Hi Disney Addicts! I recently attended the absolutely spectacular special event “Club Villain” on Saturday, February 6th, 2016, and I have been dying to share my excitement about it with all of you ever since I left the event that night! What a blast we had! It is currently being offered at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the new Sunset Showcase building (next to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster) for a limited time only. This villainous dinner and dance party made it’s debut last month on January 16th, with the original schedule running on Saturday nights only and with only 1 party per Saturday, through the end of February. I was lucky enough to have bought my tickets back when Disney first opened up the reservations in October 2015 and I only paid $99 per person. However, the current price has now increased to $129 per person for all new bookings, as of last week! (Tax and gratuity is included in that price). This very recent price increase also came with a newly updated schedule. The event has been doing so well in it’s first few weeks and with such positive guest feedback that Disney decided to go ahead and extend it through the month of March with more dates and times! The last 2 Saturdays in February, the 20th and 27th, now have 2 parties per night at 4:15pm and 7:45pm. And now, for March only, you can book this event on Tuesdays as well as Saturdays! Every Tuesday in March (the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th) and also Saturday March 5th have parties at 4:15pm and 7:45pm. Then the times change by a half hour for the remaining 3 Saturdays in March (the 12th, 19th, and 26th) to 4:45pm and 8:15pm. Please keep in mind that this is a separate ticketed event and admission to Hollywood Studios is required, but not included in the ticket price. Also, reservations are required and are pre-paid at the time of booking.
I know what you’re thinking. Is it really worth the high ticket price? In my opinion, YES! The experience we had at Club Villain was worth every penny and I’d go back and do it again in a heartbeat! It had a distinct VIP quality and feel to it. To sum it up in one word, it was phenomenal. It really did blow my mind, far beyond my expectations. I have been to several other similar offerings at Disney World over the years – dessert parties, dinner events and such – but I can’t say the same about all of them. This one was by far the BEST. They really got everything right this time! You may also be wondering if it’s appropriate for kids. Yes, there were tons of kids there on the night we went, having a great time living it up on the dance floor, and our own 2 & 1/2 year old son had the time of his life! He was so well behaved all night because despite the 2 hour long time-frame (which was well past his bedtime), there was so much fun going on to keep him thoroughly entertained throughout the evening. So thanks to the dance floor and character meet & greets, he didn’t have to stay glued to his chair all night, which is such a blessing for an active toddler. This unique event combining music, live performances, dinner, dessert, drinks, dancing, and character interaction really catered well to both kids and adults alike.
Let me tell you more about the details of Club Villain. I had previously been to Club Disney, the daytime character dance party in the same location, so I was aware of the space, the high ceiling, and the large 360 degree screens. Seeing how they utilized these things to design the decor and bewitching atmosphere for Club Villain was impressive. They nailed it! The focal point of the room was the enormous sparkling poison apple disco ball above the dance floor. Other fabulously designed points of interest around the room included the DJ’s stage with it’s bright & colorful backdrop screen, and the 4 sets for each lady villain in attendance – Cruella de Vil, Maleficent, the Evil Queen, and the Queen of Hearts. Each one had her own area to reside in along the side walls of the room and each of these sets looked amazing, with tons of themed detail relevant to that villain, thus creating the perfect photo ops. Evil Queen’s set featured her magic mirror of course, which was completely awesome and would disappear and reappear periodically. Maleficent and the Queens all had magnificent royal thrones to sit upon and Cruella reclined on her plush red sofa. All the lighting effects were very well done – I particularly liked the paw prints that shined on Cruella’s set – and of course they employed lots of smoky effects for the stage and dance floor during performances.
Speaking of the performances!!! The entertainment at Club Villain was so on point. I was not even expecting any performances at all! I was expecting just simply a DJ playing music, a dance floor with the villains wandering around on it (much like other character dance parties), a dinner buffet, bar, & dessert table. Oh no. What I got was so much more! This was a whole production, a dinner show made up of several performances. These are what really made the night, especially the songs performed by the incredible Club Villain manager – “Kanzo.” He was for sure the breakout star of the event, stealing the show from all of the villains! He could sing sooooo very well, like crazy good, that it made me wonder how in the world he wasn’t famous in the music business yet. So he was the super talented emcee for the night, totally killin’ it with his charisma, singing voice, and a mesmerizing glittery neon sugar skull-emblazoned costume. (Sorry, I may have developed a bit of a crush.) Then there was Dr. Facilier, moonlighting as the host of the evening’s festivities, flanked by 2 sexy female dancers who also happened to do a great job interacting with guests during breaks in between the performances.
