Backstage Tours - Which are best?

[WDWFantasmicFan]

I am going to WDW with my family for the 4th time next year (2016), and really want to do a backstage tour at Disney - I am a mega Disney fan, and this sounds amazing! Which backstage tours are best? We don't have a huge budget, and think the Backstage Magic may be slightly out of our budget! Which of the others would you recommend? And why?

 

[Kae]

We did the Undiscovered Future World tour is was just DH & I. I picked it so we could see the firework barges. We had a nice time small group, we all got passes for a private area for Illunations that night. Half of us met up later and did some Food Booths for dinner & drinks-it was during F & W fest. Saw some fun stuff & learned some interesting things.

 

[DrivenByDisney]

We did the Undiscovered Future World tour is was just DH & I. I picked it so we could see the firework barges. We had a nice time small group, we all got passes for a private area for Illunations that night. Half of us met up later and did some Food Booths for dinner & drinks-it was during F & W fest. Saw some fun stuff & learned some interesting things.

That's our next tour actually.

We have done Keys to the Kingdom and Behind the Seeds

Keys to the Kingdom was awesome! Great tour that lasts a good five hours or so. Lunch is provided and you get a special item to keep for doing the tour. You go under ground at Magic into the Utilidoors and see how that park actually runs. Loads of education on Disney parks, restaurants and Disney himself. We also rode the Jungle Cruise twice (once with the effects on and once without), Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain & Hall of Presidents without going through the "on stage" entrances. Pretty cool actually.

Behind the Seeds is a fun short tour that goes inside the greenhouses of Living with the Land. We really enjoyed our tour and it is easy to get on as it runs every day, several times per day. Keys to the Kingdom from what I remember does not run every day and it is only at select times for a specific number of people.

I highly recommend either or both tours.

This is the pin you receive when you do Keys to the Kingdom

 

[L&Lfan]

We did the Backstage Magic tour of all 4 parks. It lasted 7 hours and we had lunch at Whispering Canyon Café. We have also done the Christmas tour which was around 4 hours, I think. That was a lot of fun too. We would like to do Keys of the Kingdom because according to the post above this one, it doesn't seem to overlap much with what we saw of the Magic Kingdom on the Backstage Magic tour.

 

[dobtia]

Behind the Seeds is a fun short tour that goes inside the greenhouses of Living with the Land. We really enjoyed our tour and it is easy to get on as it runs every day, several times per day. Keys to the Kingdom from what I remember does not run every day and it is only at select times for a specific number of people.

We are going to do this one this year. We are really looking forward to it. My 12 year old son (and myself too) love the land ride.

 

[DrivenByDisney]

We are going to do this one this year. We are really looking forward to it. My 12 year old son (and myself too) love the land ride.

Awesome!! I may actually go out this weekend and do it as well. I like the tour a lot and as your family, we love Living with the Land ride. The tour itself is only $20.00 and AP holders get it cheaper than that Hey, for an hour and you get to go inside a cool place like that, it's worth $20.00.

It's the things like this tour and others that are what makes Disney really cool to me. Too bad (maybe not) that more people do not take the time to do these types of attractions. Or it's just perhaps they are not aware they are available. At least Behind the Seeds has a sign in The Land.

 

[WDWFantasmicFan]

Thank you for all your suggestions/help! I am currently thinking Keys to the Kingdom - seems like a really good backstage tour, especially if you got to go onto rides through off-stage entrances! I would die to do this, and go into the utilidors! I am also tempted by the Behind the Seeds tour as well - what other things do you get to see that you don't on the Living with the Land boat? The Futureworld tour also sounds good too! Too much choice!!! Would really love to do the Backstage Magic - but don't think we can afford that for a family of 4 of us!

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Wild Africa trek was fun and the little lunch at the end filled us up. It was nice being able to see the rhino up close.

