VIP Tour

[Nikki906]

I have a VIP Tour reserved at the end of August, it's the first time we've ever done this. We are going to start out in Hollywood Studios because we want to get on ROR. Does anyone have a sample itinerary that they followed that they can share? Should I try to go to more than one park? I don't know where to start

TIA
Nicole

 

[Steven G]

Just so you know the VIP tours now can get you on ROTR without a boarding group!
I just did a VIP tour two months ago, so I can tell you:

Unless you really want to ride rides over and over again since there are so few of them in HS, I would recommend at least one more park. I don't know what your overall plans are so it's hard to say, but most likely Magic Kingdom would be your best bet as a second park.

Note that you can leave the planning to the VIP guides, you can tell them what your broad goals are, and they can plan the day for you.

There are not too many rides at HS as I said, so you should definitely be able to do all the headliners there, then hop to your second park.

For a seven hour tour, unless you are either very slow or very fast, a typical number of attractions is 15-20.

Please note that ROTR can take up to half an hour since it is so long, so please plan with that in mind.

A good time to start your tour is 11am to 6pm. This allows you to get to the park at open, ride a few rides, enjoy the park, grab a quick lunch, and then start your tour. You can then end the tour at your dinner location. You could also just start the day with the tour if that works better for you.

Another bit of advice is to have a relaxation/pool day after the day of the tour, since going at that pace all day can be exhausting.

 

[Steven G]

Also, the VIP tours go backstage as you may know when you park hop.

They do not use the normal entrrances to the parks. Each park has different "VIP" entrances that the guides are allowed to park at:

1) Hollywood Studios: Just 1, near Lightning Mcqueen racining academy (which is the absolute farthest away from Star Wars Land you can get)
2) Animal Kingdom: 2, one in Pandora, one near Dinosaur. This is by far the best locations for VIP entrances.
3) Epcot: 2, one near Test Track, one near Soarin'. Note that the one near Test Track, I believe you can also exit into the Mexico Pavillion instead, since they are so close backstage.
4) Magic Kingdom: 1, near Buzz Lightyear.

You can take advantage of this. For example, for Animal Kingdom ,we did the two rides in Pandora, went back in the car, and drove around to Dinosaur, and then did that and Expedition Everest, and then left Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studio.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Don't forget to tip your 'plaid'.

Talk to your guide! Our guy was able to give us so much Disney history, not only from WDW, but DL and Tokyo too (he has worked at all the 3). It was fun hearing all the 'behind the scenes' news from him.

Your guide should help you make the most of your tour. Start at one end of the park, and work your way around, instead of going back and forth. Let them know when you want to stop for lunch, and they can tell you about where you'll be at that time, so you can order ahead.

You can do multiple parks, as long as you have a park hopper.

We had to wear masks in the car, at the end of June. We also had to show our bags to the guards at the back entrances, so have all your bags together in the first passenger row, so they are easily accessible.

We did tours on two days, one at MK and one at HS, 7 hours each. At HS, the only ride we did not do was Star Tours (no one wanted to) and we did other rides multiple times. At MK, we skipped a few things (PMover, Astro, Aladdin, and the shows) but did all the other rides, and several more than once. We had about an hour for lunches, and then stopping for restrooms, etc. We did all our shopping after, so we didn't waste time.

 

[xlsm]

We've done two tours, both times we did all four parks, both times we did 1pm to 8pm. The first time we did this to end at MK for the reserved area to watch Happily Ever After. This timeframe worked very well for us, as we were able to sleep in and just hang around the resort, swim and grab lunch before our guide came to pick us up.

The first time we had a tour was new year's day 2019 and our guide moved FAST.
We managed to do: TSMM and Slinky at DHS, FOP and River Journey at AK, Soarin' and Test Track at Epcot, and at MK we did Splash, Big Thunder, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan and Mine Train.

