Any updates on VIP tours and SWGE?

[twodogs]

I know some had called about the VIP tours and were told access to the ride(s) in SWGE was unknown for the tours at this point. Has anyone gotten more information. I am not excited about spending that type of money if access to SWGE and access to the rides is not included.

 

[pinksand]

I know some had called about the VIP tours and were told access to the ride(s) in SWGE was unknown for the tours at this point. Has anyone gotten more information. I am not excited about spending that type of money if access to SWGE and access to the rides is not included.

I heard over the weekend from a CM that tours would NOT have access to Galaxy's Edge for the reservation period. But I don't believe there's been an official announcement so my intel is just a rumor.

 

[ParkHopper1]

No access to SWGE at all for VIP Tours through that initial reservation period and accessibility level to attractions still TBD for post reservation period.

 

[Malcon10t]

I have a tour for the 24th. Here is what I have been told so far. Tours do NOT have access during May 31st-June 23 unless you have previously secured a reservation. From May 31-June 23, tours will not have special access to Smuggler's Run. June 24th on, there will be some sort of access to both land and ride, but it is unknown exactly what at this time. It was also said, tours are sold out for the 24th....

 

[wallawallakids]

So we just did a VIP tour last week, our tour guide said that originally they were not sure about access to SWGE, in particular they were concerned about their clothing not being in theme with the land, but that he had just heard that day that they WILL have access. Granted that was just what our tour guide said, but he was super knowledgeable and amazing and awesome, so I think he probably does know what he's talking about.

 

[Jack & Monica]

We are going June 9 -- June 15. I had booked the VIP tour this past January just in case SWGE was open during that time frame. I got a call this week from Disneyland stating that they had finally settled on a price $600 per hour (which is what I expected). I was then told that SWGE would not be accessible. I was planning on canceling since we learned that Rise of the Resistance would not be included, but decided to wait to learn the details. Now, learning that SWGE is not included at all, I canceled the tour. Still stoked to be going though. We are staying at the Grand Californian so will look to experiencing SWGE when Disney tells us we can via the reservation process. I like hearing that Disney is trying to limit the crowds for the land.

 

[twodogs]

Thank you fall for the replies. I agree with you that I would not do a VIP tour during the time when SWGE is open but then not have access to it!! I understand that they have thousands of people to try to get through the land, but if you are paying a minimum of $4200 on the tour ($600 for the minimum 7 hours), I think they should give you access to the new land that everyone wants to see. It is such a high price point (one I have paid on several VIP tours myself...) that it has to be worth it. Yes I paid a high price for a VIP tour without SWGE when SWGE wasn't open, but don't ask me to pay the same price (or higher, in this case) and then be denied the one area of the park that is new! Isn't VIP access the whole point of the VIP tour?? I would think the business minds at DLR would not want to alienate people who are willing to shell out this much money in their theme parks (plus the price of park admission, which is not included as we know)??

 

[cmwade77]

Usually at Disneyland, a new area takes 6 months to a year before being accessible to VIP tours. At bare minimum, I would imagine you are going to have to wait until they stop doing the same day "Boarding Pass" system to enter the land, which again i would expect to last around a year or so unless it turns out to be like Carsland where the popularity is there, but no where near the expected levels (which is a very real possibility and what I predict will happen in reality, but if I am wrong about that, you are looking at 6 months to a year before access by VIP tours is allowed). Now all of that being said, I fully expect Disneyland will follow suit with Disney World and offer some sort of after hours tickets.

 

[cmwade77]

Thank you fall for the replies. I agree with you that I would not do a VIP tour during the time when SWGE is open but then not have access to it!! I understand that they have thousands of people to try to get through the land, but if you are paying a minimum of $4200 on the tour ($600 for the minimum 7 hours), I think they should give you access to the new land that everyone wants to see. It is such a high price point (one I have paid on several VIP tours myself...) that it has to be worth it. Yes I paid a high price for a VIP tour without SWGE when SWGE wasn't open, but don't ask me to pay the same price (or higher, in this case) and then be denied the one area of the park that is new! Isn't VIP access the whole point of the VIP tour?? I would think the business minds at DLR would not want to alienate people who are willing to shell out this much money in their theme parks (plus the price of park admission, which is not included as we know)??

