MickeyMinnieMom
If you ticket it, they will come... ;)
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2007
Hi all! I shared this over in the awesome Official Star Wars Weekends 2015 thread, but thought I'd post here as well in case anyone else was interested...
---------------------------------
Our VIP Tour Experience, Sun May 17
Hi fellow DISers! I had promised that I’d share my account of the VIP tour, so here goes… but please keep in mind that I’ve never done “trip reports” or the like. Feel free to ask any questions that this doesn’t cover and I’ll try to answer.
Also: THANK YOU TO @lvstitch who live tweeted portions of their experience on May 16th -- gave us a bit of a heads up on what to expect!!
Some summary points...
---------------------------------
Our VIP Tour Experience, Sun May 17
Hi fellow DISers! I had promised that I’d share my account of the VIP tour, so here goes… but please keep in mind that I’ve never done “trip reports” or the like. Feel free to ask any questions that this doesn’t cover and I’ll try to answer.
Also: THANK YOU TO @lvstitch who live tweeted portions of their experience on May 16th -- gave us a bit of a heads up on what to expect!!
Some summary points...
- Turns out that we did the VIP tour on the same day as SEVERAL fellow DISers (at least 4, I think), Sunday, May 17th… Met and briefly spoke with @msmama, and kept touching base throughout the day with @Kaschper and her very lovely family – lots of fun!!
- All in all, we would do the tour again and felt it was definitely worth it for us. Absolutely felt like a genuine VIP experience. We got so much done – far more than we would have otherwise – which was important to us since this was just a long weekend trip for us.
- As I think someone else mentioned, if you had only one day at SWW and desperately wanted to do many M&G’s, this is likely not for you – not a ton of time for it. We did the Jedi Mickey dinner (4pm), found some magic shots (5pm, thanks to @Kaschper!), waited in line to meet Chewbacca (7pm) on our VIP day, did the Galactic Breakfast the following Monday, and did Rebel Hangar on Saturday, so we got in all the character meets and pics we wanted.
- Our party of six (myself, DH, DD8, DS10, and my sister) agreed that we would only change two things: 1) make lunch a buffet and move it out of Mama Melrose (more below), and 2) as cool as meeting Vader is, we would have loved it to be Chewbacca or Darth Maul – someone you CANNOT meet at one of the character meals. Our two cents.
- 6:15am – We arrived at DHS: Met up with the group of guides right outside of Guest Relations window (to the left as you face park entrance from outside). We all received our VIP badges/lanyards – standard VIP tour badges (not themed for the event) that we could keep. They gave out water and apple juice to those who wanted it. They also handed out forms for us to fill out to have any purchases sent to either package pickup at the front of the park, our resort, or shipped (those same standard forms we’ve used in the past) – this saved us the time of having to do that at the shops – very nice! I counted 36 people total in VIP tour that day, with 6 guides and 1 “tour leader”. When we split up at points, they aimed to keep it to groups of 10 or fewer per group.
- 6:45ish – Guides led us to outside the Brown Derby: to lay out more about what to expect, and to point out the VIP entrance to the dessert party later (in front of Brown Derby, near a temp while “tent” they have set up). They gave out granola bars and then led us to the Vader M&G.
- 7:00am – Meet Darth Vader: Our PP pic is time stamped 7:04. We were then led over to the spot to wait to enter Darth’s Mall. This was a longish wait. We were near the front of the line, and the guide first said they were being told 7:30/7:40 to enter. Looked like they were waiting for the CMs to (as our guide said) “man the registers”!
- 7:45am – Start shopping! X-Wing Collectibles first: We got in right at 7:45, picked out a couple of pins and some t-shirts (Force Awakens, Passholder SWW 2015). Then we moved to Watto’s Grotto – bit more shopping, and finally Prop Shop. At the last shopping stop we grouped together all our bags of purchases (too many!), handed them the completed form from earlier to send them to package pickup, and were off!
- 8:30am – We arrived at Brown Derby buffet breakfast: On the schedule for 8:15am, one of the guides told us that if we wanted to, we could shop longer and arrive later for this meal. Nothing fancy, but everything tasty – our favorite type of breakfast buffet!! Eggs, bacon, sausages, couple of pastries, and plenty of COFFEE!! During breakfast, they went around with menus for the Mama Melrose lunch and collected our orders. As people finished breakfast, they started taking groups out of 10 or fewer to ride attractions. We were told that if any party wanted to separate from the tour for a while, just let them know, and meet the tour back by 10:45am at the parade check-in spot near the white tent in front of Brown Derby.
