Please help! VIP for 2 & what to expect for wait times & a bum knee

[Jax5280]

Hello all,

We have a DCA and DL trip planned for April 27th. I booked a VIP tour, thinking we could do what we wanted within the 7 hour time frame. In years past, we learned to how to game Fast Passes, Magic Bands, etc., and it was exhausting. But I'm a good trip planner, and my son always had fun.

Now my kid is 17 and we want "just one more" before they're an adult. After this, we probably won't go back til I'm a grandparent (if that ever happens). Because I have a bum knee & ankle (opposite legs! argh), I thought the VIP would be worth it. (Last time we were at a DL, we missed out on the last Incredicoster of the night because I was limping so badly and couldn't walk fast enough. Felt awful.) There is just no way I can mad dash across the park to "maximize" my time without collapsing. I feel like it's either a) VIP or bust or b) Just let it go and recognize that Disneyland will never be the same.

Questions

• Do I need to adjust my expectations of "The Bucket List"? (See below.) What are actual LL times these days??
• Do I need to ALSO buy LL and Genie + so I can actually do something while not on the VIP tour - because I would feel stressed if all I did the other 5 hours was wait in line for 2 rides.
• When you buy a LL, you can only get 2 for the WHOLE day - is this two PER PARK or total? (Why even bother with PH??)
• Is it better to start in CA or DL?
• What time should I start my tour? We booked for 9am and now I am worried I need to "do stuff" on my own first (and here I thought I could avoid rope drop).

Truth be told, I wouldn't have considered the $$$ if it weren't for all of the negative reviews of G+! And I am also feeling wistful that my baby is graduating high school and leaving me. (Long story, but we're likely to wind up on different continents in a year.)

THE BUCKET LIST
Disneyland

Tomorrowland

• Space Mountain (Highest! Most favorite! Would love to get this in 2x! In yrs past, we could do this 3-4x in a day and I'm hearing that's no longer a thing?)
• Autopia (Medium)

Star Wars Galaxy's Edge (We are not really Star Wars fans, but need to check out the fuss!)

• Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run (High)
• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (High)

Adventureland

• Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye (Medium)

Critter Country

• Splash Mountain (Medium)

Frontierland

• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (High)

Fantasyland

• Peter Pan's Flight (Low)
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant (High)
• Alice in Wonderland (Low)
• Matterhorn Bobsleds (High)
• Mad Tea Party (High)
• Sleeping Beauty Castle (want to stop for a photo)

California Adventure

Hollywood Land

• Turtle Talk with Crush (High)
• Animation Academy (time pending?)

Cars Land

• Radiator Springs (High)

Avengers Campus

• Web Slinger (Medium)

Pixar Pier

• Incredicoaster (High - Would love to ride more than once!)
• Inside Out (High)
• Pixar Pal-a-Round (Low - We are a little scared of Ferris wheels)

Paradise Gardens Park

• Silly Symphony Swings (Medium)

Character Photos
(We only need one...and can skip if it's a time-suck)

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

I'm so sorry you are hurt!

VIP tours are fantastic. We just did one and it was amazing how much we could accomplish, even on a relatively crowded day. Honestly intermittent ride closures were our biggest limitation.

To answer your questions:
1. You definitely don't need to buy Genie+ or ILLs. Your guide should be able to get you on pretty much everything, and if you are lucky may give you a couple of extra passes in case something isn't available when you want to go by.
2. Talk to your guide about limiting walking, when possible. You can also get a wheelchair and use it intermittently in case that would help. There is no shame in it at all.
3. Repeats are no problem, and probably a better use of your time than doing medium/low priority rides, especially when trying to minimize walking.

As far as what to do, your plan looks pretty solid. We started our day at 10am and were able to knock out pretty much all of Fantastyland without our guide (except Peter Pan, but that was just because we were lazy and didn't want to run for anything). I highly recommend doing that out in Cali.

Avengers Campus - Guardians and Web Slingers turned out to be DS's favorite rides of the trip. I usually HATE elevator drop rides but even I'll admit that Guardians was fun.

