Family Magic Tour

[cwnhokie]

Has anyone done this? It looks like loads of fun for our group on 12, with kids ranging in age from 3 - 12. Unfortunately I don't know if we can squeeze it in. I don't think I want to do it on our first MK day because it is at 10:00 and I think the part of the family that has never been would be better off with rides at that time. I've already planned a ton of things to do...CM, CP, CRT, WCC, HDDR, Pirate Cruise, Fantasmic Dinner package, and around the world on a Segway for the grandparents. What do you think?

 

[mommykds]

If you can fit it in, it is alot of fun for both the kids & grown ups.

You solve clues & run all over the MK doing silly things to find Capt Hook's hook. We did it in October on our last day at Disney & we all had a blast.

 

[Bob P]

Here is a link to more info and reviews:
http://allearsnet.com/btp/tours.htm#fmt

Bob

 

[liquid]

We loved it! The older ones enjoyed it as much as the younger ones and my husband and I had a blast!

Here is a thread from a few months ago with a few reviews - one by me !!

Family Magic Tour Thread 10/05

 

[cwnhokie]

Ok, here's the deal. I called and they have a spot available on the day we planned for MK (is it a sign?) I can't decide if we should take the time, I guess about 10-12, I'm more worried about the ones in our party that have never been. Isn't that time frame a pretty good time to ride the rides before it gets too crowded?

Then I was thinking we could do it instead of the pirate cruise that I have planned for DS5 and his cousins who are 8 and 9. I think they are mainly going, just to go with him, but they are looking forward to it. DS has said that he doesn't really want to do it, but I know he will go and enjoy it with his cousins. But if we did the Family Magic Tour all of us could do it, including DS3, that will be very disappointed about the pirate cruise.

Or we could wait and do it just DH, DS5, DS3, and me later in the week, we are staying longer than the rest of the family.

So I guess my main question is... Is it worth taking the time away from riding rides and stuff, especially for the older kids?

 

[DisneyArk]

My personal opinion is not to take the tour on your first day in Magic Kingdom. We did it later in our trip and the boys had already ridden most of the rides. My sons were 3 and 5 and loved it. My 5 year old could read and enjoyed it much more than the 3 year old. My DS3 got tired of walking - I don't think they let us bring a stroller. The older kids were nice enough to let him carry the map and he liked that.

One more thing, with your kids being 3 and 5, IMHO they will have more fun if you are wild and crazy and not embarrassed. The kids who had stuffy parents didn't seem to get into it as much. So get ready to embarrass yourself and have lots of fun!

I think the Family Magic Tour is wonderful for a long trip, but I wouldn't do it if I was only at WDW for a few days. It's 2 hours that you could be riding rides or seeing attractions.

Edited to add - I think it might be a good substitute for the Pirate Cruise - especially if your son doesn't want to go without you. I've been debating on letting my sons do the cruise next time (my youngest is now old enough). One of the things I love most about WDW is watching my kids and seeing the magic through their eyes - I don't want to miss seeing them have so much fun. The end of the FMT is so awesome to have time alone with a character!!

 

[cwnhokie]

Believe me, DH and I are no strangers to making fools of ourselves. My DS5 is already telling me to knock it off sometimes. Mostly he just enjoys it.

 

[DisneyArk]

Too funny! That's great that you can have fun and not be embarrassed. I tend to go ahead and be crazy with my kids, but I'm well aware of the fact that other people must be wondering if I'm crazy.

I read the link that Liquid posted above and saw that several people in that thread said do not do FMT on the first day at MK. I was sad to read that several DISers saw families drop out of the FMT because their children were begging to ride the rides. That would be such a shame because the ending is the best part!

I hope you get more responses!

 

[liquid]

Yeah, I would try not to do it on the first day. I think that most kids would not enjoy being hustled past rides they haven't had a chance to experience! We were able to take the tour towards the end of our trip; rushing from *world* to *world* was fun, but it probably would have been disorienting at the beginning of our trip.

 

[MECH8T7]

Tough call. We did this last March (me, DW, DD4, DD6) on our first family trip to WDW but it was near the end of our trip. We had a GREAT, GREAT time. But, based on your circumstances, I think you might be better off just doing it on your own later in the week. What I will say is that, despite all the fun things we did all week, the Family Magic Tour was a very special because the kids got a chance to personally interact with some of the characters for an extended period of time for the last 40 minutes or so of the tour.

What time does MK open on the day that you are thinking of doing it? If it is on an EMH morning at MK (i.e., 8 am opening if you are staying on-site), you'd be able to get a couple of hours of rides in before the tour. May be that would be enough to satisfy a first-timer until after the end of the tour? Just a thought.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We did this with DS9 and thought it was just OK. The younger kids seemed to enjoy it a lot more than our DS. He was the oldest child in the tour, so I think he felt kind of odd. And the adults in our tour did NOT participate. Our tour guide was lovely, but she didn't push the adults to get involved so maybe that's why.

If DS had someone to go with him on the Pirate Cruise I would absolutely sign him up for that, but that's just me. DS never mentioned the tour after it was over, which makes me think it didn't leave much of an impression. Good luck with your decision!

 

[cwnhokie]

My guys 3 and 5 were there last March. The newbies are 8,9,12, and 13, I just talked to their mom and she said it sounds like something they would like, she said her's are not big into rides and would probably be fine waiting until after the tour to check things out. She said my neice 12 was kind of bummed about not getting to do the Pirate Cruise, so maybe it would be good to do something that everyone could do. I could keep the pirate cruise, but really how much do they need to do, before it's just overstimulation. The park opens at 9 that day, DSIL, SBIL, and the two neices have ADRs at CRT at 8:10 and the rest of us have ADRs at CP at 8:15, I was thinking about cancelling CP because we are already doing a bunch of other things, but DH just told me definately not! I guess he really liked it last year. I was thinking we could take our two boys to MK the night before for a few hours after we get done with AK, but I think it's EMH and we are not onsite for the first part of our trip, so that may not be a good idea. Such hard decisions, I swore I was going to put that darn UOG down and just be happy with what we got, then I found this.

 

[cwnhokie]

I booked it. My SIL said her kids all thought it sounded fun and didn't mind waiting to do the rides until after. My son said he wanted to have breakfast with Tigger still and didn't want to do the tour or the pirate cruise. I think he will like it once we start. Thanks for the responses.