We just got back from DL. We did the 50th tour at Noon on 11/20. We had preferred seating for the 3:00pm Parade of Dreams. We loved the tour! Our tour guide, Erin, was fantastic. The tour is 3 1/2 hours, the last 1/2 hour being the parade.
In terms of determining which tour time to take to get preferred seating for a specific parade you will want to check the parade schedule (they have it on
disneyland.com) and ask what seating you will have when you call to make a reservation.
The tour guide gave us lots of info about the building of DL; pointing out things on Main Street, walking us around the exhibit in the opera house giving more info than what was posted. We went on 3 rides, representing 3 of the 5 decades (BTMR, PoTC, and BLSRS). We also rode the train. Our tour guide told us about things to watch for on each ride.
We got our picture taken (tour group and guide) in front of the 50th symbol/Mickey perfectly timed so we didn't have to wait. Each person on the tour gets a 5x7 pic at end of the tour, an oversized DL ticket book with each letter (A-E) depicting a decade and a pin of the lamp that sits in the window of Walt's apartment above the fire station--the pin lights up too!
The preferred seating for the parade was such a great ending to the tour. We had a roped off section with chairs and snack boxes. Our guide and the "behind the scences helper" went out of their way to cater to us; throwing our trash, making sure we were comfortable, asking if we needed anything else, etc. We had time before the parade started to ask more questions, look through our tour guide's "scrapbook" on DL, eat our snacks, and sign her picture of our tour. The performers in the parade seemed to pay extra attention to us in our little roped off section and the viewing is in a great spot for seeing the stopped performances of the parade.
The tour worked out perfectly for us. It was a busy, crowded day in the parks and we'd already been at DL for a couple days. We didn't have to battle people to get around, we just followed our tour guide. The awesome perferred seating, the pin and the picture of our tour group were huge bonuses for me. Big Disney buffs might already know a lot of the info on the tour (my DH and I fall into that catagory). For the scope and content of information I liked the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour that we took 4 years ago better than the 50th tour. But the way the tour was set-up/paced and how good our tour guide was made this tour for us. Also, there were only 4 of us on the tour, (there can be up to 16).
We were able to get a discount on the tour with our Disney Visa. I am not sure if a
AAA discount would apply, but it couldn't hurt to ask.
If you are excited celebrating the 50th anniversary of DL, don your golden ears and take the tour! If you are skeptical, maybe take a different tour or skip the guided touring altogether.
Hope that helps!
