Ultimate Night of Adventure VIP tour at Animal Kingdom

[Dug720]

I took the Ultimate Night of Adventure tour on Saturday November 4, 2017. My family enjoyed the tour but this is essentially a Fast Pass trip.

The tour begins at 3:30pm and we were asked to check in at the Dinosaur courtyard between 3pm to 3:15pm. There were two tour guides (the plaids) and one coordinator at the check in table.

Most of us received stickers to wear on our shirts. A few people received lanyards. The sticker identified us to be in the tour group and had our snack table assignment (Dragon, fox, dinosaur, etc).
At check in, we were asked to pre-select our drink and dessert for the snack. Options included wine, beer, and soft drinks, Pandoran Sunrise, or Grog Ale. The dessert options are the two offered at Satu'li Canteen: chocolate cake or blueberry cream cheese mousse.

Our group had 26 people. There were two large families which is how I think our group topped over 25. We were asked to all introduce ourselves and identify our home state. Then on to the rides.

The weather was perfect so I think my experience is probably the preferred order or events:

Dinosaur
Na'vi River
Flight of passage
Snack time
Kilamanjaro Safari
Expedition Everest
River of Light

We entered through the Fast Pass line at each ride. There were people with actual Fast Passes that would sometimes end up in the middle of our group. We would all wait at the exit until the entire group was out and then would move on to the next ride. There was a guide leading the group and a guide at the rear of our group. They were like sheperds herding us through the crowded park.
There was one piece of trivia shared at Dinosaur but otherwise, this was not a "behind the scenes" sort of tour.

There were several bathroom breaks over the 4 hours. There may have actually been 4 or 5 breaks. While I don't need that many breaks, I didn't find it cumbersome to stop that many times.

After Dinosaur, the group headed to Pandora. First up, Na'vi River journey.

From Na'vi River you go directly to Flight of Passage. There was 15 minutes of gift shop time after FOP.

Leaving the gift shop, we went to Satu'li Canteen for our snack break. Our tables were assigned and at your table, your actual seat was also designated by your drink and dessert choice. It wasn't a big deal to move your seat within your own table. My child was placed between two non-related adults so i just swapped seats/drink/dessert with him.

The snack is an ample sampler tray for the 6 or 7 people at each table to share. The sampler included tofu, fish, chicken, and beef. There was also rice, cole slaw, potato hash, and two green salads. There was enough food for everyone to have a serving of everything and seconds.

After the snack, we were each given our souvenir lanyard and then headed over to Safari.

Again, we went through the Fast Pass line. Our group had our crazy, light up lanyards on in the Fast Pass line and someone in the regular line asked if we had all won a race (the Food & Wine races were that weekend). The lanyards did sort of look like race medallions. A fellow in my tour explained to the observer that were were on a "VIP tour." He explained it as a "Fast pass" to all the popular rides. The observer asked how much it cost and there was some chatter in queue about the tour.

After Safari, on to Everest.

After Everest, our tour coordinator was waiting with coolers filled with water bottles for us. The coordinator announced that this was officially the end of the tour. For those who wanted to watch River of Light, we would have a reserved area. Otherwise, time to bid adieu!
Five or six people left our group at that point; they did not want to watch River of Light. The rest of us were ushered to a reserved front row seats.

River of Light started at 7:30pm. The tour took all of 4 hours to navigate the park and do the five rides (and snack and the multiple bathroom breaks)

The tour did not exceed any expectations but certainly met every expectation we had. There wasn't much time for socializing which seemed just fine for everyone.The fellow tour members were all very nice, courteous. It was a pretty smooth ensemble of random people.

The end.

Thanks for the review! I'm still excited to do it in February!

