Any recent FM Tour reviews???

[jacksmom]

I am thinking about this for our March trip! I have a ds(8), will he like it???Would love to hear your reviews!

 

[DemonLlama]

Here is what I posted a few days back on this:



We did the Family Magic Tour this past Thursday, 12/23, and I thought others might like to hear more about this event.

We made reservations for this in August, so I'm not sure how far out this fills up. Our tour was at 10:00. This is the tour open to all ages but seems best suited for those with kids between the ages of 5-12.

We arrived a little early at 9:40 in the building to the left of the courthouse (facing the buildings). We saw several characters going by to the back on their breaks. There are big name tags with Peter Pan on them for each member of the party. There is also complimentary coffee and bottled water.

Mark was our CM this day. He is very good. Our group was comprised of our family of four (DD is 9 and DS is almost 12), another family of four with two girls who looked to be around age 6 and 11, and a mom with three girls ages 4, 6, and 7. So seven kids and five adults total.

Ok, I'm going to go through the tour a bit, so if you want to be surprised, skip the next section. It is marked with the flowers.











Mark comes out and makes everyone take a broom or mop or polishing cloth because the park just isn't ready for the parade and so we will have to help.

He gets a call in the back and you can hear him talking. He comes out and tells us that he is very sorry, since we were so looking forward to cleaning, but he has to go out and assemble a team to take care of a bigger problem. Peter Pan has stolen Captain Hook's golden hook, and the angry pirate is threating to change the parade into Captain Hook's Very Scary Pirate Parade if it wasn't returned. (As an aside, being big Captain Hook fans we thought this would be pretty cool! )

The kids volunteer to be the team who helps him find it. Peter has left a map with 9 clues. So we go out to the front of the building, introduce ourselves, tell where we are from and what our favorite character is, all get some pixie dust, throw it in the air with the Pan yell, "Here we go!" and set out for the first place mentioned in the first clue.

This is at the Walt and Mickey statue. We then have to act out our favorite character before we can read the second clue. Folks seem to get a kick out of our little group. It helps that there is a CM there doing it all with us, and that we all have those big name tags.

Clue #2 takes us into Tomorrowland, near the Time Keeper.

Clue #3 was at the 3 ton granite ball in Tomorrowland.

Clue #4 we have to do all kinds of silly steps over to the Indyland Speedway and into Cosmic Rays. The kids have to hide down in front of Sunny Eclipse (the animatronic alien lounge singer), pop up and scream "Hi Sunny!" and then run out.

Clue #5 gets us to the Wishing well near the castle, where we all share our happy thoughts, and then we go to Clue #6 at the Cinderella fountain.

Clue #7 is doing follow the leader to Adventureland. We have to sing Hakuna Matata to get to the Tikis and dance around to wake them up.

We passed Captain Hook and Smee at POC, shouted "Hook is a codfish!" until he came after us, and we warded him off by doing the Tick Tock crock motion with our arms.

Clue #8 was to gallop through Frontierland on a pretend horse, hollering "howdy" to folks and get to Liberty Square and find a lantern with Tink in a tree.

Clue #9 took us into the private glade (roped off) where we thre more ixie Dust to call Peter and Wendy, who popped out from a path. Peter looks up to show us where he hid the hook, but it isn't there, and the kids have to klook about. DD sees the hook on the back of Wendy's sash. Pan and Wendy then act out how Peter stole the hook. He notices on the map that there is a patch covering his "real" clue #1 about trying something new (with instruments, etc) and we all figure out that he wants us to go see Mickey's Philharmagic with him and Wendy. First we all take family pictures with them, and then we walk around to the show, go in throught the Fast Pass line, around to the wheelchair doors, and are let in first to sit on the first row. Folks are trying to get to Peter and Wendy through all this, but the Mark and Heidi, our CMs at this point, are keeping evevryone at bay. Peter makes funny commnets throughout the show, and has prompted us that we all have to crow when we see Tinkerbell. The people in the seonc row seem to get a kick out of all the antics. After the show, we go out and say our goodbyes (CMs are still guarding us) and then Peter and Wendy leave after giving us Magical Moments certificates with our family name and their autographs on it.






In all, we had a great time. Be prepared to walk around the park. We did have one bathroom break after Cosmic Rays. Be prepared to play along, video tape those funny moments in little pieces, and not be embarrassed. Everyone around us seemed curious and smiled when they saw our antics. It is much more fun when the adults get into it, too.

We did this on our last day, and this was perfect for us. Including the show, it took two hours and fifteen minutes. We had already ridden things all week and weren't trying to do much else that morning, so it was a fun departure. If you've not "done" the park, you might want to schedule this for later in the trip. The kids loved reading the clues and figuring out where they needed to go next, as well as feeling like VIPs with Peter at the show. We would recommend it to anyone with kids old enough to read, or at least understand the clues when they are read, as well as the stamina to go around the whole park with very little rest, no strollers.

Whew! That is probably more than anyone wanted to know!

 

[blestmom]

We just got back from Disney, and I took my ds(6) and my dd(8) on the Family Magic Tour while my older 3 hung out with dad. They loved it! It was the highlight of their vacation. They did a scavenger hunt throughout the park, and at the end, Peter Pan and Wendy came out and spent a LOT of time with them. Then they took them to Philharmagic. I was surprised by how much personal attention each child got. We thought it was great!

 

[jacksmom]

Thanks for the great review! This does sound like something my ds will enjoy!