Insider Tour Ending at DLand 12/23

[cat_herder]

People were getting angry about the tour filling up so quickly and not being able to get in...so that in turn caused a lot of problems at the VMK booth with angry people once again verbally abusing the VMK staff working at the booth.

Gee, I can't understand at all. I mean, so what that you've worked and saved for a couple of years to bring the family to park for week? Who cares that you are spending more money that week at their park then you spend all year for other entertainment? Who cares that you flew here from Timbuktu just for the tour and quest?

Nope, instead of making it better, we'll just cancel it and get everyone P.O.ed.

 

[4fosterkids]

I just heard news from VMK_Red that the tour is only closing for the holidays and she also said not to worry it wont close for good.

Well I hope this is correct and a little bit of good news.
The only thing that concerns me is that every tour card I've ever received expires on 12/31/05. Time will tell I guess.

 

[PrincessDonnaT]

Well that is pretty sad, and I don't blame them for ending the tours if people were so mean to the cast members. We wanted to hug our tour guide (right Caligirl & Jelly?), he was very nice.

Hopefully they can come up with a way to continue the tours with out people getting so bent out of shape.......

And you are sooo right about getting different answers from different workers...some are very nice & informative, others are just covering until the next person shows up...and it shows!

It is very sad people are verbally abusive to cast members. Our tour guide was very nice and informative.
Even if they charged a fee for the tour I would be more than happy to pay.
One tip I have for the tour is to make sure you get in right when the park opens. We were in line to get in Disneyland by 7:15 am (the park opened at 8:00) and went directly to the VMK booth. Not easy that early in the morning with 2 kids to be up and out of the hotel room. Especially since the night before we were in the park until almost midnight
It was worth it though...the tour was THE best!

 

[Someybody]

It is very sad people are verbally abusive to cast members. Our tour guide was very nice and informative.
Even if they charged a fee for the tour I would be more than happy to pay.
One tip I have for the tour is to make sure you get in right when the park opens. We were in line to get in Disneyland by 7:15 am (the park opened at 8:00) and went directly to the VMK booth. Not easy that early in the morning with 2 kids to be up and out of the hotel room. Especially since the night before we were in the park until almost midnight
It was worth it though...the tour was THE best!

I went on an early entry day(they open at seven) and ate breakfast. Then after that we went to the VMK central booh and we got our tour cards. It was during Thanksgiving to they were open then. I was waiting the whole day then we went on the tour.

 

[Maleficent2]

Here were some reason behind possibly ending the tour...
1. The tour guides were getting verbally abused by some of the people in the tour. IE- if the tour guide asked a question and a person was not picked, the tour guide would get yelled at. The guide also told me some of the tour takers were EXTREMELY competitive among the other players and it got pretty nasty.
2. You cannot make reservations for the tour and it only takes so many people per day. That means you have to be there when the park opens to sign up and the tour is filled usually with in 15 minutes. People were getting angry about the tour filling up so quickly and not being able to get in...so that in turn caused a lot of problems at the VMK booth with angry people once again verbally abusing the VMK staff working at the booth.
.

1. Hey Disney get a clue if you do not want your Tour Guides/CM's abused why not give a cards to everyone! Give TWO to the person who was picked to answer, that way they would have one to keep and one to trade if they so wanted promoting trading in the long haul. Afterall it is just a piece of cardboard with a virtual code for heavens sake!

2. Have morning Tours and afternoon tours and evening Tours and make sign up for each 1-2 hours before each tour. Saying this I have not been on a Tour so I do not know how many there are or when. But maybe if they added one to two tours more a day more people could be accomodated afterall that is the WHOLE reason for VMK it is a INFOMerical for the DISNEY PARKS and the Tours are one of the PERKS of playing!

As always just another one of my worthless opinions

Mal

 

[BriarRosie]

Gee, I can't understand at all. I mean, so what that you've worked and saved for a couple of years to bring the family to park for week? Who cares that you are spending more money that week at their park then you spend all year for other entertainment? Who cares that you flew here from Timbuktu just for the tour and quest?

Nope, instead of making it better, we'll just cancel it and get everyone P.O.ed.

I think some of the confusion stems from Disneyland vs. WDW.

From what I've been reading, the Disneyland tours are the "rush first
thing in the morning" bookings. At WDW, you can book your tour
ahead of time or for another day.

If Disneyland booked the tours the way WDW did, I don't see it
being such chaos.

 

[PrincessDonnaT]

I think some of the confusion stems from Disneyland vs. WDW.