- 9:15am – Start riding attractions: We probably actually got a later start than this, getting out in the last group after taking a little while at breakfast – maybe closer to 9:30. On the slate were Star Tours (2 groups, 15 people total, had a Starspeeder to ourselves), TSMM, RnR and ToT. We headed to the parade viewing spot around 10:30. Our group wasn’t able to fit in ToT, but the benefit was that we ended up right up at the ropes for the parade (we also had ToT FP for later in the day, so no big deal to us). Every spot in there was a good spot, but it was nice for the kids to be able to sit for a while, and see everything so well.
- 11:00am – Parade: The viewing spot was as described by others – on the right side as you face the event stage, not too far from the stage. It would have been in full sun, but we were VERY LUCKY to have an overcast morning. They had snacks and drinks: Strawberry bars, Mickey ice cream bars, popcorn, water (maybe other things I missed?). They also handed out the now-famous FROZEN TOWELS. These were fantastic – truly! Guides monitored the roped off area, letting guests who tried to join the section know that this was a reserved area. There was room for all – not a ton left over between the 36 people on the tour plus guides and CMs helping with snacks, etc. I don’t think there was a bad spot. We had a brief downpour – one guide shared his umbrella, another ran off and brought back ponchos (thin plastic, not regular Disney ones, but they do the job!), though by then it had let up. We had an incredible view of the parade, nice character interactions, got great pics, and even had Amy Allen point to our party and say “love your shirts!” (we had the “I am a Stormtrooper” t-shirts and tanks that look like armor, white shorts, and MagicYourBand custom trooper bands I ordered). At the end of the parade, they removed the ropes and we had the choice to either walk up to the stage to see the little wrap-up with all characters up there, or head directly to a spot off to the side, from which we’d be led to lunch. We followed toward the stage, took some pics, then met back up with our guides.
- 11:45am – Table Service Lunch at Mama Melrose: This was the one thing I would change about this tour. The lunch, IMO, was just ok at best. While they had place cards set up in front of each of us, every time the servers came over with a plate they had to ask who had ordered it (and each table had 2-3 parties at it, so took a while). It struck us as slow and somewhat disorganized. It also took far too long overall, IMO. I would have much preferred a buffet style lunch, with the option for some “free time” in the park before meeting up for the first show. Guides told us that we could take some free time and meet them outside the Mama Melrose at 1pm, but by the time we had our food and finished eating, it was already 1pm. This is really the one not-so-good thing, but certainly wouldn’t keep us from booking again!
- 1:15pm – arrived outside Theater of the Stars for the 1:45pm Rebels Show: The check-in spot was for both VIP and Deluxe FtT; once past that point VIP went to the furthest right entrance, FtF to the one straight ahead of the check-in spot. I describe this, but really, you don’t have to pay attention to it. At every check-in spot throughout the tour, you just look for the guides! While we were waiting to be led into the theater, we were given FROZEN TOWEL #2. We were led into the theater to a set of rows in the center, not far from the front row – again, not a bad seat in that bunch. We were comfortable temperature-wise, and still had those great towels, too.
- 3:15pm – Stars of the Saga show: We had a brief block of free time from the 2:15pm end of the Rebels show, and then met our guides around 3pm. They made sure we were all squared away for seating, and then they were off and we were on our own for the rest of the day. We were told that our VIP badges would get us into the 7pm Obi Wan & Beyond show, same check-in spot and viewing location. We skipped it and used the FPs we had booked, etc.
- 4:00-8:00pm – Free time: Jedi Mickey dinner, roam the park, magic shots, meet Chewbacca, use up FPs (we skipped the 7pm Obi Wan show), provide feedback on our awesome tour guides (filled out a comment card, basically, saying that they were terrific and giving some specifics on a few of the guides)
- 8:00pm – arrived at Dessert Party check-in: We arrived this early for no other reason than we had done what we wanted to for the day and were tired.
As others have reported, this viewing area is shared between VIP and Deluxe FtF. We were first in line, and were told by the CM that they were only allowed to let a line form beginning at 8pm – before that, they would ask people to come back. She mentioned wanting to keep the area free for catering to come through, etc. We were let it at 8:45pm. Enough tables for all parties, and it didn’t seem like a massive difference to me which one you picked when it came to the view for fireworks, etc. Our guide did tell us we might not want a table right up front, so we picked one a couple of tables back, right next to the rope that blocked off the viewing area – i.e. closest to the center (rather than far right) of the stage. Great spot to view anything on stage and enjoy DJ Lobot. The entire section was a little close for the fireworks, in that portions of the display were obscured by the staging itself. Still a good spot, and I would personally take this spot with desserts, drinks, and plenty of space over having to stake out a better viewing location elsewhere. Subjective, though, to be sure.
- Picked up our packages at the front of the park - went off without a hitch.
Last edited:
