Disney tour guides...your experiences?

[White Rose]

My dad has decided for his 80th birthday he wants to take us all to WDW. We will be a group of 10, 5 adults, 5 under the age of 18. He wanted this trip to be a once in a lifetime type of experience, so we are booking a tour guide for 2 days.

Have you done a tour guide? What time did you arrange to meet? What were your experiences? How did you make the best of the trip? Can someone direct me to a trip report of their experiences with a tour guide? My husband and I are planning the trip, and we want to make sure my dad and the 5 kids have a truly magical trip. We have planned a fireworks cruise and some good dining, I am just trying to find out what people think of the tour guides and if they have any advice or tips to make that experience even better! We are going Sept 3-7. My dad, husband, 13 year old nephew and myself are flying down on sept 1 for universal studios. ( his words..I want to see Harry Potter land...lol) and the rest of the clan is flying in on Thursday the 3rd and my 17 year old college freshman nephew is flying in himself that Friday night. We are paying for my dad to fly first class down to Florida....he won't know till we arrive at the airport that day!(course my nephew gets to experience first class too, very glad we have airline miles!)

Our plans:
Thursday, check in to beach club and illuminations fireworks cruise
Friday sept 4 MK tour guide (oldest nephew flying in the evening)
Saturday sept 5 animal kingdom on our own
Sunday sept 6 Epcot and HS with tour guide.
Monday sept 7 fly home

We have one member of the trip who does NOT wish to go...my SIL. She will be an obstacle. When showing the kids test track on a planning dvd she asked if that was where the Disney employee died while someone drove a car...and the kids would not be allowed to ride that ride...lol

 

[jenthern]

I can't imagine doing it. Way too far out of my budget. If you google it, you'll find some pretty good blog posts.

 

[Lisaloo]

We have a guide scheduled for two days in July (a Tuesday and Thursday). We are meeting him the first day at AKL at 9am and starting in MK. It will be DH, our four kids (12, 13, 15 and 17) and myself. I didn't really give them a lot of info or requests, it sounds like the guides are great at coming up with a plan. I haven't found a lot of reviews online but my neighbor just got back and loved the guide and my girlfriend told me it was completely worth it when they did it for spring break.

Your trip sounds amazing! Hope the time with your dad and family is magical. Hopefully SIL will thaw a bit. Lol.

 

[White Rose]

I can't imagine doing it. Way too far out of my budget. If you google it, you'll find some pretty good blog posts.

I would never do a tour guide just for my hubby and I. But....The tour guide shortens the trip by 2 days...so we are saving 3 hotel rooms at the beach club, for 2 nights plus dining and park tickets for those 2 days... Also time off from work...when you are planning for 10...things that seem expensive suddenly are within the realms of possibility!

 

[kmb584]

We had a guide for 2 days on our most recent trip (earlier this month). The first day we split between DHS and Epcot, the second was spent exclusively at MK. I scheduled each day to begin at 9:30a and I initially scheduled each day for 6 hours, but extended our MK tour to 7.5. We accomplished everything in DHS, including multiple trips on TSMM for my daughter, as well as Soarin', TT (twice), and MS:G at Epcot before he drove us back to DHS for our lunch ADR. At MK we did every single FP+ attraction and M&G with several trips on 7DMT, and he even took my daughter on Splash for me as she was itching to go on but it's a ride I prefer to avoid. For me, it's money well spent, and I'll be booking the same tour guide again in August for our November trip.

 

[White Rose]

We have a guide scheduled for two days in July (a Tuesday and Thursday). We are meeting him the first day at AKL at 9am and starting in MK. It will be DH, our four kids (12, 13, 15 and 17) and myself. I didn't really give them a lot of info or requests, it sounds like the guides are great at coming up with a plan. I haven't found a lot of reviews online but my neighbor just got back and loved the guide and my girlfriend told me it was completely worth it when they did it for spring break.

Your trip sounds amazing! Hope the time with your dad and family is magical. Hopefully SIL will thaw a bit. Lol.