 

[Hopefully]

We did the tour on October 28th. We are 3 adults.
In short, it was worth every penny.
Our tour was from 3:45 - the 7:45 ROL. We checked in between 3-3:30 in the Dinosaur Courtyard. We had 2 Guides and a Co-ordinator. We received VIP Lanyards and water. We ordered drinks and dessert for our break at Satuli Canteen. Rain was predicted and we were given ponchos. We has 2 restroom breaks, not 4. Our guides stopped several times to gather us together and share “facts”. I felt it was very much like a guided tour.
We went as a group into all FP+ lines. All others were held until our group went forward.
We rode Dinosaur, then walked through Pandora to Navi River Journey then on to FOP. The FOP standby line was 120 minutes! The FP+ line was long. So after a few minutes there we were escorted totally out of line to a backstage corridor. We walked and were brought back in right at the first room. It was amazing to bypassall that line.
We then had a “ snack” at Satuli Canteen which was a dinner size meal, for us.
We then rode an evening Safari which was great. We saw really active Lions which we loved.
We were delayed getting on the safari and because the FOP FP+ line had been so slow, we didn’t have time for both Everest and ROL. So we were given anytime Everest FP+. We were given WONDERFUL ROL light up Lanyards - a great souvenir. We watched ROL in a special reserved section and then used our FP+ for Everest. By now it started to rain and I used my poncho.
It was a great tour. I would do it again

 

[Yarbogash]

Sounds like a nice evening but I would expect way more for paying $250 a person

Reading the tour reviews, thinking not bad, then I came to this. $250 for snacks and fp’s? Mind blown.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Reading the tour reviews, thinking not bad, then I came to this. $250 for snacks and fp’s? Mind blown.

Agreed. I pay for a lot of the "enchanted extras" Disney has but this one, the value is lost on me.

We were in the parks last week. We went to AK at Rope Drop and were off FOP and Navi by 9, did the safari and rode EE 5 times with 5 minute waits by 1030. We rode FOP 3 times that day without waiting in standby and got a FP for Rivers of Light 15 minutes before the seating time opened.

 

[Eastern]

So I get it that everyone has priorities and some like to pay extra for more stuff, but this is Disney charging an exorbitant amount of money to go on FoP with no wait. $250 per person? Are you kidding me?

And they are displacing people who fought hard for their own FoP fastpass. That's just rude.

 

[LMO429]

I think the tour would be worth it esp if you have not experienced Pandora before and ROL. That being said I did want to book this tour but when we were there in October it was not available on the days that fit our schedule best. I think it worked out for the best we did everything on this tour and we really enjoyed taking our time in Pandora and just chilling out there I would hate to be rushed thru it. But I think 1st time and want a guarantee FOP ride if you are short on time the tour is worth it def 1 time

 

[Debbie Stark]

One question--since you have to purchase a separate Animal Kingdom ticket, are you able to book your own 3 fast passes on that ticket to use before you do the tour? Because to me that makes it totally worth it.

 

[Luckybee]

One question--since you have to purchase a separate Animal Kingdom ticket, are you able to book your own 3 fast passes on that ticket to use before you do the tour? Because to me that makes it totally worth it.

Yes you are. We had this tour booked for April, and just cancelled it this week when the extra fp's for club level program came out which gave us much more for our touring purposes. When we had booked it the agent was very clear that we could use our own fp's before the tour started. If you are not staying club level its a pretty darn good option for AK imho.

 

[Maryemcd]

I took the Ultimate Nights of Adventure Tour on Sunday, November 26, solely because I only had one day planned at AK and did not have a FPP for Flight of Passage. My experiences were similar to previous posters. I waited too long to book the tour originally and it was fully booked at the end of October. I called again the week before and was able to reserve my spot. When I arrived, I learned that there were 26 people on the tour.

Tour started at 2:30 pm so I arrived at about 2:15 to sign in, get my name sticker, and select drink and dessert (chocolate or blueberry). There were 2 tour guides and 1 coordinator. There was bottled water available for those that wanted some.

We had perfect weather and followed what seems to be the standard order (based on other posters):

Dinosaur
Na'vi River
Flight of passage
Snack time
Kilamanjaro Safari
Expedition Everest
River of Light

We entered through the Fast Pass line at each ride. There were people with actual Fast Passes that would sometimes end up in the middle of our group so our guides always let them go in front of us and kept our group together through each line. If I recall correctly, we only had 2 bathroom breaks, but if anyone needed to stop, I'm sure there would have been more. At Satu'li Canteen, we had the sampler platter with tofu, chicken, beef, rice, potato hash, cole slaw, kale, and another green salad. There was plenty of food. At the snack, we received a River of Lights lanyard.

