Segway Tour ROCKS!

[campinggal]

Just back from a quick trip to WDW and I treated myself to the Segway Tour of Epcot on Sunday 4/17. Very high on the cool factor meter! Highly recommend it. Lots of fun to try this and cruise thru World Showcase before opening.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

 

[kilee]

Sounds like you had a great time. This tour seems to get really great reviews!!

 

[LoraJ]

I agree!
We did it last Sunday and it was a blast. I would definitely do it again!

 

[LisaS]

Did you do the 8:30 tour or the 9:30 tour? We're doing the 9:30 tour in a few weeks and I wondered how things work out during the last half hour of the tour since the WS opens at 11am.

This will be our second time on this tour. We did it last May and we had so much fun we decided we have to do it again this year. At that time there was only one tour (it ran from 9am to 11am) so there were very few people in the WS during that tour. I'm just a little concerned about having to navigate the crowds this time!

 

[MickeyMouseGal]

Do they give you a lot of good 'behind the scenes' information? I mean, I want to learn how to drive the Segway, but is the info on the tour Disney enough for an obsessed Disney-nut like me?

 

[LisaS]

Do they give you a lot of good 'behind the scenes' information? I mean, I want to learn how to drive the Segway, but is the info on the tour Disney enough for an obsessed Disney-nut like me?

When I did it last year there was no 'behind the scenes' info. The first hour was spent learning to ride the Segway and the second hour was spent riding around the world showcase. The WS wasn't open for the day yet, so it was very interesting riding through the various countries seeing CMs getting ready for visitors. As others have stated, you ride the Segways like "ducks in a row" with one CM at the front leading the way and another CM at the rear, making sure everyone is doing OK on their Segways. So it isn't really possible for either CM to be doing any commentary along the way. You do stop for a short break part way through the WS to give your legs a rest if you need it, but that time is spent taking photos, and those who don't need a break use the time to ride around.

If you are looking for behind the scenes info, this isn't really that type of tour. The focus is on learning to ride a Segway, and riding it around for an hour in just about the perfect place for such an activity -- a deserted world showcase with all kinds of interesting columns, garden paths, ramps and such to provide you the means to master your Segway.

This tour is the most fun thing we did on our visit to WDW last year and we had such a good time we're doing it again this year! It's a blast, but it isn't really like any of the "behind the scenes" type tours that Disney offers.

 

[DebbieDVC]

We did the 9:30 tour. The last leg of the tour was on the international gateway side of world showcase. The timing was great as there were few visitors entering at that time. The guests that were there were very good at staying out of the way...actually kinda just sat and watched. Made you feel like you were someone special.

The information was not super in depth but I sure did learn a few tips that I still think about when we think or see areas of EPCOT. There was some information on the architecture of the buildings in World Showcase.

We would definately do the tour again...Maybe the next time we go to WDW with no kids

 

[Shelby5514]

We did the tour twice in January. Loved it, loved it, loved it!!!

 

[bucky1023]

I did it last October and LOVED it. Our guides gave us tid-bits of info about Epcot and it was very cool riding around in the showcase without any people to get in the way. Food and Wine was going on so we were able to see them setting up everything!!

 

[disneygirl1977k]

Haven't been to disney in a few years and I might be completely stupid by asking this, but what the heck is a segway???? I have no idea what that is, but it sounds like a blast......Kristy

 

[LisaS]

We did the 9:30 tour. The last leg of the tour was on the international gateway side of world showcase. The timing was great as there were few visitors entering at that time. The guests that were there were very good at staying out of the way...actually kinda just sat and watched. Made you feel like you were someone special.

The information was not super in depth but I sure did learn a few tips that I still think about when we think or see areas of EPCOT. There was some information on the architecture of the buildings in World Showcase.

We would definately do the tour again...Maybe the next time we go to WDW with no kids

Thanks for the response. Since this will be our second time doing the tour, I'm hoping I will become even more proficient on the Segway and feel confident enough to be able to deal with having a few people around. The first time we did the tour, we were on our way back to Innoventions to turn in our Segways, riding along in our nice little line and a woman and her two kids decided she didn't want to wait for the line of Segways to go past and stepped right in front of my Segway and cut through our line! I managed to avoid hitting them but it made me realize that some of the visitors to the park don't realize the folks on these tours are complete novices!

 

[LoraJ]

Thanks for the response. Since this will be our second time doing the tour, I'm hoping I will become even more proficient on the Segway and feel confident enough to be able to deal with having a few people around. The first time we did the tour, we were on our way back to Innoventions to turn in our Segways, riding along in our nice little line and a woman and her two kids decided she didn't want to wait for the line of Segways to go past and stepped right in front of my Segway and cut through our line! I managed to avoid hitting them but it made me realize that some of the visitors to the park don't realize the folks on these tours are complete novices!

WOW!
I probably would have run over her trying to remember how to stop.

We did the 9:30am tour too. The crowd coming into the World Showcase wasn't that bad and they pretty much stayed out of our way. Some even took pictures of us, and others were saying they wanted to ride too. And of course all the teenage boys made fun of us, because that makes them feel cool.

 

[campinggal]

Do they give you a lot of good 'behind the scenes' information? I mean, I want to learn how to drive the Segway, but is the info on the tour Disney enough for an obsessed Disney-nut like me?

The tour is pretty short and the time flies. The first hour is spent inside learning to ride the Segway. The two CMs really help the group out (just a small group of 10) and make sure everybody gets the hang of the Segway. We get put thru our paces- going up ramps, around cones even getting off the Segway to guide it over larger obstacles (we didn't have to do that on our World Showcase time but sometimes the CM said that the water hoses are so large and out earlier in the morning that they teach us how to get it over obstacles just in case).

The second hour is in the World Showcase. We stopped in the China, Italy, American, Morroco and Japan pavilions as well as on the bridge between England and France where the CM gave us a few anecdotes about the building of these particular pavilions as well as significance of the architecture. If you had additional questions, they were great about answering those too.

I thought it was a good blend of riding and 'tidbits'. I wished it was longer!!

 

[slp87]

Has anyone done this alone?? Our DD isn't old enough, so my DH was thinking about doing this on his own while we go to the Storybook breakfast, but he's afraid it won't be as fun without someone he knows.

 

[stinkerbelle]

Haven't been to disney in a few years and I might be completely stupid by asking this, but what the heck is a segway???? I have no idea what that is, but it sounds like a blast......Kristy

this is a segway (from our January 2005 segway tour)
yes the helmets were mandatory.

When we were going around the WS...there was also some tour group doing a scavenger hunt...bunch of young kids...who made fun of our helmets and would dart in front of us...it was rather annoying...but we had a blast! We did the morning tour and our tourguide was a bit long winded...so we had a good 1.5 hours of driving around the WS!

 

[campinggal]

Has anyone done this alone?? Our DD isn't old enough, so my DH was thinking about doing this on his own while we go to the Storybook breakfast, but he's afraid it won't be as fun without someone he knows.

I did this alone- no problem! The Cast Members are very friendly and actually, you spend so much time focused on getting yourself used to the Segway that you don't notice that you aren't with anybody. There was one other solo adult on my tour too so 2 of us out of 10 being solo.

 

[londonpenguin]

How much does the tour cost, and how far in advance can you make a reservation for it?

 

[Mister Disney]

We did the Segway tour last June and are doing it again THIS June....it is SUPER

 

[FLgirl1203]

Does anyone know what the minimum age is for this tour?

 

[LoveMickey]

We'll be on the Segway tour in one week.