Lol...we have planned a 11 am start but i will be changing that to 10. I just worry if I do it earlier my SIL will find away to be late or make the kids late. I dislike having this extra layer of worry that my SIL will sabotage the trip when we are there. She has been doing it since my dad told us he wanted to do this. (I have stories...already.)

I have given the kids and my dad a list of all the rides, to pick their favorites, look them up online etc. I am guessing we will just let the guide that morning what we want to do!

 

[ArwenMarie]

Don't have any tips but what a great trip, I hope you all have a wonderful time!

 

[Aurora0427]

Your SIL sounds like mine. Good luck with that! What a wonderful trip! I do t have any specific advice, but from what I've heard the guides are amazing. I definitely think it's the way to go with your large sized party and your dad's age. Please report back and let us know how it goes! Have a wonderful time!!!!!

 

[CitrusSwirl52]

We did this in February. They picked us up in the vans from the Four Seasons around 8:30/9. We started in MK and then went to AK. They asked me what we would like to do but when we met with our guide she didn't have the information- I think they ask so they can let you know if it's something they CAN'T do (like BOG reservations). We basically just walked around and went through the FP+ line for the attractions we wanted to see/do. It doesn't work like that for Anna/Elsa- they ask you if you want to do this and then set up a time. It was really great but I would still take your list of must do's etc. just to make sure (I am a list person though so that might be a personal preference). We had scheduled for the minimum hours and then extended it since we wanted more time and that wasn't a problem at all. There are limitations so make sure you know what they are and plan for it (limitations include some reservations, EPCOT kiosks if it's during a festival, etc.)- basically if there's a FP available you can go (ETWB might also be something they can't do if I am remembering correctly) but ask so if you need to you can still make the FP+ for that.

I hope this makes sense. If it doesn't or you have other questions just ask!

ETA: I am local. This was done when we had family visiting from out of town. Since I go a lot I was pretty familiar with the parks and what we would want to do- and I was glad to not rely solely on the tour guide.

 

[baler31]

You need to let them know what your expectations are and what you want to do. Some things have to be booked or you get less than desirable locations for parades, shows, etc. The parade viewing on the Liberty Square Bridge is wonderful. We usually do a full day with a guide of at least 10 hours to get in a lot of the shows, parades night time events. In the summer when times line up you can do Illuminations, Wishes, Fantasmic, and back to MK for the late Electrical Parade all in the same night. All the seating for parades and shows are booked in advance so the better seating will be taken if you don't let them know what you want to do.

Let them know if there are attractions you want to experience multiple times. They are the fp and can get you in any fp line. My advice is to park hop with the guide and then use other time to hit attractions that don't offer fp. Character greeting without fp can take a long time and are better done without the guide.

I would leave without SIL if she cannot be on time. Have her call you when she is ready and tell her where to meet Disney provides transportation to all parks and she can get there without the guide.

Every guide we have had has always had our correspondence with what we wanted to do and had planned the day accordingly. They will pick you up take you to the park via a back entry. To park hop for a few headliner attractions they will park near that attraction or as close as possible. For example, our guides usually park behind test track and behind the fantasmic theatre for quick and easy access to those attractions. You save a lot of time this way. Your guide will usually offer to get you snacks/drinks during parades etc. You can choose to dine with or without your guide, Disney will pay for their meal. They can generally get reservations at any restaurant other than Be Our Guest. HTH

 

[WillAustin]

I would leave without SIL if she cannot be on time. Have her call you when she is ready and tell her where to meet Disney provides transportation to all parks and she can get there without the guide.

I agree. If your SIL is an Eeyore, don't give her the opportunity to bring everyone down. Make your dad the priority and let everything else bounce off.

 

[DestroysTheMoon]

Our March 2015 tour guide experience was part of a prize package. Our guide Christine "the Machine" met us very early at AKL and drove us over to MK, I slipped her a list of rides we were hoping to hit and a secret note explaining that my brother would be proposing to his girlfriend that morning in front of the castle.

