Question on Disneyland Resort VIP Tour

[boscoj]

Hi, not that I plan on doing this, but since the intro of the LL premier, the VIP tour for our family of 6 might not be as crazy as I once thought. I have a few questions tho for those who have done it:

For priority access to rides, does it involve only having access to the lightning lane entrances or is it more similar to front of the line access?

Will we have similar access to rides that don't have a lightning lane?

If your tour guide set up lunch reservations, do they eat with you?

On the website it says you can get reserved viewing for the fireworks or WOC. Does that mean Fantasmic is not an option?

And finally, although i know it's very subjective, did you think i was worth it?

thanks!

 

[torchlight]

I can offer responses to a few of your questions, although I haven’t done a VIP tour yet, myself.

For rides with Lightning Lane, you will just enter at the end of the Lightning Lane line. But unlike regular Lightning Lane access, you can re-ride as many times as you want (have to go back to the end of the Lightning Lane line, of course). And also you don’t have to book any return times - can enter any Lightning Lane at any time.

Ride without Lightning Lane, like most of the Fantasyland rides, for example, you will enter through the exit for faster access.

Totally up to you if you want to invite your guide to eat with you. I think this is something people commonly choose to do. However food is not included in the price of the tour, so maybe be prepared/willing to pay for your guide’s meal rather than invite them to join you and then they have to pay out of pocket for their meal.

Special VIP seating areas are available for parade, fireworks, WOC, and Fantasmic. These are all nice areas with great viewing and real chairs and benches - no standing or sitting on the ground! However, there is limited capacity in each area - especially the Fantasmic area. Access appears to be prioritized based on when you booked your tour and asked to be placed on the list for each area. So if you are interested, book your tour early and make sure to request these areas when you book. You may be turned away if you wait until the day of your tour to request access.

You may already be aware, but you can use these areas on your VIP tour day even if they fall outside the hours of your scheduled tour.

One other thing you didn’t ask about but might find interesting if you like meeting characters. Your VIP guide can get you fast access to character meets with fixed locations - like princesses at Royal Hall, Mickey & Minnie’s houses, or Anna/Elsa in DCA. However, they don’t allow you to skip any line that forms for any of the many other characters that periodically just appear in the parks and wander around.

If you end up doing a VIP tour sometime, please come back to this post and let us know your answer to your own last question there!

 

[LKing]

This thread is about a different tour that a couple of people took and reported back on. Land of Dreams Tour. Note, this tour is $14K for up to 6 people.

Edit to add conversations about other tours:
Cultivating the Magic
Happiest Haunts
VIP Tour

 

[Iceman93]

Totally up to you if you want to invite your guide to eat with you. I think this is something people commonly choose to do. However food is not included in the price of the tour, so maybe be prepared/willing to pay for your guide’s meal rather than invite them to join you and then they have to pay out of pocket for their meal.

Great summary answering all the OP's questions, but I just want to point out that if a guide eats with you, neither you nor the guide has to pay for their meal. They have a special card they use whereby Disney covers the cost of their meal.

 

[torchlight]

Great summary answering all the OP's questions, but I just want to point out that if a guide eats with you, neither you nor the guide has to pay for their meal. They have a special card they use whereby Disney covers the cost of their meal.

Oh, interesting. I can’t speak from personal experience, have never done a VIP tour, but would sure love to some day!

Are you absolutely certain this is the case? I only ask because I feel like most sources out there state food costs are definitely not included, and although guides can help arrange reservations for sit down meals or go pick up mobile orders for you, that the cost of the food must still be paid for by the guest.

If having a VIP guide along for a meal means Disney will cover the check, that’s a really nice benefit. A free 10-person dinner at Blue Bayou or Carthay or Napa Rose could offset a significant portion of the cost to book a VIP tour.

 

[LKing]

I believe they meant that the guide's meal was covered. You don't need to pay for your guide and your guide doesn't need to pay for their own meal.

 

[BriannaRuth]

You can invite the guide to have a meal with you, or to ride attractions with you, but they may or may not accept. We had two meals on the VIP and invited our plaid both times. One time he accepted, the other time he declined but held the table for us, etc. And no, you don't pay for their meals. You do pay for your own meals.

Riding the attractions with your plaid (guide) is another benefit you wouldn't get from LL Premier that you do get from the VIP. They can't go on any of the water rides where they would get wet, but they're really fun to have on any of the rides that have photos at the end, such as Incredicoaster. They have the photo ops down! Again, sometimes they will ride with you, and sometimes they'll use that time to take a break.

In addition to skipping the lines at the official photo locations, our guide was easily able to flag down characters we randomly passed in the park for a quick photo.

 

[torchlight]

I believe they meant that the guide's meal was covered. You don't need to pay for your guide and your guide doesn't need to pay for their own meal.

Ohhhhhh, gotcha. That makes way more sense. I read, “if a guide eats with you, neither you nor the guide has to pay for their meal” one way, but I can see “their” might just be referring to the guide. English language is silly sometimes.

 

[Steven G]

For LL rides, if it's really busy, and they get permission from the operators of the ride, they can bypass the LL completely. This used to be more permissive, but recently they have been more restrictive on allowing this. There are NO guarantees of this, so please don't expect this to happen.

Also for rides without LL, they will typically use the DAS entrance, or even bypass that. Again, it depends on a lot of variables what is allowed on any day.

As far as meals, in many cases, the guides use that as a break, and to further plan the rest of the day, so don't feel bad if they say no.

If there are rides that only the kids in your group want to ride, they will ride with them

 

[LKing]

The VIP tours now have exclusive merchandise. For more images, see Philanderc85, Instagram post from 10/2/24.