After Expedition Everest, those that wanted to go to Rivers of Light were escorted to the front row of the show (excellent view).

My overall opinion is that the tour provided what was promised - 6 FPPs for the main rides at Animal Kingdom - however the price was very steep at $250 (so $40 per FPP, plus a snack and a lanyard). We spent a lot of time waiting for the whole group to "catch up" at the rides and then keeping everyone assembled through the queues and assembling again after the rides. I would not take this tour again. I think if Disney were to split the tour into smaller groups, everything could be accomplished faster and perhaps 2 or 3 additional rides could be included.

 

[Dug720]

I took the Ultimate Nights of Adventure Tour on Sunday, November 26, solely because I only had one day planned at AK and did not have a FPP for Flight of Passage. My experiences were similar to previous posters. I waited too long to book the tour originally and it was fully booked at the end of October. I called again the week before and was able to reserve my spot. When I arrived, I learned that there were 26 people on the tour.

Tour started at 2:30 pm so I arrived at about 2:15 to sign in, get my name sticker, and select drink and dessert (chocolate or blueberry). There were 2 tour guides and 1 coordinator. There was bottled water available for those that wanted some.

We had perfect weather and followed what seems to be the standard order (based on other posters):

Dinosaur
Na'vi River
Flight of passage
Snack time
Kilamanjaro Safari
Expedition Everest
River of Light

We entered through the Fast Pass line at each ride. There were people with actual Fast Passes that would sometimes end up in the middle of our group so our guides always let them go in front of us and kept our group together through each line. If I recall correctly, we only had 2 bathroom breaks, but if anyone needed to stop, I'm sure there would have been more. At Satu'li Canteen, we had the sampler platter with tofu, chicken, beef, rice, potato hash, cole slaw, kale, and another green salad. There was plenty of food. At the snack, we received a River of Lights lanyard.

After Expedition Everest, those that wanted to go to Rivers of Light were escorted to the front row of the show (excellent view).

My overall opinion is that the tour provided what was promised - 6 FPPs for the main rides at Animal Kingdom - however the price was very steep at $250 (so $40 per FPP, plus a snack and a lanyard). We spent a lot of time waiting for the whole group to "catch up" at the rides and then keeping everyone assembled through the queues and assembling again after the rides. I would not take this tour again. I think if Disney were to split the tour into smaller groups, everything could be accomplished faster and perhaps 2 or 3 additional rides could be included.

I'm glad I came back to this. I've been debating cancelling my tour since I've got and FP+ for Na'vi on my first AK day and a FP+ for Flight on my second and can still grab a FP+ for ROL. (I've got FP+ for Safaris on both days and I'm solo so single rider at EE is an option...and Dinosaur, well, I'll go on it just to see if I can keep my tradition of looking like a terrified 2-year old at the picture - LOL. Given all that, I'm going to make the call and cancel it. I can put the money towards the AP I'm planning to upgrade to since it looks like those might be going up.

Thank you for the review!

 

[vikequeen]

checking in to see if anyone has done this more recently? When I booked it, the CM emphasized that it was a "snack" and not "dinner". The reviews I read here make it sound like a very substantial snack. But wondering if they have changed the offering?

 

[Greg Lembrich]

My daughter (7 years old) and I were on the Ultimate Nights of Adventure tour at Animal Kingdom last Monday (4/9/18) and I'm happy to provide a full review. We booked the tour because my daughter loves Animal Kingdom, we had never done any sort of VIP tour before, and we could not get FPs for the Pandora rides (staying offsite). With my AP discount, it was still a splurge, but less than we saved by staying offsite at a motel for the week. My daughter had an amazing time, the tour was everything that was promised, and I am glad we did it (but probably would not do it again on a future trip having already done it once).

