Walt Disney World – Club Villain Review

Well this seems to be the review everyone is waiting for, my review of the Club Villain dinner show at Hollywood Studios. My birthday fell during the time I was away, so as my gift my parents paid for my Club Villain ticket as they knew it was something I was desperate to do. As dining event is only on select Tuesdays and Saturdays (for the time being) our reservation wasn’t until 2 weeks after my birthday but Little Miss and I would be attending with my friend Emily and her daughter D. Not only was it 2 weeks after my birthday, but it wasn’t until the last week of our four week break, giving us a long time to wait. I was excited and Little Miss was terrified, thankfully that didn’t last long once she stepped inside Club Villain.

As I mentioned above, Club Villain is in the Hollywood Studios park so to attend not only do you need a dining reservation, but you also need valid park admission. It’s priced at $129 per person (no discounts for children I’m afraid) but this includes tax and gratuity. Yup, over $100 for a 2 hour dinner show, painful huh? However it does include food, the show and all you can drink cocktails. When you look at it like that, most cocktails on property are between $12 and $20, so if you drink four, you would already almost be getting your money back. Also, a standard character dining experience is between $40 & $60 per adult with tax and gratuity so even if you were having a few drinks and your meal, it seems a lot more worth while knowing you have the dinner show, plus four incredibly rare characters to meet thrown in there as well. Yes, it sucks that there are no discounts for children, and if you’re on the dining plan you cannot use your credits towards this but if you have the $129 going spare and you want an excellent evening of entertainment, I’d say go for it!

Now you know the price, you’re probably wondering what you get for your money.. so I’m here to share that with you.

On arrival you need to go check in like you would at any restaurant. We arrived early as it was the only way to ensure a dance floor side table. You cannot ring up to get this, the tables are allocated as you check in. As we wanted to be able to see the kids dancing we made sure we were there first. However, arriving early isn’t all bad, while waiting for the doors to open anyone over 21 was given a glass of bubbly and there were also bottles of water available. Once we had checked in we were given our invitations from Dr Facilier, welcoming us to Club Villain. The invitations are an awesome memento of the night as not only do they have replica autographs from those villains in attendance but this is your first look at the menu. The menu is deep south inspired, what with The Shadow Man being the host, I was a bit apprehensive after reading this, but as it’s buffet style you can pretty much eat what appeals, and be sure to leave room for the cocktails and amazing desserts! The doors opened maybe 20 minutes before the show was due to start and we could go find our table which were numbered so it didn’t feel like a race to grab a seat.  The club itself is amazing, a true work of Disney, because lets face it, they don’t do anything by halves.

The details and theming are so on point. Everything is taking into consideration to really make this an experience for all the senses. My particular favourite is the poison apple disco ball that’s suspended from the ceiling. It’s dark, but not so dark you can’t see everything and take half decent photos if you’re an amateur like me. The centre of the room there is the dance floor with the stage and dj booth behind it. Either side of the stage there is a bar serving wickedly delightful cocktails. Around the dance floors are the tables, not many to make the place feel crowded but definitely enough seats for at least 100. Behind the tables there are the four thrones one for each of the villainous royalty, these are also the meet and greet areas. These areas are heavily themed as you’ll see in a moment. Between each of the thrones there are various serving stations for the buffet style food. The room is very spacious which adds to the enjoyable atmosphere as I’ve mentioned many times that character dining restaurants tend to be jam packed which can be quite annoying, this is not the case with Club Villain. We were situated on the stage right of the dance floor closest to Cruella and Maleficent. On the invitation you’re given a time to go up for your meet and greets. I LOVE this idea, it keeps the queues short, as one half of the room visits two of the devilish divas, and the other half goes to greet the other two. Then half way through the night they swap. By doing this you get a lot more time for your meet, you don’t feel rush and if there is no queue, no one frowns if you happen to visit someone twice..

For us, like any aspect of a trip to Disney, the character meets are the most important part. Well at least the part Little Miss enjoys the most. She was insanely apprehensive about the meets at Club Villain though, with them all being Disney villains, something she isn’t keen on at all. Well wasn’t keen on. As I mentioned above, we met Cruella and Maleficent first. Cruella was the perfect introductory villain. Her brand of evil went over Little Miss heads as she didn’t understand the humorous remarks, instead she curled up on her chaise lounge beside her surrounded in furs. The two of them were whispering to each other in no time and she even had Little Miss giggling. She was insane though, this may have appeared a touching moment but you should see this crazy lady dance, she was definitely possessed! Next we moved onto Maleficent. She was wonderful with LM, which is great as LM is was pretty terrified of her. She did look incredibly foreboding but thankfully LM was only intimidated for a moment before she was happily chatting away as she does with every other character. Maleficent also introduced LM and D to her pet crow Diablo, a great honour I believe. We had a bit of a break before we could meet the Evil Queen from Snow White, which I think for LM was the most intimidating of all meets, she definitely didn’t quite melt her frosty exterior although as we were leaving LM did chance a hug. Finally we got to see the Queen of Hearts. In February LM had become quite terrified of the Queen of Hearts during Alice’s Curious Labyrinth at Disneyland Paris. Like Cruella, all we saw prior to meeting QoH was that she was insane (there is even a dance to Crazy by Gnarls Barkley dedicated to them both as some point during the show!) but she was AMAZING! Without destroying character integrity too much, Queen of Hearts is usually a fur character but at Club Villain she is a face opening a whole new world of interaction! I’ve never seen Little Miss laugh so much in the face of villains as she did while interacting with the Queen of Hearts, and now she claims she’s one of her favourites! Alice in Wonderland is up there with Peter Pan as one of her favourites, especially now she’s no longer afraid of the Queen of Hearts!

Another big part of Club Villain is the floor show. As I have mentioned Club Villain is hosted by Dr Facilier along with his co host Kanzo. There is dancing, music both to watch and join in with. Little miss particularly loved getting up to dance and as it’s one of her favourite things to do at the parks, and here was a club where she could do it while I sat and drank cocktails!

Again, another reason I felt like it was worth the money. If she’d been able to get up and join in with the choreographed dancing, she would have. Kenzo wore a microphone and sang live, which really added to the fantastic atmosphere. I have such respect for anyone who sings live in this environment. It was really enjoyable and the chosen villains could really work the floor.

So the food was cajun/southern inspired to go along with the fact Dr Facilier as the host which didn’t really appeal on a first glance but I was so pleasantly surprised! Even LM loved the rice and the Maleficent cupcake. My favourites were the polenta and the macaron (which I ended up having four of, no shame!) I have photographed the full menu above as it was listed inside the invitation. But for me, what stole the show were the four speciality cocktails based around the villainous ladies. I adored the Cursed Violet (Maleficent inspired) and Poison Cinnamon Apple (Evil Queen inspired). There were also a range of beers, wines and soft drinks available.

If you do have children with you, you can order mac & cheese or a similar kids meal if you feel they wouldn’t enjoy what is readily available.

Unlike the Halloween parties, general dressing up rules still apply to adults, however I saw plenty embracing the chance to go all out with their villainous Disney Bounds. Little Miss and D were dressed up though (as usual) as young Maleficent and young Aurora from the live action Maleficent movie. They both looked adorable, but I felt LM really was perfect as a young Aurora as after 3 weeks in the sun her hair was a lot lighter than usual. Eventually I’d love that dress for her, just not a cheap version from Amazon!

Over all, it was an incredible experience and if you have the $129 spare, it’s worth it (like with all additional Disney experiences!) Reservations can be made up to 90 days in advance, either by booking online here or by calling (407) 939-3463