One other tip...we didn't do Tea Cups in Cali but in Florida the Tea Cups are one of our favorite parts of the day because our (much loved!) guide can spin them like no one's business. We have so many great pictures of the kids with huge smiles on their faces riding with him. We specifically asked for a young-ish male in Cali who would engage well with our pre-teen boy and our guide we had was wonderful. We saw a wide range of guides in Cali and have had one in the past who was...less than what we would have hoped for...so if you want someone who will give you more than just access it is worth making your preferences known.

 

[Jax5280]

As far as what to do, your plan looks pretty solid. We started our day at 10am and were able to knock out pretty much all of Fantastyland without our guide (except Peter Pan, but that was just because we were lazy and didn't want to run for anything). I highly recommend doing that out in Cali.

Thank you! Do you think we should show up to the park early and do stuff ourselves, then? May I ask when you did your tour? I have heard (anecdotally, and from angry people) that since VIP is just LL, and LL/G+ seems to be all screwed up, wait times are longer than expected for those who booked VIP thinking they could get it all done.

I am kicking myself for not going last fall.

 

[Jax5280]

P.S. I have no shame in a wheelchair if I needed it, but it would probably slow us down more. There will be crowds and the park isn't that accessible. I plan on bringing ice packs, a knee brace, an ankle brace, ibuprofen...and maybe stopping for an alcoholic beverage at the end.

The VIP Tours person said:

"The Guest do go through Lightening Lane for those attractions and all others through an alternate entrance such as the exit. Lightening lanes can be anywhere from 10-30 min wait. Guests have access to Rise of the Resistance once while on Tour, and Web Slingers they do have access as well with no limit so no need to book those separately."

I am scared that every wait will be 30 minutes and when you include walking, it means I'll probably be able to 1 ride every 45-60 minutes, which would be 1/3 of what we used to be able to do in the FP system...that just isn't worth the $ to me.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Thank you! Do you think we should show up to the park early and do stuff ourselves, then? May I ask when you did your tour? I have heard (anecdotally, and from angry people) that since VIP is just LL, and LL/G+ seems to be all screwed up, wait times are longer than expected for those who booked VIP thinking they could get it all done.

I am kicking myself for not going last fall.

No worries at all. We were on tour last Saturday, so the beginning of Easter Week and during Food and Wine. Friday was actually amazing crowd-wise and we had a fantastic day just using Genie+/ILL but Saturday was either an 8 or 9 on the crowd calendar. Friday we were kicking ourselves for signing up for VIP but by Saturday at lunchtime we were so grateful that we had.

VIP doesn't really get you any faster access than Genie+, but our guide was able to check to see things like how many elevators were running in Guardians (Friday it was just 1 and it took us almost an hour, even with Genie+) and figured out when Indy was back online so we didn't walk over there unnecessarily.. Also when Rise went down he evacuated us immediately.

Generally speaking wait times were 15 minutes or less from entering the queue to getting on the ride, as long as pre-shows aren't ridiculously long. In that respect Cali felt faster than Florida for just about everything.

I would definitely show up early and do the less popular rides in advance so you can save VIP time for when it really matters. Eg. we walked on to Small World, Alice, Snow White, Mr Toad's, Pinocchio, and the storybook boats and had "finished" that area in less than an hour. No need to pay guide rates on any of those rides.

Remember that people are angry about Genie+ so they blame it for all that is wrong with Disney. Are some of the complaints legitimate? Sure. Especially in Hollywood Studios if you pay $15 and only get 1 "good" ride. It effectively becomes a second ILL at that price. But honestly we have had generally good experiences with Genie+ and vastly prefer something to nothing (May 2021 without Fastpass or Genie+ was AWFUL!).

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

P.S. I have no shame in a wheelchair if I needed it, but it would probably slow us down more. There will be crowds and the park isn't that accessible. I plan on bringing ice packs, a knee brace, an ankle brace, ibuprofen...and maybe stopping for an alcoholic beverage at the end.

The VIP Tours person said:



I am scared that every wait will be 30 minutes and when you include walking, it means I'll probably be able to 1 ride every 45-60 minutes, which would be 1/3 of what we used to be able to do in the FP system...that just isn't worth the $ to me.

