Are you allowed to stay in the park after the Backstage Magic tour?

[ajcolorado]

This tour does not require a pass/ticket. Are you allowed to stay in the last park after the tour ends?

Also, does any site keep a good, accurate schedule of the non-park offerings? I know the camping board posts the monthly movie schedule. Is there a concise place to check for hotel tours, butterfly release times etc?

Thank you.

 

[GOOFYFREEK]

No you wont be allowed to stay in the park. You must still have a ticket to enter the park after the tour.

As for accurate schedules check out Steve Soares site. He has a schedule that is constantly updated.
http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/

 

[InstImpres]

FYI, our tour ended in our private bus returning us to the Epcot parking lot. Therefor, you weren't in the park and they didn't have to deal with "shepparding" people out

 

[Pooh67_68]

You don't even start the tour inside the park, that is why you don't need park admission. And like InstImpres stated the tour ends on the bus back at the park the tour started at, so if you want to enter the park you will need to buy admission.

 

[miste76]

We were allowed to stay in the park!!! The tour ended right after the Share A Dreams Come True parade in MK and the tour members were allowed to either stay in the park or could get back on the bus (just backstage behind Main St) to go back to Epcot.
However, before we went, we were also told that we wouldn't be able to stay in the park afterwards. Maybe it just depends on the person who is giving the tour.
Either way, it didn't matter whether we had to get out of the park or not, we had annual passes. But this option was given to everyone in the group.

 

[dreamscometrue47]

I don't know, but to me, it doesn't seem right that you are allowed to stay in the park after the tour. You're paying for the tour, which doesn't include admission to the park, so participants should have to leave the park after the tour.

I'm usually very laid back about things, but this bothers me, because I'm paying for a day in the park, and participants to this tour are getting in "free".
Unless the rules have changed.....

 

[InstImpres]

I'm usually very laid back about things, but this bothers me, because I'm paying for a day in the park, and participants to this tour are getting in "free". Unless the rules have changed.....

I understand rules are rules and there should not be a false expectation but at $199 for an 8 hour tour, I don't think the few extra hours they might be give are really "Free"

 

[seashoreCM]

When you consider that most people are at WDW for several days at a stretch, giving the tour participants free admission for the rest of the day has a miniscule value to them. You might say as little as three dollars because that is the difference between the cost of a five day pass and a six day pass.

 

[melmel]

We were allowed to stay at the MK instead of going back to Epcot but we had to have our tickets run through for the day. The tour guide took them from us to have them marked off then she returned them before leaving us for the day.

Melissa

 

[ajcolorado]

We sneaking away to WDW to do the tour because my husband - a complete WDW fanatic -has always wanted to but, as the ultimate family man, would never take time away from a family vacation to do one. He's had a rough year - his job (and thousands of others) was cut when his company nearly went bankrupt. Now he's doing a job he really doesn't like because that's what good men do when they have a family depending on them. I suggested doing a tour because it might be an encouragement to him. But we're only going for a weekend, which means and extra $59.25 to go from a 1 day to a 2 day ticket, that's a lot for only a few hours of park time. Add that to the $169.15 tour (we're eligible from a 15% discount) - it'd be $228.40 per person for a day at Disney. Pretty steep. It seems like it wouldn't really cost anything for Disney to "give" you admission to the park for the rest of they day. I doubt that enough people are on on the tour on a given day to have it affect park attendance enough to cause an increase in staffing. And you're probably going to shop, buy at least a snack, etc. Oh well - maybe we'll go to the Adventurer's Club that evening. Disney will squeeze every dollar out of us yet.

 

[Schmeck]

Well, yeah, because that's the way it works - you pay for what you want. The "I should get more because of this and that, the big corporation won't be hurt" is nonsense - Disney has to make money (and lots of it to funnel it back into the upgrades and expansions we want) and every dollar counts. If they don't make it off of one thing, they'll jack up the price on something else, or cut a service. Then we get to hear more people whine... So, figure out what you can afford, (there are cheaper tours, but you need park admission for them) and enjoy what you have paid for.

 

[Park Hopper]

When we took the Backstage Magic Tour in January 2003, the tour began and ended outside the turnstiles at Epcot near the Guest Relations window and nobody was given the option of remaining in any of the parks. All participants on the tour did receive a very cool Backstage Magic pin, though. It's hard to see very well, but the pin is my avatar.

 

[seashoreCM]

my husband - a complete WDW fanatic -. But we're only going for a weekend, which means and extra $59.25 to go from a 1 day to a 2 day ticket, that's a lot for only a few hours of park time. :

Are you in a position to spring for 7 day non-expiring passes?

With those the 7'th day (taken from you by going into the park after the tour) costs $14 when comparing with a 6 day non-expiring pass. Minus the cost of the pin you would probably not receive after defecting from the tour group a few minutes early, so the value of the park hours to you would be about $8.

(With a 10 day non-expiring pass the last day does cost a bit more, $20. comparing with a 7 day pass, but IMHO I would spring for the 10 day if I could.)

(Going from 1 day to 7 days non-expiring costs $207. Going from 1 day to 10 days non-expiring costs $267. And having hopping won't take your breath away if the pass is 7 days.)