Is this doable for VIP Day?

[1st_trip_10/05]

We have an 8 hour VIP day scheduled this month. Family consists of 2 adults & 5 kids aged 7-21. We will meet our guide at AK where I have morning FP for Dino & Navi River. We are meeting at FOP and will start with that then head to Expedition Everest and that’s it there. I’d love to do all 4 parks but wondering if it’s possible. We will bring sandwiches and snacks to eat in van between parks, no sit down meals. We end the tour with being seated for MK fireworks. Here’s my plan:

Animal Kingdom
FOP
Exp Everest

Epcot
Test Track
Soarin
Frozen

Hollywood Studios
Star Wars (we aren’t SW fans so I don’t expect us to spend much time here)
SDD
Alien Swirling Saucers
Toy Story
Rock N Rollercoaster
Tower of Terror


Magic Kingdom
Pirates
BTMR
Haunted Mansion
Peter Pan
Barnstormer
Winnie The Pooh
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Space Mt
Astro Orbiter
Buzz Lightyear

Any advice? Is this too much?

 

[jemmls]

I am interested in what the answer is. I have been toying with idea of doing VIP tour on one day of our trip in Nov. and trying to do most everything on your list. I would not do about half you have listed for MK.

 

[Alison S]

Just a random thought- Everest doesn't have very long waits in the morning (like between 9-10). Why not do it first without a FP? Then do your FPs, then FoP with the guide and leave right away. It would save you the time getting from FoP to Everest.

I'm not sure you have time for everything at MK. Hope it works out!

 

[The Pho]

So we’ve done a few VIP tours. Usually the focus is to do as many rides as we can and hit 3 of the parks. We cut Epcot out because it’s rides are easy to avoid the waits for and everything is so far apart. The best way for rough planning is just mapping out how long each attraction will take including travel time to it and always round up. So my rough estimates for how long you should expect to lose to each attraction is below. You should be able to fit all of this into 8 hours, assuming you move at what I consider average speed. However I would tell you to consider trying for Everest while you are on that side of the park doing Dinosaur, the line isn’t bad early and there’s always the singles line. Zig zagging across the park costs a lot of time and energy starting off your day. It’ll give you a little more wiggle room to reride a favorite attraction or to move a little slower. Personally I’d also cut out Epcot for rerides at the other parks unless this is your only day at the parks.
But this is certainly possible. Also if this is indeed what you want, give this list to your guide ahead of time and they can make sure to plan for it in an optimal order. It’ll help with travel and car placement as well.


Animal Kingdom
FOP -30
Exp Everest -20

Epcot -30
Test Track-20
Soarin-20
Frozen-15

Hollywood Studios-30
Star Wars (we aren’t SW fans so I don’t expect us to spend much time here)-60
SDD-15
Alien Swirling Saucers-10
Toy Story-10
Rock N Rollercoaster-15
Tower of Terror-15


Magic Kingdom-30
Pirates-20
BTMR-15
Haunted Mansion-10
Peter Pan-10
Barnstormer-10
Winnie The Pooh-10
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train-20
Space Mt-20
Astro Orbiter-15
Buzz Lightyear-10

 

[kaytieeldr]

I'm curious. It sounds like you're planning to go to go for eight full hours (completely understandable, given what you're paying) without allowing your guide any kind of meal break?

 

[F.R.I.D.A.Y.]

We have an 8 hour VIP day scheduled this month. Family consists of 2 adults & 5 kids aged 7-21. We will meet our guide at AK where I have morning FP for Dino & Navi River. We are meeting at FOP and will start with that then head to Expedition Everest and that’s it there. I’d love to do all 4 parks but wondering if it’s possible. We will bring sandwiches and snacks to eat in van between parks, no sit down meals. We end the tour with being seated for MK fireworks. Here’s my plan:

Animal Kingdom
FOP
Exp Everest

Epcot
Test Track
Soarin
Frozen

Hollywood Studios
Star Wars (we aren’t SW fans so I don’t expect us to spend much time here)
SDD
Alien Swirling Saucers
Toy Story
Rock N Rollercoaster
Tower of Terror


Magic Kingdom
Pirates
BTMR
Haunted Mansion
Peter Pan
Barnstormer
Winnie The Pooh
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Space Mt
Astro Orbiter
Buzz Lightyear

Any advice? Is this too much?

