My family and I took a VIP tour at DL last week. We have been lucky enough in the past to take several VIP tours at WDW. The VIP tour experience at DL was good, but not great like it is at WDW. My advice to anyone who might be in the position of choosing between doing one at DL or WDW would be to do the WDW one all the way.
My first disappointment at DL was entry into the park. At WDW the guide meets you at your hotel (either onsite or offsite, though there is a small added fee for the latter) and drives you in a nice car (car seats included) into a back entry in the parks. When you arrive in the back entry they scan your tickets (or these days MBs) with a hand held scanner and you're off to the races. At DL, my tour guide met me at the hotel but then we walked all through down town Disney to the park and had to line up at the regular bag check and turnstiles with everyone else. That was a total waste of 30 minutes of the tour. Had I known this was the case, I would have done that on my own time and met the guide in the park, I made the mistake of assuming that the entry would be expedited with the guide like it is at WDW.
Secondly, in comparison to WDW, there is SO LITTLE the DL VIP guides can get you access to. They have access to all FP rides plus a few extra rides that you can get in the exit. However, I heard more often that not "sorry, we don't have access to that". Some of the really fun rides at DL can't be gotten into (like Peter Pan). At WDW you are given access to essentially all rides. I can't think of a single ride we didn't get either FP or exit access to (and this was also prior to FP plus). In addition, you can get exit entry to character experiences at WDW, but not DL. Not to say that we didn't utilize our six hours effectively, but the minimum is 6 hours with the guide and honestly at the end of 6 hours we had ridden every single ride the guide had access to in both parks and seen one show. There was definitely no need for longer than 6 hours as there was really nothing left she could help us with, although many rides left that we would have liked to go on.
The VIP seating for the parade at WDW's MK is so much better than the VIP seating at DL parade. At DL it is on the second level of the train station at main street. The view is awesome but there is no interaction with the characters. At WDW the VIP seating for the parade is on benches on the bridge. The characters in the parade know you are in VIP seating, so they all come over and shake your hand, give you high fives, hand out things etc. It is a much more enriching experience than just a good view.
Finally, I just found the attitude to be different. At WDW when you call to make a reservation they have always been very open to "we will do whatever we can for you". At DL right from the word go it felt like "sorry, we can't do that for you", from both the booking girl and the guide herself. If there are limitations, there are limitations, however the price is the same at DL as it is at WDW and you definitely get a LOT more bang for your buck at WDW versus DL. I think the DL tour should be less expensive given how limited it is in comparison to the WDW one.
Just my 2 cents!
My first disappointment at DL was entry into the park. At WDW the guide meets you at your hotel (either onsite or offsite, though there is a small added fee for the latter) and drives you in a nice car (car seats included) into a back entry in the parks. When you arrive in the back entry they scan your tickets (or these days MBs) with a hand held scanner and you're off to the races. At DL, my tour guide met me at the hotel but then we walked all through down town Disney to the park and had to line up at the regular bag check and turnstiles with everyone else. That was a total waste of 30 minutes of the tour. Had I known this was the case, I would have done that on my own time and met the guide in the park, I made the mistake of assuming that the entry would be expedited with the guide like it is at WDW.
Secondly, in comparison to WDW, there is SO LITTLE the DL VIP guides can get you access to. They have access to all FP rides plus a few extra rides that you can get in the exit. However, I heard more often that not "sorry, we don't have access to that". Some of the really fun rides at DL can't be gotten into (like Peter Pan). At WDW you are given access to essentially all rides. I can't think of a single ride we didn't get either FP or exit access to (and this was also prior to FP plus). In addition, you can get exit entry to character experiences at WDW, but not DL. Not to say that we didn't utilize our six hours effectively, but the minimum is 6 hours with the guide and honestly at the end of 6 hours we had ridden every single ride the guide had access to in both parks and seen one show. There was definitely no need for longer than 6 hours as there was really nothing left she could help us with, although many rides left that we would have liked to go on.
The VIP seating for the parade at WDW's MK is so much better than the VIP seating at DL parade. At DL it is on the second level of the train station at main street. The view is awesome but there is no interaction with the characters. At WDW the VIP seating for the parade is on benches on the bridge. The characters in the parade know you are in VIP seating, so they all come over and shake your hand, give you high fives, hand out things etc. It is a much more enriching experience than just a good view.
Finally, I just found the attitude to be different. At WDW when you call to make a reservation they have always been very open to "we will do whatever we can for you". At DL right from the word go it felt like "sorry, we can't do that for you", from both the booking girl and the guide herself. If there are limitations, there are limitations, however the price is the same at DL as it is at WDW and you definitely get a LOT more bang for your buck at WDW versus DL. I think the DL tour should be less expensive given how limited it is in comparison to the WDW one.
Just my 2 cents!