 

[OhThePain]

My wife and I both felt that the UnDIScovered FW Tour and the Backstage Safari at AK (I think it's called Backstage Tales now) were both much better tours than KttK. Don't get me wrong, KttK was good (our guide is what made the tour so enjoyable) but looking back we really saw a lot more with the other 2 tours. KttK was almost more of a history lesson with a few nuggets thrown in about MK. As far as rides go, on UFW we got the best seats in the house for Soarin' and cut the line for TT and on BS our guide took us on KS, but pointed out things that that are not pointed out on a normal KS ride (we also got FPs to ride the "normal" KS). With KttK we only road HM, but that was more because we were all really enjoying talking to our guide.

Also, you didn't mention the ages of your family, but you HAVE to be 16 and older to take these tours (no ifs, ands or buts).

 

[WDWFantasmicFan]

My wife and I both felt that the UnDIScovered FW Tour and the Backstage Safari at AK (I think it's called Backstage Tales now) were both much better tours than KttK. Don't get me wrong, KttK was good (our guide is what made the tour so enjoyable) but looking back we really saw a lot more with the other 2 tours. KttK was almost more of a history lesson with a few nuggets thrown in about MK. As far as rides go, on UFW we got the best seats in the house for Soarin' and cut the line for TT and on BS our guide took us on KS, but pointed out things that that are not pointed out on a normal KS ride (we also got FPs to ride the "normal" KS). With KttK we only road HM, but that was more because we were all really enjoying talking to our guide.

Also, you didn't mention the ages of your family, but you HAVE to be 16 and older to take these tours (no ifs, ands or buts).

Ok, that is good to know - wasn't sure about Backstage Safari as it relies on the animals, but sounds like you had a good time on the tour! Thinking that might still be an option then! USF sounds good too - we are all fans of Soarin' and TT! Would you say although KTTK was good, it wasn't really worth it?

In our group the ages will be; 50, 47, 19 and 17. So no problem there! Thank you for your comments!

 

[ZoZo]

I've done Keys to the Kingdom and Backstage Safari, and absolutely loved them both! Tons of great information, and I thought they were pretty reasonably priced, considering that you get lunch with both tours. I highly recommend them both. If I had to pick one to recommend, I'd pickk KTTK.

FYI, I also did Backstage Magic last year, and I'm sorry to say I was pretty disappointed, especially for the price (almost $250). It might have been that some of the Backstage Magic itinerary mirrored what I saw in KttK (utilidors parade floats, etc.), but I was bored for a good part of the tour. Some parts were interesting (I really liked the costume shop!) but some parts just didn't catch my interest. I was especially disappointed by the behind the scenes at DHS - all we got to do was look at one of the Tower of Terror ride cars.

 

[Kevin355]

We are doing Keys to the Kingdom in September. Never had the time with kids to do this. Now that just the wife and I are going, we are going to do some things that we have wanted to but couldn't.

 

[eeyore45]

For some reason my 17 yr dd doesn't want to do Keys to the Kingdom because of the utildoors! she wants the magic! No amount of talking and reviews would change her mind! So when the package came in the mail, we read about the Marceline tour - it doesn't include lunch so its a bit cheaper, and shorter - we booked that! We are also going to try and do the Epcot one...

We did do Behind the Seeds, she loved it, it was fun walking around, and seeing the plants, fish, etc...

 

[Donald - my hero]

I can't say enough good things about a tour that flies under the radar ... Marceline To Magic Kingdom (sp??) It deals with the history behind Walt's life leading up to the creation of "Main Street" We met in front of Town Hall about 8:00 and finished up at CoP by about noon. The information we learned was amazing! We got to ride on HM before the park opened wearing headphones so that we could listen to the guide ... awesome? Yes! Better? Getting to go INSIDE and stand beside the ballroom scene !!! We went on a couple of other rides and finished up with a private ride-through of CoP. Cost?? $30.00 here's the details https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/marceline-to-magic-kingdom/

 

[OhThePain]

Ok, that is good to know - wasn't sure about Backstage Safari as it relies on the animals, but sounds like you had a good time on the tour! Thinking that might still be an option then! USF sounds good too - we are all fans of Soarin' and TT! Would you say although KTTK was good, it wasn't really worth it?

