RESTAURANTS

Though there are only five known rides to overtly and officially connect to members of S.E.A., that doesn't mean our globe-trotting trip through the society's story is over. Believe it or not, the stories of S.E.A. have come alive in a number of unexpected places around Disney's U.S. theme parks... restaurants. Here are the signs to look for.

1. The Adventurers Club

Location: Downtown Disney, Walt Disney World (closed)
Setting: Pleasure Island, 1937
SEA Connection: Confirmed  

By far the most beloved Disney restaurant ever to meet the wrecking ball, the Adventurers Club was one of the unique offerings at Walt Disney World’s Downtown Disney. More specifically, it was part of the now-defunct Pleasure Island and its collection of adult-oriented restaurants, comedy clubs, and bars. Pleasure Island itself was the result of an extensive backstory tracing the life and times of the eccentric inventor Merriweather Pleasure and his successful business selling sails after World War I.

The story goes that Pleasure's wife became so frustrated by her husband's hoarding of travel treasures, she demanded he build someplace on the island to house his artifacts and remnants (and to entertain his globe-trotting friends). And so, Pleasure constructed a library that became the Adventurers Club. Set in 1937, the Adventurers Club was sort of a restaurant, pub, theater, and walkthrough in one. The club was supported by an elaborate backstory involving dozens of original characters with intricate motivations of their own who mingled, performed, and participated with visitors to the club.

There were a half-dozen unique rooms in the club, from the Treasure Room to the Library, each with a unique personality and function. The restaurant was filled with animatronics and surprising, hidden special effects. Even in its relatively short life, the Adventurers Club developed a cult-like following with fans who knew the Club Creed and participated in the many traditions and theme songs the club was known for.

Naturally, the Club outlived Merriweather Pleasure, and eventually his Pleasure Island became a swinging hotspot when Downtown Disney was built around it. The unusual attraction became a fan-favorite stop with a built-world all its own, and inspired an in-depth entry in Lost Legends: The Adventurers Club – a must-read for fans of Walt Disney World history.

In the Club's continuity, Mr. Pleasure was intimately aware of S.E.A. Check out this letter written from Club President Pamelia Perkins discussing Harrison Hightower (who met his demise decades before the club opened, as a renegade member of S.E.A.'s earlier generation) and how "his idol really took him for a ride." Later, Mr. Pleasure was officially "retconned" into S.E.A., as evidenced below.

2. Magellan’s

Location: Tokyo DisneySea, Mediterranean Harbor
Setting: Fortress Explorations, present day
SEA Connection: Confirmed  

Actually located inside Fortress Explorations at Tokyo DisneySea, Magellan’s is an ornate and astounding fine-dining restaurant that is most certainly meant to be the official dining room for S.E.A. members visiting their Explorers Landing headquarters. With a magnificent globe at its center, carved wooden booths, ornate balconies, and perpetual candlelight, any seat in Magellan’s is sought after.

However, if you visit, you might want to inquire about the secret dining room hidden behind a bookcase. Certainly reserved “back then” for S.E.A.’s most elite members, it’s now available to commoners… if you ask nicely... and preferrably in Japanese.

3. The Tropical Hideaway

Image: Disney

Location: Disneyland Park
Setting: Lost River Delta, present day
SEA Connection: Confirmed

Way back in the early '60s, the Tahitian Terrace was one of Disneyland's preeminent dining locales. Born of the same Polynesian "Tiki Craze" that would also form the Modern Marvel: The Enchanted Tiki Room, this outdoor dinner theater nestled between the Tiki Room and the rivers of the Jungle Cruise was a fan favorite.

In 1993, the venue was remodeled to become Aladdin's Oasis with a similar dinner theater set-up. After two years, the dinner stayed, but the theater went dark. That left Aladdin's Oasis a lavishly decorated full service restaurant centered around an empty stage. Soon after, food service stopped, too. From 1997 - 2017 (twenty years!) the Adventureland real estate was merely a mostly-closed meet-and-greet.

Image: Disney

Then, Disney announced the unthinkable. The area would return to its roots... sort of. The new Tropical Hideaway would make use of the waterside real estate, creating a Polynesian-inspired bazaar centered around tropical tapas, floats, and Disneyland's legendary Dole Whip (now offering orange and raspberry swirls in addition to classic pineapple). While purists will remind us that it's no Tahitian Terrance, the very point of Tropical Hideaway is very different from its predecessors – consider it a "Dole Whip and chill" spot; a new, leisurely, "Instagrammable" spot built specifically for Disneyland's Annual Passholder base, meant to act as a crowd sponge to help alleviate congestion in the cramped park.

Tropical Hideaway is a brilliant example, too, of how Disneyland's Adventureland somehow seamlessly blends the Enchanted Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, and the Modern Marvel: Indiana Jones Adventure into one overarching continuity, feeling as if they might all take place in the same, ecletic jungle port.