We entered backstage in Tomorrowland about an hour before park open. She had Mickey stickers for the little ones and took our magic bands to admit us into the park for the day. We were treated to a meet/greet and picture opportunity with all 7 dwarfs and rode Mine Train a few times, then we were able to explore the castle area, main street, and take pictures. It seemed like the only other people in the park were custodial staff and the Bippity Boppity Boutique ladies, who were so cute and fun to chat with. My brother popped the question in front of the castle in a nearly empty MK, and she said yes. Christine had a Disney princess tiara ready for Amy after her big surprise, which we took video of (Amy thought they were just posing for a picture).

Being a Disney nerd I had a lot of questions about the history of the attractions and how they compare to DL (what I consider to be my home park). Christine was so polite and had fun stories about other notable guests she had escorted or had seen being escorted, most notably a Beatle. We hit every attraction we were hoping to hit and more and she got us through the fast pass line for any ride that offered it. We enjoyed her company for 7 hours.. at the end of the day she set up a sectioned-off parade viewing area for us in front of the fire house and then she was off!

 

[drnp]

I did a quick report from my March tour, its on here if you search for "VIP tour" you should find it. We stayed at the Swan and had the guide pick us up at 9am because we wanted to sleep in a little. We met our guide in the lobby and she walked through the door at 9am sharp. When I booked the tour, I told them over the phone about the ages and people in our group and they asked for our preferences (i.e. male or female, someone good with kids, etc). I made a list ahead of time and gave it to her and she made sure we took the most efficient route to all the attractions, but always offered to go off script if we saw something we liked.
Our guide was incredible with our girls and she engaged them throughout the tour, and rode with them on multiple rides. Goes without saying, but if you are doing a tour, get park hopper tickets so you can to multiple parks. If there is a restaurant you really want to go to, even if you don't have an ADR, tell them when they pick you up and they should be able to arrange it for you that day.
Enjoy your once in a lifetime trip! Sounds amazing.

 

[EllinK]

We usually do a full day with a guide of at least 10 hours to get in a lot of the shows, parades night time events. In the summer when times line up you can do Illuminations, Wishes, Fantasmic, and back to MK for the late Electrical Parade all in the same night.

I would love specific info about how to manage this. Sounds amazing! What times do you need those shows to occur in order to get them all in in one night?

 

[DisneyBelle27]

Here's a link to someone's review of a VIP tour from the boards:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/ultimate-vip-tour-review-from-our-may-trip.3417420/#post-53809848

 

[DisneyBelle27]

I did a quick report from my March tour, its on here if you search for "VIP tour" you should find it. We stayed at the Swan and had the guide pick us up at 9am because we wanted to sleep in a little. We met our guide in the lobby and she walked through the door at 9am sharp. When I booked the tour, I told them over the phone about the ages and people in our group and they asked for our preferences (i.e. male or female, someone good with kids, etc). I made a list ahead of time and gave it to her and she made sure we took the most efficient route to all the attractions, but always offered to go off script if we saw something we liked.
Our guide was incredible with our girls and she engaged them throughout the tour, and rode with them on multiple rides. Goes without saying, but if you are doing a tour, get park hopper tickets so you can to multiple parks. If there is a restaurant you really want to go to, even if you don't have an ADR, tell them when they pick you up and they should be able to arrange it for you that day.
Enjoy your once in a lifetime trip! Sounds amazing.

Here ya go, I went to your profile page and found it:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/vip-tour-review.3392381/

 

[baler31]

I would love specific info about how to manage this. Sounds amazing! What times do you need those shows to occur in order to get them all in in one night?

I believe it was Illuminations 9pm, 9:30pm Fantasmic, we sat down just as it started and parked directly behind the theatre walked up a set of stairs and sat down, , Wishes at 10pm and we missed the first few minutes(we watched from the Liberty Square bridge so not the best view)I think MSEP was 11 and we stayed on the bridge. The parade viewing from the bridge is fantastic.

 

[bbjunkie]

Sounds amazing! (Oh, lottery gods, I am doing my dance. )