Keys to the Kingdom Tour...bad tour guide?

[hannahryan]

Hi,
Our family of 5, including my MIL, just did the KKT on Thursday morning at 9:30. Our group was large (20 people). There was many things we enjoyed about the tour: the backstage areas, some cool insights into WDW, great relaxing lunch and riding Haunted Mansion through the CM back entrance. The main thing that partly spoiled it was our tour guide. She presented the information, but had no personality. There were many times when everyone in the group looked so bored. My husband has been wanting to do this for years and we were finally able to as my son just turned 16. He was disappointed. I've read so many great tour guide reviews. Were we just really unlucky? Has anyone else had a tour guide that wasn't good?

 

[disneynutz]

In the past we loved all of the tours. Since then, Disney Institute has taken over some, if not all and without exception, each one that we have been on came up short.

So much so that we will not go on a tour again if it is facilitated by the Disney Institute.

Bill

 

[Berlioz70]

I did the tour in July 2009 and had just an AWFUL guide. Not only was personality zip, but he presented incorrect information!! I'm sorry, but if you cannot name Plane Crazy and Gallopin' Gaucho, then you should not be a Disney Tour Guide.

We enjoyed the path and the extra features, but the guide really ruined the whole thing and my family still talks about how we knew more than he did.

With that said, I truly believe the vast majority of the guides are knowledgeable, outgoing, and personable. We must have just gotten the 2 bad eggs.

 

[tikimimi]

I'm sorry your experience was not what you had wanted. I believe there are good tour guides and bad tour guides just as there are guests who are easy to please and others who aren't. We have always loed anything affiliated with Disney Institute, but I see you have another poster who hasn't. Each person is different and the expectations and desires from each experience will be somewhat different. I hope you will try again; it can't hurt to make a request for a specific type of person for your guide either.

 

[Berlioz70]

Side note: Keys to the Kingdom is not associated to the Disney Institute.

DI focuses on business development for companies that pay to visit Disney and learn more about the Disney philosophy.

KTTW is operated by the Magic Kingdom Guest Relations team, and the tour is written by Disney's internal course design team.

I wouldn't compare the two, outside of the fact that they both come out of Disney.

 

[lsbgvadvcer]

We've done KTTW twice in the past 3 years and both of our guides were fantastic!

 

[goofy4tink]

I've done KTTK twice now. The first time I was on my own...and a bit nervous about not knowing anyone. But, I actually found that there were some DISers on our tour!!! And people were really friendly. Our tour guide was Jared. He was, quite simply, incredible. He kept things moving, he gave us plenty of sit down breaks. He was informative. He was witty and funny. Very personable. We laughed all the time and had such a wonderful time.
So, fast forward about 3 years. My dd is now old enough to take this tour..she had been dying to do it for years. So, she turned 16 and we did the tour. We had an older gentleman.....and he was no competition for Jared!!!! When I say older, you have to understand that I'm 62...so older is really 'older' to me. He kept up a steady stream of info about himself and his past and what he used to do before becoming a WDW CM. He gave some perfunctory info about what we were seeing. He spent way too much time standing and chatting about himself and his back story while in the utilidoor areas. I think we just stood around, in that one long hall area, for about 20 mins. It was incredibly boring and annoying. Perhaps no one else felt the same as I did since they had nothing to compare it too as I did.

A good tour guide can really make your experience wonderful, while a less than wonderful guide can bring it down.

 

[Tiresius]

We too were extremely disappointed with our guide for this tour. The places and information were fine/interesting, but the guide had no personality and seemed bored to be giving the tour in the first place. It didn't ruin our day, but we were definitely not excited about the tour at all after we were done, especially after hearing so many great things here about how wonderful the tour was from others.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I have taken Keys twice, both very good guides. Other tours I have taken, nine different tours besides Keys, and several multiple times, can't really say I have ever had a bad one.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I've only been on the KTTK tour once, and the tour guide was just okay. He wasn't horrible, but he wasn't as good as I was expecting given reviews I've read of the tour. He was a younger guy, probably in his mid-20s, and it seemed like he might not have been doing the tours long. I was disappointed and hope to go on the tour again sometime in the future with a better guide.

 

[clairemolly]

We did this in October of 2011 and had Scott as our tour guide. He was fabulous, although I can see how a bad tour guide could ruin the experience. I did not car for our smug tour guide on our Segway tour a few days later.