We were definitely much better than that! And especially if you are going to repeat your favorite rides that cuts down on walking time between tier 2 rides you should have no problem accomplishing everything you want to do.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

The wheelchair accessibility thing is really tough. A good friend of ours has fibromyalgia. She is fine some of the time but other times reaches her limit and needs to ride. They usually use the wheelchair for the big moves and park it for within a given land. Also your guide can also deal with chair logistics - parking it while you go on a ride, grabbing it at the end of the time, etc. Our guide used to do that back when we were aging out of strollers and it was super helpful. No need to decide upfront, but at least it's an option if you are having a tough day.

 

[Ladyslug]

We did our VIP Tour last September, and that did seem like the ideal time to go, since there were no other people waiting in the Fastpass/Lightning Lane lines (other than DAS and other VIP tours). However, I just went earlier this month (on a Monday and a Tuesday) and used Genie+ to access the Lightning Lanes and encountered no waits that were more than 10 minutes all day (with the exception of when Space Mountain that went down for 10 minutes, meaning we had to wait in line for about 20 minutes total before boarding). So I would expect that with a weekday tour, you should have minimal waits using the Lightning Lanes for access -- the only concern would be rides going down at unfortunate times. The VIP Tour will also give you LL access to even the Individual Lightning Lane rides (Rise, Webslingers, and Radiator Springs Racers if you have a parkhopper).

Even just using Genie+, we were able to (at least somewhat) organize our day land by land by filling in the time between LL return times by riding smaller rides via standby, taking snack and water breaks, checking out the shops, and getting our pictures taken by the Photopass photographers.

FYI, to avoid getting wet on Splash Mountain, request the seats at the back of the log -- it makes a big difference.

Animation Academy switches characters every 30 minutes and we saw people hanging out for the next one in advance, but the good news is you get to hang out on couches in an air-conditioned building. Ask your tour guide for the character schedule in advance, but if you want to actually do it, do so outside of your tour hours.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

I will say that given how expensive VIP is, if you go in a completely uncrowded time it may feel like a waste of money unless money is no object. You want crowds to be heavy enough to not want to wait in standby lines and for Genie+ returns not to be immediate, but not so heavy as not to be able to move around. As I said, if we had had VIP on Friday it would have felt unnecessary but it was great on Saturday.

 

[Jax5280]

We were definitely much better than that! And especially if you are going to repeat your favorite rides that cuts down on walking time between tier 2 rides you should have no problem accomplishing everything you want to do.

As I understand it, you still have to go back through the line and wait if you want to repeat a ride. So if a ride is 10-30 minutes wait w/VIP or LL, and you want to do that ride twice...you're looking at 1 hour (or $500+).

Add in the fact that I also have to arrive early, before my tour, and knock out Frontierland...I'm not sure what the tour is paying for, really. $3,500+ to get in a few extra rides or save a few minutes? It makes me wonder if Disneyland is worth it at all. I was shocked when I read some reviews saying they booked a VIP tour and barely got to do anything (compared to a few years ago w/o the tour).

 

[Jax5280]

I will say that given how expensive VIP is, if you go in a completely uncrowded time it may feel like a waste of money unless money is no object. You want crowds to be heavy enough to not want to wait in standby lines and for Genie+ returns not to be immediate, but not so heavy as not to be able to move around. As I said, if we had had VIP on Friday it would have felt unnecessary but it was great on Saturday.

But if it's very crowded, that also backs up LL, correct? So wouldn't it be (at some point) less of a value if LL for major rides are all at 30 minutes?

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

But if it's very crowded, that also backs up LL, correct? So wouldn't it be (at some point) less of a value if LL for major rides are all at 30 minutes?

As I said, LL weren't anywhere close to 30 min on an 8/9 crowd calendar day. For us the bigger issue was that Rise and Indy broke down, and Guardians (on VIP day) was only running 2 elevators.

Yes, you go through the LL but it saves you the walk. Realistically I think you can plan to do 3-4 rides/hour, less time for lunch, bathrooms, and the transfer from DL to DCA. Also unlike Genie+ you aren't running all over the park to minimize walks. If you walk past Haunted Mansion and want to ride, you do it. Don't underestimate the value in that.

