Timing of VIP tour

[rlk]

I feel very lucky to be given the chance to experience a VIP tour on our upcoming late August trip. I spoke with a CM about what we would like to accomplish and that I wanted to start later in the afternoon. The CM strongly suggested we start as early in the morning as possible to increase the benefit of the tour. He said that crowds and possible thunderstorms can cause us not to be able to do as much if we stuck to my desired 1:00pm start. We have been to WDW several times during this time period, so are familiar with the storms. Do you think I should change the time to 8:45am as suggested by the CM?

 

[Hopefully]

Yes I do.
What is your reason for wanting to start at 1 PM?

 

[GillianP1301]

How many hours of VIP tour are you using? If it's 8 hours worth, you're going to have the same risk of late afternoon thunderstorm activity, it will just be at the front end of your tour (if you start at 1pm), as opposed to the end (if you start at 9am). So, I say stick with what you want and keep fingers crossed on the weather.

 

[rlk]

Yes I do.
What is your reason for wanting to start at 1 PM?

I thought we would try to time it so we could take advantage of the VIP viewing area for MSEP. The more I think about it, I think that I will change to the early start and not worry about the parade.

 

[Wendybird55]

Just quick note on vip viewing..from my few experiences even though vip viewing offers a good spot to see parade it does not guarantee comfort or sitting..you are there along with other VIPs so it's still first come first serve as far as getting to sit on front curb or having to stand behind people in front of you. If your only concern is parade you can get as good or better seats than VIPs by just scouting out your place early sit down and wait..over my many times going to Disney I agree that you get more done faster with early starts

 

[BRC6C]

Not sure when you are going, but our experience last night was there was next to no one in Frontier Land for the second MSEP. We sat on a box under a tree eating Dole Whip starting when the parade stepped on on Main St. When the parade got close (we could see it) we walked up to the rope and had about 10' on either side of us with no one there...

 

[Karin1984]

I wouldnt change, as at 9 the lines arent that long so having a guide wouldnt be as useful as having one later in the day. And I would take advantage of the vip seating, good for character interaction. Getting there a little early is a good opportunity to take a short break.

You have been to wdw before so not taking advantage of the vip viewings spots seems strange to me.

 

[Mikie]

I haven't done a VIP tour, so forgive me if I have this wrong. . . don't they take you through FP lines or otherwise avoid lines? If so, it seems to me that you'd specifically want to use it during the times when you would otherwise be experiencing long lines. Similar to the wisdom of using FPs during busier times because you can take advantage of short lines (or simply sleeping in, or whatever else you want to do) on your own when the park is not crowded. It seems that using the VIP tour so that you can go exactly when YOU want to, while still getting lots of rides is exactly the point of being a VIP Therefore, I'd keep 1pm.

 

[soniam]

I thought you could still get the VIP viewing areas the day of your tour, even if your tour had already ended. I might be wrong, but you could ask the CM about it. I know I have read of other tours, non-VIP, that were in the morning, but the people got the special viewing area for the night show. I think doing it in the afternoon makes the most sense due to crowd levels. You could still take advantage of the short morning lines and possibly FP+ in the late morning.

 

[mom2rtk]

I thought you could still get the VIP viewing areas the day of your tour, even if your tour had already ended. I might be wrong, but you could ask the CM about it. I know I have read of other tours, non-VIP, that were in the morning, but the people got the special viewing area for the night show. I think doing it in the afternoon makes the most sense due to crowd levels. You could still take advantage of the short morning lines and possibly FP+ in the late morning.

I haven't done a tour but always thought that was the case. If that's true, then it does make more sense to use the actual touring part of the service earlier in the day.

 

[Karin1984]

There is a review on the boards of someone who did a vip tour in both DL and WDW, he wrote only in DL you can use the vip viewings after your tour ended, not in WDW.

I assume WDW doesnt allow it because it would get overcrowded. There is another review on VIP tours where the guide told that an average day has 40 vip tours, and 80 in high season. Which would be too much to give a 'vip' feeling.
DL must have less if they can give access after the tour ended.

 

[baler31]

We have always started out in the afternoon and not had any problems. The storms are usually short lived and we just time it to eat around the late afternoon anyway. We have always been able to experience multiple night experiences like VIP for MSEP on the Liberty Square Bridge and special seating for Fantasmic. Howeve,r we typically book for 10 hours and start at 1pm or later depending upon season and park hours. We especially like the later times in summer season as it is much cooler with lower humidity in the evenings.

