Ultimate Night of Adventure VIP tour at Animal Kingdom
- Thread starter bbahorik
- Start date
Mickeynutty
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2012
Bumping up!
I am booked that same day! My husbands not coming down till later in the week so I am going solo...BUT I want to make sure its worth it.
kmb584
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 12, 2010
Passport2HappyHour
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2017
Howdy!
We were just on the Ultimate Night of Adventure VIP tour at Animal Kingdom this past weekend. Decided to give this a whirl after months of (unsuccessfully) trying to schedule Flight of Passage and Na'vi River Journey FastPasses.... even had been online the minute FP opened up for this vacation. No dice.
Speaking with one of the guides, the capacity is 25 guests.... and we had about that. We got to the meeting point outside Dinosaur at 3:30, way early and were one of the first to check in. After checking IDs, we pre-selected a beverage and dessert (blueberry or chocolate) for later in the tour. (Both non-alcoholic and alcoholic drink choice was available). They said come back at 3:45 which we did, but the tour didn't get started until 4pm. After some quick introductions by guides and all the guests, we started by entering Dinosaur.
The tour group enters as a group to the FastPass entrance; if there are people already in the FastPass line, we waited our turn behind them, so it is not moving to the front of the line or entering from a side-door (like Soarin' on Backstage Magic tour).
After Dinosaur, we walked over to Pandora.... and first entered the Na'vi River Journey. When that was complete, it was straight into Flight of Passage! After entering the FP line, we waited about 20 minutes to enter the first part of the ride (the "staging" movie introducing us to Flight of Passage).
Ok.... it is an EXCELLENT ride!! Wish we could have done it again. More on that a little later.
After regrouping outside Flight, it was time for our break.... scheduled to be maybe 35 minutes or so. We started the break just before 6 and told we were free until 6:30pm. We were ushered over to a few outside tables reserved for the group under the covered area at Satu'li Canteen. While the tour says "dinner not included" and it is a "snack", it was a heavy sampling of some of the Satu'li Canteen food items... served family style at the tables of 6 people. I believe it was the sampler platter from the menu. So yes not technically dinner, but it was enough... for us anyway.
Here's where things started to get interesting. About 6:10 pm, the weather decided to add some challenges and the skies opened up pouring rain in a drenching thunderstorm. You'd think being "under cover" at Satu'li Canteen would protect you from getting wet; not so, as the outside roof is a very odd tiered design..... and our table was directly under where the rain penetrated between the tiers. So our food and ourselves got wet.... all while "under cover".
At 6:30 the guides told us we were holding due to the lightning..... we finally ventured out (in the rain) around 6:40 and walked to Kilimanjaro Safaris. Tour guide #2: "It operates rain or shine! Only when the winds get above 40 MPH does it close".
We arrive -- and the FP cast member told our guide "The Safari is closed". So we hung out in the rain while Guide #1 called on the bat phone to figure out plan C.
"The bad news: Kilimanjaro Safari is closed. The good news? How about we go ride Flight of Passage again?". Cheers all around.
So we walked back in the rain to where we started the post-dinner trek, and a few drops wetter, waited in the FP line again for 20 minutes. And another EXCELLENT ride on Flight!
After exiting it was still raining and some rumbling of thunder..... we were told that basically the rest of the rides were closed, so the tour was over. We did not get to ride Safari or Everest, or see Rivers of Light. We were welcome to stay and hope the later showing of Rivers of Light would be on, but the early showing had been canceled.
We were given some printed FP tickets (three per person) valid through end of the month on any FP attraction at AK.....EXCEPT Na'vi, Flight of Passage, or Rivers of Light.
So that was a wrap!
Would we do it again? If we had never done it yet -- yes, we'd do it again the first time. No need to do it a second time..... plenty of other stuff to experience!
Hope this was helpful to all, enjoy the tour!
We were just on the Ultimate Night of Adventure VIP tour at Animal Kingdom this past weekend. Decided to give this a whirl after months of (unsuccessfully) trying to schedule Flight of Passage and Na'vi River Journey FastPasses.... even had been online the minute FP opened up for this vacation. No dice.
Speaking with one of the guides, the capacity is 25 guests.... and we had about that. We got to the meeting point outside Dinosaur at 3:30, way early and were one of the first to check in. After checking IDs, we pre-selected a beverage and dessert (blueberry or chocolate) for later in the tour. (Both non-alcoholic and alcoholic drink choice was available). They said come back at 3:45 which we did, but the tour didn't get started until 4pm. After some quick introductions by guides and all the guests, we started by entering Dinosaur.
The tour group enters as a group to the FastPass entrance; if there are people already in the FastPass line, we waited our turn behind them, so it is not moving to the front of the line or entering from a side-door (like Soarin' on Backstage Magic tour).
After Dinosaur, we walked over to Pandora.... and first entered the Na'vi River Journey. When that was complete, it was straight into Flight of Passage! After entering the FP line, we waited about 20 minutes to enter the first part of the ride (the "staging" movie introducing us to Flight of Passage).
Ok.... it is an EXCELLENT ride!! Wish we could have done it again. More on that a little later.
After regrouping outside Flight, it was time for our break.... scheduled to be maybe 35 minutes or so. We started the break just before 6 and told we were free until 6:30pm. We were ushered over to a few outside tables reserved for the group under the covered area at Satu'li Canteen. While the tour says "dinner not included" and it is a "snack", it was a heavy sampling of some of the Satu'li Canteen food items... served family style at the tables of 6 people. I believe it was the sampler platter from the menu. So yes not technically dinner, but it was enough... for us anyway.
