VIP Day Suggestions?

[NolanMKT]

this thread isn't current but it is recent. for fastpasses you need to think of what you might want before and after you have your guide. There was a time you could fastpass the night shows so you didn't really need or may not want to use the vip section and pay the extra cost to have the guide around for the fireworks you could get a great spot by fastpassing.

Meals you want to have reserved, they will try to help you out for hard places but there is no garuntee on that. you want adrs if there is a specific meal or two you want to do while on your tour. Get an extra seat just in case you might want to invite the tour guide to join you. not a requirement and they might pass on the offer but at least you have that seat if they do decide to tour where they are more apart of the day then they try to be.

Thanks, Accident. The kids may be exhausted after the guide ends at 5, so maybe I'll make FP+ reservations for 6:00+ for "big kid" rides like Space & Splash Mountains. That way if the kids are tired someone can take them back to rest and come back after dinner.

As far as meals, we have all of the ARDs we want in the MK (CRT for breakfast, BOG for dinner, and CP for lunch) for other days...so we were just going to do a quick serve lunch and dinner at the Biergarten in Epcot (I'll cancel that now and do dinner back at the GF).

We also have 2 other days in the MK, so if we don't do something on the VIP day we can do it then. I wish there was still FPs for fireworks!!!

 

[NolanMKT]

I think I would use a FP for after the tour for Enchanted Tales with Belle, as this is a lengthy show/experience I would use that time to make it easier to go to Epcot for the Frozen stuff.

I believe I read a review on VIP tour where they started parking at Buzz Lightyear and instead of walking to a ride in Adventureland they used the car to park close by.

Just let your guide advise on what is feasible and don't worry to much. He/She has done it before and knows the possibilities and limitations. This tour is designed for you to not plan but let someone else do it for you

Thanks for the reminder to let them plan it Karin1984! I needed that—I think I am over thinking it, especially since we are going on a relatively low crowd week and have 2 other days in the MK!

 

[NolanMKT]

You will be able to accomplish a lot with the VIP guide, but I would still make FP selections for either before or after the tour. I know you already have a FP+ for Mickey prior to the start of your tour. If you will be at MK for rope drop, I would try to get in at least one ride before you use the fp at Town Square.

Thanks! This will be 2 of the kids' first time in the MK, so even if they just ride the carousel before we meet Mickey they will be excited. Ideally, I hope we can do the carousel, run over to see Mickey and ride Small World or Peter Pan before we meet the guide!

 

[Accident]

As mentioned, you don't have to use the fp but get them anyway so you have the option of them...

I find when there's a guide, you think your going to be exhausted but to be honest it's more streamlined then when you do it yourtself becase it's fp after fp with no wait. you might be tired but your probably going to be charged up, excited and ready for more as well.

 

[NolanMKT]

As others have written, it's good to use FP+ before (or after) your tour. And as stated, using one on Enchanted Tales w/ Belle makes a lot of sense, since that is >20 mins. I also would never do a show on a VIP tour. When you are paying up to $10 per minute, a 30 min event is costly! Compare that to doing 7DMT over and over.

I have two young kids (4.5 and 2.5) and although I don't think they are supposed to do this, my guide would put my wife and kids into a nearby FP+ queue and then take me to 7DMT. That way everyone was happy! The guide was too as he rode 7DMT with me. We did that a few times because I'd rather ride 7DMT than Pooh or Peter Pan.



I agree. But at the same time, you can ask for just about anything and they will do their best to accommodate. For our 12/22 tour, it was a christmas party... I asked to get access to 7 dwarves without waiting. It took a lot of work on the guide's part, but he made it happen. Point being, they cannot do everything, but they will try... so I think they don't want to limit you by saying what can or cannot be done ahead of time. If you ask, the guide will try to make it happen. That said, it would be nice if there were more ground rules. And the coordinators clearly don't know what can or cannot be done, so they are not really useful...

