VIP Tour-4 parks questions

[Kristi391]

So we (3 adults 2 teen girls) are going down June 26-July 2 and we scheduled a VIP tour for one of our days. We are super excited but we were told that 4 parks in one day will feel rushed. Has anyone done a VIP tour recently and done all 4 parks? We are meeting the guide at the park and don't plan any sit down meals during the tour, so time will not be wasted on those things. We are planning 8 hours.

Any recent experiences would be great to hear about.

Thanks.

Kristi

 

[fancymouse]

I think you’ll have a very hard time doing all 4 parks in one day of you want to do most rides at every park. We once did MK, AK, and HS in one day and it was go-go-go and in about 8 hours we only did the headliners. At MK we did the Mountains, 7DMT, HM, and Pirates. At AK we FoP, Everest, Dinosaur. At HS (Pre-GE and Slinky) we did ToT, RRC, Toy Story Mania and that was probably it (maybe we did Star Tours?). We did have him meet is at the hotel so if you factor in maybe 45 minutes of travel time then you could probably get in a few more rides, but again HS has several more rides we didn’t even do (because they didn’t exist) and we skipped a lot of AK and a lot at MK. That doesn’t even factor in Epcot. We did stop for a QS meal, but it was literally the fastest we’ve ever dined at the parks. This was all adults too so we didn’t have kids slowing us down or anything, I suppose if you didn’t even want to waste time eating you could just grab a pretzel or something, but sitting down for every a short break felt good. Also consider we literally only went ride to ride. We didn’t look at scenery, characters, or really get any of the park “magic” because we were all about efficiency in riding attractions. Don’t get me wrong, the tours are GREAT and they will customize however you want, but doing all parks in one day will be very rushed. We did multiple parks in one day on a trip where we had already been to all the parks and this tour was our last day, so we didn’t miss out on anything by rushing. If it were a shorter trip you’d likely feel short changed since you will end up missing large chunks of the parks.

We’ve always skipped Epcot with the VIP guides because I’ve never felt the rides were the best use of the unlimited FP. Epcot is big so walking between attractions always feels like it wastes time and it’s always been easy enough to do Epcot on our own. Unless you have other reasons for trying to do all four parks in one day, I would skip Epcot and focus on the other three parks. Just those parks will definitely fill up 8 hours.

 

[Kristi391]

I think you’ll have a very hard time doing all 4 parks in one day of you want to do most rides at every park. We once did MK, AK, and HS in one day and it was go-go-go and in about 8 hours we only did the headliners. At MK we did the Mountains, 7DMT, HM, and Pirates. At AK we FoP, Everest, Dinosaur. At HS (Pre-GE and Slinky) we did ToT, RRC, Toy Story Mania and that was probably it (maybe we did Star Tours?). We did have him meet is at the hotel so if you factor in maybe 45 minutes of travel time then you could probably get in a few more rides, but again HS has several more rides we didn’t even do (because they didn’t exist) and we skipped a lot of AK and a lot at MK. That doesn’t even factor in Epcot. We did stop for a QS meal, but it was literally the fastest we’ve ever dined at the parks. This was all adults too so we didn’t have kids slowing us down or anything, I suppose if you didn’t even want to waste time eating you could just grab a pretzel or something, but sitting down for every a short break felt good. Also consider we literally only went ride to ride. We didn’t look at scenery, characters, or really get any of the park “magic” because we were all about efficiency in riding attractions. Don’t get me wrong, the tours are GREAT and they will customize however you want, but doing all parks in one day will be very rushed. We did multiple parks in one day on a trip where we had already been to all the parks and this tour was our last day, so we didn’t miss out on anything by rushing. If it were a shorter trip you’d likely feel short changed since you will end up missing large chunks of the parks.

We’ve always skipped Epcot with the VIP guides because I’ve never felt the rides were the best use of the unlimited FP. Epcot is big so walking between attractions always feels like it wastes time and it’s always been easy enough to do Epcot on our own. Unless you have other reasons for trying to do all four parks in one day, I would skip Epcot and focus on the other three parks. Just those parks will definitely fill up 8 hours.

Thank you for your response. I think we are planning on just headliners at each park. It is so much to think about and decide what is the best use of our time! Thanks again.

