from across the world. The idea is that you’re in an early 20th century hunters’ or explorers’ club. Unlike the other dance joints and comedy club found on Pleasure Island, this place has in-character cast members mingling with the patrons. After hanging around for a bit, a guest will be able to notice that there is a little more going on here than just some funky Zulu masks and the like. You may see eccentric cast members talking to mounted animal heads on the wall- that talk back. These actors range from french maids to prim and proper butlers.

If you sit at the bar, be aware that you’re stool may suddenly rise or fall. The masks on the wall may move or even talk. Also, the cluttered momentos allegedly amassed by the members are fun to peruse. The level of detail here is amazing even by Disney’s standards. Specialty drinks (this is a bar after all) include The Kungaloosh and the Jungle Juice. There is no food.

Finally, you should make sure you stick around for awhile. The audio animatronic old main in the main foyer will interact with the more “lively” cast members to announce a show, which is not advertised, you just have to luck out. They will show you to the library or one of the other rooms such as the treasure room or mask room for a brief, offbeat comedy routine about club members’ various achievements and escapades. You very well may be inducted to the club learning the club’s song and secret handshake to boot.

The Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa is the home resort for many Disney Vacation Club members, myself included.  It is a beautiful sprawling resort with a wonderful main pool, interesting architectural details, and pleasing landscaping.  But it does lack a bit in the food and drink department.  There is one bar called the Turf Club, and it does not live up to the standard set by the rest of the resort.

As you can probably tell from the name, the Turf Club tries to maintain the general resort-wide theme of Saratoga Springs, NY and its rich horseracing history.  But beyond the name, and a few wall decorations, it does little more to offer an immersive experience.  In fact, the atmosphere here is not much better than a hotel lobby, even though this is not a lobby bar. 

The space has much potential.  It is odd shaped room off in a quiet corner of the building.  But Disney planners never even bothered to build an actual bar, which makes the hole thing very frustrating.  It says “bar” right on the sign, but there is no bar.  Instead there are various chairs spread haphazardly across the room, and a small walk-up area to get a limited selection of drinks.  My wife and I went there once for an NFL playoff game.  We decided after a few seconds to go and watch it in our room because there was only one television and you could only really see it from certain places.  What resulted were dozens of fans standing in front trying to catch a glimpse. 

The Disney Vacation Club created a terrific resort at Saratoga Springs, but failed miserably at creating a bar where you can simply hangout.  Thankfully, Downtown Disney with all the bars you can want is only a boat ride away.  But it would have been nice to build something inviting on property that fit’s the theme.

The news of a brewpub coming to Walt Disney World was one that certainly put a smile on face, as I am sure it did for all beer-lovers and tavern-goers that vacation at the Mouse.  But does the Big River Grille and Brewing Works deliver the goods?  Maybe not entirely, but it comes close.

The Big River Grille is not a Disney owned and operated establishment.  It is part of an outside chain that has other brewpubs in Tennessee.  But when it comes to food quality and cleanliness, it has no problem keeping up with the Disney standard.

The Big River is part of the amazing Boardwalk area, just steps from Epcot’s World Showcase.  It has an outside deck that delivers the atmosphere of this wonderful corner of Disney World.  Inside, however, the atmosphere is somewhat dull.  It tries to go with a chic look, but ends up being a bit too “cold” feeling and can also be slightly noisy.  I wouldn’t call this a negative, but certainly not a positive either.

The food has always been good, each time I’ve been there.  Lunch offers a half dozen sandwiches that are all interesting, as well as entrees like ribs, salmon, and chicken Alfredo.  Dinner is similar, but with slightly fewer sandwiches and more entrees.  We’re not talking anything overly adventurous here, but this is a pub.  My only suggestion would be that they add more appetizers, as each menu only has three or four.  But overall, the choices are good and always tasty. 

But let’s be honest here, folks.  This is a brewpub.  Food and atmosphere are not nearly as important as the quality of what brings us here, the beer.  As a beer lover myself, I would say Big River delivers a product you should try.  They usually offer a reasonable variety, including light, wheat, pale ale, pilsner, red, and brown selections.  They are all good, but I have yet to find anything that really “wowed” me.  Having said that, these are all quality products and vastly superior to most beer selections found at Disney World.  If you are looking for a beer that’s totally out of the ordinary, you won’t find it at Big River.  What you will find is good, fresh and worthy beer.

