VIP Tour
We had been gifted a VIP experience by a friend. We were joined by two other family members (UIL and AIL) for a total of nine for this experience. We decided to meet our VIP guide at DHS at 11am. The plan was to try and get on as many “A” rides as we could in DHS, EPCOT, and MK. Random G with a dog (has a hidden Mickey on it)!
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Our guide’s name was Michael. He had been with Disney for 10 years, and been doing VIP tours for 4 years.
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He felt like our plan was ambitious but as long as we stayed flexible we could see what we could get accomplished. Since we had so much planned, we decided to walk and talk. So he explained the VIP process and what he thought was doable. It was at this moment that I think Michael realized what type of day he was going to have. Because G talked. And talked. And talked. And talked so more. Like at one point she had talked soooo much that her face had turned red and I asked her if she had taken a breath any time recently. LOL! This continued for the entire 7 hour VIP experience. I’m not sure if G ever stopped talking to him.
We headed to Rise of the Resistance first. Michael scanned his phone at the
Lightning Lane kiosk and then we just followed along behind him. The two non-riders said the line was a ride on its own and had fun experiencing it. G did lots of screaming during the end drop.
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Next was Smugglers run. This one we had 6 riders with 3 sitting it out. We did alright, but nothing special. Up next was Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railroad. We passed through Toy Story Land and Michael treated us to Mickey bars and waters.
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We had the chance to ride Slinky, but only 1/9 was really interested. So we skipped it. All of us rode Mickey and Minnie’s. It is one of our favorites. Michael pointed out a few of his favorite hidden Mickey’s along the way. We got to ride in the front car (just by chance) which was a nice change from being in the back car like I’ve been the other two times I’ve done this ride.
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Michael took us backstage by Lightning McQueen’s to our sprinter (apparently this is a Housewives’ term) van which had enough seats for 14 people-it was crazy! Michael drove us over to EPCOT and we pulled up right behind the Guardians of the Galaxy show building. There were cast members there waiting for our arrival with baskets of snacks. We walked right up to GotG and Michael scanned us in-this time we only had 4 riders and everyone else was able to walk through the line. We had “I Ran (So Far Away)” as our song. After that we loaded back up in the van and Michael drove us backstage around to The Land Pavilion to ride Soarin’ and eat lunch. We all rode Soarin’ and then ate at Sunshine Seasons. We tried to pay for Michael’s meal but the mouse doesn’t allow that.
After lunch, we walked over to Ratatouille. As we were making our way through Canada, we ran into an unexpected person. It was Owen from G’s class back home in WI. We actually live in the same neighborhood as Owen. We knew he was in Disney and had been in communication with his mom to try and meetup, but the timing never worked or we weren’t in the same park. The kids figured out they were both going to Disney just from a brief conversation in school one day. So, it was all by happenstance. We looked his mom up on Facebook and then started communicating once we realized we were both going to be there. But since Sunday was there last day and we were on the VIP tour we didn’t have any expectations, we’d see them. But as we’re passing through Canada, Steph bumps and asks if that is Owen. So, I just started yelling, hey Owen is that you. And then he looked at me, and his mom looked at me, and low and behold it was them. So, the kids chatted for a brief moment and then got a quick picture together before we went along our ways. His mom said she finally understood now why I was always running in the neighborhood.
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We made our way to Ratatouille. Michael scanned us in and then he sent us down a single rider lightning lane line that skipped by everything. So, it took us right to the front of the line. Everyone rode Ratatouille and then we were leaving EPCOT. We headed back to the van outside of Soarin’ and then loaded up heading to MK. Michael was happy with the pace we were going and felt like we would be able to do most everything we wanted inside MK before the time was up. He was hoping we’d be leaving MK at 5:35-5:45pm so that we could make it back to DHS by our 6pm cutoff. Otherwise, we could catch bus transportation from MK to DHS.
When we got to MK then was a group of people waiting to greet us with more snacks. Like chips, cookies, and stuff. Name brand, and a little higher end than standard chips (like ruffles/Cheetos) but not like Disney branded stuff. Although they did have a Mickey rice krispie Once inside the park we decided to head towards Fantasyland and attack things in that area. Michael was keeping an eye on the clock for us. We got into Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Many but not all of us rode that.
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Then we headed over to It’s a Small World. This was my MIL’s mother’s favorite ride. She was the one who passed away recently. So, this was an important ride for my MIL and a few tears were shed. Afterwards we headed over to Haunted Mansion. Michael asked us if we wanted to see the stretching room, otherwise he had a shortcut. We didn’t need to see if and he took us in a side entrance exit to cut past everything right to the front of the line to get on the Doom Buggy.
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Once we were done with Haunted Mansion we were running low on time. He said we’d probably have to choose between Jungle Cruise and Pirates because JC usually takes about 30 min or so. We let G choose and she chose JC so that’s what we went for. We got to JC and he took us through the exit for a quick entrance after taking to the cast members. We asked Michael to ride with us since this would be our last ride and he obliged. Our driver was quite good. Even had a few quips for Michael. After we got off Michael looked at his watch and said we were still good, so we could do Pirates as well. So we got through the line pretty quick and rode Pirates.
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Made our way through MK towards the van, and then I said hey what about a picture. So Michael stopped with us in front of the castle and we snapped this one off.
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And then we were off to DHS via the van. We literally hit the backside of DHS and parked the van at 6:00:00 on the dot. Like he’s so so good at what he does. It really was a fantastic VIP experience and Michael excelled in it in every way. Essentially the VIP experience was like an unlimited lightning lane with helpful quick transportation between the parks.
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Afterwards, we had to decide how to play out the rest of the evening. DHS was open until 9pm. We wanted to watch Fantasmic at ~8:15pm, but everyone also wanted to eat some dinner and the hotel. I did some quick math and told everyone that if we left now we’d have about 30 min upon arriving at the resort that we’d need to get back headed towards DHS to make Fantasmic. That sounded good to the group so we left DHS, drove to SS, ate a quick dinner, headed back to DHS, and then walked over to Fantasmic. The timing worked great because our seats were decent, but we only had to wait about 10 min before the show started. The show was good. I feel like the last time I saw it was a few years ago.
There was still time before the park closed so we rode on Midway Mania (it was walk-on), then Alien Saucer Swirls (it was walk-on), then headed back to Smuggler’s Run and UIL and SIL were the last two people to get on the ride. They actually did a two-person ride of just pilots and apparently everything else was automated. And that was it. The whirlwind day was over. We headed back to the car and then drove back to SS. I got into bed because I was exhausted. By the time my head hit the pillow (10:45pm) I had been up for 21.5 hours.
Day’s Stats:
Sleep the night prior: 5:26 hrs
Total Steps: 50,238 steps
Total Miles: 30.0 miles
rHR: 50 bpm
Body Battery: 36 entering the day, and 5 at bedtime
Next Post:
Monday, February 27th – Switching hotels to Wilderness, First Hair Cut, Horseback riding, Magic Kingdom