Is this the order you plan to do the parks or just a random order? I ask because from a time-saving perspective, it would work better to do Hollywood Studios after Animal Kingdom and before Epcot.

I do think you have a bit too much on your list for 8 hours. You'll lose about an hour of that just in time spent hopping between parks, even if you do them in the optimal order. Things always tend to take longer than you'll expect, and then once you add in time spent stopping for restrooms, gift shops, snack, etc., it adds up. If you're really disciplined about not stopping much and wasting time unnecessarily, you should be able to make it to most of what's on your list. I agree with the PP that doing Everest on your own before the tour would be a smart idea; you probably can even find a FP for it. And just as a note, Astro Orbiter is not always available for expedited VIP access. You can certainly ask your guide, as there's a decent chance the answer is yes, but be prepared if it isn't.

One other thing, since it sounds like you're planning on eating in the car while you hop between parks, please make sure you give your guide a moment to step away while you're on one of the lengthier attractions, so they have a chance to get themselves something to eat. Since they'll also be your driver, if you were to insist they ride everything with you, they may not get a chance to eat at all during the day.

 

[F.R.I.D.A.Y.]

So we’ve done a few VIP tours. Usually the focus is to do as many rides as we can and hit 3 of the parks. We cut Epcot out because it’s rides are easy to avoid the waits for and everything is so far apart. The best way for rough planning is just mapping out how long each attraction will take including travel time to it and always round up. So my rough estimates for how long you should expect to lose to each attraction is below. You should be able to fit all of this into 8 hours, assuming you move at what I consider average speed. However I would tell you to consider trying for Everest while you are on that side of the park doing Dinosaur, the line isn’t bad early and there’s always the singles line. Zig zagging across the park costs a lot of time and energy starting off your day. It’ll give you a little more wiggle room to reride a favorite attraction or to move a little slower. Personally I’d also cut out Epcot for rerides at the other parks unless this is your only day at the parks.
But this is certainly possible.


Animal Kingdom
FOP -30
Exp Everest -20

Epcot -30
Test Track-20
Soarin-20
Frozen-15

Hollywood Studios-30
Star Wars (we aren’t SW fans so I don’t expect us to spend much time here)-60
SDD-15
Alien Swirling Saucers-10
Toy Story-10
Rock N Rollercoaster-15
Tower of Terror-15


Magic Kingdom-30
Pirates-20
BTMR-15
Haunted Mansion-10
Peter Pan-10
Barnstormer-10
Winnie The Pooh-10
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train-20
Space Mt-20
Astro Orbiter-15
Buzz Lightyear-10

Respectfully, I think you're definitely underestimating how long some of these attractions will take and not accounting for time spent getting between them. I'd add about 5 minutes more to most of your estimates, and then Test Track and Soarin' usually take much closer to 30 minutes each. SDMT probably won't take 20 though, unless the FP line is backed up.

 

[The Pho]

Respectfully, I think you're definitely underestimating how long some of these attractions will take and not accounting for time spent getting between them. I'd add about 5 minutes more to most of your estimates, and then Test Track and Soarin' usually take much closer to 30 minutes each. SDMT probably won't take 20 though, unless the FP line is backed up.

Perhaps I underestimated some but this is mostly what I experienced last week on my tour. With my average fastpass experience mixed in. I still think it’s possible, but they’ll be on a fast paced tour with no rest time. I’d still suggest trying for Everest beforehand and maybe moving a few things to after the fireworks like Barnstormer and Pooh since those are easy to squeeze in quickly at the end of the night. My estimates give them 20 minutes to spare, so pretty tight. And any ride downtimes would really throw off their timing.

 

[F.R.I.D.A.Y.]