I would tell the coordinator what activities are important to you. My family would not want to get up early on vacation when we have VIP access. You really don't need a guide during the early hours as there are not many people in the parks. Sleep in on that day and enjoy the guide and get up early on a day on your own to have the lower crowds without a guide.

 

[slford00]

Does "VIP" viewing area for parades/shows just mean the same area others reserve with FP+? Or is it a different area?

If it's the same as fastpass, why not go with an early morning start as the guide recommends, then save your 3 fastpasses for the evening, including 1-2 for MSEP and/or Wishes?

Standing/sitting in one spot for 1-2 hours out of an 8 hour stretch during which you have VIP access to any headliner ride in any park seems like a waste to me.

 

[rlk]

I spoke with a VIP Tour coordinator today to discuss our starting time; they are strongly suggesting an early start. When first planning this tour, Rivers of Light was supposed to be up and running and that was the night time show we would have wanted to see with the tour guide. The Jungle book show doesn't hold the same appeal for my family.

I did find out today that there is a 25% discount for DVC members! Since we hadn't anticipated that discount, we may be convinced to extend our tour for a few hours.

 

[baler31]

I spoke with a VIP Tour coordinator today to discuss our starting time; they are strongly suggesting an early start. When first planning this tour, Rivers of Light was supposed to be up and running and that was the night time show we would have wanted to see with the tour guide. The Jungle book show doesn't hold the same appeal for my family.

I did find out today that there is a 25% discount for DVC members! Since we hadn't anticipated that discount, we may be convinced to extend our tour for a few hours.

I would start at whatever time you are comfortable. However, the Jungle Book show is very easy to get seats for. We actually enjoyed the show but we sat in the first few rows where we really enjoyed the dancing and had a very clear view. I would not want to be in the back of the theater. Start when you want to, I have never had a tour that I felt was impacted negatively by the time we started. This includes several Christmas trips. Early starts are better for a standard employment schedule and that is one reason they try to steer people toward the mornings. They state that the tours are available for any operating hours and you should simply book whatever hours you will be comfortable with.

 

[rlk]

I would start at whatever time you are comfortable. However, the Jungle Book show is very easy to get seats for. We actually enjoyed the show but we sat in the first few rows where we really enjoyed the dancing and had a very clear view. I would not want to be in the back of the theater. Start when you want to, I have never had a tour that I felt was impacted negatively by the time we started. This includes several Christmas trips. Early starts are better for a standard employment schedule and that is one reason they try to steer people toward the mornings. They state that the tours are available for any operating hours and you should simply book whatever hours you will be comfortable with.

Thanks,I appreciate your advise based on experience. I talked with my family and we decided that we will keep the early start. We typically do rope drop on most days, so meeting the VIP guide at 8:45 in our lobby will allow us to sleep a bit later than usual. We do have a Tusker House, Jungle Book dinner package for a different day. Hopefully the dining package seats will be in the front.

 

[Regan117]

We are doing this several days on our trip next month and we are starting at 1:00pm. Our kids are small and cannot go all day. We like to do the nighttime stuff, so it just works better for us. I honestly don't think you need a VIP guide to get through lines quickly early in the morning. That seems like a waste.

 

[rlk]

Well we had our VIP tour several days ago and really enjoyed ourselves. I'd i were to do it again, I'd request more meets that do not have FP availability. Our coordinator made arraignments for us to see the Star Wars characters (we walked right in). We also had VIP viewing at the Main Street train Station for the afternoon parade. The view was great and the characters waved to us and even acknowledge our anniversary.

We started at 8:15am at the Beach Club. We were driven to the back of Test Track. Actually we were driven to every attraction in Epcot which saved a lot of time and energy. It reach 100 degrees this day.
We rode Soarin (front & center), Frozen ride 2x and then got into the car to head to Hollywood Studios.

At HS we entered behind RNRC and rode twice. The other rides we hit were ToT, TSMM and Star tours, then off to Magic Kingdom.

At MK we entered behind Space Mountain. We were expecting water and snacks, but there was some confusion due to the filming of Blackish that day, but we did eventually get them. They had all the production set up back stage.

At MK, we rode space twice, once on either side, Splash, HM, met some characters, POTC, Buzz(we learned secrets to scoring)and
Our guide was good, but I was expecting someone with more energy. He told us some interesting facts, but a lot of times we had to ask questions about things we were passing.

I will continue this later, just wanted to get this posted.