Nike4000
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2014
Last week our family of 4 enjoyed 2 days at Disneyland (5/18 and 5/19). On our first day, we enjoyed the full VIP experience with our guide, Diane. It was simply magical!
Backing up a bit - prior to our trip, we worked with our VIP planner to work out the itinerary for the day. Our planner asked us what shows we wanted to attend, what special activities we wanted to participate in, and where we wanted to eat. They asked about our preferences for rides, what our kids might like to do most, etc. The VIP rep took care of all of the reservations for the day of the experience (this was both good & bad - I'll get to that). About 2 weeks before the date of our experience, we received a very simple itinerary, that included when & where we'd meet our guide.
We stayed at the Grand Californian Resort and booked 2 day park-hopper passes with reservations to start at Disneyland on the morning of 5/18 and California Adventure on 5/19. The Disney VIP planner DID NOT assist with our ticket purchases or hotel reservations. We secured those on our own.
At 8am on 5/18 we met Diane at the VIP desk in the lobby of the Grand Californian Resort. We had never met her or spoken to her prior to meeting her that morning. In fact, we did not know who our guide would be. Interestingly enough, Diane did not seem to have any tangible information about us or our preferences. She didn't know if we had park-hopper tickets or which park we reserved for the day, even though we had shared all of that information with our VIP planner. MASSIVE disconnect in the sharing of information between the planner and the guide. Diane was relieved that we had tickets, they were park hopper tickets, and that we didn't have any strollers in our party. The previous day she had to wrangle 2 double strollers, so she was over that!
After our initial introductions, we discussed our plan for the day - rides, we wanted to go on LOTS of rides. So, we hoofed it over to Disneyland where she shepherded us through the turnstiles and towards Tomorrowland. I'm not going to bore you listing every ride we rode, but we hit everything that we wanted to, except for Smugglers Run, during the course of our time with Diane.
If you are wondering, the VIP experience only gets you into the Lightning Lanes. So, if those are long, you're waiting with everyone else. The big difference is that typically you can only really do the LLs once per ride. With the VIP guide, you can do them as many times as you want. Hence, we rode Hyperspace Mountain multiple times in a row (my personal favorite ride). We got all of the rides in that we wanted. As mentioned, we did not get on Smugglers Run. Unfortunately it was down when we were in Galaxy's Edge. So, to offset that, Diane issued us an "anytime/any ride" LL pass that we could use either day we were at Disney. This was AWESOME! By the end of the day she had given us 3 of those, which made all of the difference on our next day.
The other nice perk is that the VIP Guide will put you in the best row on the ride. You want to sit in the 1st row on Hyperspace Mountain? Done. Want to sit in the back row on the Indiana Jones ride? Done. Diane gently recommended the best places to be on the rides for the maximum impact.
I've read that the VIP Guide will provide drinks and snacks. Diane said that was not part of the package and if a guide did that, it was their personal choice and came out of the guide's pocket. We used the Disneyland app to order food, which Diane picked up and had waiting for us after rides. She also had a great plan for lunch - we ordered food from the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe, but she has a super secret place to sit and eat because that area is packed with people at lunchtime. I won't give up her secret, but it was pretty awesome. We ate our lunch away from all the crowds. It was a nice break.
Because you're paying for the guide's time, Diane was able to reschedule our visit to Droid Depot and Oga's for after our time with her was over. This was a brilliant move on her part as it allowed us to maximize the number of rides we could hit, ensured we got through both parks, and had a nice break at Oga's after Diane's time was done. We were exhausted after our time with Diane, but were still able to get a few more rides in before our dinner reservations at the Blue Bayou.
Dinner is where our magical day came to an end and got stomped on. The VIP Planner made reservations for us at 6pm at Blue Bayou. We showed up as instructed 15-20 minutes before our reservation time and checked in. Then we sat and waited. This was the first time we had to wait for anything all day. We kept waiting. We watched everyone who was in the waiting room with us get seated and replaced with new people. We kept waiting. We watched those people turn over. We kept waiting. At the 30-minute mark, my wife asked the man checking people in if we had been skipped. He rudely told her to go and sit down, that he was busy and couldn't be bothered. If you know who the grey haired, bearded guy is who works at Blue Bayou, please give me his name. I would like to lodge a very serious complaint to Disney about him. But, I digress. After her rude treatment, she went to find a restroom and bumped into the original person who checked us in over 40 minutes prior. He asked how she was enjoying her dinner and was shocked to find out that we still hadn't been seated. He promised to get us a table. It was after 7 when we were finally walked to a table - at the very back of the restaurant. I swear they added it just for us, right outside of the entry to the kitchen and where the servers get trays and silverware. We walked past at least a half dozen other 4-top tables in the restaurant, but they stuck us way in the back. You couldn't even see the Pirates of the Caribbean ride from our seats. Fine, okay, whatever. At least we're seated. Except it wasn't fine. It took us forever to flag down a waitress to put in drink orders - which came out wrong. It took us over an hour to get our meals. We were going to order dessert, but were worried that the park would close before we'd see anyone to place an order, much less receive the treats. Our dinner at Blue Bayou, consisting of an appetizer course and entrée course, took 3 FRICKIN' HOURS! This is in addition to the hour and 20 minutes we waited before being seated.