They did the same thing with Carsland, it wasn't accessible to VIP Tours for about 4 to 6 months as I recall.

 

[twodogs]

They did the same thing with Carsland, it wasn't accessible to VIP Tours for about 4 to 6 months as I recall.

I guess I still don't understand the economics of this type of decision by Disney, especially if they offer an after hours event. Let's compare the costs, using the Disneyland After Dark: Heroes Assemble as a guide. That event is $109 per person. Now SWGE is going to be in much more demand, so let's triple the price for the pretend SWGE After Hours event. It is now $327 per person, for example. A VIP tour can have at most 10 people, and as stated above, will be $4200 minimum. That is already $420 per person IF you have 10 people, at the cheapest. For our family, we do the VIP tour but we only have 6 on the tour. For us, the VIP would be $700 per person. So why would Disney do an After Hours event at a lower price per person and allow access to the land, and then deny access to those at the higher price point? I guess maybe my guesstimate of the price for a possible SWGE After Hours event is too low? Comparing to prices of MHP and other after hours events, I can't imagine this one would be 5-6x the price of those, but who knows how much SW fans will pay?

I can understand that VIP tours could be given a time limit in the land or something so that it would help with crowd flow, but just denying access altogether, at that price point compared to other anticipated events, boggles my mind.

 

[dieumeye]

What's funny to me is that one of the most common complaints is that Disney is too expensive and charges for everything and is only out for "corporate greed". Remember the Pixar Pier preview? Yet here, there is no charge to access SW:GE as some thought there might be, there is no expensive paid preview "for rich guests only", FP will not be in use here initially meaning no advantage for guests who pay for MaxPass, and SW:GE will not initially be included in VIP Tours.

Other than the slight exception of the reservation period giving preference to hotel guests (for only 3 weeks), access to SW:GE seems to be equal for the poorest and wealthiest guests. With no way to "pay your way in" at first, it seems like it's as fair and equal as possible.

So now, instead of complaints about Disney being unfair and only catering to the rich... people are upset that they can't buy access with a paid preview or VIP tour. Disney doesn't always do things right... but they seriously cannot win no matter what they do!

 

[CO2CA]

Thank you fall for the replies. I agree with you that I would not do a VIP tour during the time when SWGE is open but then not have access to it!! I understand that they have thousands of people to try to get through the land, but if you are paying a minimum of $4200 on the tour ($600 for the minimum 7 hours), I think they should give you access to the new land that everyone wants to see. It is such a high price point (one I have paid on several VIP tours myself...) that it has to be worth it. Yes I paid a high price for a VIP tour without SWGE when SWGE wasn't open, but don't ask me to pay the same price (or higher, in this case) and then be denied the one area of the park that is new! Isn't VIP access the whole point of the VIP tour?? I would think the business minds at DLR would not want to alienate people who are willing to shell out this much money in their theme parks (plus the price of park admission, which is not included as we know)??

I think for this you would need to be paying a lot more $$ for access to SWL on the VIP tour if that was even an option. They had a six-hour *very limited* preview event over at Pixar Pier that was around like $300/pp for 6 hours. That was for a land that wasn't new and really only half operating. Multiply that by a theoretical 10-max possible people that you can do on a VIP tour and you're already at $3,000 for access to one land (arguably it would be more for a land that has way more going for it than Pixar Pier). So, really it could be added on the base cost of $4,200 + $3,000 = $7,200 at the very least.

While that $4,200 may seem like a lot for a VIP Tour, it would be too much of a bargain to have free access to California Adventure, Disneyland, AND Star Wars Land.

 

[cmwade77]

I guess I still don't understand the economics of this type of decision by Disney, especially if they offer an after hours event. Let's compare the costs, using the Disneyland After Dark: Heroes Assemble as a guide. That event is $109 per person. Now SWGE is going to be in much more demand, so let's triple the price for the pretend SWGE After Hours event. It is now $327 per person, for example. A VIP tour can have at most 10 people, and as stated above, will be $4200 minimum. That is already $420 per person IF you have 10 people, at the cheapest. For our family, we do the VIP tour but we only have 6 on the tour. For us, the VIP would be $700 per person. So why would Disney do an After Hours event at a lower price per person and allow access to the land, and then deny access to those at the higher price point? I guess maybe my guesstimate of the price for a possible SWGE After Hours event is too low? Comparing to prices of MHP and other after hours events, I can't imagine this one would be 5-6x the price of those, but who knows how much SW fans will pay?

