momof2disprincesses
I love my INCREDIBLE family!!!
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2005
- Messages
- 1,640
This was my 8th trip to the world and my first time (since my honeymoon in 1989) without my children. Yes, I kept feeling guilty about being in the Happiest Place on Earth without my kids and YES, I kept buying them gifts ... but I digress 
So, this was our only chance to do the Keys to the Kingdom tour since you have to be over 16 to do it. We signed up for Sat. May 6 for the 8:30am tour. We arrived at MK about 8am and LOVED
having Main St. almost all to ourselves to take LOTS of pictures. It was awesome! I only wish the kids could have been in them 
We checked in and received a lunch menu for Columbia Harbour House. We put in our order and received our listening devices (which are such a good idea by the way!).
We had to wait awhile to get started, apparently a couple from our tour was running a little late. That was okay though, more time for pictures!
Matthew was our tour guide and I can only say he was amazing! He had worked the day before and worked grad nights the night before, so he had worked from 7am-4am the day before and told us he went home and showered and came back, so he was running on NO sleep at all. However, he did a marvelous job and was so funny & entertaining the entire time. I kept marveling at how well he handled himself despite his circumstances. You can tell he LOVES all things Disney.
I was worried that this tour would be non-stop walking. I bought a Y membership 5 months before my trip and had super good intentions to walk a lot before it and get in shape, but that didn't actually happen.
I am not used to walking a lot and was worried about keeping up with the group. Not to worry at all though ~ there were several times when Matthew took us to out of the way places and let us sit while he stood and talked (I kept thinking he should sit down too, but he NEVER did).
We started our tour just before, as Matthew called it "the running of the bulls" which meant the 9am park opening when everyone runs down Main St. He had us perch in an out of the way spot off Main St. and watch this. It was funny!
He then gave us the history of Main St. and told us about all the key people repsonsible for starting WDW. It was fascinating.
We then walked to the end of Main St. and heard more facts and learned about the Walt & Mickey statue by the castle. Then it was off to the Jungle Cruise where we had our own boat and were able to learn about that ride and more about Walt's vision. My favorite part was when he pointed out what one of the natives actually says when you think they're only talking jibberish. I won't spoil the surprise, but my dh now says it none stop and I still giggle everytime he does
Then it was off to the behind the scenes area behind Splash Mountain. We learned about staging and garbage
which was interesting to learn about. Then it was off to the Haunted Mansion where we got some behind the scenes info and access and rode the ride. I finally saw the second hidden Mickey in that ride. Matthew did an excellent job of telling us where it was and then literally jumped out of his car to show us when we got close. He's such a hoot!! 
We then had lunch. It was all ready for us and our lunch hostess was so gracious. We took a potty break there and got to chat with others in our group.
We then did a little more walking and learning and then got the gem of the tour ... the backstage look at the utilidors. They were tunnels as expected, but I still thought it was WAY COOL to be under there
The tour ended back at City Hall and Matthew said he was so pleased we were all such a good group and helped him get through his morning after no sleep that he gave us all free fast passes. That was awesome because we used ours for Splash Mt. when the line was a 50 min. wait and then we got regular fast passes for BTMR and rode both of those rides at 2pm on a Sat. with literally no wait for either while others were waiting almost an hour for both! We felt like rock stars or something
The tour was the highlight of this last trip and I would highly recommend it! We even had 1 guy in our group (my best friend's boyfriend) who had NEVER been to MK before and took the tour. He thought is was very fascinating and loved every minute of it, even though it was his first exposure to MK ever (he's a big Disney history buff though and longtime Disneyland tourist).
So, this was our only chance to do the Keys to the Kingdom tour since you have to be over 16 to do it. We signed up for Sat. May 6 for the 8:30am tour. We arrived at MK about 8am and LOVED
having Main St. almost all to ourselves to take LOTS of pictures. It was awesome! I only wish the kids could have been in them We checked in and received a lunch menu for Columbia Harbour House. We put in our order and received our listening devices (which are such a good idea by the way!).
We had to wait awhile to get started, apparently a couple from our tour was running a little late. That was okay though, more time for pictures!
Matthew was our tour guide and I can only say he was amazing! He had worked the day before and worked grad nights the night before, so he had worked from 7am-4am the day before and told us he went home and showered and came back, so he was running on NO sleep at all. However, he did a marvelous job and was so funny & entertaining the entire time. I kept marveling at how well he handled himself despite his circumstances. You can tell he LOVES all things Disney.
I was worried that this tour would be non-stop walking. I bought a Y membership 5 months before my trip and had super good intentions to walk a lot before it and get in shape, but that didn't actually happen.
I am not used to walking a lot and was worried about keeping up with the group. Not to worry at all though ~ there were several times when Matthew took us to out of the way places and let us sit while he stood and talked (I kept thinking he should sit down too, but he NEVER did). We started our tour just before, as Matthew called it "the running of the bulls" which meant the 9am park opening when everyone runs down Main St. He had us perch in an out of the way spot off Main St. and watch this. It was funny!
He then gave us the history of Main St. and told us about all the key people repsonsible for starting WDW. It was fascinating. We then walked to the end of Main St. and heard more facts and learned about the Walt & Mickey statue by the castle. Then it was off to the Jungle Cruise where we had our own boat and were able to learn about that ride and more about Walt's vision. My favorite part was when he pointed out what one of the natives actually says when you think they're only talking jibberish. I won't spoil the surprise, but my dh now says it none stop and I still giggle everytime he does
Then it was off to the behind the scenes area behind Splash Mountain. We learned about staging and garbage
which was interesting to learn about. Then it was off to the Haunted Mansion where we got some behind the scenes info and access and rode the ride. I finally saw the second hidden Mickey in that ride. Matthew did an excellent job of telling us where it was and then literally jumped out of his car to show us when we got close. He's such a hoot!! We then had lunch. It was all ready for us and our lunch hostess was so gracious. We took a potty break there and got to chat with others in our group.
We then did a little more walking and learning and then got the gem of the tour ... the backstage look at the utilidors. They were tunnels as expected, but I still thought it was WAY COOL to be under there
The tour ended back at City Hall and Matthew said he was so pleased we were all such a good group and helped him get through his morning after no sleep that he gave us all free fast passes. That was awesome because we used ours for Splash Mt. when the line was a 50 min. wait and then we got regular fast passes for BTMR and rode both of those rides at 2pm on a Sat. with literally no wait for either while others were waiting almost an hour for both! We felt like rock stars or something
The tour was the highlight of this last trip and I would highly recommend it! We even had 1 guy in our group (my best friend's boyfriend) who had NEVER been to MK before and took the tour. He thought is was very fascinating and loved every minute of it, even though it was his first exposure to MK ever (he's a big Disney history buff though and longtime Disneyland tourist).
The rest of us (DH, DS-18, and I) are so excited to be able to do this. 
