Epcot area resorts and Backstage Magic Tour

[Fenchurch]

Hi, just looking for some advice!

DH and I are going to the world for 3 nights for our anniversary. We will arrive Saturday Jan. 2nd fairly late, so no parks. Sunday we plan to get up and do the Backstage Magic tour. Monday will probably be divided between Epcot and MK, and Tuesday fly home. We plan to fit a couple of signature dinners in too!

So here's my question: Where to stay? I'd like to stay at an Epcot area resort (thinking BW), but don't know how that will work for the tour. I understand it meets at the main entrance of Epcot. Can we enter the International gateway and walk through the park before it opens? (We are passholders so admission not an issue). If not, would it be easier to stay at a monorail resort? I'd just like to avoid buses if possible. We will be using DME and not renting a car.

I hope this makes sense! I haven't booked the tour yet, so if anyone has more details please share
Thanks!!

 

[dax248]

Don't do the Backstage Magic tour, please. We did it in April, and were so disapppointed. We were so excited and that was going to be the highlight of our tour, well it was something but highlight it was not. We were expecting a bigger version of Keys to the Kingdom (which we LOVED, so much so we are taking DH parents on it in Nov).

We went backstage of Epcot, and spent a little time looking at the inside of the American Adventure, but did not see it working. Then we went into the cast member locker rooms for a long time. Then we went to DHS. We went to the costume department, and honestly we didn't see anything that wasn't a part of the Back Lot Tour. We wandered for about 25 minutes, but no good information. Then we went to Tower of Terror, and everyone was excited because we thought we would hear all the back story and then ride the ride. Well, no. We heard that cars never break or have issues, even though one was in the maintenance bay for repair.

Then we went to lunch. It was at WCC and we had BBQ. It was tasty, but our next stop was an HOUR AND A HALF in the LAUNDRY. That place isn't A/C and all the chemicals was overwhelming. Everyone was starting to look green by the time we left. Then we walked to the machine shop... even HOTTER and more CHEMICAL smelling. Ugh!!!

Then we went to the MK. We were running off schedule (how that happened no one knows). So we went into the tunnels. OK, nice, but not nearly as informative as Keys to the Kingdom. Then we came back up to see the parade, but we were now late for that and there was no reserved area for it, so we were tucked around the corner at the ice cream shop. We couldn't see and the guide turned off his mike so we didn't hear any commentary to try to tie what we were seeing into anything that we had seen all day. Which was what we were at least hoping for.

We were very sad and disappointed. Not only was the tour a disappointment, but we had wasted a day at Disney that we could have done all kinds of other things that we would have enjoyed more. The cost also wasn't worth it (and it was included in the Platinum plan, so we really didn't pay anything extra for it - if that tells you how much we think it was a waste).

Save the money and do Keys to the Kingdom. We loved it. We loved the fact that we were told about things in the park and then had them pointed out, or we would have a ride explained to us on how they did things, and then they would put us on it so that we could experience the ride with the new information.

 

[Fenchurch]

Oh, I hate to hear that! We did Keys to the Kingdom in May and it was awesome! We had a great guide and really enjoyed the tour. DH has his heart set on the backstage magic tour, the laundry and machine shop are part of what he is looking forward to. In Jan hopefully it won't be as hot. We are going for a longer trip with the kids in Nov, and this trip is just a quickie mainly to do the tour (and have a getaway without the kids.) I will tell him about your experience, though. Thank you for your response!

 

[dax248]

I will say that my DH is an Industrial Engineer, and he enjoyed all the mechanization of the laundry and the efficiency of it, but even he got bored near the end of it.

If you do decide to go, please post your experience. I want to know that mine was just a bad day and that everyone else loves the whole thing.

 

[karentan]

dax248, i've gotta agree with you, i took this last year with DH, and like you was expecting a lot more.
we also spent an hour and a half in the laundrette, the slowest hour and a half of my entire life, we went in the workshops too, but the bit that i would have liked to see (the character costume workshop) was off limits to us. we spent about half hour in the utilidors looking at the trash system. we didnt even get to go on ToT like you did, but i did enjoy the lunch, we're going back to WCC this month

we were both sorely disappointed in this tour, as far as backstage tours go we're just sticking to divequest this time, now thats one tour that IS worth taking if you can

 

[dax248]

DiveQuest sounds awesome, but neither of us are SCUBA certified.

