Originally Posted By GalDisney I just booked lunch with an Imagineer at the Disney MGM Studios at the Brown Dreby. Has anyone ever done this? What can you tell me about it? I am soo excited!
Originally Posted By ABBY WOW how exciting!! I had no idea one could do that. Can't wait to hear about it.
Originally Posted By schnebs Sorry I'm getting to this so late, GalDisney - hope you haven't gone to lunch yet. My fiancee and I did this lunch last January. I;m going to cheat a little bit and copy a part of a trip report I did on this visit: +++ When we checked in, we were given special guest nametags that read “Dining with an Imagineer†and had our names on them. That’s fair, I thought – the Imagineer would be wearing his name tag, so we should each be wearing one, too! Based on the number of nametags I saw, it looked like we were going to have 6 people for lunch that day. After a few minutes, the manager of the Brown Derby called the people participating in the lunch together and walked us into the Derby’s main dining room. The manager told us the story of the original Hollywood Brown Derby and the creation of the Florida counterpart. This was the first time I’d ever visited the Derby, and I was just wowed by both the story of the Derby and by the look of the Derby itself; if I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn that we’d walked through a time portal into Hollywood in the late 1930s. We were escorted from the main dining room into the Bamboo Room, a private room made up to look like a lounge that Hollywood’s Brown Derby had in the 1940s. We took our seats, and we were each given a personalized menu listing three or four entrée selections from the Brown Derby menu and two or three appetizers and desserts. Suzy wasn’t too thrilled with the limited selection of the personalized menu and was allergic to a couple of the items besides; fortunately, the waitress told her she could order any item from the regular menu, and Suzy was able to find some things that were better for her. After we reviewed the menu and made our selections, we introduced ourselves to Alex, an art director at the Magic Kingdom. Alex told us about his background in art and computer technology; he explained that he got into Imagineering thanks to a person who he knew from a class he was involved with in college. He explained to us the job duties of an art director at a Disney theme park, which consists of keeping up what’s already been placed in the parks by WDI and adding and changing little things at the park based on the needs of the people that operate the theme parks. For example, he was working on a project where one of the Main Street eating establishments (the Main Street Bakery, if I remember correctly) was being re-done to allow more guests to use the facility. He was responsible for increasing the guest capacity of the café, but he also had to make sure that the look of the eating location still fit with the look of Main Street; he was proud of the work that he and his team had done to make sure that everything worked well and looked right. Another project that Alex had recently worked on was the addition of a Mr. Toad figure to the pet cemetery of the Haunted Mansion; while this might seem like a simple project, Alex explained that he had to convince key people at the Magic Kingdom to let him install the figure, figure out a way to get a concrete base put into the cemetery, and get the figure installed as quickly as possible so that the figure would be as much a surprise to the attraction’s cast members as it was to the guests! While we weren’t able to get Alex to divulge any juicy tidbits about upcoming projects for the Magic Kingdom (and believe me, we tried!), we had a great time hearing about what it was like to be an Imagineer and the daily challenges they face keeping everything in the parks looking and working its best. At the end of our meal, we were each presented with crystal plates engraved with the Sorcerer Mickey logo of WDI; Alex was also nice enough to sign and add an inscription to each plate with a gold marker. The food at Lunch with an Imagineer was as good as the conversation was interesting. The standard menu for the luncheon consisted of oyster and brie soup, a miniature Cobb salad (how could you go to the Brown Derby and not have the salad that was invented there?), and a choice of one of three items; for our lunch, the choices were grilled New York strip steak, Thai noodle bowl with chicken, or pan-fried grouper.. I chose the Thai noodle bowl, which was spicy but absolutely delicious. As I mentioned, Suzy ended up ordering from the Brown Derby’s regular menu; I’m afraid that between listening to the conversation and eating my own lunch, I didn’t notice what Suzy had, but she assured me later that what she had was delicious! The only item we were a little disappointed with was the dessert; the standard menu for Lunch with an Imagineer offered crème brulee for dessert, but Suzy remembered eating the Brown Derby’s grapefruit cake when she was a little girl, so we asked for slices of the cake instead. The cake was good, but not spectacular; Suzy was disappointed because the recipe was different one from the one she remembered from eating at the original Brown Derby. Overall, though, the food, the ambience, and the service at the Brown Derby were all excellent. It’s worth a visit even if you can’t find time to dine with an Imagineer! +++ So, any questions?
Originally Posted By GalDisney Thank you for the report. Actually, I had a reservation for the lunch for last week, I arrived at The brown Derby for the lunch and they had messed up my reservation! To make a long story short, since someone messed up my reservation i was not able to have lunch but i was able to reschedule for next week.
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 You must have been so disappointed GalDisney I'm glad you were able to rebook!
Originally Posted By Rsey103 Interesting.... I had lunch with an animator at the Disney Inst. a few years ago. I didn't know they had a similar program with Imagineers. Also didn't know about the Bamboo Room at the Brown Derby....