Perhaps I underestimated some but this is mostly what I experienced last week on my tour. With my average fastpass experience mixed in. I still think it’s possible, but they’ll be on a fast paced tour with no rest time. I’d still suggest trying for Everest beforehand and maybe moving a few things to after the fireworks like Barnstormer and Pooh since those are easy to squeeze in quickly at the end of the night. My estimates give them 20 minutes to spare, so pretty tight. And any ride downtimes would really throw off their timing.

I would concede on a perfect day, with no ride downtime at any attraction and perfectly managed FP lines, and no stoppage time beyond maybe a single restroom break, that their wish list would be potentially doable. The problem is reality usually doesn't cooperate, and I'd rather the OP go into their tour with the awareness that they may not be able to fit in everything on their list. What the OP does have on their side is the fact that this is a quiet month for the parks, so they shouldn't hopefully run into many backed up FP queues, outside of those caused by attraction downtime. I'd agree that trying to cut a few things from their list, to do on their own time, would be a good idea, especially at Magic Kingdom since it will be easy to add them back in if you have more time or leave them for after the fireworks if you're running short on time.

 

[1st_trip_10/05]

Thank you so much for all this great feedback! This is our first VIP tour so I'm not really sure how to plan it. The reason we even signed up for the tour is because we had this September trip planned thinking crowds were going to be so low then SWGE opening was announced and like so many other people I thought our trip is totally ruined and imagined shoulder to shoulder crowds with HS being at full capacity and not even being able to go. I now see this is definitely not the case and we'll be fine. I also have Disney money to spend so the tour is a great splurge. I've had the Disney Visa and been accumulating reward dollars for 8+ years and planned to use it to fund our entire trip including resort & park tickets. We wound up renting DVC points and can't use rewards so we decided we'd use the rewards for a VIP day. I am very much the type that wants to get every dimes worth that we're spending on this day, especially since it's an insane amount of money. Trying to balance making the most of the day and hitting the most rides without being so insane that my kids aren't allowed bathroom breaks because according to my calculations that's 10 minutes and that's equal to $40. LOLOLOL!!!!! I think it's crazy when I see people make a dining reservation during VIP time. That just made that a really expensive meal! Yikes! To answer some questions:

We can try to do Expedition Everest before the tour starts. We do have another AK day planned and I do have a FP for that so not a big deal if we don't ride on VIP day, just figured I'd add it since we were there and wouldn't have to wait in line.

I actually just added Epcot. We were only planning to do the 3 parks but thought if it's a quick zip in and hit those 3 rides and zip on out we should just add it. We will be at Epcot 2 other days. Our arrival day we will monorail on over to Epcot for a Soarin FP and 2 other rides and then our last day is Epcot with a Frozen FP. I'm sure we can hit Test Track one of those days too so I probably should just take Epcot off the VIP day.

Didn't think about the guide needing to eat. Glad that was brought up. I guess I just figured they make sure their own needs are met and they work eating into their day. Side question...are we supposed to pay for their food?

The list of parks is just random order.

Having never done the tour I don't have a clue about how much can be done in the 8 hours. I just keep thinking how people do 4 parks and ride SO many rides, if not all, and that's on their own without essentially unlimited FP and a van driving around backstage areas. Of course that's with taking advantage of EMH or EEMH and late nights with more than 8 hours but I kind of thought that 8 hours was just so much time. Your comments all give me a better understanding though.

Some of the Magic Kingdom rides aren't a big deal at all if we do them. Like Barnstormer, Winnie the Pooh, Astro Orbiter, etc. I was just trying to put anything that I thought may be of interest to my kids. We have another MK day planned and can ride those rides that day.