 

[Heather07438]

Maybe do what you want at MK and HS, and then head over to AK right at the end to quickly do Navi and the guide could leave after they get you onto FOP.

 

[Best Aunt]

done a VIP tour recently and done all 4 parks? We are meeting the guide at the park and don't plan any sit down meals during the tour, so time will not be wasted on those things. We are planning 8 hours.

4 parks in 8 hours, including transportation between the parks? How many rides were you planning to do in each park? If those rides aren't near each other, it would take time to get from one to another. I would think that it would feel like you spent the whole day going from one thing to another.

 

[shm_helene]

I've been contemplating doing one - but my plan was to start at MK around 11:00 (or 11:15 to eat a quick lunch I was bringing) and to do BTM and Splash before we start, along with any other shorter lines. That gets two headliners out of the way.

 

[Jack & Monica]

I strongly recommend doing the headliners. Are you staying on property? If so, it may be cool to get picked up at the resort. I know, I know -- the transit time is on the clock, but it may ultimately be best. Here is what we are doing:
We are hoping to get Rise of the Resistance but will play that by ear. Logistics may make that impractical.
We are staying at the Wilderness Lodge. We are getting picked up at 0800 at the Wilderness Lodge. Our park reservation is for HS, but the best strategy is to knock out MK first, so we are going immediately to the Magic Kingdom. (remember if you want to meet in a park -- you have to have a park reservation to meet in the first park -- otherwise you cannot get in).
We are riding Splash mountain, big thunder mountain railway, 7 Dwarfs' Diamond Mine Train, and Space Mountain. We then are going to Animal Kingdom where we are doing Flight of Passage 2x, Dinosaur and Expedition Everest.
We are then going to EPCOT where we are doing Soarin, Test Track, Mission Space, Frozen Ever After. We are going to eat at a QS restaurant in EPCOT.
We will then go to HS where we will stay the longest. We will do Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway 2x, Millennium Falcon 2x, RRCoaster, Slinky Dog Dash 2x, and then other attractions if there is still time.
We have dinner reservations for 4:00 at the Prime Time Cafe.

We have 4 other park days so we are planning on doing all of the other rides during our individual park days. There are 3 teenage girls and 2 adults. I think that will make us more efficient movement-wise and space wise for the vehicle.

Remember to ask your tour guide to not be afraid to check on any soft openings.
Good luck and have an awesome time!

 

[KerryCM]

We did 4 parks on March 26th. My son booked the tour for his family, my husband and I tagged along! I did a review of it somewhere on here. My grandchildren are 11,9 and 6. We did not feel rushed at all. You move at the pace you want. You make a list of the rides you want to do, the guide will tour the park in the most efficient way possible. we Met our guide at the MK, because we were staying at the Grand Floridian. We scanned into the park had our temp checked and never scanned into another park. We entered all other parks from backstage. Most of the time from different areas depending on the rides we wanted to do. It was so worth it and my son has decided it is the only way to tour the parks now! Any other questions I will be happy to answer them

 

[Jack & Monica]

I have the tour guide tracking our pace. If we have to, he will drop Expedition Everest and Frozen Ever After because of distance and probability of getting onto those rides during our other park day. I know the ROR is 45 mins so that will probably go out the window first.

 

[Kristi391]

We did 4 parks on March 26th. My son booked the tour for his family, my husband and I tagged along! I did a review of it somewhere on here. My grandchildren are 11,9 and 6. We did not feel rushed at all. You move at the pace you want. You make a list of the rides you want to do, the guide will tour the park in the most efficient way possible. we Met our guide at the MK, because we were staying at the Grand Floridian. We scanned into the park had our temp checked and never scanned into another park. We entered all other parks from backstage. Most of the time from different areas depending on the rides we wanted to do. It was so worth it and my son has decided it is the only way to tour the parks now! Any other questions I will be happy to answer them

This is very good to hear. We have a list that we made of about 4 or 5 rides at each park that we will give to the guide prior to the tour. We are meeting at whatever park we have reserved for the day, so either Studios or Animal Kingdom, depending on which day we have the tour (we booked 2 days and plan to decide which one would be better). I am going look for your review. Was it done recently?

Thanks again for your input.

