VIP Tour Experience

[dragitoff]

Been a minute since I've posted here, but I've always had such amazing assistance and responses from everyone here when asking a random Disney question. A family member is gifting my family a VIP Tour Experience for our trip next Spring. We have AP and own short-term rental properties in Orlando so we go a lot, but this is something we've never used. This trip is also special as it will be our final trip to Disney as our family is currently constructed. My oldest will be getting married in 2022 and my second oldest will be heading off to college next fall. We'll go from a family of 7 at home (have 3 boys that are 10-13) to 5 basically overnight. We're going to do 3 park days with 1 off-site day. We're staying in one of our short-term rental houses so we're staying off-property.

My question is has anyone done one of these tours and what was your experience? Obviously, we've seen them out in the parks, but not really sure what to expect. My follow up question is how should we utilize this service? We're planning to spend 1 full park day in MK, 1 full park day in either AK or DHS and spending the 3rd park day park hopping between Epcot and either AK or DHS (whichever we didn't spend the full day in). We have the tour guide for 7 hours and from my understanding you get priority in lines with them as well as park-to-park transportation. I'm trying to decide if we're better off using this service for a park that has long waits for headliner attractions like DHS or a park that has so many attractions like MK or on a park hopping day to maximize our experiences between two parks. For context, we're going in late March for Spring Break so crowds will be pretty bad according to Touring Plans projections. Can't wait to hear the feedback on this one! TIA

 

[CeCe0906]

I did a VIP tour this summer. My experience was probably different from the norm in that I did it for a more relaxed, safer experience. I (vaxxed age 59), took my granddaughter( unfazed Age 8) in August when Delta Variant was a big thing in Florida. Also my granddaughter has a DAS due to some anxiety/sensory issues.
So we had 3 day Park hoppers, stayed at Dolphin. So we did MK/ hopped EP , AK/hopped EP, then HS/ hopped MK.

Our guide was a young lady who was great with my granddaughter, let her talk her ear off all day. We did ~10 hrs with our guide. We took the boat to HS right about park opening, and knocked out Minni/Mickey, Frozen show, and Star Tours, then we met our guide in the park at noon. Our plan was to do HS, then hop to MK to do the thing we didn't get to on our first day, and repeat some that my granddaughter loved, and get VIp for fireworks to end our trip. Which is what we did, and we also had our guide drive us to hotel at the end of the day. It was great to just slip out a side door and avoid the crush after the fireworks. We even made a stop at Epcot in between HS and MK, to ride Test Track, as it was down due to weather when we tried earlier in the week. Just parked right behind, practically walked on, then got right back in the car.

Was able to walk in a side door to Rise, came into the area right in front of the Rey hologram, saw the pre-show, then right onto the ride! My granddaughter loved Slinjy dog, and we waited about 10 min in the fast pass line, and when she wanted to do it again, just looped around for a 5 min wait.

The guide told us some history along the way, and probably thought she hit the jackpot with us, as we did a sit down meal at Hollywood and Vine ( she checked us in while Mr and granddaughter on a ride) She even calledMickey over during our meal, so we got a little extra attention from the character. I know people don't like to waste time, but my granddaughter does need the breather due to issues, and as I said we used this to make it a more relaxed experience. She got water for us along the way, and helped me mobile order a quick meal later in the day, which Disney wifi kept giving me fits.

It was a great day, just told her what we wanted to do, and she navigated, and coordinated it. We did everything we wanted to do.

One thing that is different now; there was no Fast Pass, GeniePlus, or Lighting Lane purchases going on. So the most of the lines we went in were practically empty, just used for DAS, VIP, or recovery passes. We did come in the back way and side doors on some rides, like Riise, Test Track, and Toy Story Mania.
I don't know how it works now that those lanes are more used with the Genie now going on.

 

[dragitoff]

I did a VIP tour this summer. My experience was probably different from the norm in that I did it for a more relaxed, safer experience. I (vaxxed age 59), took my granddaughter( unfazed Age 8) in August when Delta Variant was a big thing in Florida. Also my granddaughter has a DAS due to some anxiety/sensory issues.
So we had 3 day Park hoppers, stayed at Dolphin. So we did MK/ hopped EP , AK/hopped EP, then HS/ hopped MK.

Our guide was a young lady who was great with my granddaughter, let her talk her ear off all day. We did ~10 hrs with our guide. We took the boat to HS right about park opening, and knocked out Minni/Mickey, Frozen show, and Star Tours, then we met our guide in the park at noon. Our plan was to do HS, then hop to MK to do the thing we didn't get to on our first day, and repeat some that my granddaughter loved, and get VIp for fireworks to end our trip. Which is what we did, and we also had our guide drive us to hotel at the end of the day. It was great to just slip out a side door and avoid the crush after the fireworks. We even made a stop at Epcot in between HS and MK, to ride Test Track, as it was down due to weather when we tried earlier in the week. Just parked right behind, practically walked on, then got right back in the car.

Was able to walk in a side door to Rise, came into the area right in front of the Rey hologram, saw the pre-show, then right onto the ride! My granddaughter loved Slinjy dog, and we waited about 10 min in the fast pass line, and when she wanted to do it again, just looped around for a 5 min wait.