My advice would be to have a rough game plan and let the guide do all the work. Have some must-do's, some would like to's and let them figure out the exact game plan.

Thanks, anomamatt! Nice to hear from someone who just did a tour. Our week is low crowd, so I am hoping that will allow us to do more. I don't think we have any too outrageous requests and now that we're nixing Epcot I fell a lot more at ease.

That is great to know they are able to split groups up. I keep saying this whole trip/VIP day is for the kids, but who am I kidding!

My parents are watching the kids one night so the "big Kids" can go to MK After Dark, so I think we'll be able to do all of the rides the kids can't go on then!

 

[NolanMKT]

As mentioned, you don't have to use the fp but get them anyway so you have the option of them...

I find when there's a guide, you think your going to be exhausted but to be honest it's more streamlined then when you do it yourtself becase it's fp after fp with no wait. you might be tired but your probably going to be charged up, excited and ready for more as well.

thanks again! I didn't even think about after...I only wish I knew what ones they will like the best and want to ride again!

 

[NolanMKT]

I think you are smart to drop EP for this day. I did the VIP tour with DS when he was 5 and he was pretty beat by the end of our day with the guide. I have a few suggestions. First, you will have to eat lunch somewhere in there. When we went, the suggested lunch venue was Columbia Harbour House. I'm not sure if they still do this, but they had a roped off area on the second floor to accommodate and save seating particularly for VIP tour guests and those on MK tours that included a QS lunch. It was really nice, the food is good, and it doesn't take up a lot of your touring time. I would really recommend not doing a TS meal when you have your guide as it will take up a lot of your time. My other suggestion, drop the Mickey FP+ and simply get in line to see Mickey when you enter the park at opening and save your 3 FP+ for the afternoon when you won't have your guide. You won't need FP+ for Mickey that early in the morning. Between your guide and those 3 FP+, you will get a LOT accomplished in MK.

Thanks! Columbia Harbour House or something quick like that is exactly what we were thinking for lunch, we already have all of the ADRs we want later in the week for the MK. Good suggestion about Mickey, we originally wanted Mickey to be the first thing we do after the rope drop anyway!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Thanks! This will be 2 of the kids' first time in the MK, so even if they just ride the carousel before we meet Mickey they will be excited. Ideally, I hope we can do the carousel, run over to see Mickey and ride Small World or Peter Pan before we meet the guide!

I wouldn't recommend doing those attractions in that order. Mickey is in Town Square Theater, quite literally at the entrance of MK while the carousel, Small World and Peter Pan are all the way in Fantasyland. If you do this, you would walk all the way up Main St., through or around the castle for the carousel, retrace your steps all the way back down Main St. for Mickey and then all the way back up to Fantasyland again for the other rides. Where are you meeting your guide? I would either do Mickey first thing and then head into Fantasyland to try to do the other rides (the carousel after Mickey shouldn't be a problem, nor should Small World. Peter Pan's line is the one that builds fast) or see Mickey on the way out of the park.

 

[dislmntx]

Sorry, I realized I never came back to report on our VIP experience from our trip this past August. My family really enjoyed the experience, but we were all quite underwhelmed with our VIP guide. Even though we felt that our guide was just going through the motions and was not a great Disney representative, the actual benefits of the guide were amazing.

This is a brief report of our day:

We chose to do the VIP tour on our 4th day of our vacation. We had a plan to do three parks Epcot, HS and ending with MK. Also, we decided that since our tour was from 8:45 - 4pm, we would just grab snacks and eat an early dinnerafter the tour.

Since we were staying at BCV, we decided to start our day at Epcot. Our guide picked us up at 8:45 and drove us backstage behind Test Track. We really loved driving behind the scenes. At Epcot we did the following:
Test Track
Soarin - sitting in B1
FEA
Met Anna & Elsa - this was pre planned. They asked if we had any character meet priorities. We did this meet and Star Wars characters.