We had spent the morning at HS, and then park hopped to AK just before lunchtime. I had a large breakfast at H&V that morning, so did not eat lunch myself, but my daughter had some mac and cheese from 8 Spoon. We rode all the rides at AK that would not be on the tour in the afternoon, plus did EE twice since it is my daughter's favorite. The tour started at 4:45 PM, and we checked in around 4:20 near the Dinosaur ride. We picked up our VIP tour lanyards, which had our dinner table assignments, made our drink and dessert orders for later, and met our tour guides, Hannah and Mackenzie. Both Hannah and Mackenzie hit it off with my daughter right away, and made her even more excited for the tour. We also met the tour coordinator and tour assistant, both of whom checked in a few times throughout the night (especially at dinner) but otherwise were not along with us on the tour. We were offered cold bottles of water while we waited, and there was ample seating in the shade behind the check-in tables. There were 24 people on our tour, which they said is the max. They also said that the tour consistently sells out; in fact, several people came to the check-in table to see if there were any cancellations or no shows because they hoped to join if there was room.

The tour started at 4:45 with quick introductions and an overview of what to expect that evening. We then proceeded to Dinosaur, where we entered through the FP line. There was a minor technical issue with Dino, so the line was backed up a few minutes, which gave us a nice chance to chat with the guides and some of our fellow tour group members. After a few minutes we were escorted into the preshow area and then onto the ride. Once everyone was finished we gathered again outside and made our way over to Pandora. One of the tour guides carried a large staff with a blue light/torch at the front of the group to follow, while the other stayed at the back of the group to make sure everyone stayed together and no one got lost. Once we got to Pandora, we took a few minutes to walk around and the guides pointed out some highlights and trivia while allowing a rest room break for those who needed it. My daughter and the other kids on the tour had become fast friends by this point and also were very attached to our guides, who were very sweet to all the young ones, indulging all their questions and building excitement for rides to come.

Navi River Journey was our next ride. We entered as a group through the FP line and were boarding our boards as quickly as it took us to walk through the queue. This was our first time on both of the Pandora rides, so we were very excited. As a ride itself, there is not much to NRJ, but it is very immersive and visually stunning. The level of detail is really impressive. We got to ride in the same row as the tour guides, and they pointed out a bunch of details to my daughter that we would have missed otherwise. Then we took a shortcut (not backstage, most people just seemed to not notice it) from the NRJ exit to the Flight of Passage entrance. We were again escorted through the FP line and soon getting our video briefing as we waited to get on our banshees. I am tall (6'4") with long legs, and I found the seat pretty uncomfortable and restricting, but was able to ride after a few adjustments. Despite my discomfort, FoP is an amazing ride! It is like a combo of the best of Soarin' and Star Tours, except on steroids. Very cool.

Next we took the short walk over to Satuli Canteen for dinner. I call it dinner because, even though the tour calls it a "snack", there is more than enough food to make a full meal. As I mentioned earlier, I am a big guy and had not had lunch, so was pretty hungry by the time we got to our table. There were 4 tables of 6 people each, and we were sharing ours with another dad and his 3 sons. There were heaping piles of beef, chicken, fish, and tofu (which went untouched), as well as large servings of salad, potatoes, rice, and various sauces. Everyone ate their fill and there was no danger of running out of anything. I had 2.5 large plates of food myself. The flavors were really good, especially when combining the various offerings together. No one at the table seemed wowed by the desserts; I tried both and they were OK, but nothing special. I was grateful that the "snack" was so substantial. Definitely no need to plan dinner before or after if you're taking this tour. In fact, you may want to eat a light lunch At our dinner tables we were also given Rivers of Light LED necklaces to wear for the show later. Perhaps we were ahead of schedule, but we were given plenty of time to eat and no one was rushed.

After dinner, we took another shortcut (again not backstage, but lightly used path) from Pandora to Kilimanjaro Safaris. The whole group went through the FP line and within minutes were boarding our safari vehicle. The sun was just starting to set at this point, which made for a pretty spectacular safari. Lots of animals were out and active. After the safari we made the walk across the park to Expedition Everest. FP line again, and within a few minutes we were on and off and regrouping outside the ride. We were taken over to our reserved seats at Rivers of Light (through a VIP entrance with no wait, not the regular FP entrance), where our tour coordinator met us again and thanked us for joining the tour. There were opportunities for the kids to get photos and hugs with the tour guides, and then we were shown to our seats. There was no offer to ride FoP again or any other ride instead of RoL (apparently that was something they did when the tour first started and was not yet selling out). Our seats for RoL were pretty much in the center, and we could have sat anywhere in the first 3 rows. Could not have asked for a better spot.