From what I've been reading, the Disneyland tours are the "rush first
thing in the morning" bookings. At WDW, you can book your tour
ahead of time or for another day.

If Disneyland booked the tours the way WDW did, I don't see it
being such chaos.

I think you are so right about that. Then it wouldn't be such a frenzy in the morning. For some reason there seems to be a lot of differences between VMK at Disneyland and WDW.

 

[rangebob]

At WDW you are only able to sign up the day of the tour also.

 

[disvaclub92]

I just called the number that Mal gave (714) 781-7290. The person who answered stated that is was never their intention to run to tour for a long period of time (it was more a trial basis to see how the appeal was).

It appears based on the survey that was provided on the VMK site a few weeks ago, that the majority did not want a tour that they wanted other ways to get VMK prizes. I guess people did not want to spend two hours learning about Disney behind the scenes (FOR FREE). The VMK tour was essentially the Keys to the Kingdom Tour abbreviated. And it will end at the end of this year. Oh well.

 

[PrincessDonnaT]

1. Hey Disney get a clue if you do not want your Tour Guides/CM's abused why not give a cards to everyone! Give TWO to the person who was picked to answer, that way they would have one to keep and one to trade if they so wanted promoting trading in the long haul. Afterall it is just a piece of cardboard with a virtual code for heavens sake!

2. Have morning Tours and afternoon tours and evening Tours and make sign up for each 1-2 hours before each tour. Saying this I have not been on a Tour so I do not know how many there are or when. But maybe if they added one to two tours more a day more people could be accomodated afterall that is the WHOLE reason for VMK it is a INFOMerical for the DISNEY PARKS and the Tours are one of the PERKS of playing!

As always just another one of my worthless opinions

Mal

I totally agree. You figure the ppl have to get to the parks, pay to get in and jump through hoops to sign up for the tour AFTER completing and getting right all of the quest answers. If I were the tour guide I would be handing out cards like crazy.....
It also may have something to do with the tour guide. One of the girls on the tour with me had taken it before and said the last cast member (during the pirate quest) made everyone separate when filling out the answers so no one could copy . The cast member I had encouraged everyone to get together to fill it out ...plus she also helped with answers so everyone would get their set of pirate cards. I guess some cast members feel they have the power of "the cards" and make ppl work for the prizes. which is not a good thing. Like you said..it's a VIRTUAL PRIZE on a card for goodness sakes.
I think it would also be good to add tours if the demand is there. Maybe even adding tours as people request them/or as they fill up. They run about 2 hours long and after going through one, could very easily lead a tour on my own. In fact I think I knew more about VMK than the cast member.
Also...some of the stores will give VMK cards with a purchase. At the candy store near the pooh rice they were giving penny presses with candy purchases. One cast member who was working there just gave me a bunch of cards (after my purchase of course). Then another cast member working there would only give one card per transaction . So I just had her ring each item in seprately...lol Amazing...

 

[PrincessDonnaT]

I just called the number that Mal gave (714) 781-7290. The person who answered stated that is was never their intention to run to tour for a long period of time (it was more a trial basis to see how the appeal was).

It appears based on the survey that was provided on the VMK site a few weeks ago, that the majority did not want a tour that they wanted other ways to get VMK prizes. I guess people did not want to spend two hours learning about Disney behind the scenes (FOR FREE). The VMK tour was essentially the Keys to the Kingdom Tour abbreviated. And it will end at the end of this year. Oh well.

Maybe it would help if they gave people the option of making the pirate quest like the other quests where you fill out the cards and turn them in to get your Virtual Prizes. Then people short on time could have an option.
When I was there the only way you could get the pirate things was to take the tour. I know that is one of the main reasons why so many ppl were wanting to take the tour.

 

[Coasterguy]

Well, still in shock I chose to redeem them right then. We got all our cards and walked away. After a few minutes, I returned to the VMK, where another cast member had taken over and asked if the Insider tour was ending for good on 12/23 or changing to another kind of tour. He informed me that the tours were ending!!! I then questioned if VMK was going to end too, and he said he did not think so, but to check at City Hall.......and hopefully they could answer my questions.
Wow, is all I could say! I asked him about WDW tours and he said he believed all tours were ending but did not have specifics for WDW!

What cards did you get? Just the Pirate stuff or other tour stuff too. Train Teleporters, Adventureland stuff, Gold set, 500 credit card?