Image: Disney

As for its connection to S.E.A.? One of the most talked-about elements of the bazaar (aside from its Audio Animatronic cockatoo and its expansion of the Tiki Room mythos) is a wall of oars with plaques honoring famous adventurers and the rivers they conquered... Among the wall of fame is H. Hightower, M. A. Merriweather, A. Falls, and M. Oceaneer, officially connecting this Tropical Hideaway (and by extension, all of Disneyland's Adventureland) to the S.E.A. story.

4. Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen

Image: Disney

Location: Magic Kingdom
Setting: Adventureland, present day
SEA Connection: Confirmed

In 2016, the iconic Adventureland Veranda restaurant at Magic Kingdom got a new lease on life when it re-opened after years of vacancy as the Skipper Canteen. The idea is brilliant... that the Jungle Navigation Company – proprietors of the "world famous" river ride across the way – have seen fit to open up the Skippers' mess hall to tourists for a bite of international flavor. Woven in is the story of the Jungle Navigation Company and its founder (the renowned Dr. Albert Falls, for whom the River's Schweitzer Falls is hilariously named), though it's his granddaughter Alberta you'll find at the helm of the company today.

The Skipper Canteen immediately earned acclaim and appreciation from fans for its brave and exotic menu (which has since been toned down, even if it remains more ambitious than most Magic Kingdom fare), but the real highlight was all in the details. The restaurant was designed in a manner similar to the nearby Be Our Guest Restaurant, with multiple themed rooms in which to dine. The main dining room is the Skipper's Mess Hall, packed with the Falls' family's mementos and early Jungle Cruise concept art (plus some can't-miss allusions to the very real Imagineers who built the Disneyland opening day original).

Image: Disney

But a narrow, dark corridor of bookshelves leads to something grand... A hidden room discovered to be the secret meeting room of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. That's right. You can dine in the elegant, intimate, and beguiling meeting room once reserved for S.E.A. members visiting the river delta. While the room is packed with artifacts shared with Dr. Falls by grateful S.E.A. members, the iconic central round booth is encircled with preserved butterflies... a sincere sight to behold. For that reason, many fans consider Dr. Falls to be both the Jungle River Navigation Co. Ltd.'s founder and an early member of S.E.A. 

The Skipper Canteen, it should be mentioned, was the first outright, direct, and overt experience with confirmed S.E.A. connections that appeared in the United States, with all other U.S. references to the organization being indirect ties, hidden hints, and tantalizing asides until Miss Adventure Falls.

5. Jock Lindsay's Hangar Bar

Location: Disney Springs
Setting: Disney Springs, present day
SEA Connection: Confirmed

You might recognize Jock Lindsey as the freelance pilot who helps out Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But fans were shocked when Disney came right out with it, confirming in a Disney Parks Blog post that Jock's globe-trotting hobby was no accident; he was indeed a member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (albeit, a generation after Hightower, Mystic, and Oceaneer, given the 1930s setting of his adventures).

What's even more astounding? According to official Disney canon, one of Jock and Indy's adventures together occured in 1938, when the pair flew across the Sunshine State in a biplane in search of the legendary Fountain of Youth (including a stopover at the tourist attraction version in Saint Augustine). While they didn't find it, Jock was apparently enamored with the crystal clear springs the duo saw in Central Florida, returning in the 1940s to establish (wait for it) the town of Disney Springs. Though Jock is long gone, the airplane hangar he constructed remains at the heart of the ever-expanding town, now converted into a bar showcasing his mementos from his journeys, including numerous call-outs to his fellow S.E.A. members.

Sure, Disney Springs was "reverse engineered" to look decades old, with leveled layers of story applied overtop one another to convincingly appear to have grown gradually from a historic town to a modern shopping metropolis. But would you ever have assumed that Indiana Jones' trusty pilot was the one to found the town, much less that he would retroactively be written into the story of S.E.A.?

And does the rewritten origin of Disney Springs at the hands of Jock Lindsey undo the story of Merriweather Pleasure's founding of Downtown Disney?

The End?

Surely you can already imagine the entangling questions S.E.A. raises... How fans can connect Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar to Indiana Jones Adventure to the Tropical Hideaway to the Enchanted Tiki Bar to the Adventurers Club to Pamela Perkins to Jason Chandler to Big Thunder Mountain to Discovery Bay... Could so many of Disney's best attractions exist in one massive, shared universe? That's the mystery and intrigue earned by S.E.A. 

While these five attractions and five restaurants finish off our overt and official list of S.E.A. connections, they don't tell the whole story... On the last page, we'll dissect five potential pieces of the puzzle... The "Expanded Universe" of could-be connections that make fans feel that even classic Disney rides might be tangentially connected to this incredible frame story... Read on...