I can give you my perspective - we did one in August of 2018. It is a crazy amount of money (we split the cost with my parents and had a seven-person tour - myself, DH, DD 4, DS 8, Grandma and Grandpa and our babysitter/dear friend. We were going for one day in August, and my parents felt really strongly that they couldn't handle the lines in the heat. The express pass purchases for 7 of us were very expensive, and the tour at the time (not sure post covid) included three full meals and stroller rental, so the meals would have been costly for 7 of us. Is it "worth" it? That is an individual question that depends on so many factors. For us, it was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience and I loved every minute of it, but I'm going back to Universal in June and we're definitely not doing it again (mostly because my husband would divorce me, lol). We were pre-covid, pre-velocicoaster, and pre-Hagrid's, so my info might not be the most helpful, but I thought I'd share. Here are a few notes that made it such a great day for us:
- the meals were excellent. We had breakfast and lunch as the only party or one of two parties in a private restaurant. Breakfast was yummy and lunch was an amazing sampler of all of the Universal restaurants. For dinner we were able to pick any restaurant we wanted and the meal was covered - we chose a really good Italian place on City Walk, unfortunately I can't remember the name.
- it's truly front of the line service. I've never done Disney VIP but I've heard that's just fastpass lanes. This is walk ahead of EVERYONE or go in a back entrance service. It was actually awkward a couple of times, and we definitely got some "who ARE these people" looks. But it's really a "do whatever you want tour." We were curious about the best seats for Gringott's, so our guide told us to try it twice in a row from the front and from the back. We went on Forbidden Journey through the gift shop somehow - no line at all. Lots of back entrances. The only reason we didn't get to do absolutely everything we wanted was a big rain storm (August, Florida, of course).
- Our tour guide was amazing. She had so many great stories about the park. I mentioned to her how obsessed my daughter was with Trolls and Dora. She took us to a spot for a parade where Dora went by, and Dora and Diego "somehow" picked her out of the crowd to come say hi. Then she led us to a quiet area and "randomly" Poppy from Trolls came out and said hi to my daughter. Obviously I saw our guide chatting on her phone right before both of those "random" moments that made my daughter's day.
It did seem like the perks were set, so I don't know if they will exchange one for another. Never hurts to ask.
Again, YMMV now that we're in the post-covid era, but I did think that Universal went out of their way to make this day feel incredibly special. I thought our guide earned every bit of the tip we gave her. We are not in a financial position to make this a habit, or probably to do it ever again, but I know I will feel a little bit sad in June when we walk past the VIP office at the gate where the tours start, lol. I hope this helps!
