The annual trip to Disney World was a family tradition as I was growing up, and when Pleasure Island opened I couldn't wait to be old enough to go there. Once I was an adult, I wasn't quite as interested in it.
After Caradorn and I were married we tried going to Pleasure Island a few times, but not often. Caradorn doesn't really dance, so the dance clubs are lost on us. The Jazz Club was nice, and the Comedy club was too, but still they weren't really our thing. We also tried the Adventurers Club, and I didn't like it at all the first time. We came in mid-evening, just in time for the Colonel on the wall to start talking to people. I was not at all comfortable with it, I felt conspicuous and I was afraid he'd try to talk to me. After a few minutes they opened the doors to the library and we went in to the show. I don't remember which show it was, but we were somewhat lost. We left right afterwards and didn't go back for several years.
A few years later we bought premium annual passes for the first time. When Caradorn and I went to the Food and Wine Festival that year, we decided to try the clubs again since they were included in our passes. Again, the other clubs weren't really our cup of tea, but this time we enjoyed the Adventurers Club more. We went a couple more times on other trips, and enjoyed it when the parks were closed but we weren't ready to head back to the room.
The next year we went back to the Club on our annual Food and Wine trip. This time, there was a Hathaway Browne that I had not seen before. He was perfect as Hathaway - exactly what I had imagined Hathaway should be. By far my favorite character that I had seen at the Club. The next night we went back to the Club, and I was horribly disapointed to see that Hathaway was not the same guy. I was afraid that my favorite Hathaway was gone forever, that we had seen him the night before on his very last night at the Club. We decided to stay that evening for a while anyway, and as we were sitting there, Caradorn said "There he is! I hear his voice." But when the guy attached to the voice rounded the corner, it was someone completely different.
Hathaway was dark haired with brown eyes. So was this other guy (who turned out to be Fletcher Hodges) but other than that he wasn't anything like Hathaway. His eyes were a different shape, he moved differently, his voice sounded entirely different (even aside from the Indian accent that Fletcher had) . . . there was no way that it was my Hathaway. Caradorn swore it was, I swore it wasn't, and the guy must have thought we were both completely crazy because for the rest of the evening we stared at him while having a hushed "Is not, is too" argument. Finally, just before the end of the evening, his accent slipped for a second and his eyes changed and I realized that yes, as a matter of fact it WAS my Hathaway!
What I had never realized before was that the actors at the Club change characters all the time. We had never been to the Club more than once in a trip, so we had missed the most amazing thing about it. After the Hathaway/Fletcher incident we started going to the Club more frequently, and we were amazed by the actors. The dashing, handsome Hathaway Browne one night might be the naive, fumbling junior Adventurer Emil Bleehall the next night. The ditzy, giggly French Maid might be the businesslike, loud President Perkins the next day.
Since the first time we saw him, we've seen the Hathaway/ Fletcher that started the whole thing ( who I've since learned is called Snoopy by the online community of fans) as Emil Bleehall and Graves the Butler as well, and each character is completely unique.
For our last few trips we've gone to the Club almost every night. Snoopy is my very favorite actor there - but now I have several other favorites as well. And even though all of my favorites are not there every night, there is almost always at least one of them there at any given time.
We actually were fortunate to be able to see Snoopy in a play elsewhere, and he was wonderful there as well. He is a very gifted actor - once the play started I forgot that he was Hathaway, Fletcher, Graves, Emil, or even Snoopy, and he was just George (his character in the play). I hope that we'll be seeing him at the Club for a long time to come, but even if he moves on to other things we'll still be going Adventuring as long as the Club lasts. Thanks to Snoopy we've grown to love the Club and have discovered the many other wonderful actors there. They are really an amazing bunch - they make the characters so believable and the shows fresh every night. We've gotten many hours of enjoyment from the Club and the talented cast there, and we hope to be able to spend much more time there. And it's all thanks to Snoopy
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