Segway DCA Tour Report

[Armadillo4]

They see me roll on my Segway
I know in my heart they think I'm
White and nerdy
- Weird Al Yankovic

During our big family trip to WDW earlier this year, a couple of us did the Around the World at Epcot tour and loved it. It was truly one of the highlights of our vacation. Now that there was a "local" version at DCA, it seemed like something I had to try. Last Sunday, I finally took the plunge and did the tour.

The verdict? It was a blast and lots of fun! I'll have some comparisons between this tour and the Epcot tour a little later, but first the basics.

I'm not a morning person at all, so getting to DLR for a 7:15am meeting time was not the easiest thing in the world, but somehow I managed to make it. Tour participants had the option of parking at DTD for complimentary parking. The brisk walk from the DTD parking lot to the entrance to DCA sure woke me up. According to my car's outdoor thermometer, it was a balmy 46F outside.

One of our tour guides met us at 7:20am and took us to a room behind Guest Relations at DCA. There was coffee (oh sweet nectar of life!), assorted juices, pastries and fruit. After some introductions, signing the waiver absolving Disney of any responsibility for your lack of coordination and some general small talk, we all watched a brief Segway training video. Our tour group was a full complement of 12 guests, and a second tour guide joined us shortly. There was a Segway in the room itself and the guides went over the basics of how it functioned and did a short demo on the Segway itself.

After the video was over, we walked over to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area for training. We split up into two groups of six and learned how to ride our Segways. Only three of the 12 guests (including myself) had ever been on a Segway before, but everyone picked it up very quickly. The training consisted of several components: stepping on/off a Segway, rolling forward and turning, walking your Segway over speed bumps, a slalom course around cones, how to limbo under a plastic lightsaber (e.g. ducking under obstacles), and finally going up and down inclines. Once we had mastered all of these skills, it was time for the Tour to commence.

As our guides led us around the park, they would stop at certain points and provide us with various bits of trivia and facts about DCA. Not surprisingly, most of us enjoyed having hidden mickeys pointed out more than anything else.

The Tour started in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, across to Condor Flats, then Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, past the Golden Dreams Theater and counter-clockwise through Paradise Pier, a photo stop in the small amphitheater across from Paradise Pier, then through Pacific Wharf, a bug's land, backstage (as a shortcut) and back to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. One of the guides said that after a slow start, the tours are pretty much at capacity everyday. I enjoyed the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail the most. We had a 15 minute "free time" segment in Paradise Pier, but due to the construction of Toy Story Mania, our boundaries were more limited than before the construction walls went up. Everyone seemed to enjoy the tour with comments like "I don't want it (the tour) to end" and "I want one of these (Segways) for myself" being uttered quite often.

The warning sticker on the Segway

I definitely had a wonderful time and highly recommend this tour if riding a Segway holds any interest for you. But how does it compare to the Epcot version? Both tours are great but each version does certain things that I like better than the other.

• The initial training period at Epcot is much slower and drawn out than the DCA version. A lot of this is predicated on the limited amount of training space in the Innoventions pavilion versus the wider outdoor space at DCA. The end result was that there was slightly less "riding time" at the Epcot tour since the training was longer.
• However, once we got rolling in World Showcase, I enjoyed the "tour" aspect at Epcot more than the DCA version. Maybe it's because I'm at DLR about once a month vs. once every 15-18 months at WDW. But I definitely found the information, trivia and facts presented by our Epcot tour guides to be a lot more interesting.
• The DCA tour is more expensive than the Epcot version ($99 vs $85, discounts for APs, AAA, Disney Visa). However, with the additional cost, you get a free group PhotoPass picture at DCA as well as the light continental breakfast.
• At the end of both tours, you get a special tour pin. Both pins are very cool and feature a little sliding Segway, but I like the Epcot version better.

I truly enjoyed both Segway tours. They're certainly not cheap, but I felt it was money well spent. The combination of riding a Segway *at* a Disney theme park is just lots and lots of fun. I highly recommend it.

 

[Mortimer Mouse]

Sounds like fun, thanks for the report.

 

[Danauk]

We loved the Epcot segway tour, can't wait to try this one as well! Do the segways have a small bag on the front to put a camera in like the Epcot ones do? I can't tell from the pictures.

 

[ACDSNY]

Thanks for the great report, we're doing the tour on Jan 6th. We loved the two times we've done the Epcot tour and are looking forward to trying the DCA tour.

 

[Disney_Fanatic]

OP, thanks for the great report! We are going on the DCA tour on Dec 26! We've done the Epcot tour this past May and we loved it! So we were thrilled to find out about the DCA tour and I was so happy when I made my reservation 2 weeks ago!

 

[Armadillo4]

Thanks everyone for the kind words! All of you Epcot tour veterans will appreciate the quicker pace of the training at DCA. I still remember crawling slowly around the cones in Innoventions, but at DCA, they're spaced much further apart and the guides (while still being very careful) don't handhold you as much.

We loved the Epcot segway tour, can't wait to try this one as well! Do the segways have a small bag on the front to put a camera in like the Epcot ones do? I can't tell from the pictures.

Good question! None of our Segways had the plastic pouches like the Epcot version. I just put my camera in my jacket pocket. It was really cold that morning (at least for Southern California) and my jacket had larger pockets to fit my camera. Another guest was using a fanny pack for his camera. The guides' Segway had pouches but none of the ones for the guests. Note: one guide had the X2 model of the Segway, which is the heavy-duty off-road version. We called it the Hummer Segway.