Here's where things started to get interesting. About 6:10 pm, the weather decided to add some challenges and the skies opened up pouring rain in a drenching thunderstorm. You'd think being "under cover" at Satu'li Canteen would protect you from getting wet; not so, as the outside roof is a very odd tiered design..... and our table was directly under where the rain penetrated between the tiers. So our food and ourselves got wet.... all while "under cover".
At 6:30 the guides told us we were holding due to the lightning..... we finally ventured out (in the rain) around 6:40 and walked to Kilimanjaro Safaris. Tour guide #2: "It operates rain or shine! Only when the winds get above 40 MPH does it close".
We arrive -- and the FP cast member told our guide "The Safari is closed". So we hung out in the rain while Guide #1 called on the bat phone to figure out plan C.
"The bad news: Kilimanjaro Safari is closed. The good news? How about we go ride Flight of Passage again?". Cheers all around.
So we walked back in the rain to where we started the post-dinner trek, and a few drops wetter, waited in the FP line again for 20 minutes. And another EXCELLENT ride on Flight!
After exiting it was still raining and some rumbling of thunder..... we were told that basically the rest of the rides were closed, so the tour was over. We did not get to ride Safari or Everest, or see Rivers of Light. We were welcome to stay and hope the later showing of Rivers of Light would be on, but the early showing had been canceled.
We were given some printed FP tickets (three per person) valid through end of the month on any FP attraction at AK.....EXCEPT Na'vi, Flight of Passage, or Rivers of Light.
So that was a wrap!
Would we do it again? If we had never done it yet -- yes, we'd do it again the first time. No need to do it a second time..... plenty of other stuff to experience!
Hope this was helpful to all, enjoy the tour!
Did you receive any type of lanyard or souvenirs? Did the cast member give any type of background info on AK? Or was it just a guide to take you from one ride to another? Thanks for the review and answering our questions!
agavegirl1
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2012
Thank you for your review Passport. I wonder if it will be around next October. I'm sure they will have dreamed up all kinds of new events in the year or so I'll be waiting to hear about special events.
Passport2HappyHour
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2017
There were some tidbits here and there about AK, but not much. To be fair we’re not sure these were seasoned guides for this particular tour.... seemed like they were new to it.
We did receive light-up Rivers of Light lanyards (after dinner) which can also be purchased on the Shop Disney app. And we had a VIP Tour Service lanyard which we wore throughout and was not collected.
Hopefully this link to my tweet works to see the photo of the two lanyards:
https://twitter.com/passport2hh/status/917547067966349312
Been a lurker on disboards for a while, but we are well versed Disney travelers. Look forward to contributing more over time!
We did receive light-up Rivers of Light lanyards (after dinner) which can also be purchased on the Shop Disney app. And we had a VIP Tour Service lanyard which we wore throughout and was not collected.
Hopefully this link to my tweet works to see the photo of the two lanyards:
https://twitter.com/passport2hh/status/917547067966349312
Been a lurker on disboards for a while, but we are well versed Disney travelers. Look forward to contributing more over time!
Thanks! The link worked!! I was thinking they were supposed to give you popcorn buckets for rivers of light...but guessing that may have gone by the wayside with the rain!!There were some tidbits here and there about AK, but not much. To be fair we’re not sure these were seasoned guides for this particular tour.... seemed like they were new to it.
We did receive light-up Rivers of Light lanyards (after dinner) which can also be purchased on the Shop Disney app. And we had a VIP Tour Service lanyard which we wore throughout and was not collected.
Hopefully this link to my tweet works to see the photo of the two lanyards:
https://twitter.com/passport2hh/status/917547067966349312
Been a lurker on disboards for a while, but we are well versed Disney travelers. Look forward to contributing more over time!
I’m booked for this tour Nov 12, hoping it’s good
Mickeynutty
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2012
"Passport2HappyHour, "Been a lurker on disboards for a while, but we are well versed Disney travelers. Look forward to contributing more over time!"
Thank you so much for the review and welcome to the DIS!
Thank you so much for the review and welcome to the DIS!
Thanks for the review. This is making my choice between this tour and StS more difficult. Was leaning towards this since a member of our group had done WAT before plus I’m not a huge animal person, but the lack of any exclusive experiences or gifts is swaying me towards StS.
Passport2HappyHour
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2017
We've done Wild Africa Trek before, but not the Starlight Safari. They're both very different type of tours from the Ultimate Night of Adventure VIP..... which is essentially FastPasses for the key attractions and show in AK, a light dinner, and a lanyard (which can be purchased anyway). I believe this tour just became available October 1st, so perhaps they'll be taking feedback and making some adjustments to continue to improve it.
Enjoy whichever tour you go with and of course WDW in general!
Hoping the tweek it and we hear more reviews before I go in December. I am not sure I want to pay that kind of money for fast passes...I was HOPING it would be more like a guided informative tour with headsets and the rides were just PART of it. We are doing Keys to the Kingdom in two weeks so we are excited for that tour!!!!
Was thinking about Savor the Savannah, which I’ve heard described as the Wild Africa Trek without the walking. Considered the Ultimate VIP, but I’m disappointed that the “surprises” advertised sounds like basically a RoL lanyard. Also weary about sharing a sampler with the rest of the tour group as we have some dietary restrictions. Still considering it though. Hope they add more to the tour; maybe a ride on Kali or PW. That popcorn bucket would be nice too.
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