A super super crowded day is unpleasant all around and realistically you might only be doing 1-2 rides/hour even with Genie+, but a moderately crowded day VIP will make a huge difference. No one is claiming that it is cheap, but I have yet to have a VIP day (Florida, California, and Universal Orlando) that I didn't think was worth the cost.

 

[Jax5280]

Thanks for the feedback. We were "warned" that wait times could be 30 minutes. That makes me really nervous. It's also unclear to me if having only 2 people in the tour matter or not. I assume Disneyland keeps booking them until they've hit a person capacity for tours.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Thanks for the feedback. We were "warned" that wait times could be 30 minutes. That makes me really nervous. It's also unclear to me if having only 2 people in the tour matter or not. I assume Disneyland keeps booking them until they've hit a person capacity for tours.

In Florida the number of guides is limited and they were completely sold out for most of February and all of March and April even by the 60 day mark. There seem to be more guides in Cali, though that may just be my impression.

Having 2 people/tour should be fine - we had 3 - just makes it more special.

 

[twodogs]

We are here now. LLs are definitely pretty short, with a few exceptions some of which are very unexpected. Soarin’ has been at least a 20 minute wait in the LL, sometimes 30. Buzz has been a 10-15 minute wait, much of which is spent winding through the roped area to just scan your LL pass. I find this silly on a continuously loading ride… Space has been about 10 minutes, not bad. ROTR is usually extremely quick, you generally walk right into the first pre-show room immediately. Web Slingers, basically immediately into the preshow. RSR is usually less than 10 minutes. HM is 5 minutes or less to stretching room.

Having a VIP guide makes everything SO much easier. No it does not have as many perks as it used to, but then again, neither does DLR! You will need a park hopper that day if you want to hop on the tour, which it looks like you do. You won’t need G+ unless you want to book rides after the tour. Honestly, when you do the VIP, you get very tired because you don’t have much time to rest “while in line” because you aren’t waiting in many! While this is a good thing, we usually pretty much collapse after ours. Consider adding an extra hour or more to the tour if you think you need it (7 hours is just the minimum). Also ask for VIP seating for the fireworks or whatever show is going on at the time.

We LOVE the VIP and wish we could afford it every trip. Have FUN!!!

 

[Iceman93]

First of all, I'm really disappointed that an official response from Disney would reference "lightening lanes". It annoys me enough to see people on internet message boards make that mistake, but this would be like a Disney person writing about "FastPaz" or something.

Okay, with my rant out of the way, I think what you want to do is print out that list of attractions and priorities and hand it to your VIP guide as soon as the tour begins. Explain your mobility issues and desire to minimize walking all over the place, and you'll be amazed at their ability to give you an absolutely magical day!

 

[DisneylandFan22]

It sounds like you already don’t think the money it costs is worth it. If you have to talk yourself into it, I would go with my gut. Save that money and uses it for other special touches you might not otherwise do.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

I forgot about VIP fireworks! Unlike in Florida your guide doesn’t have to drop you off, so you can end your tour, have dinner, pick up rides if you want and still have great seats for the show.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

But if it's very crowded, that also backs up LL, correct? So wouldn't it be (at some point) less of a value if LL for major rides are all at 30 minutes?

Here is the value in a VIP tour - you can ride each ride when you want to ride it. With Genie+, you cannot choose when you can ride a ride. As it gets past noon, especially on crowded days, return times get further and further out. If at 11am you want to ride Space Mountain, you have to get a return time which will likely be a couple hours out. You won’t then get to choose another lightening attraction for another 2 hours or you scan in for the ride. With a VIP tour, you can ride every ride in Tomorrowland using the LL one right after another without having to wait on a return line. You can also re-ride SM using the LL 10 times in a row. You can’t do that with Genie+. You also get VIP seating for fireworks and parades. That’s the value.

 

[smartlabelprint]

I’d get an electric scooter. I’ve heard VIP can be brutal, especially since you may be getting more done than the average person.

Accessibility shouldn’t be a huge issue. You go in the exits in fantasyland. You can park it in the land and just use it when you’re walking a longer distance as well. Having VIP to lead you with the chair seems ideal to me. It sounds like you’ll need it for sure on your next trip and this way you’ll learn the ropes.