We have done: Dolphins in Depth (doing again in 12 days), The Seas Aqua Tour, Keys to the Kingdom (doing again in Nov), the Epcot Segway, the Fort Wilderness Segway, Backstage Safari (twice - the first time we loved it, the second time was really bad), Behind the Steam Trains (my DH LOVED this one, he is still a 4 year old boy at heart and an engineer so it was perfect), and Backstage Magic.

We might do the Behind the Seeds sometime soon, on either one of our next trips. But that is the only other one we are slightly wanting to do.

We enjoy the tours, and I think that is why we were so disappointed in Backstage Magic is we were expecting MAGIC, and there wasn't much.

 

[Fenchurch]

Dax and Karentan, I really appreciate the input from both of you! DH, however, is pretty set on this tour. I will definitely share my feedback when it is over. I have read some good reviews, so I'm hoping the experience may vary and that we will get lucky. (insert smilie with crossed fingers here!)

So back to my original question, does anyone have any advice on which resort to pick?

 

[Fenchurch]

Bump

 

[DanBoris]

We did the Backstage Magic tour last week, and staying at the Swan we had the transportation issue. Since we needed to be at the main gate of Epcot by 8:45 AM, and this wasn't an EM day we ended up taking a cab. It's a short trip and we only needed to do it one way so it wasn't to expensive.

The tour we had was very similar to dax248's but I had a totally different opinion of it, I found it totally fascinating. We had a great tour guide (Deena) who gave us tons of interesting information and kept everything running on time so I don't believe we had to skip anything. The things we saw:

- On stage at Epcot by American Adventure, before park hours for the Epcot intro.
- Backstage at American Adventure

- Costume shop at DHS (Yes you do see this on Backlot, but you see much more on this tour)
- Maintenance shop for Tower of Terror

- Disney's Horticulture Center behind Animal Kingdom.

- Lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe in Wilderness Lodge (included in price)

- Disney's Textile Services. Yes this is the laundry, but I found it totally fascinating. Shows how much effort goes into even the most mundane thing at Disney

- Central Shops where all the ride vehicles, parade floats, animatronics, etc are created and maintained. We went through the main shop, wood shop, plastic shop, and paint shop.

- Utilidors under Main Street in Magic Kindgom.

- On stage for the Celebrate! A Dream Come True Parade. We arrived about 5 minutes before the parade and were shown a fantastic spot to get an up close view of the parade. Our tour guide had once been a parade manager so she had a lot of good info on how parades are run.

- On stage on Main Street where a lot of the little details were pointed out that you might otherwise miss.

Besides all of these stops, the tour bus (which was one of the nice buses normally used to take people to the cruise ships) passed through a lot of the backstage areas so you got to see things you normally wouldn't get to see. Our guide pointed out a number of things as we drove through backstage.

Even though they are showing you a lot behind the scenes they do protect some of the magic, especially when it comes to the costume characters. The tour guide made if very clear (even had us take an oath) that there is only one Mickey Mouse, so there really is not "Mickey costume" to talk about, and everyone on the tour was willing to play along with that.

Yes, it's a lot of money for the tour, and you definitely don't want to do it your first time there, or if you have a short vacation (it does take 7 hours). But if you have been to Disney a couple times and you want to see something different I personally recommend it.

Dan

 

[Fenchurch]

Thanks for your input! I'm sure there are a lot of variables that go into making the tour a good experience. I appreciate you sharing yours.

So it seems if there are no EMH we can't go through the park. I'm thinking on the whole it may be easier to stay at a monorail resort. I hear there are rooms at the Poly that are an easy walk to the TTC. Anyone have any advice there?

 

[dax248]

The Poly would be great to stay at for transportation stuff. I love when we stay there and are able to just walk to the monorail for Epcot. It is really nice if you are on the side closest to the TTC.

 

[Fenchurch]

Poly is sounding good!

Dax, I am curious about the surprise on your ticker...

Edited to add I read your PTR, sounds awesome!