Our most recent tour was recent - June 10th, 2021. I told him we didn't want to go at such a fast pace, but we still did so much. We started at MK and did Jungle Cruise, Pirates, HM, Peter Pan, Mine Train and Buzz. Next we hit DHS and did TSMM, Slinky, Smuggler's Run, MMRR, and Tower. AK just for the safari and then ended in Epcot for Spaceship Earth and Soarin'.

Both guides we had were great, but I think we all liked our second experience a little better because we knew what to expect.

The best thing about having a tour guide is you can really relax b/c your guide will know the most efficient way for you to tour and get to do as much of what you want as possible.

The seven hours goes by very fast!

Before our first VIP experience I was very anti-tour. I didn't understand the point - I plan so well, what do we need them for?? Well, now I'm a fan and on a family trip it's something to look forward to rather than dread like I did the first time

Enjoy your trip! Stay safe and have fun!

 

[Brett Wyman]

Just so you know the VIP tours now can get you on ROTR without a boarding group!
I just did a VIP tour two months ago, so I can tell you:

I thought Disney reversed that? Did they reverse the reversal?

 

[SkyGuy]

I thought Disney reversed that? Did they reverse the reversal?

Yes. VIP Tours can ride Rise once per tour.

 

[holden]

I'd also recommend doing more than one park. This is basically what we did in June:

AK - FOP (2x), EE
DHS - MMRR, SDD, TSMM, MFSR, TT, RNR
MK - POC, SM, SpaceM (2x), 7DMT, WP, BTMR, JC

We got a BG for ROTR at 1:00 that day. The guide was not able to get us on the ride like they can now. He did, however, get us a park pass for DHS so that we were able to try for the BG.

It's an exhausting day, but worth it.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

We did a VIP tour in June and did all four parks. We met our guide at 11:30 after starting our day at AK. With our guide, we did

AK - FOP, Navi, Everest x3, Dinosaur (we had already done FOP and Kilimanjaro Safaris and eaten an early lunch on our own)
MK - Space and Buzz (we had been to MK two days earlier and did everything we wanted)
DHS - MFSR, SDD, TSMM x 2, TOT x 2, RNRC x3 ( we had been to DHS the day before and ridden all of these plus MMRR and ROTR, but DHS has our favorite rides)
Epcot - Frozen Ever After, TT, Soarin'

We got Dole Whips in AK and snacks in DHS, plus had a couple of water breaks.

We ended with a 6:30 ADR at Via Napoli and then picked up a few more Epcot rides (without our guide) after dinner. So we did 20 rides in seven hours with our guide, plus added a few before and after on our own. It was a full but fun day!

 

[Nikki906]

Wow these replies were so informative thank you so much!!!

 

[Griz1]

Hi!
Thanks for all the responses -- they were all really helpful.

We have a tour on 8/16 and I'm super excited. Any recent tour goers have thoughts on the following:

1) How long of a wait was it get on the rides given that the fast pass lanes should be less busy?;
2) I'm concerned about the crowds given Delta. How well were you able to avoid being stuck in a crowd?
3) We've been to Disney many times before (1st tour, though) and are looking for a more relaxed experience as opposed to a go-go, hit as many rides as possible tour. Anyone else go in with that goal, and if so, how did it work out?

Thanks!

 

[Raya]

Don't forget to tip your 'plaid'.

How does that work? Everywhere I've tried to tip in Disney has told me 'no' and if I push it on them (like ask several times) they tell me the tip will go into a holiday party fund. Do plaids get to keep the tip? How much should we tip? And do they only take cash or can we tip via the charge card on file?

My VIP first tour is coming up and you've got me nervous - we've done lots of tours but never tipped before.

 

[kcpinwdw]

How does that work? Everywhere I've tried to tip in Disney has told me 'no' and if I push it on them (like ask several times) they tell me the tip will go into a holiday party fund. Do plaids get to keep the tip? How much should we tip? And do they only take cash or can we tip via the charge card on file?

My VIP first tour is coming up and you've got me nervous - we've done lots of tours but never tipped before.