Big River Grille is not a place for connoisseurs, either of food or beer.  It’s a nice pub, with decent drink and tasty pub food.  Give it a try and tell us what you think.

Perhaps the most highly publicized tavern at Walt Disney World, Raglan Road opened its doors last year on the grounds of Pleasure Island’s former Jazz Club to much fanfare.   I read stories of the amazing amount of detail and authenticity being poured into this place during the conceptual and construction phases.  After it opened, many in the Disney internet and podcasting community literally gushed over the Irish pub.  I’ve been there more than once, and I certainly will not “gush” in this review.

When I think of the great Irish pubs, I think of places that literally ooze atmosphere.  I think of taverns that are filled to the top with warmth and good conversation, places that make you feel right at home.   Raglan Road has none of these qualities.  It is a loud, sprawling and cavernous space that has all the coziness one finds at Grand Central Station.    It certainly is filled with amazing detail, and beautiful wood fixtures.  In fact, you can literally walk around the place for hours looking at it all.   But in the end, any of the great energy these things could bring to a tavern is lost behind a wall of noise and hidden in the shadows.

The service here is hit and miss.  My first experience was so bad that I had to cut the night short and move to a more hospitable pub.   But after all the hype, I couldn’t leave it at that.  So I gave it another try and found much better results.   It’s the time you choose to go that is the key, but even that is a double-edged sword.  Raglan Road offers terrific entertainment in the evenings.   But more often than not, the evenings are jammed with people screaming over the band and getting a drink can be a long and tedious process.  The early afternoons are quiet and the charm in the details comes out.   But then, you are missing out on part of the experience. 

The food is over priced, but to be fair precious few places in Disney World are not overpriced.  I guess it would be better to say that it is not any more overpriced than other places here, so it’s hard to complain about that.   Luckily the menu is a good one.  There are some interesting offerings and everything I’ve had was well prepared and left me with no quality complaints.

The best quality about Raglan Road is its beer selection.  If you are looking for something interesting on draft, there no better place on property than this place.  From interesting British and Irish beers, to some nice European selections that you don’t find in other places.  The test is what becomes of this variety.   In five years time, will they have the same choices?  Will they change to more “popular” items?  Or will they continue to be adventurous?  That will tell a lot about how serious a beer-lovers places this truly is.

I guess I would characterize my view on Raglan Road as mixed.  Perhaps the hype raised the bar too high for me to fairly consider it, but that is why I didn’t just leave after my first bad experience and hammer away at it as a bad, poorly run place.  It is not bad by any means, and the food and beer are both good.  But don’t expect to be wowed by it.  It may have some great conversation pieces hanging on the wall, and some authentic furniture, but it doesn’t inspire a great Irish pub like one may think.

Today we begin a series that I have been planning since conceptualizing this site, the Taverns of Disney World.  I hope to examine the best places on-property to get a drink, relax, and converse.  The Mouse has some obvious ones, and some not so obvious ones.  As opposed to restaurant reviews that talk about the good and bad, this series is going to focus almost exclusively on the pubs I enjoyed, and not try and canvass every last one.

Today we begin with a not-so-obvious choice, as we head over to the Yacht Club Resort for the Crew’s Cup Lounge.  This is not the small bar in the lobby of the resort, but a much more intimate pub located right next to the Yachtsman Steakhouse.

The Crew’s Cup is not your typical hotel bar, filled with the sounds of a noisy lobby.  It is a bit out of the way, and its enclosed design allows for a cozy corner pub feel that often escapes hotel lounges.  There is a beautiful wooden theme here, surrounding you completely in the shine of a marine-style varnish.  The bar, back-bar, trim, and tables all glow like the bright work of a New England schooner.  It sets a warm atmosphere without appearing to try.

As is typical of Disney, the draft beer selection can be sparse.  Only a select few, non-Disney owned bars have anything extraordinary on tap, but the Crew’s Cup excels in the area of bottled beers.  A quick and very non-exact count tallied around 30 different bottles, ranging from American, European and British selections displayed in a glass refrigerator behind the bar.  There’s some good stuff here, so don’t be afraid to get up and have a look.

Keep in mind, however, when you try the Crew’s Cup that you won’t find much of a food selection.  There is a nice appetizer menu, but it is limited and that’s all there is.  This is my only true complaint about this place.  Good beer goes with good food just as wine does, and the smell of the Steakhouse next door can almost become an unnecessary tease, especially considering that the cost of one meal over there can buy your entire party’s drinks for the night.