In our group the ages will be; 50, 47, 19 and 17. So no problem there! Thank you for your comments!

Backstage Safari and Wild Africa Trek are 2 very different tours. The Backstage Safari or Backstage Tales does not rely on animals. Instead it shows you where all the animals go back to at night, where they are treated, you get a peak into the "kitchen", we talked to a few of the animal specialists, etc. It really goes in to how the animals are cared for and tended to backstage (and we got to touch a white rhino!). The Wild Africa Trek is the tour that actually takes you out on KS. Maybe that's why the changed the name of the Backstage Safari.

With KttK, a lot of the background information he gave were all things we had already known from watching things like Walt: The Man Behind The Myth or a number of other Disney specials or documentaries. We saw where they keep the floats and we walked a bit backstage and saw how close everything actually is to each other. Going into the utilidors is basically something they do so you can say you did it, but the reality we talked downstairs, watched a video and went back upstairs. You don't really walk through them or see anything special and it's certainly not a colorful place, which can be a let down for some. Our guide, Mathew, was awesome. He was funny and entertaining and a bit of a diva and he totally made the tour worth it for us.

We have never taken a bad tour at WDW and have felt they were all worth the costs, even KttK. We just feel that we did not see as much backstage on KttK as we have seen on the other tours we have done.

 

[DrivenByDisney]

Going into the utilidors is basically something they do so you can say you did it, but the reality we talked downstairs, watched a video and went back upstairs. You don't really walk through them or see anything special and it's certainly not a colorful place, which can be a let down for some. Our guide, Mathew, was awesome. He was funny and entertaining and a bit of a diva and he totally made the tour worth it for us.

We have never taken a bad tour at WDW and have felt they were all worth the costs, even KttK. We just feel that we did not see as much backstage on KttK as we have seen on the other tours we have done.

That stinks. On our KTTK tour, we walked through the Utilidoors from the Main Street USA entrance in the Emporium to Frontierland. We spent probably 30-45 minutes in the Utilidoors when we took the tour back in November 2014. Now this varied from the previous time we took the same tour. We did not spend that amount of time down there. I have never seen the video in the Utilidoors, what was in/on it?

There were only seven people (including the two of us) in our group in November which could have something to do with it, I don't know. We spent a considerable amount of time "back stage" ... We were able to see operators training/preparing for the Electric Light Parade, went passed the pin window (utilidoors), which is basically where CM's can grab as many pins as they want to trade, etc. They even had a bunch of posters with ever single pin ever issued on the wall with pictures, descriptions, etc.

We've taken KTTK tour three times and the one in November last year was probably the best due to the time we spent "back stage".

 

[Fantabulously Cherry]

Keys to the Kingdom is fantastic! I've done the Holidays Around the World tour as well. It's pretty fascinating.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I've taken twelve different tours over the years, several multiple times. All have been excellent, well worth the time and money spent. Don;t forget the discounts...Disney Visa, AP and DVC, all 15%.

If your first tour, I suggest doing one in your favorite park.

Walt Disney: Marceline to Magic Kingdom is a good start, as is KTTK. If you like Animal Kingdom, the new tour sounds very interesting. I have not taken that one, but hope to in the future.

Various tours here.

http://allears.net/btp/tours.htm

 

[hollypoast]

So, are you all suggesting that the Backstage Magic Tour would NOT be a good choice for your first tour?

 

[Donald - my hero]

So, are you all suggesting that the Backstage Magic Tour would NOT be a good choice for your first tour?

We did this tour on what i think was our last day in the MK a few years ago ... hubby still talks about how glad he was that we did it then! He loved it but really didn't like learning some of the secrets. As he puts it "I saw things i can never "un-see" I can't talk for others but he still wishes he hadn't seen a few characters take their heads off once they crossed the "magic line" where there is no fear that guests can see Woody walking around with his head under his arm! He did love walking thru the utilidors BUT positively gushes about riding the CP and learning all the details behind the story.