At this point it was around 8:15 and RoL was not going to start until 8:45. We had started our day with an 8 AM breakfast at H&V and not taken any real breaks during the day, so were both pretty tired. We had seen RoL before (although not from seats that good), and my daughter wanted to ride Kali River Rapids again before we left (the view of Everest is pretty spectacular from there at night). So we decided to leave the show rather than wait. Had we arrived closer to show time, we probably would have stayed to watch, but sitting and waiting for half an hour was just not in the cards for us that night. So we exited, took a quick ride on KRR, and exited the park before RoL even started, so were able to get ahead of the crowds on the trams and in the parking lot.

Overall, the Ultimate Nights of Adventure tour was exactly what was promised (except the "snack" was really a full dinner). The tour guides were wonderful, we rode Dino, NRJ, FoP, Safari, and EE with no waits, had a great dinner, and were provided the best seats in the house for RoL. My daughter absolutely loved the tour, in large part because the guides were so cool and attentive to her. I learned some things about AK I did not know, and didn't have to worry about planning for at least half a day. It was a very good experience, and I would recommend it to others.

Is it worth the money? A very subjective question, but I thought so as a "once in a lifetime" experience. Having an individual VIP tour was beyond our budget, and this was the only group VIP tour that really appealed to us, so I'm glad we did it. I probably would not do it again on a future trip though because we already did it once. I'd be happy to provide more information or answer questions if anyone is curious about the tour and wants to know anything specific.

 

[vikequeen]

Thank you so much for the detailed review. Exactly what I needed to know and I really appreciate it! Sounds like exactly what I expected, which is essentially paid fastpasses. We only have 1/2 day at AK (squeezing it in before a cruise) so this is the only way we can possibly see the new Pandora stuff we haven't seen yet. I'm little bummed there isn't an offer of an extra FOP ride anymore since I know we will also skip Rivers of Light, but that was also going to be an extra anyway so not a major disappointment. I'm glad I already booked an extra FP so we can ride it twice. thanks again.

 

[bookbabe626]

We've got this tour booked, and our original start time was 5:15pm based on a 9:15pm RoL and a 9:30 park close. They've just extended the AK hours and added a second RoL show at 10:30, which is also the new park close. Has anyone else been in this situation? Will they move the tour start time and have us go to the second show, or will it stay as-is?

 

[Greg Lembrich]

We've got this tour booked, and our original start time was 5:15pm based on a 9:15pm RoL and a 9:30 park close. They've just extended the AK hours and added a second RoL show at 10:30, which is also the new park close. Has anyone else been in this situation? Will they move the tour start time and have us go to the second show, or will it stay as-is?

It will likely stay as is. Our tour was booked when AK was supposed to close at 8:30 and there was only going to be one RoL (8:45). They subsequently extended closing until 9:30 and added a second RoL at 10, but the tour stayed the same. I think the tour always attends the first RoL on nights when there are two. Many fellow tour group members were planning to ride EE and/or KRR after the show since the park would still be open.

 

[Greg Lembrich]

Thank you so much for the detailed review. Exactly what I needed to know and I really appreciate it! Sounds like exactly what I expected, which is essentially paid fastpasses. We only have 1/2 day at AK (squeezing it in before a cruise) so this is the only way we can possibly see the new Pandora stuff we haven't seen yet. I'm little bummed there isn't an offer of an extra FOP ride anymore since I know we will also skip Rivers of Light, but that was also going to be an extra anyway so not a major disappointment. I'm glad I already booked an extra FP so we can ride it twice. thanks again.

You may also want to try riding just before park close. My daughter and I were back on AK on Thursday night and finished everything else we wanted to do by 8:30 (park closed at 9:30 that night), so we strolled into Pandora. The wait for NRJ was posted at 40 minutes, so we hopped in the standby line. We were at the front and boarding our boat barely 15 minutes later! At that point we figured why not try for FoP too before park close. The 110 minute posted wait made us reconsider briefly, but I was pretty sure that was inflated so we proceeded. The actual wait was 45 minutes max! We were in the gift shop by 9:45 and got into our car in the parking lot just a little after 10. It was a great way to finish our last park day.