 

[magicmountainmama]

We just did a VIP tour on Monday (me & DH, kids are 16, 13, 6). We were hoping to do all 4 parks but kept epcot as a maybe, time permitting. Here's how our day went:
10am meet up with our tour guide at our resort, OKW. We had to do a temp screen & sign the covid waiver, and were on the road right after.
AK: Dinosaur, Everest 2 times, FOP
HS: Star Tours, QS lunch (Ronto wraps I had mobile ordered in the car on the way over from AK), Millenium Falcon, Slinky, Toy Story Mania, RnRC, ToT
MK: Space Mountain, Splash, Big Thunder, SDMT, Peter Pan, and our guide got us to the front of the line at Small World before saying good bye right at the 7 hour mark.
We didn't stop for anything other than 1 bathroom break & QS lunch. One bummer is that you sort of have to stop for a meal because you can't walk & eat or eat in the car between parks. Our crew can't go 7 hours without eating.
You can extend beyond the 7 hour mark on the fly, you do not need to book that from the get go. If we had wanted to go another hour, we definitely could have made it to Epcot where we only wanted to ride Soarin & Test Track.

 

[jimmymc]

You can do it, but you would waste a lot of time in the car. Epcot lines have been short this spring, even during spring break, so I would at least limit it to 3 parks. Animal Kingdom is also not worth it IMO, unless you're trying to get multiple rides on FoP and the safari. Use the time to get all the MK and HS rides, and rope-drop the safari on a different day.

 

[KerryCM]

This is very good to hear. We have a list that we made of about 4 or 5 rides at each park that we will give to the guide prior to the tour. We are meeting at whatever park we have reserved for the day, so either Studios or Animal Kingdom, depending on which day we have the tour (we booked 2 days and plan to decide which one would be better). I am going look for your review. Was it done recently?

Thanks again for your input.

let me see if I can find it for you. We did the tour on March 26th of this year.

 

[KerryCM]

here it is.

pick us up at the hotel, but since we are staying at the Grand Floridian we decided to just meet the guide at the Magic Kingdom. We all given beautiful pins, that said VIP tour on them. The kids loved them and put them right on. Our guide’s name was Sam, and he was amazing. My son gave him the list of rides and Sam took us in the most efficient way to get them done. In the span of an hour we did Pirates, Splash, Thunder, Mine Train(2 times), Space Mt. and Buzz, oh and Peter Pan! It was awesome. On Pirates we went in a back way right on the ride, other we went in the old fast pass line, no waiting at all.

Next park was Animal Kingdom. The kids only wanted to do 3 rides and quick lunch here. River ride, Dinosaur and the Pandora. My husband and I only did the river ride. We sat with the youngest one for the other 2 rides. Sam always found us a shady place to sit and wait for him and the others to return. We then ate at Restaurasaurus, and headed to the Studios. Here they did Millenium Falcon, slinky Dog (2 times), Buzz, (2times) and MMRR.

Next was Epcot. Here Sam parked behind Test Track. Nana and Pop were dragging at this point! We did Test Track, waited a little here because of cleaning the cars. Back in the nice van and drive over to back entrance behind China and Norway to ride Frozen. Got back in van to drive to back entrance to Soarin. This is where Nana, Grampa and Oliver say goodbye to Sam and head to the bus! Jimmy and his family ended the tour also, but stay in Epcot for dinner in Mexico.
Sam did offer to make dinner reservations for us at the start of the tour, if we didn’t have any.
I will say for a young family it was definitely worth the money. My son said he will do this every trip now. He will go for 4-5 days only and do the tour and hang at the pool, casually going into parks later in the day. He has a job that he can afford to do it and I am happy for him. For me, it was nice, but my husband and I go to enjoy the sights and sounds of the parks more at our age and it was go, go, go. We are 68 and 70, it was beyond our pace to do all 4parks, like my husband said, 2 parks would have been perfect for us! We did 7 hours and it flew by. Sam was great and I know Jimmy gave him a great tip.

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[holden]

We've done 3 parks in 7 hours with the VIP Tour, and plan to do the same this summer. We hit the headliners in AK, MK and DHS. Seven hours was enough. It's exhausting!!!