The guide told us some history along the way, and probably thought she hit the jackpot with us, as we did a sit down meal at Hollywood and Vine ( she checked us in while Mr and granddaughter on a ride) She even calledMickey over during our meal, so we got a little extra attention from the character. I know people don't like to waste time, but my granddaughter does need the breather due to issues, and as I said we used this to make it a more relaxed experience. She got water for us along the way, and helped me mobile order a quick meal later in the day, which Disney wifi kept giving me fits.

It was a great day, just told her what we wanted to do, and she navigated, and coordinated it. We did everything we wanted to do.

One thing that is different now; there was no Fast Pass, GeniePlus, or Lighting Lane purchases going on. So the most of the lines we went in were practically empty, just used for DAS, VIP, or recovery passes. We did come in the back way and side doors on some rides, like Riise, Test Track, and Toy Story Mania.
I don't know how it works now that those lanes are more used with the Genie now going on.

Thank you for the great feedback! I definitely feel like DHS could get you the most bang for your buck in regards to saving on wait times if those guides shave off some of that time for those top tier attractions. We're fortunate that we've done everything enough that if we had to miss out on something it isn't the end of the world, but certainly makes for a better day if everyone gets to do the things they love to do.

 

[Marthasor]

I would try to schedule your VIP Tour for your last park day and have the guide take you to the rides/parks you weren't able to cover in your first two days. The VIP guide can plan on the fly and can cover ground pretty quickly as they will utilize backstage entrances to get you into the parks. Also consider saving the bigger/more crowded/more expensive ILL$ rides for that day (RoR, FoP, etc.). I would also meet the guide in whichever park you will start in so you aren't using tour time to travel from your hotel. If you want to see Enchantment or Harmonious from the VIP area, make sure your VIP tour ends at fireworks time so the VIP guide can drop you off in the viewing area (assuming you have your own transportation back to your resort).

 

[rmclain73]

We just did a tour a few weeks ago. We spent the majority of the day at HS, then hopped over to AK. We were at Disney from Saturday to Saturday, and did the tour on Thursday. By doing it later in the week we were able to have a better idea of what we wanted to make sure to hit. We did a Boo Bash earlier in the week and were able to knock out all of MK that night and did not feel we had to go back. Same with EPCOT, we did EMH and were able to knock out that park by 1:00pm earlier in the week. We spend most of our VIP day at HS, and finished at AK. It is a long day. If you are taking a pool day, or a no park day, I would do it the day after as you will be more rested. Tour is very worth it!

 

[rockinrollercoasters]

Been a minute since I've posted here, but I've always had such amazing assistance and responses from everyone here when asking a random Disney question. A family member is gifting my family a VIP Tour Experience for our trip next Spring. We have AP and own short-term rental properties in Orlando so we go a lot, but this is something we've never used. This trip is also special as it will be our final trip to Disney as our family is currently constructed. My oldest will be getting married in 2022 and my second oldest will be heading off to college next fall. We'll go from a family of 7 at home (have 3 boys that are 10-13) to 5 basically overnight. We're going to do 3 park days with 1 off-site day. We're staying in one of our short-term rental houses so we're staying off-property.

My question is has anyone done one of these tours and what was your experience? Obviously, we've seen them out in the parks, but not really sure what to expect. My follow up question is how should we utilize this service? We're planning to spend 1 full park day in MK, 1 full park day in either AK or DHS and spending the 3rd park day park hopping between Epcot and either AK or DHS (whichever we didn't spend the full day in). We have the tour guide for 7 hours and from my understanding you get priority in lines with them as well as park-to-park transportation. I'm trying to decide if we're better off using this service for a park that has long waits for headliner attractions like DHS or a park that has so many attractions like MK or on a park hopping day to maximize our experiences between two parks. For context, we're going in late March for Spring Break so crowds will be pretty bad according to Touring Plans projections. Can't wait to hear the feedback on this one! TIA

I haven’t been on a VIP tour but hope to for my next trip so I don’t have a lot to add haha but what I have seen is that they are extremely popular so book as soon as you can 60 days out and be flexible with days so you don’t get boxed out of booking the tour. Btw - what a nice gift you’ve received!!

 

[dragitoff]

We just did a tour a few weeks ago. We spent the majority of the day at HS, then hopped over to AK. We were at Disney from Saturday to Saturday, and did the tour on Thursday. By doing it later in the week we were able to have a better idea of what we wanted to make sure to hit. We did a Boo Bash earlier in the week and were able to knock out all of MK that night and did not feel we had to go back. Same with EPCOT, we did EMH and were able to knock out that park by 1:00pm earlier in the week. We spend most of our VIP day at HS, and finished at AK. It is a long day. If you are taking a pool day, or a no park day, I would do it the day after as you will be more rested. Tour is very worth it!

So that's similar to one idea we had for it. We thought of starting our VIP day for DHS and AK since it seems like the hardest things to get on right now are ROTR, FOP, and SDD. My wife's fave ride is EE. If we use our VIP day, we can take care of the hardest to ride attractions.