When you check in for the event, they give you a program that includes signatures for all the villains present, a list of the menu items, your table number, and your assigned meet & greet times. You see, they cleverly scheduled everyone attending to go & visit each lady villain at staggered times to ensure that there wouldn’t be any long lines to see them. This strategy worked perfectly! We had virtually no waits at all to enjoy our one-on-one time with each of the 4 devilish vixens, and Disney Photopass photographers were available at all of them to capture every memorable moment. The rest of the evening you are free to indulge in as much as you want of the food, desserts, and drinks from the 2 “Potions” bars, along with plenty of time allowed on the dance floor in between sets of the show. Alcoholic beverages are included, and in addition to the selection of beer and wine, there were 4 specialty cocktails available inspired by the villains. Cruella offers a “Devious Dalmation” drink which consists of Godiva white chocolate liquor, milk, coconut milk, pineapple juice, and black boba pearls garnish to give that spotted dalmatian puppy look! I had one and it was delish, although my favorite cocktail was definitely Maleficent signature – the “Cursed Violet,” a combination of lemonade, citrus vodka, and creme de cassis – which I would highly recommend. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try the other 2 from Evil Queen and Queen of Hearts. The line at that bar was significantly longer, so they must have been good because they were popular with guests! Evil Queen’s was a Poisoned Cinnamon Apple (fireball whiskey and hard apple cider) and Queen of Hearts’ was a Bleeding Heart Sangria.
The food was all New Orleans themed in honor of Dr. Facilier, spread across 3 different stations. The sauteed station served creamy polenta with fire-kissed corn as well as shrimp with spicy Andouille sausage, tomato, okra, & onions. The carving station served chilled haricot verts with muffuletta vinaigrette, bourbon bread pudding “beignets,” and an herb de Province rubbed striploin of beef with wild mushroom demi glaze. And lastly, the cast iron station served kale & collard slaw with watermelon vinaigrette, dirty rice, black-eyed peas, Cajun chicken thigh gumbo, and “Voodoo sticky pig wings” with citrus gremolata. All of it was quite good, but the kale slaw was my most favorite of all! Other highlights for me were the polenta, beef, and bread pudding beignets. My husband’s favorites were the gumbo and the shrimp & sausage combo. However, let’s be honest here, the food was not the best part of Club Villain. Other than Kanzo & the villains of course, the plethora of sinful desserts on display totally overshadowed the dinner fare as the superior standouts of the evening. Just as with the cocktails, the desserts were also lady villain specially themed, and each lady had not 1, but 2 delectable treats to offer as her signature for a sweet finale. They were all miniature sized desserts, so of course I tried each & every different one for a total of 8. All were stellar, even better than the past dessert parties I have attended, but Maleficent’s “Red Wine Cheesecake Pushup” was the clear winner for me, and the Evil Queen’s “Green Apple Mousse” as well as the Queen of Hearts’ macaroons were also particularly outstanding in my opinion. Maleficent also had a yummy purple angel food cupcake adorned with green icing and chocolate zig-zags to represent her evil horns, while the Queen of Hearts had a red velvet cupcake, naturally, which was very good. Cruella’s were my least favorite – a chocolate tart and a panna cotta – although I did not dislike them at all, I simply just favored the other selections more.
All in all, it was a truly memorable night for my family and we had such a fantastic time!!! Disney really brought their A-game when they developed this event and I am really sad to know it’s only a temporary thing. If you have not had the pleasure, I urge you to splurge and experience Club Villain before it’s gone! You only live once, right? If you have attended this event already and enjoyed it as much as I did, I implore you to please make your feelings known to Guest Relations by dropping them an email at wdw.guest.communications@
Are you excited to check out Club Villain? Have any questions for me about it? Please let me know in the comments section below!
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Hi Kristen! Unfortunately, they did not have the typical kid-friendly buffet there as they do with most of the buffet restaurants at WDW. All of the food available was listed here in the article. Every child is different – some eat anything and some are very picky eaters. Do you think your son might care for the wings, the rice, or the peas or the polenta maybe? Our 2.5 year old son is pretty picky, so we had him try several different things from the buffet but he didn’t like any of them. So we had brought our own food in for him to eat! It always pays to be prepared with little ones!
We want to take our 4 year old son there. He loves the villains! But I was wondering if there was any kid friendly options on the buffet?
While it sounds like quite a great party, $129 per person is a bit much for some food and hanging out with the lady villains. I love Maleficent, but I’m not sure that I want to spend $260 for two people for only 2 hours and a meal. If they had a Passholder discount, say 50% off, I might consider it.