 

[4fosterkids]

I was given the following:
Frontierland cards
Adventureland cards
Fantasyland cards
Tomorrowland cards

then they had prebundled the following:
Seagull hat
Pirate treasure rug
Gorilla poster
Rhino poster
Flaming Window
Big thunder mountain teleporter
captains quarter couch
crow's nest bar stool
pirate prison room
pirate insider tour pin

 

[BriarRosie]

At WDW you are only able to sign up the day of the tour also.

That wasn't the case for me.

I was allowed to book my tour for the following day. I couldn't take the
4:30pm tour due to conflicts with the Halloween party closing the park
earlier than normal.

 

[darkpraxis]

Cast members are always verbally abused no matter where they work. I've seen it a million times in every possible place in the parks. That is not a reason the tour would be cancelled and that NEVER should have been said to someone in the first place. That said, it might have been due to the survey, the tour being free, guests fighting other guests for answers/cards (idiots), understaffing, or a combination of any of these or other things not thought of. Do you know what the tour guides get paid? You don't get quality people for that. You get rare awesome cast members that are enthusiastic mixed in with people that just want a job and they don't care what it is. Those end up quitting, transferring to a dumbed down department, or get fired. High turnaround and understaffing is the problem I think especially during the holidays with the 50th anniversary coupled with it. And those quality cast members, i bet they get fed up with how they're treated by both the company and the bad customers and eventually leave too. It's a sad cycle. Adding tours? They were probably struggling to keep whatever they had.

Each cast member you talk to will always give you different information. You think the ones on the front lines are actually told anything far enough in advance. Most of them are as in the dark as we are, I'm sure, and give you the best info they know on the rumors they've heard and things they've experienced. And if the cast member doesn't play vmk (can you blame them, they work there 5 days a week to go home to see their workplace virtually) then they'll know even less. Asking vmk staff players isn't a good idea either imho. They probably aren't in contact with the park side of things as one might think. And even if they are, again they are only slightly higher than the front liners. They don't make the ultimate executive decisions and probably aren't told everything until it happens either. I've gotten a lot of idk's from vmk_ whoevers with questions I've asked.

But think positively, if you can, after reading my semi-rant. Jan and Feb are slow seasons, maybe they'll bring it back then or something new. New things are always interesting. I just hope everyone compliments vmk and what they're doing even if they have hiccups. The insider tour was so fun, but maybe something new will have us forgetting about it. VMK-what'sit-tour?

 

[DementedRiku]

I think some of the confusion stems from Disneyland vs. WDW.

From what I've been reading, the Disneyland tours are the "rush first
thing in the morning" bookings. At WDW, you can book your tour
ahead of time or for another day.

If Disneyland booked the tours the way WDW did, I don't see it
being such chaos.

Man that was the worst thing about bookin at DL! We had to wake up before parked open and get there 30 min early and wait in the queue to get in park. What stunk was that the people that stayed in the DL Hotel got to go in the park before it opened! So even with me and my sisters being there 30 mins early and running straight to VMK central when DL OFFICIALLY opened, we barely made the last tour! All the earlier ones were completely booked! I'm kind of glad that's going away. It made me ticked off!

 

[MiakodaWDW]

All I can say is, for anyone who didn't read my novel on another thread about our trips, it took us two trips to WDW, countless phone calls and transfers, and one very nice Guest Relations CM named Maria to get us on the second to last tour at WDW. It was worth it.

For those that missed the tour at WDW, and are not happy with just getting the cards, I suggest to shell out the extra money (when I went, 5 years ago, it was $50 a person, and totally worth every penny) and go on the Keys to the Kingdom tour, which is not vmk-related but 6 hours long and you can go underneath the MK in the tunnels (you have to be 16 or older to go on it, but there are tours for kids too). That way you get the cards and the tour, and yes, you have to pay extra, but the KttK tour is much longer and better than VMK tour, and will probably never end as far as we know.

~M

P.S. this is my 1,015th post! I was looking towards number 1000 so I could congratulate myself, but forgot. Now I'll never know which one it was. Oh well...yay me! And I've only been here since October...omg I spend waaaaaaay too much time on here....! Well, I can say this: darkpraxis welcome to the DIS and congrats on your FIRST post (the one above!!!)

 

[darkpraxis]

Thank you very much! The only reason I joined really was to get news about vmk, lol. I became a junkie.

 

[MiakodaWDW]

Thank you very much! The only reason I joined really was to get news about vmk, lol. I became a junkie.

Yes, it happens to us all...DIS sucks you in...I think it's a conspiracy!!! (shhhh......)

~M