 

[bookbabe626]

A quick review of our tour on May 20th...aka How Wet Can You Get

It was raining and had been for most of the day as we arrived at Dinosaur. The meeting place had been relocated to the far right side of the queue, under an overhang. We arrived very close to 4:45pm, the half hour before the start time that we'd been told the check in desk opened, and about four or five parties had already checked in before us. We were offered bottled water while we were waiting, and got to pick our drinks and desserts. I also picked what options I wanted for my allergy meal since I couldn't eat the group food on the platter. At 5:15pm, the coordinator (sorry, forgot her name) introduced our guides (Michael, Emily and Carson Blake) and we went around the circle introducing ourselves and giving our hometown and favourite animal. She also explained that because of the rain they weren't sure RoL or Everest would be running, so they were subbing in FotLK as our first attraction instead. A few people were disappointed, and asked about seeing RoL instead of one of the other rides at the end. She said she'd check into it and talk to us at the snack break. We were just about to head out when two late arrivals on ECVs showed up, so there was a brief delay while they got checked in.

Finally, off we headed to FotLK, where we had reserved seating at the front of the giraffe section. Next, we headed to the safari, which was great. The rain had lured a ton of animals out of hiding, and we had young giraffes and a whole herd of wildebeests right at the edge of the road, and the lion and two or three lionesses were out on their rocks. After the safari, we headed to Pandora for the snack break (which was really a full meal for most people) and the coordinator came back to give us the option of RoL instead of Everest. Most people took her up on that offer. At the snack break we also got our RoL lighted medallions. The snack break lasted about 30 minutes, then we did FoP and NRJ. After Pandora, we had to speedily walk over to the RoL viewing section as we were supposed to be in our seats 15 minutes prior to the start (we were a bit late). Watched RoL, which was really cool (and the rain had tapered off by that point). The coordinator also handed out paper any-ride FP (1 each) to make up for missing Everest and Dinosaur.

The downsides...we were a slow moving group, likely due to the rain and some mobility challenges. A lot of rides we seemed to load/unload slower than the guides had planned, and I got the impression that it was throwing them off a bit. The slowest moving of the group were the two ECVs, one of which was piloted by a relatively inexperienced (but very nice and apologetic) driver. There were a few crashes into curbs, benches, handrails, strollers (including one massive three-car pileup) and once into me. I felt really bad for the driver, since it was hard for him and his partner to keep up with the group sometimes. The guides handled this well, splitting up sometimes so that there were two guides with the main group (one in front and one behind) and then one with the two ECVs. This is a tough tour for people with mobility challenges, at least during a crowded rainy weekend at the park.

Overall it was a great experience, and I really felt it was worth the money.

 

[DLo]

Oops I forgot to report back from a couple of weeks ago . I went on Sunday May 6th. The weather had called for rain but we got lucky and no rain . I was by myself but didn’t feel out of place at all. There was one other woman that was by herself so most of the time we paired up when needed . We did the same as stated above - introduced ourselves and said our favorite animal . We only had two tour guides though Jordan and now I can’t remember the other name. They were very friendly and knowledgeable. We rode dinosaur , then snack ( and as stated before - plenty to eat ) , then rode NRJ , FOP , Safari , then Everest . We were done in time to ride EE again if you wanted to then ROL. Our group was very friendly and talkative with each other. I think this made the experience even better. The safari was probably the best I have been on. It was about 7:30 - still light out though. We think it was because most of the animals had just been fed . I feel like this was worth the price but wouldn’t do it every trip. I would definitely recommend if you have limited time for AK during your trip .

 

[vikequeen]

Am I correct that no tip is necessary or appropriate for the guides on this type of tour? Any first hand experience in this regard?

 

[bookbabe626]

Am I correct that no tip is necessary or appropriate for the guides on this type of tour? Any first hand experience in this regard?

We had planned to tip them, but they’d disappeared by the time RoL finished so we never even got to thank them.