Discover the Magic Tour -highlight of our trip

[victorandbellasmom]

We just got back from our trip last night after driving from WA state and back. Overall we had a really great time but I have to say that the highlight for our trip was the Discover the magic tour (april 2). It was my dd's 5th birthday and we thought she'd enjoy this more than fantasmic balcony. (We did fantasmic riverside for ds's 6th birthday). Well, we all enjoyed it. There were 2 other families on our tour and 6 kids total.- SPOLIER ALERT- Basically the tour starts off as a "recycling/environmental tour" where it gets interupted because a special book is lost. So, we're now on a mission to find out who lost the book so that we can get it back to them. We got to see many characters including Wendy, Peter Pan, Snow White, Mary Poppins, the Penguin, Jessie & Woody, and Mickey Mouse. Along the way, dd got to ride the carousel between Mary Poppins and the Penguin. There was lots of special one on one character interaction with the kids where we also managed to get pictures and autographs. Kids & Adults all acted goofy, like hopping on one foot or pretending we were roller coatsers when crossing a bridge. We got to dress up like pirates and "argg" strangers as we walked along, and we even got to search for buried treasure on Tom Sawyer's island. I'd definitley recommend this tour for families with young kids 4-12yrs of age. Lunch from Ranch del Zocalo was included and with our disney visa it was $136 for our family of 4. We did character meals on this trip as well (lilo & stitch breakfast, ariel's grotto for dinenr and Goofy's kitchen for dinner) and this was by far the best expereince for our money. As the tour concluded and we were given "Discover the Magic Tour" pins after visiting with Mickey, our dd asked if we can book another tour for tomorrow because she had so much fun. If you're deciding between this tour or a charcter meal, I'd definitley recommend this tour over a character meal. It's more interactive and gets the whole family involved and it includes lunch as well.

 

[stampinshauna]

Thanks for sharing. You provided some good insight, and it sounds like you had a lot of fun.

 

[AStamm]

The tour sounds great. We're planning on doing it when we visit DL for the 1st time this June. Just counting down the days until I can make the reservation!

 

[mAlien13]

How long did the tour last?

 

[victorandbellasmom]

How long did the tour last?

It was roughly 3 hours long. Ours started at 10:45am(they were running late but it was originally for 10:30) and was done by 1:45pm.

 

[MATTERHORN]

How fun! I can't wait to do this when the kids get a little older, my oldest DD is 5, but there are two younger ones. Would this be an okay tour even though the other two are younger than her? Could they easily just tag along with us, even though they wouldn't really get it? Somebody once told me that it's more fun if the kids old enough to read well. Do you think that's a factor at all? Glad you had a great time!
Andrea

 

[victorandbellasmom]

How fun! I can't wait to do this when the kids get a little older, my oldest DD is 5, but there are two younger ones. Would this be an okay tour even though the other two are younger than her? Could they easily just tag along with us, even though they wouldn't really get it? Somebody once told me that it's more fun if the kids old enough to read well. Do you think that's a factor at all? Glad you had a great time!
Andrea[/QUOTE


Our tour had kids ranging from 4-10. The one's who answered most of the questions on the tour were ds (8) and a girl (10). I would think you might want to wait a bit til your other kids are older. Or you or your husband could take your older child on the tour rather than the whole family. Our tour had a grandmother and one of her grandchildren. Strollers are strongly discouraged on the tour as there is a lot of walking through crowds and not a lot of space. Dd took a bit to warm up and start doing the cooky activities whereas ds had no problem of this sort. It defintely helps for teh chidl to be reading, but is not necessary as the guides do lead the kids towards the right answer.

 

[MATTERHORN]

Thanks so much! Our son will be 8 months old when we go but he would be ina front carrier and is very laid back so he could kinda just go with the flow, but yes I think I will wait a few years until she would be a little more interactive as she is pretty shy! Thanks again!


Andrea

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Three hours of fun for $136, that's pretty good!