I will never book my restaurants through the VIP Planner again. Everyone else could check their reservations on the app. Because the VIP plan uses a "different system" it's not connected to the app. I'm 100% certain this disconnect is the reason why we were kept waiting. We were in the wrong system or on the wrong page of the system. Whatever it was, it was awful. The good news is that our dinners tasted amazing. The food was great - the rest of it, not so much. You would think they would have prioritized someone paying for a VIP tour to get seated within a reasonable time of their reservation. But, no, they didn't.
Because the dinner took so long, we missed our reserved seating for the early World of Color show. I'm sure it was nice, we were stuck in Blue Bayou trying to flag down someone to pay the check.
After that, my wife & I decided to head back to the hotel and call it day while the kids got a few more rides in.
Overall, for 7 hours of the VIP experience, we paid $4,200. Would I do it again? HECK YES! In one day we got to ride everything & I mean everything we could have wanted to ride at both parks. And the ones we couldn't ride, we got passes to try again later. We did tip Diane $600, so add that to the total expense if you're budgeting.
Diane was an amazing guide. She was extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and really maximized our time. I think there are some issues that Disney needs to iron out with the communication between the planner and the guide, and the dining system, but overall, excluding Blue Bayou, it was one of the best days I've ever experienced at Disneyland (and I've been a lot).
I'll answer any questions you have about the day. I'm sure I'm leaving important details out.
By the end of the two days, we'd ridden Rise of the Resistance 4 times, Hyperspace Mountain at least 6 times (once with the lights on), and both Smuggler's Run & Guardians of the Galaxy at least 3 times each without waiting more than 20 minutes for any ride.
Backing up a bit - prior to our trip, we worked with our VIP planner to work out the itinerary for the day. Our planner asked us what shows we wanted to attend, what special activities we wanted to participate in, and where we wanted to eat. They asked about our preferences for rides, what our kids might like to do most, etc. The VIP rep took care of all of the reservations for the day of the experience (this was both good & bad - I'll get to that). About 2 weeks before the date of our experience, we received a very simple itinerary, that included when & where we'd meet our guide.
We stayed at the Grand Californian Resort and booked 2 day park-hopper passes with reservations to start at Disneyland on the morning of 5/18 and California Adventure on 5/19. The Disney VIP planner DID NOT assist with our ticket purchases or hotel reservations. We secured those on our own.
At 8am on 5/18 we met Diane at the VIP desk in the lobby of the Grand Californian Resort. We had never met her or spoken to her prior to meeting her that morning. In fact, we did not know who our guide would be. Interestingly enough, Diane did not seem to have any tangible information about us or our preferences. She didn't know if we had park-hopper tickets or which park we reserved for the day, even though we had shared all of that information with our VIP planner. MASSIVE disconnect in the sharing of information between the planner and the guide. Diane was relieved that we had tickets, they were park hopper tickets, and that we didn't have any strollers in our party. The previous day she had to wrangle 2 double strollers, so she was over that!
After our initial introductions, we discussed our plan for the day - rides, we wanted to go on LOTS of rides. So, we hoofed it over to Disneyland where she shepherded us through the turnstiles and towards Tomorrowland. I'm not going to bore you listing every ride we rode, but we hit everything that we wanted to, except for Smugglers Run, during the course of our time with Diane.
If you are wondering, the VIP experience only gets you into the Lightning Lanes. So, if those are long, you're waiting with everyone else. The big difference is that typically you can only really do the LLs once per ride. With the VIP guide, you can do them as many times as you want. Hence, we rode Hyperspace Mountain multiple times in a row (my personal favorite ride). We got all of the rides in that we wanted. As mentioned, we did not get on Smugglers Run. Unfortunately it was down when we were in Galaxy's Edge. So, to offset that, Diane issued us an "anytime/any ride" LL pass that we could use either day we were at Disney. This was AWESOME! By the end of the day she had given us 3 of those, which made all of the difference on our next day.