 

[Jojo Cat Lady]

I know you have to purchase park tickets separately from the VIP tour. Do you also pay separately for World of Color dessert party tickets if you plan that as part of your day?

 

[torchlight]

I know you have to purchase park tickets separately from the VIP tour. Do you also pay separately for World of Color dessert party tickets if you plan that as part of your day?

Yes

 

[Nonsuch]

I know you have to purchase park tickets separately from the VIP tour. Do you also pay separately for World of Color dessert party tickets if you plan that as part of your day?

You could just skip the dessert party, and take advantage of VIP seating (which is included with VIP Tour).
VIP seating for WOC is in chairs, directly behind (one level higher) the dessert party seating

 

[boscoj]

Thanks for all the info and advice everyone! We were seriously considering this for our December trip but I was just quoted $700/hr for the day we were planning so I think we might spend our money on other things in the park lol!!

 

[vacay77]

My family did the VIP tour a couple of years ago. It’s not a true front of the line experience since as someone else pointed out, you still need to wait in the lightning lane lines for the rides that offer lightning lines.

I don’t recommend having lunch during the tour - that cuts into crucial time that could be spent on the rides. We just ate a big breakfast, had snacks throughout the day, and then reserved a dinner for when the tour was over.

 

[Jojo Cat Lady]

Has anyone taken the VIP tour at Disneyland recently? I am considering this tour as a graduation gift for my grandson and our family in June, 2025. There are lots of reviews online but many are very negative. I was expecting everyone to be impressed and pleased but that was not the case. However, most were posted 2-3 years ago so I am hoping the experience has improved.

 

[LKing]

There is a Facebook group for people who are booking tours and need more people with similar interests to share the cost. It is called Disneyland VIP Tour Share Group.

 

[Steven G]

Has anyone taken the VIP tour at Disneyland recently? I am considering this tour as a graduation gift for my grandson and our family in June, 2025. There are lots of reviews online but many are very negative. I was expecting everyone to be impressed and pleased but that was not the case. However, most were posted 2-3 years ago so I am hoping the experience has improved.

Things have not changed very much. The main negatives have to do with limitations as to what the VIP tour guide is allowed to do to avoid long lines, which is out of the VIP tour guide's control. Each attraction (or group of attractions) are managed by a separate group, and they control what the VIP tour guide can and CANNOT do on that group of attractions. Believe me, if it was up to the VIP tour guides, they would do a lot more.

To give an example (the attractions listed and the rules are most likely not correct, this is just to give an example): Buzz Lightyear ride operators may allow the VIP tour guides to go through the exit when it is really busy to avoid the LL lines, but Matterhorn operator requires all vip tours to go through the LL with no shortcuts. Thus, if you happen to be on a VIP tour and Matterhorn is really backed up (for example only one side is running), you will need to wait the entire time in the LL.

What the rules are for each attraction (or group of attractions) always has a chance of changing.

Most of the time, the VIP tour guides will use their resources to limit the chances of that happening (for example, skipping the attraction until later), however, when the park is REALLY busy, and a group REALLY wants to ride a ride, there is not much the VIP tour guide can do.

Note that, from my experience, WDW tour guides seem to have a lot more lenience and are allowed to skip the LL lines more often than at DLR, but I have not taken a WDW tour in a couple years.

Now the above is the main reason many people take a tour (to avoid the wait time), so it is a big negative, and as long as you understand that, you should still have a wonderful time.

Note that the one exception is the "Land of Dreams" tour, which is more than double the price of a regular VIP tour. This allows the guests to truly be front of the line (or as close to possible), in many cases going on the ride with just your group with no one else. This takes a lot of coordination and planning to happen, but as far as I know, all attractions are allowing this for the Land of Dreams tour.

As well, I am sure if you are a celebrity or another famous person, your tour guide may be given additional abilities.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Have had the opportunity to do a few VIP tours with friends...agree with above advice on meals...we always did a good breakfast before then for lunch just did a light quick serve or grab and go then nice sit down table service dinner an hour or so after the tour ends and before reserved viewing for one of the shows (your tour hours do not need to be during show hours to be able to get seats for that night). You don't wanna burn tour time with a table service lunch.

Out host always invited the guide to ride and eat with us but also gave them the option to dip out and take a break if they wished and we would not have been at all offended. If the did dip out they would meet us at the attraction exit or if sitting down for a quick lunch they would give us their number to text when we were wrapping meal and ready to go again but often they would just stay with us all day. Guides now have a card on the Mouse's dime to pay for their own drinks and meals if dining with you.

100% worth it IMO...if you have a good guide with a good strategy you can do more in 6-7 hours doing more that most people do in three days then spend the rest of the trip doing all the small things that many pass up trying to get to the next major attraction and waiting in lines or for return windows.

In addition to all the Lighting Lane attractions you get access to another 13 or so attractions, meet and greets, as well as some of the daytime shows and parades

 

[Steven G]

as far as meals, yes, we typically do what was stated. We typically start the tour at 11:30am. Thus we have two choices:
1) Get some attractions done beforehand, or 2) just start the day at 11:30. We typically do #1.

At 11am, we have a light lunch at one of the quick serve restaurants in the park.
Then we go until 6:30pm (7 hours), and typically have dinner at 7 or 7:30pm at a sit down. We'll have 1 or 2 snack breaks during the day. We save shopping for other days, as well as the smaller attractions.

On the other hand:
I have asked tour guides, and although most people do something similar, there will be the occasional tour group that will take multiple food breaks, and multiple shopping breaks, and barely do any attractions so feel free to do what you want, it's your day.