Thank you all for the great feedback! Lots to think about.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I agree with the others regarding AK. When is your Nav'i FP+? Personally, I would RD Everest (or get a FP+ for it) and ride it several times if interested (at RD, we've walked on 3 to 4 times in a row without a line building), do Dino and Nav'i with FP+. I would then meet the VIP Tour Guide at FOP, ride it at least twice (if interested) and head to DHS from there. I think you are smart to drop EP from the tour and just cover those rides during your other planned days there. With wait times and walking, you were looking at at least 1.5 to 2 hours just to do those 3 rides in EP. DHS looks good and I wouldn't hesitate to re-ride something you like - with your VIP Guide, this is the time to do it! Do you have other days planned at MK? If so, what FP+ do you have at MK on your other days? If this is not your only day at MK, I would drop rides like Dumbo and Barnstormer from your VIP list (unless you kids want to ride these repeatedly). If you guide can't get you priority access to Astro Orbiter, I would drop that too. That line is a massive time suck. I, personally, would look at my overall vacation park touring plan and use my VIP day to ride any hard-to-get rides (FoP, SDD, Smuggler's Run, 7DMT, etc.) that I really love repeatedly. It's pretty fun to be able to walk onto FoP through the FP+ line 2 times in a row!

 

[The Pho]

Thank you so much for all this great feedback! This is our first VIP tour so I'm not really sure how to plan it. The reason we even signed up for the tour is because we had this September trip planned thinking crowds were going to be so low then SWGE opening was announced and like so many other people I thought our trip is totally ruined and imagined shoulder to shoulder crowds with HS being at full capacity and not even being able to go. I now see this is definitely not the case and we'll be fine. I also have Disney money to spend so the tour is a great splurge. I've had the Disney Visa and been accumulating reward dollars for 8+ years and planned to use it to fund our entire trip including resort & park tickets. We wound up renting DVC points and can't use rewards so we decided we'd use the rewards for a VIP day. I am very much the type that wants to get every dimes worth that we're spending on this day, especially since it's an insane amount of money. Trying to balance making the most of the day and hitting the most rides without being so insane that my kids aren't allowed bathroom breaks because according to my calculations that's 10 minutes and that's equal to $40. LOLOLOL!!!!! I think it's crazy when I see people make a dining reservation during VIP time. That just made that a really expensive meal! Yikes! To answer some questions:

We can try to do Expedition Everest before the tour starts. We do have another AK day planned and I do have a FP for that so not a big deal if we don't ride on VIP day, just figured I'd add it since we were there and wouldn't have to wait in line.

I actually just added Epcot. We were only planning to do the 3 parks but thought if it's a quick zip in and hit those 3 rides and zip on out we should just add it. We will be at Epcot 2 other days. Our arrival day we will monorail on over to Epcot for a Soarin FP and 2 other rides and then our last day is Epcot with a Frozen FP. I'm sure we can hit Test Track one of those days too so I probably should just take Epcot off the VIP day.

Didn't think about the guide needing to eat. Glad that was brought up. I guess I just figured they make sure their own needs are met and they work eating into their day. Side question...are we supposed to pay for their food?

The list of parks is just random order.

Having never done the tour I don't have a clue about how much can be done in the 8 hours. I just keep thinking how people do 4 parks and ride SO many rides, if not all, and that's on their own without essentially unlimited FP and a van driving around backstage areas. Of course that's with taking advantage of EMH or EEMH and late nights with more than 8 hours but I kind of thought that 8 hours was just so much time. Your comments all give me a better understanding though.

Some of the Magic Kingdom rides aren't a big deal at all if we do them. Like Barnstormer, Winnie the Pooh, Astro Orbiter, etc. I was just trying to put anything that I thought may be of interest to my kids. We have another MK day planned and can ride those rides that day.

Thank you all for the great feedback! Lots to think about.

Sounds like you have a good amount of flexibility in there, which is pretty important. You don’t have to have a hard plan in place for the tour. You can decide where to go as the day progresses. So you can cut things if you’re running slower than planned or even add things if you’re moving quicker, and your guide will be able to help you figure out that best path to hit the most. And you don’t have to buy the guide a meal, but we do always tip them.

You’ll find your best value by enjoying your day. And in your case it sounds like you’re doing the tour mostly for the fastpasses. So hit the stuff that usually has long lines and reride them a few times if you like. Start at FoP, move to Studios, you’ll start there at Rockin and Tower, moving your way into Toy Story and the Falcon. Once you hit everything in that park decide if Epcot is really important to hit (and it sounds like dropping it isn’t an issue) or if you’d rather the time in Magic.