We also will need to wait a few years until our youngest is 4 or 5. Awesome!

 

[Briarmom]

What phone number do we call to book it?

 

[blackjackdelta]

How long did it take you to drive to the park from Kirkland? and did you do stops on the way? Glad you had a great trip.

Jack

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

The phone number is (714) 781-4400 -- Tickets & Reservations

 

[Briarmom]

Thanks MaryJo.
I think dd will be young (just over 2.5) but we are moving soooo far away...I start to think of the next time we will go to DL and I get very sad.

 

[cfrith]

Does anyone know if this is only offered on weekends? We'd like to do it but would only be able to on a Mon, Tue, or Wed. Thanks!

 

[cinder-ellah]

I read your post about the tour (hadn't heard about it before) and signed up our group of 3, for a May tour. I was told that its possibly weekend only. I had tried for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and was finally able to get a tour for Saturday. I was told they couldn't tell if the other days were booked already or were not offered on those days.
With having a Disney Visa card (or an Annual Pass) I saved $10 off each person, so total of 3 came to $107 ! ! !
Thanks for the great info !
Looking forward to the Magic !

 

[952LisaR]

This tour and character interactions sounds too good to be true! I know it was for this poster, but do you typically get to see that many characters or was that day just an even more magical day?

 

[cinder-ellah]

Our group of 3 turned into 5. 4 adults and one 5 1/2 yr old Princess.

We had an outstanding Tour ! ! ! And our Cast Member Tour Guides were great ! !

My niece got to walk hand in hand with Alice and the Mad Hatter all the way down Main Street USA. During our tour we also saw and talked to Sleeping Beauty, the Wicked Queen from Snow White, Bert and Mary Poppins, Woody and Mickey Mouse. We had heard that sometimes there could be more or less characters. We just didn't mention to my niece that we would see or talk to any characters at all, so that when we did it was fun and a surprise.

There wasn't time for individual pictures and autographs, except with Mickey. But they did allow for group pictures.

A very Magical Tour ! ! ! !

 

[kelmac284]

We did this tour in DW but it sounds much different. In DW it is a guide telling us we needed to go on a scavenger hunt of sorts. We walked all over the park and looked for stuff and finally we figured out we were looking for the hook from hook's hand. We got to meet Peter Pan and Wendy at the end and take pics with them and then Peter went on Philharmagic with us and we just got a little certificate.

It was cute and we had fun but this one sounds MUCH better. I wasn't going to do this one at DL but now maybe I will cuz it sounds a LOT better.

 

[DangerMouse]

We did this tour on 1/7, and were a bit disappointed in the character interaction. They kept implying that we were looking for characters, but we missed Snow White, Mary Poppins, and a couple others that were implied. The only characters we saw were Woody and Jessie (kind of just stumbled across them), and Mickey Mouse at the end. It was still a very fun tour, but they kept saying, "Let's go ask "________" if this is their book." Then they would say, "Oh darn, looks like they aren't here." Seems like they could have arranged for the characters to be there, couldn't they?

 

[victorandbellasmom]

We did this tour on 1/7, and were a bit disappointed in the character interaction. They kept implying that we were looking for characters, but we missed Snow White, Mary Poppins, and a couple others that were implied. The only characters we saw were Woody and Jessie (kind of just stumbled across them), and Mickey Mouse at the end. It was still a very fun tour, but they kept saying, "Let's go ask "________" if this is their book." Then they would say, "Oh darn, looks like they aren't here." Seems like they could have arranged for the characters to be there, couldn't they?

Wow, that does sound terribly dissapointing. I know that when we were in search of Mary Poppins, that it was a bonus that penguin was also with her. And I did notice that when we were with one character, one of our 2 guides would disappear for a bit and then reappear. I thought maybe they were confirming that our next character was at their designated area. We're going back to DL next month to celebrate ds 9th bday and were debating whether to do this tour again since our 4yo niece will be with us and she has not done the tour. Sorry to hear your expereince was not so great.