Behind the Scenes

[sammi6]

Has anyone done any of the behind the scenes at the parks, like the Keys to the Kingdom? If so how are they? How long do they last and How much do they cost?
:jumping4:

 

[civileng68]

Has anyone done any of the behind the scenes at the parks, like the Keys to the Kingdom? If so how are they? How long do they last and How much do they cost?
:jumping4:

I used to hear that the tours were great before 9-11 but that they really cut it down afterwards. Never done it myself so that may not be true at all.

 

[candaceg]

We did Keys to the Kingdom last Saturday and absolutely loved it. I feel like a fountain of Disney knowledge. It was worth every penny. The tour was about $50 with our Disney Visa discount and included lunch at Columbia Harbor House. It lasted 4.5 hours. The most interesting part was learning about how trash is handled. Did you know that 75% of the garbage at WDW is recycled and the other 25% is incinerated to generate electricity?

If you do a search, you'll find lots of threads. That was what convinced me to do it.

 

[scoutsmom99]

I did KTK in October and it was great. I had a lot of knowledge ahead of time from internet research and a class in college I took called the Art of Walt Disney, but I still found new things to learn. I went with my mother and we got an AP discount (even though I'm the only one with an AP!) so it was like $49 for each of us and it included lunch. We did the 9:00am tour and heather was our guide she was great and the group of people we were with in the tour were a blast to be with. Our tour went till about 2:00pm...if you are looking for a tour I would highly reccomend this one. My mom who really isn't in to disney like me said it was her favorite thing from the trip!
We went on two rides (Jungle cruise and HM), and talked about a lot of the rides/attractions in Frontierland, Adventure Land and Liberty Square. It was really neat to have an "insider's view" on how the park is run, what went in to planning the park, and how the vision is carried our today. Also we were behind the scenes for a lot longer than I thought we would be which was great I hope this helps.

 

[jimmiej]

KTTK was one of the best experiences we've had at WDW. Well worth the $$$. DW & I are doing the Segway tour at Epcot in February.

 

[diswedwish]

We've done a lot of behind the scenes tours, all were included in packages we were on so the prices are approximate...

Our favorites were in Epcot:
Aqua Seas where you snorkel in the Living Seas, I think $100/person and 2 1/2 hours long.

Dolphins-in-Depth where you interact with the dolphins, I think $150/person and 4 hours long.
With these you get to go backstage in the Living Seas (obviously), very interesting for us, especially to learn about how they care for all of the animals and esp. the dolphins!

We've also done Hidden Treasures of WS, around $50/person, 3 hours. This was mostly on-stage, although we got a backstage peak at France and Canada. We learned a lot that we didn't know and found it interesting.

Our next favorite was Backstage Safari at AK, $65/person, 4 hours. We love animals, so this one was perfect for us.

Our least favorite was KTTK, still liked it, however our tour size was fairly large, our tour guide fairly new, and we had about 3 people that asked the same questions over and over in different ways after our guide had already explained everything and it got worse as the tour progressed so it seemed to take forever at the end... Not to say we didn't learn anything new because we did; I'd say about 30% I'd read somewhere here or elsewhere and the rest was new. It would be interesting to try this one again to see how it would be...

HTH

 

[jaysmom4285]

We did Keys to the Kingdom tour on 12/9 and loved it. The group was about 23. The tour guide had a mike and the participants had receivers and earpieces, so it was really easy to hear everything that was being said. As noted, the tour is about 5 hours and includes lunch at Columbia Harbor House and two rides, PoC and HM, with interesting info included about both rides as well. We learned a lot about how Disney does things and just loved the tour. I think it's good for someone who's been to WDW several times and wants something different.

 

[DisneyMim]

I've done both Keys to the Kingdom and Backstage Magic. I enjoyed both of them. I think it depends on what guide you get and how many people are in your group. We had wonderful guides and not very many people on either tour, in fact on our KTTK there were only four of us. Ironically we made the plans only one day before. If you are a real Disney fan I think you will enjoy any of the tours.

Have Fun!!