 

[DoomBuggy0922]

I've done KTTK twice now. The first time I was on my own...and a bit nervous about not knowing anyone. But, I actually found that there were some DISers on our tour!!! And people were really friendly. Our tour guide was Jared. He was, quite simply, incredible. He kept things moving, he gave us plenty of sit down breaks. He was informative. He was witty and funny. Very personable. We laughed all the time and had such a wonderful time.
So, fast forward about 3 years. My dd is now old enough to take this tour..she had been dying to do it for years. So, she turned 16 and we did the tour. We had an older gentleman.....and he was no competition for Jared!!!! When I say older, you have to understand that I'm 62...so older is really 'older' to me. He kept up a steady stream of info about himself and his past and what he used to do before becoming a WDW CM. He gave some perfunctory info about what we were seeing. He spent way too much time standing and chatting about himself and his back story while in the utilidoor areas. I think we just stood around, in that one long hall area, for about 20 mins. It was incredibly boring and annoying. Perhaps no one else felt the same as I did since they had nothing to compare it too as I did.

A good tour guide can really make your experience wonderful, while a less than wonderful guide can bring it down.

We had Jerrod too (in January) and he's still just as good! He presents a great mixture of Disney fact, his own personal stories, and stories he's heard from other CMs. I'm sorry, OP, you had a less than stellar guide!

 

[shellym]

We had Matthew the first time, and a lady (can't remember her name) the second time. They were both good, but Matthew was brilliant. When we told the lady we had done the tour with Matthew she said we were very lucky and she was sorry that hers won't be as good!!! She was very good, and told us some different things from the first time. We also had Brick assist the first tour and he seemed really nice too.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Claire was our guide on our KTTK tour in November and we all thought she was fabulous. You could tell she really loved Disney and genuinely wanted to share her love with us. She was great about pointing out details and things we wouldn't normally notice and full of interesting facts. I would take her tour again!

 

[recmouse]

We had Claire and did NOT enjoy her at all! So yes - you can get a 'bad' tour guide.

For the posters that went on the Keys tours twice... why did you that? It was a long day... and after experiencing Claire... not too sure I would want to chance that again.

Thanks

 

[kaligal]

I've done KTTK twice now. The first time I was on my own...and a bit nervous about not knowing anyone. But, I actually found that there were some DISers on our tour!!! And people were really friendly. Our tour guide was Jared. He was, quite simply, incredible. He kept things moving, he gave us plenty of sit down breaks. He was informative. He was witty and funny. Very personable. We laughed all the time and had such a wonderful time.
So, fast forward about 3 years. My dd is now old enough to take this tour..she had been dying to do it for years. So, she turned 16 and we did the tour. We had an older gentleman.....and he was no competition for Jared!!!! When I say older, you have to understand that I'm 62...so older is really 'older' to me. He kept up a steady stream of info about himself and his past and what he used to do before becoming a WDW CM. He gave some perfunctory info about what we were seeing. He spent way too much time standing and chatting about himself and his back story while in the utilidoor areas. I think we just stood around, in that one long hall area, for about 20 mins. It was incredibly boring and annoying. Perhaps no one else felt the same as I did since they had nothing to compare it too as I did.

A good tour guide can really make your experience wonderful, while a less than wonderful guide can bring it down.

Was that "Dr. Phil"?


My KTTK guide was fine. He was extremely rude to some stray people who didn't realize it was a pay-for-it deal...even said something about them that made most of the tour group laugh at them as they walked away, which was very disappointing to me...but as a guide he was fine. Very upbeat, peppy, talked a lot.

I just didn't much care for the tour

 

[jpeka65844]

We did KTTK in June '08 and I don't remember our guide's name but he was pretty bad. I could've probably given that tour better.

After awhile, it just became funny and DH and I laughed about it.

Our favorite was when he was explaining the architecture of Sleepy Hollow Snacks. "Just an interesting note that it is modeled after the boyhood home of Ernest Hemingway who wrote 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'"

To this day, every time DH and I hear a reference to Ernest Hemingway, Washington Irving, or Sleepy Hollow, we have to make a joke.

But it was still cool to see the park in the early AM and to see backstage.

 

[suzyqsam]

We had a great tour guide, but that was back in 1999.

 

[Dizzyworld]

We had Justin and we loved him! We had so much fun with him. This time it was my DS and I. I wasn't sure what he would think of this tour? After it was over, my DS asked if there were other tours? He had a great time.

My DH and I did Backstage Magic in Oct. 2009, and it was horrible. They showed us too much of what you see when you are just in the parks. And the guides were distant from the group. I had done this tour on my own around '03 and it was terrific. I was sad to spend the money on the tour when my DH wanted to go. What a waste. He heard my raves for years about the tour and wanted to go. Pretty poor. I would like to share the KTTW tour. I love doing the tours.

 

[jlevis]

Out tour guide was Rae and she was terrific. I hope those who were happy or unhappy with their guide filled out comment cards at Guest Relations. Without feedback nothing will change.