The people that manage to do all rides in all 4 parks in a single day move at a very fast pace that most wouldn’t find enjoyable. I’ve done it, and the main reason to do it is for bragging rights. It’s not something I’d recommend for most to try.

 

[F.R.I.D.A.Y.]

Didn't think about the guide needing to eat. Glad that was brought up. I guess I just figured they make sure their own needs are met and they work eating into their day. Side question...are we supposed to pay for their food?

No, Disney will cover just about everything your guide eats and drinks, outside of a few exceptions, so you do not need to pay for their food. As far as making sure their own needs are met, they do take care of what they need to generally while their guests are on rides, but if the guests insist they ride everything or only do shorter length attractions, that becomes much more difficult. Just communicating that you’re aware they’ll probably need to eat at some point and are ok with them bowing out of an attraction or two to do so will go a long way.

 

[MomOTwins]

I also think this is too tight a schedule. Also, there is so much on your list that you really do not need VIP access for since the waits are not too long. I'd plan to use your VIP for BTMR, Peter Pan, 7DMT, and Space in MK (even that might be cutting it close with the things you want at the other parks), and do the rest on your own after your 8 hours is up.

P.S. Astro Orbiter is closed for refurbishment.

 

[tamerbelles]

Throwing in another consideration: Will you be ALLOWED to eat in the car? Technically, you're not allowed to eat or drink on the buses ... And personally, I'd be afraid my kids would leave a mess in the vehicle.

I completely understand the "time is money" argument, but sitting down to eat at some point (even a quick service), will help you all recharge to enjoy the rest of your day. You've got some ambitious plans, and you'll need some energy!

P.S. Eight+ years of Visa rewards?!?! IMPRESSIVE.

 

[xuxa777]

Since you are spending more than one day at the parks, don't get caught up with the idea that you have to do as much as possible to get your moneys worth. To really get the value out of VIP, don't over plan, rush, don't worry about trying to eat in car. VIP gives you the ability to do what you want without having to stress about being efficient with your time. That is literally what you are paying for. RIde FOP three or four time in a row and then decide you want to head over to Disney and do slinky a bunch etc. etc. Don't worry about a snack or bathroom break is $/minute. You are playing for flexibility to do just that. Hit the rides your really want , skip all the so/so or easy access rides unless you really want them. The flexibilty to enjoy the parks the way you want is the joy of VIP, not trying to fit in everything. Leave that to the Disney youtubers. HAve fun the way you want to do be tied too much to a schedule, you will have a great time.

 

[White Rose]

We had a group of 10 from an 80 year old birthday boy who ballroom dances 6 days a week, to an 11 year old with shin splits. (I think that is what she had) we told the guide what we wanted to do and he told us where to go and what order. We followed like ducklings. Quack!

When it poured for an hour, and my SIL refused to move, he got the kids on some indoor rides and took care of the adults too. ( she was not paying for the tour guide and we would have wasted an hour of time because of her! OMG the guide was amazing and stopped me from killing my SIL several times.)

Let them know what you want to accomplish and they will do the scheduling and tell you how likely it is to get done what you want. They know wait times, they can drop you off backstage right at a ride entrance. You are paying for their expertise...relax. Enjoy your VIP experience!

 

[dez1978]

how does one go about scheduling something like this, and how much does it run?

 

[rlk]

Just to let you know, your VIP guide will drive you around Epcot to minimize walking time. For one of our tours we parked right behind Test Track, then drove behind World Showcase to get on the Frozen ride and meet Anna & Elsa. After the meet, we got back into the car and were driven to Soarin. Being driven was a real time saver. At Animal Kingdom we also entered right behind Pandora and then were driven to Expedition Everest.

 

[The Pho]

how does one go about scheduling something like this, and how much does it run?

Call (407) 560-4033
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/private-vip-tours/
Private tours start at $425/hour with a 7 hour minimum.