After meeting Anna & Elsa, we got back into the car to head to HS. We entered HS by RNRC (I think). They had a CM backstage there to scan our magicbands.
HS we did the following:
RNRC
ToT
Met Kylo Ren & Chewbacca - again, this was a pre arranged time.
TSMM

Next up was MK. We entered behind Space Mountain. This happened to be the day that Blackish was filming at MK which caused a slight issue when we were leaving, although it was pretty cool to see the production crew working behind the scene. At MK we were finally offered some water and snacks;something that the coordinator had told us would be available in our car, but was not.

At Mk we did the following:
Space Mountain x2 - once on each side
Buzz x2
SDMT
HM
Splash
Pirates
Afrernoon parade- by the train station - They had the middle section upthere blocked off for VIP tours. My husband ran to get us some snacks while we waited. A lot of the floats are tall, which made wastching from this spot fun. It was really apparent while we waited for the parade how disengaged our tour guide was. There were two other tour groups up there with us and their guides spent the time talking with them and taking pictures for them. My guide walked away from us and spent the time talking with a CM. We really are very nice people and not demanding.

After the parade, we went back to the car (this was when we had to wait awhile because of the filming). Soon we were off to our resort where we said our goodbyes. This is still a touchy subject because my husband didn't think we should tip our guide. I didn't think we should either, but I have a problem not tipping (even with not so great service). I said to our guide "I heard you aren't allowed to accept tips" to which he responded, "of course we are allowed." At that point, I felt like a deer in headlights and habded him a $100 tip. I would of been happy to tip for greart service, but I felt trapped to tip for shoddy service. Oh well, we still had a great day!

Overall, we had an amazing day and would jump at the chance to do it again. Who wouldn't want to be able to skip lines and get driven around? What I would do differently would be:

Start later in the day and include a night time show
Going along with starting later would be meeting our guide at a park to not waste time.
Do the tour on our first full vacation day.
Bring water in case the guide doesn't have any.
Pre plan more character meets (something I enjoy more now when my kids are older for some strange reason)

 

[dislmntx]

For those of you who have done the VIP tours- I've heard mention that they use "cars" to get between parks. Are these the cast member's personal cars or WDW logo-ed vehicles? Just curious! Thank you so much to those posters who are sharing their personal experiences- this is such valuable info!

 

[PolyRob]

For those of you who have done the VIP tours- I've heard mention that they use "cars" to get between parks. Are these the cast member's personal cars or WDW logo-ed vehicles? Just curious! Thank you so much to those posters who are sharing their personal experiences- this is such valuable info!

They are not the cast members actual cars. They are unmarked cars and do not say "Disney" (from what I have seen). Cast members present ID to enter the backstage areas with guests in the car.

I know there are larger van vehicles that take big groups too. I do not believe they say "Disney" either, but cannot confirm this.

The image on the Disney website under VIP tours is a very accurate depiction.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/vip-tour-services/

 

[rlk]

For those of you who have done the VIP tours- I've heard mention that they use "cars" to get between parks. Are these the cast member's personal cars or WDW logo-ed vehicles? Just curious! Thank you so much to those posters who are sharing their personal experiences- this is such valuable info!

We were picked up in a large SUV. I am pretty sure it was an unmarked car.

 

[gap2368]

For those of you who have done the VIP tours- I've heard mention that they use "cars" to get between parks. Are these the cast member's personal cars or WDW logo-ed vehicles? Just curious! Thank you so much to those posters who are sharing their personal experiences- this is such valuable info!

they are Disney vehicle and they have a few from SUV to vans that will set ( I think 7) they are white and unmarked

 

[DisneyGB]

I agree with letting the guide help. I was honestly shocked by how much we were able to squeeze in! And they definitely know the best order to do things.

I'm not sure if I'm "allowed" to post about pod casts here (?) but I just did a trip report podcast for WDW Prep To Go, that is now available for download. I go into pretty good detail regarding what we were able to get done with our guide on two separate 7-hour days. I hope you find it helpful if you do end up downloading it!