The Rainforest Cafe Safari Club

Let me share with you a pretty sweet deal that I discovered 3 years ago:

The Rainforest Cafe's Safari Club

 The Walt Disney World property has 2 Rainforest Cafe locations- one at Downtown Disney and one directly outside the gates of the Animal Kingdom.  I happened to sign up for it at the Animal Kingdom location, although the Safari Club works at ALL Rainforest Cafe locations throughout the U.S. 

It's a lifetime membership and only costs a one-time fee of $15, but I got a FREE appetizer (a $10 value) the day I signed up. So really, it only cost me $5 which I easily made up my next trip to Disney World. Every time I visit the Rainforest Cafe, I get a choice of 10% off up to 4 entrées OR a free appetizer.  The only downfall is the list of free appetizers is limited to a certain selection, not the entire appetizer menu. 

To the right: Smiley Face Chicken Quesadilla. For FREE.

 You will also get coupons via e-mail for special prices and promotions throughout the year, including a free sundae on your birthday!

 FREE ice cream is so worth the embarrassment of having Happy Birthday sung to you.

Perhaps even more beneficial than free food is the priority seating. If you and your party of six or less walk-in any day or time of the week, you are guaranteed  quick attention and the earliest available table.  Anyone who has been to Downtown Disney knows how busy the Rainforest Café is any time of the week. You can show up at 7 P.M. on a Wednesday and still have a 2 hour wait. I think some of this traffic has been reduced thanks to the T-Rex Restaurant, also located at Downtown Disney, but the Rainforest is always a hoppin’ place.   You can completely bypass this 2 hour wait with the priority seating!!

Here’s an example: A couple years ago, I was at a conference at Disney will a colleague of mine.  We were hanging out one night at Downtown Disney, and we were trying to decide where to go for dinner. I had my Safari Club card with me, so suggested that so that we could save our company 10% off our food purchase. THAT IS HOW MUCH I CARE ABOUT MY COMPANY. So, we go and my colleague gives her name to the lady behind the giant purple elephant. The giant purple elephant (GPE) lady says the wait will be about 90 minutes. I pulled out my card and said “oh yeah, I’m a Safari Club member.”  GPE lady says, “in that case, it will be 10 minutes.” Boooo-yah!

Another example: Last December, my husband and I were at Downtown Disney one night and decided to go to the Rainforest. We gave our name to the lady behind the giant purple elephant and told her we were Safari Club VIP’s. She gave us a little ticket that said our wait time would be approximately 10 minutes (we heard that the normal wait time that night was around an hour).  No more than 2 minutes later, we hear “Sarah, Safari of 2”. That MUST be us, we thought. So we went back to the giant purple elephant lady and told her we were Sarah, Safari of 2. She looked it up in the system and said it was a DIFFERENT Sarah, Safari of 2, but we should just go ahead and step on over to the Gorilla paw prints and she would seat us right away. Because we are V-I-P’s.

There is also a 10% off retail merchandise, which isn't a perk I use very often, but it is just an added benefit.

This deal gets even better if you are a member of MyPoints, which offers $25 or $50 Rainforest Café giftcards.  I always save up enough points to redeem a giftcard. Combine the Safari Club discounts with a Rainforest Café giftcard and you could end up with a nearly-free meal!! Most entrées will cost between $15 and $20, but the break down to the right is a typical bill for my husband and I.  Note that this is also a dinner bill and lunch entrées are less expensive.  Sometimes we also forgo the 10% discount and go with the $10 value appetizer! Whatever combination you go with though, you just can't beat a $5 or less meal!!