The other nice perk is that the VIP Guide will put you in the best row on the ride. You want to sit in the 1st row on Hyperspace Mountain? Done. Want to sit in the back row on the Indiana Jones ride? Done. Diane gently recommended the best places to be on the rides for the maximum impact.
I've read that the VIP Guide will provide drinks and snacks. Diane said that was not part of the package and if a guide did that, it was their personal choice and came out of the guide's pocket. We used the Disneyland app to order food, which Diane picked up and had waiting for us after rides. She also had a great plan for lunch - we ordered food from the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe, but she has a super secret place to sit and eat because that area is packed with people at lunchtime. I won't give up her secret, but it was pretty awesome. We ate our lunch away from all the crowds. It was a nice break.
Because you're paying for the guide's time, Diane was able to reschedule our visit to Droid Depot and Oga's for after our time with her was over. This was a brilliant move on her part as it allowed us to maximize the number of rides we could hit, ensured we got through both parks, and had a nice break at Oga's after Diane's time was done. We were exhausted after our time with Diane, but were still able to get a few more rides in before our dinner reservations at the Blue Bayou.
Dinner is where our magical day came to an end and got stomped on. The VIP Planner made reservations for us at 6pm at Blue Bayou. We showed up as instructed 15-20 minutes before our reservation time and checked in. Then we sat and waited. This was the first time we had to wait for anything all day. We kept waiting. We watched everyone who was in the waiting room with us get seated and replaced with new people. We kept waiting. We watched those people turn over. We kept waiting. At the 30-minute mark, my wife asked the man checking people in if we had been skipped. He rudely told her to go and sit down, that he was busy and couldn't be bothered. If you know who the grey haired, bearded guy is who works at Blue Bayou, please give me his name. I would like to lodge a very serious complaint to Disney about him. But, I digress. After her rude treatment, she went to find a restroom and bumped into the original person who checked us in over 40 minutes prior. He asked how she was enjoying her dinner and was shocked to find out that we still hadn't been seated. He promised to get us a table. It was after 7 when we were finally walked to a table - at the very back of the restaurant. I swear they added it just for us, right outside of the entry to the kitchen and where the servers get trays and silverware. We walked past at least a half dozen other 4-top tables in the restaurant, but they stuck us way in the back. You couldn't even see the Pirates of the Caribbean ride from our seats. Fine, okay, whatever. At least we're seated. Except it wasn't fine. It took us forever to flag down a waitress to put in drink orders - which came out wrong. It took us over an hour to get our meals. We were going to order dessert, but were worried that the park would close before we'd see anyone to place an order, much less receive the treats. Our dinner at Blue Bayou, consisting of an appetizer course and entrée course, took 3 FRICKIN' HOURS! This is in addition to the hour and 20 minutes we waited before being seated.
I will never book my restaurants through the VIP Planner again. Everyone else could check their reservations on the app. Because the VIP plan uses a "different system" it's not connected to the app. I'm 100% certain this disconnect is the reason why we were kept waiting. We were in the wrong system or on the wrong page of the system. Whatever it was, it was awful. The good news is that our dinners tasted amazing. The food was great - the rest of it, not so much. You would think they would have prioritized someone paying for a VIP tour to get seated within a reasonable time of their reservation. But, no, they didn't.
Because the dinner took so long, we missed our reserved seating for the early World of Color show. I'm sure it was nice, we were stuck in Blue Bayou trying to flag down someone to pay the check.
After that, my wife & I decided to head back to the hotel and call it day while the kids got a few more rides in.
Overall, for 7 hours of the VIP experience, we paid $4,200. Would I do it again? HECK YES! In one day we got to ride everything & I mean everything we could have wanted to ride at both parks. And the ones we couldn't ride, we got passes to try again later. We did tip Diane $600, so add that to the total expense if you're budgeting.
Diane was an amazing guide. She was extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and really maximized our time. I think there are some issues that Disney needs to iron out with the communication between the planner and the guide, and the dining system, but overall, excluding Blue Bayou, it was one of the best days I've ever experienced at Disneyland (and I've been a lot).
I'll answer any questions you have about the day. I'm sure I'm leaving important details out.
By the end of the two days, we'd ridden Rise of the Resistance 4 times, Hyperspace Mountain at least 6 times (once with the lights on), and both Smuggler's Run & Guardians of the Galaxy at least 3 times each without waiting more than 20 minutes for any ride.
You all were cool with it, but I can see others subtracting from their tip if they feel entitled to them. We all know how that goes.