VIP tour is different, they accept tips and get to keep them. I think it's just cash, but who knows maybe you can use a cash app too now. Tip amounts vary widely, there are lots of posts about it. I think the consensus seems to be in the 200-300 dollar range. We planned on 300 but ended up doing more since it was so wonderful.

 

[trivan]

We alway prepare a list to give the Plaid on our must do and nice to haves rides. Always do park hopper. If your going to be there for multiple days, leave off rides which you can easily do yourself, eg. people mover . Let them determine parks and ride order as they will do it to maximize your time. For tips we start at $400 and go up or down based upon how good we thought the service was. One guide did nothing but shuttle us from ride to ride, no real personality, didn't do anything to try to make the day special, so it went down. Our last guide we had 9 people, did 9 hours and had some things happen which caused some hiccups (our doing) and went the extra mile with no issue and figured everything out, so gave a lot more then what has been posted. We ended walking close to 12 miles on that tour.

 

[trivan]

3) We've been to Disney many times before (1st tour, though) and are looking for a more relaxed experience as opposed to a go-go, hit as many rides as possible tour. Anyone else go in with that goal, and if so, how did it work out?

Our trips we typically do the tour on day 2 or 3 of the trip. It's go-go and ride as much as possible with the tour, the rest of the trip is the relaxing part b/c we have done everything we wanted. We feel "relaxing" through the park we can do on our own and no need to pay for that.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

How does that work? Everywhere I've tried to tip in Disney has told me 'no' and if I push it on them (like ask several times) they tell me the tip will go into a holiday party fund. Do plaids get to keep the tip? How much should we tip? And do they only take cash or can we tip via the charge card on file?

My VIP first tour is coming up and you've got me nervous - we've done lots of tours but never tipped before.

We tipped about $400 for two days of tours (same guide); IDK what the other two families we were with (my daughter's and her BFF's families) tipped. We handed him cash. We also bought him waters and offered snacks when we stopped to get them; we also offered to buy him lunch, but he said his was on Mickey.

 

[SDKMom]

We did our first tour this July. I created a spreadsheet with all the rides we wanted to do in all 4 parks -- "must do" and "if there is time." I shared the list with VIP tour services and our guide had it with him. We had the guide pick us up at the resort and drop us off at the end of the day. I wasn't planning to waste tour time this way, but it actually worked out really well for us.

I think you'll find advice on tipping is all over the place. We tipped the equivalent of one hour of tour time based on my research here. Next time, I like the advice of starting around $400 and going up or down from there based on the experience. Our tour was great, but I'm not sure we needed to tip as much as we did.

 

[SDKMom]

Hi!
Thanks for all the responses -- they were all really helpful.

We have a tour on 8/16 and I'm super excited. Any recent tour goers have thoughts on the following:

1) How long of a wait was it get on the rides given that the fast pass lanes should be less busy?;
2) I'm concerned about the crowds given Delta. How well were you able to avoid being stuck in a crowd?
3) We've been to Disney many times before (1st tour, though) and are looking for a more relaxed experience as opposed to a go-go, hit as many rides as possible tour. Anyone else go in with that goal, and if so, how did it work out?

Thanks!

1) Waits were minimal for us last month; maybe 5-10 minutes for most attractions.
2) The parks were crowded! We had to navigate crowds to get to the attractions, but we walked fast!
3) Our agenda was to ride as much as possible, so I can't really comment on this one.

 

[ktak08]

We tipped about $400 for two days of tours (same guide); IDK what the other two families we were with (my daughter's and her BFF's families) tipped. We handed him cash. We also bought him waters and offered snacks when we stopped to get them; we also offered to buy him lunch, but he said his was on Mickey.

Same here, we tipped $400 for two days with the same guide. We’ve done many 1 day tours, but decided to do 2 days over Memorial weekend and it was much more relaxing and enjoyable. We focused on 2 parks per day and took our time with everything, including stops for food and shopping. We were able to do around 40 rides total including several more than once. We rode RNC 4x. Fun times!

 

[DianaMB333]

Are they still having reserved spots for the fireworks?