 

[Kristi391]

here it is.

pick us up at the hotel, but since we are staying at the Grand Floridian we decided to just meet the guide at the Magic Kingdom. We all given beautiful pins, that said VIP tour on them. The kids loved them and put them right on. Our guide’s name was Sam, and he was amazing. My son gave him the list of rides and Sam took us in the most efficient way to get them done. In the span of an hour we did Pirates, Splash, Thunder, Mine Train(2 times), Space Mt. and Buzz, oh and Peter Pan! It was awesome. On Pirates we went in a back way right on the ride, other we went in the old fast pass line, no waiting at all.

Next park was Animal Kingdom. The kids only wanted to do 3 rides and quick lunch here. River ride, Dinosaur and the Pandora. My husband and I only did the river ride. We sat with the youngest one for the other 2 rides. Sam always found us a shady place to sit and wait for him and the others to return. We then ate at Restaurasaurus, and headed to the Studios. Here they did Millenium Falcon, slinky Dog (2 times), Buzz, (2times) and MMRR.

Next was Epcot. Here Sam parked behind Test Track. Nana and Pop were dragging at this point! We did Test Track, waited a little here because of cleaning the cars. Back in the nice van and drive over to back entrance behind China and Norway to ride Frozen. Got back in van to drive to back entrance to Soarin. This is where Nana, Grampa and Oliver say goodbye to Sam and head to the bus! Jimmy and his family ended the tour also, but stay in Epcot for dinner in Mexico.
Sam did offer to make dinner reservations for us at the start of the tour, if we didn’t have any.
I will say for a young family it was definitely worth the money. My son said he will do this every trip now. He will go for 4-5 days only and do the tour and hang at the pool, casually going into parks later in the day. He has a job that he can afford to do it and I am happy for him. For me, it was nice, but my husband and I go to enjoy the sights and sounds of the parks more at our age and it was go, go, go. We are 68 and 70, it was beyond our pace to do all 4parks, like my husband said, 2 parks would have been perfect for us! We did 7 hours and it flew by. Sam was great and I know Jimmy gave him a great tip.

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Thank you so much for posting this. It sounds amazing! This makes me think we might be ok with 4 parks in 8 hours. If we can do our favorites on the tour it will make the rest of our days more relaxed.

 

[tseitel]

You’ll be fine. Pick your top rides, and discuss them with your guide. They might give input as the best way to go about it. They drive to the different parks using backroads and shortcuts. Also, in some parks they might have you hop back in the van to drive to a different part of the park using backstage areas to save time.
mainly I would decide what park you want to end at, so they can just leave you there to finish up whatever else you want to do, and possibly have dinner.
enjoy!!!

 

[ktak08]

Thank you so much for posting this. It sounds amazing! This makes me think we might be ok with 4 parks in 8 hours. If we can do our favorites on the tour it will make the rest of our days more relaxed.

Hitting 4 parks on the vip tour is definitely doable and fun! We did this on our first one and even had time to watch FOTLK and Celebrate A Dream Come True parade (my fave and I miss it) during the tour. The last one we skipped Epcot and chose to eat at BOG instead. Our guide was able to get us a last min table there and then dropped us off to watch fireworks in the special seating area. We go back Memorial Day weekend and plan to hit all 4 parks again. It might be tiring, but you’ll love it.

 

[sophy1996]

We just finished our VIP tour. 4 parks in 7 hours.

DHS 10 am
MMRR
MFSR
SDD
TSMM x2

AK 11:30
Safari
Dinosaur

MK 1 pm
Snack at egg roll cart
Pirates
Splash
BTMRR x2
HM
Peter Pan
7DMT
Peoplemover

Epcot 3:45 pm
Test Track
Soarin
Frozen -dropped off at 5 pm

According to our guide, that’s about as many attractions as you can likely do visiting all the parks. We were only 2 adults, no mobility or accessibility concerns.

We really enjoyed the day!

 

[rlk]

We just finished our VIP tour. 4 parks in 7 hours.

According to our guide, that’s about as many attractions as you can likely do visiting all the parks. We were only 2 adults, no mobility or accessibility concerns.

We really enjoyed the day!

Thank you for posting your experience; it was exactly what I was looking for. My husband and I are planning to take a VIP tour in July to celebrate my 60th. I was not sure if it would be worth it with just the two of us. We've taken two VIP tours on past trips but always with a larger group.