A Disney-obsessed couple have vowed to keep fighting after losing a $400,000 (£306,000) legal battle to have their membership reinstated to the theme park’s exclusive Club 33.
Scott and Diana Anderson, both 60, spent 30 years trying to get into the elite £33,000-a-year club which allowed them to rub shoulders with VIP guests in wood-panelled lounges.
Since gaining access in 2012, the pair had forked out around $124,000-per-year to visit the Disney theme parks in Anaheim, California, up to 80 times annually.
But the couple’s fairytale lifestyle was brought to an abrupt end after they were banned from their beloved members club in 2017 amid claims Mr Anderson had been drunk in public.
They have spent seven years and hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to regain entry to the exclusive club, only for a jury last week to reject their claims that Disney had improperly evicted them.
“My wife and I are both dead set that this is an absolute wrong, and we will fight this to the death,” Mr Anderson told the Los Angeles Times.
“My retirement is set back five years,” he added. “I’m paying through the nose. Every day, I’m seeing another bill, and I’m about to keel over.”
Determined to appeal the decision, Mrs Anderson said: “I’ll sell a kidney.”
Mr And Mrs Anderson gained access to Club 33 in 2012, where they mingled with celebrities including Dick Van Dyke and Kurt Russell and enjoyed fine dining, VIP tours and special events.
Sean Macias, the couple’s lawyer, told the civil court when they came off the 10-year waiting list, “they finally became part of this special place”.
“That was their spot. That was their happy place, their home”, he added.
But security guards found Mr Anderson near the entrance of California Adventure at around 9.50pm on 3 Sept 2017. They claim he had slurred speech and had trouble standing and his breath smelled like alcohol.
He was promptly evicted from Club 33.
Mr Macias said Mr Anderson had only consumed two or three drinks and, with the absence of a breathalyser or blood tests, it was “not established” he was intoxicated.
Mr Macias argued that Mr Anderson’s symptoms were the consequence of a vestibular migraine which can be triggered by red wine.
‘Some salty language’
The previous year, Mrs Anderson had briefly been suspended from the club for using “some salty language… a couple F-words”, Mr Macias said.
Mr Macias said the couple were trying to clear his name as Mr Anderson “doesn’t want to be known as a drunk”.
The Andersons had asked to be reinstated in Club 33, with a $10,500 reimbursement for four months of unused membership in 2017. They also wanted $231,000.
Jonathan E. Phillips, a lawyer representing Disney, said Club 33 membership guidelines forbid public intoxication.
“They did not want to pay the consequences of failing to follow the rules,” Mr Phillips told jurors, the LA Times reported.
He added that Mr Anderson’s conduct “cost his wife of 40 years her lifetime dream of having access to Club 33”.
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