As members of Disney’s exclusive Club 33, Scott and Diana Anderson visited the two Anaheim theme parks 60 to 80 times a year. The private club, with its wood-paneled trophy room and other amenities, was the center of their social life. They brought friends, acquaintances and business associates. As a couple, they went on the Haunted Mansion ride nearly 1,000 times. The club’s yearly dues were $31,500, and with travel and hotel expenses, the Arizona couple were spending close to $125,000 annually to get their Disney fix.

All of it came to an end in 2017, when Disney revoked their membership in the club after an allegation that Scott Anderson was drunk in public. Diana Anderson, a hardcore Disney aficionado since childhood, called it “a stab in the heart.” The Andersons, both 60, have spent the years since then — and hundreds of thousands of dollars — trying to get back into Club 33. On Tuesday, an Orange County jury rejected their claim that Disney ousted them improperly. It had taken the Andersons more than a decade to gain membership in Club 33, which includes access to exclusive lounges, dining, VIP tours and special events. They finally made it off the waiting list in 2012.

“My wife and I are both dead set that this is an absolute wrong, and we will fight this to the death,” Scott Anderson, who owns a golf course in Gilbert, Ariz., told The Times. “There is no way we’re letting this go.” He said the lawsuit has cost him about $400,000. “My retirement is set back five years,” he said. “I’m paying through the nose. Every day, I’m seeing another bill, and I’m about to keel over.” He said he will appeal. His wife said she wants to keep fighting. “I’ll sell a kidney,” Diana said. “I don’t care.”

      • miz [any, any]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        Crassus had molten gold poured down his throat. this guy should have a tube stuffed into his mouth and be irrigated with what his golf course sucks up in a week

      • CloutAtlas [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        Small business owners are such terrible people, one of the greatest PR campaigns in history has been making them out to be wholesome new grandparents running like a corner store.

        • Genuinely I would rather work for a megacorporation than work for a small business owner again. Similarly I’d rather rent from a megacorporation than a small time landlord.

          At least with megacorporations, until you get a few levels up no outcome personally affects the employees you interact with. The cashier at Walmart doesn’t care about losses on returns, it doesn’t affect their paycheck. The maintenance guy at a corporate owned apartment complex doesn’t care about the cost of replacing your oven. Small business owners feel like every cent you take from them is coming out of their own pocket, which in some sense it is, and so they’re the stingiest motherfuckers on earth.

    • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      I wish i knew. How could you even have 125k a year for Disney shit? How could you just have 400k to throw away on your “na uh i wasn’t drunk” vanity lawsuit?

      I know its cause he owns a golf course and it was probably inherited money at some point. But it boggles my mind to imagine it honestly.

      • LeZero [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        “My retirement is set back five years,” he said. “I’m paying through the nose. Every day, I’m seeing another bill, and I’m about to keel over.” He said he will appeal.

        so-far

        • Krem [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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          2 months ago

          imagine when you throw away the equivalent of a couple of normal people’s lifetime savings on some bullshit and now you can’t retire early and have to break your back for five more years at your job of owning a country club

        • Stolen_Stolen_Valor [any]@hexbear.net
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          2 months ago

          Bruh you own a golf course where the only labor you do is cashing the check and you spend 125k a year on Disney vacations. You’ve never been not retired.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      As hst-pissed once said, it’s because most of them are born free as dolphins. They don’t experience consequences like the poors do, so they don’t have to learn restraint or tact outside of their little wine cave rituals.

  • the mind of the Disney adult is a constellation of lead toxicity, micro plastics, and media-consumption induced psychosis.

    it’s wild that they aren’t segregated into social housing, out into conservatirship, tagged with a radio collar, and observed by scientists.

    it’s insane they make decisions about land-use.

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    The club’s yearly dues were $31,500, and with travel and hotel expenses, the Arizona couple were spending close to $125,000 annually to get their Disney fix.

    All of it came to an end in 2017, when Disney revoked their membership in the club after an allegation that Scott Anderson was drunk in public.

    This doesn’t add up.

    Being drunk in public doesn’t seem like enough to me to throw away $125,000 per year, not to mention the extra business these two must have been bringing with them.

    What did he ACTUALLY do??

    • Wertheimer [any]@hexbear.net
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      In the original complaint they claimed it was because they “were retaliated against for criticizing sexual harassment and other problems that arose as a result of new management.”

      But there may have simply been more money in getting rid of them. There’s a waiting list to join, and initiation fees are $50,000.

      2017 article

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        were retaliated against for criticizing sexual harassment and other problems that arose as a result of new management

        Ok so they were threatening Disney’s ability to market the club and potentially bringing harm to Disney. They took the first opportunity available to cut them via the “drunk in public” excuse.

        I can believe that Disney would consider allegations of sexual harrassment in a club with membership of this price to be worth more than $125k per year from one couple. Especially if they were crusading about it among other patrons because of a personal feud with new management or whatever.

        Assuming the evidence for the allegations was flimsy and not something management could act on the easiest thing to do is to cut the source of the complaint. This will also ensure that other patrons don’t complain too hard and understand that their membership can and will be revoked. Keeps them in line.

          • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            Yeah I’m not endorsing it. Just seems like the most likely reasoning. I have a little bit of experience with private club type stuff in the UK among the rich farmer crowd and the same kind of dynamic would play out there. They also tend to have the same taste in private members only environments and country clubs as the decour of this place.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    This is the political bloc that had the power to destroy what feeble covid restrictions were ever put in place in Burgerland. grillman corona

  • Wheaties [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    As a couple, they went on the Haunted Mansion ride nearly 1,000 times.

    'cmon, by the 4th or 5th go round you’ve got to have memorized the whole thing - and the’ve been on hundreds of times?

  • Evilphd666 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    He could always jack up prices at his fancy dancy [Golf Course] to pay for it. I’m betting it’s a lot more than “drunk in public” they aren’t saying. Like that was the save face mild part of why they got the boot.