I can understand that VIP tours could be given a time limit in the land or something so that it would help with crowd flow, but just denying access altogether, at that price point compared to other anticipated events, boggles my mind.

It isn't always about the per person price, there would be fewer people that would book the VIP tours than an after hours event, so in the end they make a higher profit off the after hours event, especially since a certain number of people that booked for the VIP tours will do it with or without access to Galaxy's Edge, further increasing the profit margin of only offering an after hours event than doing VIP tours.

 

[cmwade77]

What's funny to me is that one of the most common complaints is that Disney is too expensive and charges for everything and is only out for "corporate greed". Remember the Pixar Pier preview? Yet here, there is no charge to access SW:GE as some thought there might be, there is no expensive paid preview "for rich guests only", FP will not be in use here initially meaning no advantage for guests who pay for MaxPass, and SW:GE will not initially be included in VIP Tours.

Other than the slight exception of the reservation period giving preference to hotel guests (for only 3 weeks), access to SW:GE seems to be equal for the poorest and wealthiest guests. With no way to "pay your way in" at first, it seems like it's as fair and equal as possible.

So now, instead of complaints about Disney being unfair and only catering to the rich... people are upset that they can't buy access with a paid preview or VIP tour. Disney doesn't always do things right... but they seriously cannot win no matter what they do!

In all fairness, we don't know if there will be a paid preview or not, there could still be one announced.

 

[Malcon10t]

Usually at Disneyland, a new area takes 6 months to a year before being accessible to VIP tours. At bare minimum, I would imagine you are going to have to wait until they stop doing the same day "Boarding Pass" system to enter the land, which again i would expect to last around a year or so unless it turns out to be like Carsland where the popularity is there, but no where near the expected levels (which is a very real possibility and what I predict will happen in reality, but if I am wrong about that, you are looking at 6 months to a year before access by VIP tours is allowed). Now all of that being said, I fully expect Disneyland will follow suit with Disney World and offer some sort of after hours tickets.

They did the same thing with Carsland, it wasn't accessible to VIP Tours for about 4 to 6 months as I recall.

This is not true. We did a VIP tour 3 weeks after Cars Land opened, and we had access to Racers. We rode 4 times in a row that day, then came back at night for another ride. We did NOT have access to Luigi's.

I have already been told VIP tours will have access after June 24th.

ETA - I went back and checked my Facebook. Cars Land opened June 15, 2012, we toured June 30th 2012.

Guardians was available opening day. Incrediacoaster was available opening day. Ariel's was available opening day.

 

[twodogs]

What's funny to me is that one of the most common complaints is that Disney is too expensive and charges for everything and is only out for "corporate greed". Remember the Pixar Pier preview? Yet here, there is no charge to access SW:GE as some thought there might be, there is no expensive paid preview "for rich guests only", FP will not be in use here initially meaning no advantage for guests who pay for MaxPass, and SW:GE will not initially be included in VIP Tours.

Other than the slight exception of the reservation period giving preference to hotel guests (for only 3 weeks), access to SW:GE seems to be equal for the poorest and wealthiest guests. With no way to "pay your way in" at first, it seems like it's as fair and equal as possible.

So now, instead of complaints about Disney being unfair and only catering to the rich... people are upset that they can't buy access with a paid preview or VIP tour. Disney doesn't always do things right... but they seriously cannot win no matter what they do!

I just think it is impossible to believe a public company like Disney is not going to capitalize on the Star Wars park franchise as much as possible. It may seem like “equal access for all” right now, but I think it will soon become like every other Disney experience. There will be tiers. You can pay a lot to have a lot of access, you can pay some to have some access, or you can pay nothing extra and have a little access that requires a lot of waiting/getting up early/staying late/standing in long lines etc. Disney paid way too much for the Star Wars franchise to just open the land and be done with it. There will almost certainly be paid events, early hours events, after hours events, private tours, character meals etc. And I’m sure, as others have posted about other new lands at opening, the VIP tours will get access to it at some soon time, and that access will be much better than what a guest will get without a VIP tour (because that is the whole point of a VIP tour which supposedly justifies the high price). So Disney gets their money eventually.

