Keys to the Kingdom Tour...bad tour guide?

[dburg30]

Claire was our guide on our KTTK tour in November and we all thought she was fabulous. You could tell she really loved Disney and genuinely wanted to share her love with us. She was great about pointing out details and things we wouldn't normally notice and full of interesting facts. I would take her tour again!

We had Claire and did NOT enjoy her at all! So yes - you can get a 'bad' tour guide.

For the posters that went on the Keys tours twice... why did you that? It was a long day... and after experiencing Claire... not too sure I would want to chance that again.

Thanks

I have to agree with the first poster, I've done the tour 2 times (dont think I did it 3) and had claire one of them, and LOVED her. So just because you didnt enjoy her, doesnt mean she was 'bad' IMO. Did she give you wrong info? or what made her 'bad' to you? Honestly, it really doesnt matter to me, as I know what myself and my huge disney freak friend thought. We both really enjoyed her.

Now the thing I will admit to, and maybe this could have something to do with it. I had claire almost 5 years ago now? at least 4 years. So if you've had her recently, maybe something has changed. She's wasnt young then, so perhaps something has changed in those years.

I remember her name because I enjoyed it so much, and also remember Jim from the railroad tour they do, but dont remember the other KTTK guide. He wasnt 'bad' but just not as passionate or memorable as claire. So just wanted to throw that out there.

And with the amount of info available on the interwebs and places like this, if you do lots of disney fact finding / info gathering, there isnt a lot 'new'they will tell you if you've looked into things like that before hand.

 

[Bob NC]

We did it a number of years ago and had a guide named Brick. He was enthusiastic, knowledgeable, we couldn't have asked for a better guide.

 

[hannahryan]

I've done KTTK twice now. The first time I was on my own...and a bit nervous about not knowing anyone. But, I actually found that there were some DISers on our tour!!! And people were really friendly. Our tour guide was Jared. He was, quite simply, incredible. He kept things moving, he gave us plenty of sit down breaks. He was informative. He was witty and funny. Very personable. We laughed all the time and had such a wonderful time.
So, fast forward about 3 years. My dd is now old enough to take this tour..she had been dying to do it for years. So, she turned 16 and we did the tour. We had an older gentleman.....and he was no competition for Jared!!!! When I say older, you have to understand that I'm 62...so older is really 'older' to me. He kept up a steady stream of info about himself and his past and what he used to do before becoming a WDW CM. He gave some perfunctory info about what we were seeing. He spent way too much time standing and chatting about himself and his back story while in the utilidoor areas. I think we just stood around, in that one long hall area, for about 20 mins. It was incredibly boring and annoying. Perhaps no one else felt the same as I did since they had nothing to compare it too as I did.

A good tour guide can really make your experience wonderful, while a less than wonderful guide can bring it down.

Thanks for your responses. From the poll it appears that the chance of getting a good tour guide are high, so we will try it again next year. Michelle was our tour guide and maybe I should find a way to provide feedback to Disney about our experience with her in order to help them improve in the future.

 

[Lancer]

Like so many others, I have taken this tour multiple times, a few years apart. The first guide was excellent, the second guide however, was not. I forget his name but he was an older gentlemen(not saying age was a factor) who told the group that he just returned home from vacation at 2:00 am and had to be ready to give our tour at 9:00am. His presentation was noticably off, he did not cover nearly as much as the first tours guide had and seemed to rush through everything. I had the impression that he just wanted to get it over as soon as possible and go back to bed.

I have also taken almost all of the other tours that WDW offers and everyone of the guides I had were excellent. On one such tour, it was the guides first solo tour and unbeknownst to the rest of the group til the end, one of the guests turned out to be his supervisor evaluating his preformance. I remember talking to this guest/supervisor many times during the tour and had to think back hoping that I didnt say anything embarassing!

 

[Twigs]

We had Rae 2 years ago and she was terrific.

 

[goofy4tink]

We had Claire and did NOT enjoy her at all! So yes - you can get a 'bad' tour guide.

For the posters that went on the Keys tours twice... why did you that? It was a long day... and after experiencing Claire... not too sure I would want to chance that again.

Thanks

I went the first time around because I was alone and needed some stuff to fill in some 'free' time. And I really enjoyed it...met some terrific people. I did it a second time because my dd and dh hadn't done it and really wanted to. You have to be 16, so dd hadn't been old enough on prior trips. I was really disappointed that we didn't have the same type 'experience' that I had had on my solo tour.
Would I do it again, a third time? I doubt it. Enough is enough.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

We had Justin in Sept 2011 and he was awesome. We loved the tour and will be doing it again in the next year or so.

 

[RachaelA]

We had Mark in 09 for KTTK and LOVED him. DH and I were actually watching one of the Undiscovered Disney specials on TV a couple of weeks ago and they were talking about the VIP tours and DH goes, "I wonder if they'll interview Mark." And then 5 seconds later they did so I know Disney agrees he's awesome as well

 

[julluvsdisney]

We went July 2011 and had Daniel. He was awesome! Very funny very enthusiastic very entertaining and he knew his stuff! We loved it and would like to go again with my DH maybe this yr! It was really good!

 

[scrapquitler]

Out tour guide was Rae and she was terrific. I hope those who were happy or unhappy with their guide filled out comment cards at Guest Relations. Without feedback nothing will change.

rae was the guide when we went last October, and we thought she was excellent! She was enthusiastic and really seemed to love Disney.

 

[Cinderella's slipper]

We had Debbe for our tour guide last September and she was excellent, with a plethora of wonderful facts about Disney and specifically the Magic Kingdom. DH and I both enjoyed this tour and would recommend it to others.

PS. I would also recommend that you do this early in the morning. We scheduled our tour for 8:45am on a morning where MK opened at 9am, and we were able to enter the park and hang out on Main Street until we had to come back and check in for our tour. I can't say enough about what a magical experience it is to be on Main Street with so few other guests.

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

I think our tour had maybe 10 people? The guide was great, I learned a lot!

 

[matheke]

Our favorite was when he was explaining the architecture of Sleepy Hollow Snacks. "Just an interesting note that it is modeled after the boyhood home of Ernest Hemingway who wrote 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'".

I hope you know 75% of the people in the US think Sleepy Hollow was written by Hemingway. The other half think it was Edgar Allen Poe.

 

[TravelGrl]

I hope you know 75% of the people in the US think Sleepy Hollow was written by Hemingway. The other half think it was Edgar Allen Poe.

Not in my area. We live in Westchester just a town away from Washington Irving's home and there is even a town near by names after him (Irvington). The Town of Sleepy Hollow is 10 minutes from my house. You should see all the references to the headless horseman there are over here, especially close to Halloween.

 

[MHSweb79]

We took the tour in February and had a really great tour guide. Of course, I can't remember his name now but if it comes to me, I'll post it.

 

[mb187143]

we took the tour with Anibal in Feb. 2011 and it was fantastic - he was a great tour guide. he really loved what he was doing, and it came through on the tour. we went to guest relations afterwards to make sure we gave positive feedback for him, because we enjoyed that experience so much. He handled our group of 17, plus the people coming up to him for help, very well, it was clear that he had learned how to balance being a tour guide and answering questions from guests as a CM.

I know we would probably take the tour again, maybe next year or the year after, because different tour guides share different information, based on what my parents got from their tour guide when we sent them on the KTTK tour in Sept. '11.

 

[babyrich]

we took the tour with Anibal in Feb. 2011 and it was fantastic - he was a great tour guide. he really loved what he was doing, and it came through on the tour. we went to guest relations afterwards to make sure we gave positive feedback for him, because we enjoyed that experience so much. He handled our group of 17, plus the people coming up to him for help, very well, it was clear that he had learned how to balance being a tour guide and answering questions from guests as a CM.

I know we would probably take the tour again, maybe next year or the year after, because different tour guides share different information, based on what my parents got from their tour guide when we sent them on the KTTK tour in Sept. '11.

My DH and I also had Anibal; but a few years ago. We loved the tour. He handled everything so well. There was a young woman on the tour who kept trying to "out do" him; but he was able to accomodate her need for attention without letting her take over.

Also, while we were in The Hall of Presidents a group of non-tour folks gathered around him because he was talking about the picture he was standing next to. He was talking in a regular voice since we all had headsets on. These people pushed there way up front and one man screamed, "we cant hear you!" He said he was sorry; but he was speaking to the tour guests behind him. The man turned around and a few of us waved. He walked away. I liked that because he didnt allow others who didnt pay extra for this get the same treatment as he gave us.

We want to take the tour again; but I am worried about all the negative tour guide reviews.

 

[W.E.D.]

My guide was Sean, back in December. He was amazing and we all had a wonderful time. As we were wrapping up the tour someone asked him why people work at WDW when the pay isn't that great. He had us all in tears as he described his love for all things Disney and shared a few personal experiences with us.

If you can request a guide (probably not) I'd request him.

Why take the tour again? I did it solo last trip, and after hearing what a great time I had, DW wants to do it next trip.

 

[Dugette]

rae was the guide when we went last October, and we thought she was excellent! She was enthusiastic and really seemed to love Disney.

Ditto this exactly! Rae was outstanding when we did KTTK last October.

 

[bytheblood]

The tour guide most certainly has everything to do with how you could feel about and after the tour. We had Jared in December 2009 and we loved him. He made the tour for us. He loves Disney, loves his job, loves sharing his passion for Disney with people and put 100% of himself into his job. If I had Jared again, I would do this tour again.