For me, I will wait to book a VIP tour until I am sure that I will have access to this land. The way the VIP tours are marketed is as extra access to the parks, and excluding the one thing every guest wants to experience will not go well with those guests, IMO. People who book VIP tours do it for access, plain and simple. And frankly it doesn’t make business sense to exclude it from VIP tours for long. They should (and I think, will) milk every profit-increasing opportunity out of this land. And that will include VIP tours, I think, very soon. And many other paid opportunities to get “more” access to the land. And it might include paid previews, as we still have time for them to roll those out before it opens. Never say never when it comes to Disney and a profit! They are a business, and I can’t blame them for trying to recoup their SW investment, so I am not flaming Disney here, just giving my opinion.

 

[twodogs]

This is not true. We did a VIP tour 3 weeks after Cars Land opened, and we had access to Racers. We rode 4 times in a row that day, then came back at night for another ride. We did NOT have access to Luigi's.

I have already been told VIP tours will have access after June 24th.

ETA - I went back and checked my Facebook. Cars Land opened June 15, 2012, we toured June 30th 2012.

Guardians was available opening day. Incrediacoaster was available opening day. Ariel's was available opening day.

Thanks Malcolm10t, I know you have done more VIP tours (and DLR trips, frankly) than most of us, so I value your opinion and your memory!!

 

[twodogs]

It isn't always about the per person price, there would be fewer people that would book the VIP tours than an after hours event, so in the end they make a higher profit off the after hours event, especially since a certain number of people that booked for the VIP tours will do it with or without access to Galaxy's Edge, further increasing the profit margin of only offering an after hours event than doing VIP tours.

I think it is a risk of alienating customers who are willing to spend much more than the average park guest to have a VIP tour and access. Many of these folks do a VIP tour every trip, and then they probably also stay onsite (maybe CL since they might have the budget for that), may do expensive dining, shopping etc. I think Disney would not want these people taking their travel money elsewhere, so they will pretty quickly open it up to VIP tours. It would not add that many people to the land since the tours will likely go to other parts of the park or to DCA as well as part of their 7 hour day. I don’t know how many “plaids” are available each day to book, but whatever number that is, x 10 people per tour, probably doesn’t add much to the crowds inside SWGE on any given day, even if every single VIP tour group were in SWGE at the same time.

Honestly, I think Disney will do both: allow VIP tours in there, as well as have lots of after hours or before hours hard-ticket events for the land. They want everyone’s money!

 

[dieumeye]

In all fairness, we don't know if there will be a paid preview or not, there could still be one announced.

Obviously things could change, but according to the article linked below, Disney has said no paid previews for SW:GE at Disneyland.

http://blogmickey.com/2019/03/no-pr...isneyland-maybe-at-disneys-hollywood-studios/

 

[lcp9]

What's funny to me is that one of the most common complaints is that Disney is too expensive and charges for everything and is only out for "corporate greed". Remember the Pixar Pier preview? Yet here, there is no charge to access SW:GE as some thought there might be, there is no expensive paid preview "for rich guests only", FP will not be in use here initially meaning no advantage for guests who pay for MaxPass, and SW:GE will not initially be included in VIP Tours.

Other than the slight exception of the reservation period giving preference to hotel guests (for only 3 weeks), access to SW:GE seems to be equal for the poorest and wealthiest guests. With no way to "pay your way in" at first, it seems like it's as fair and equal as possible.

So now, instead of complaints about Disney being unfair and only catering to the rich... people are upset that they can't buy access with a paid preview or VIP tour. Disney doesn't always do things right... but they seriously cannot win no matter what they do!

They can win with me - I've been saying for years I wish they'd jack up the price enough that it would calm down crowds, and I totally acknowledge that's super elitist and 1 percenter of me. That said, no matter what, I think you'd still get people who can't afford it financing it so regardless I doubt it would ever work.

ETA relevant to the topic, I could not care less about SWGE and I would probably pay money NOT to have to go there.