VIP Tour - First time - Questions

[Cinderella072004]

Our guides name was Christopher he was amazing !! I usually see him once a trip in a park giving a tour and I always yell “hi” even though he has no memory of us I’m sure . He is like a character to me every time I see a plaid I check to see if it’s him!

 

[SkyGuy]

Interesting. When I asked about going to Epcot to ride Remy, our guide said the VIP parking area is by TT so it would be a long walk. Maybe they’ve centralized locations since COVID? Or maybe that’s Epcot-specific given the construction. Either way, your point is a good one: don’t be afraid to ask your guide for anything! That’s how we got LL for Remy.

I’ve done two tours post Covid, so they definitely have more than one Epcot parking area. Maybe it just wasn’t being utilized on your day for some reason.

 

[Sea of Progress]

I’ve done two tours post Covid, so they definitely have more than one Epcot parking area. Maybe it just wasn’t being utilized on your day for some reason.

We have a tour booked for next week and we were planning on going to Epcot for Frozen and Remy only, nothing in future world. I am crossing my fingers there is an entrance in World Showcase. If not, I might rethink going there at all.

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

We have a tour booked for next week and we were planning on going to Epcot for Frozen and Remy only, nothing in future world. I am crossing my fingers there is an entrance in World Showcase. If not, I might rethink going there at all.

We have a tour next week and are planning the same thing! Haha! Have a great time!

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

We have our first VIP tour at the end of the month! I think I once heard that you bypass the stretching room of the Haunted Mansion if taking a VIP tour, does anyone know if that's true?

We bypassed it in May but did not in January. As I like the stretching room I was glad to have it back, but the guides can work magic in case you don’t.

 

[MIinNJ]

We bypassed it in May but did not in January. As I like the stretching room I was glad to have it back, but the guides can work magic in case you don’t.

Some of my family did the Behind the Magic tour at MK and they skipped the stretching room on that tour (they also went on Jungle Cruise on that tour, FYI). Agreed that the tour guide should be able to get you into the stretching room if that’s what you want. They really want to help do anything you ask if they are able, but will be honest if they can’t. They are so nice!

 

[MIinNJ]

I’ve done two tours post Covid, so they definitely have more than one Epcot parking area. Maybe it just wasn’t being utilized on your day for some reason.

Good info. Hope this is true for those going next week!

 

[MIinNJ]

I created another thread about something similar. We are booked at the end of June for a 3 day private VIP Tour. Family member taking care of everything. We just need to handle the tip. How much do you typically tip the guide. I assume it won’t be the same guide for all 3 days but my family member requested we have the guide every day until the park closes (not sure if that’s possible). Do you tip out each day or wait until the end of the trip. Can we give cash or does it go to someone who pools it out?

The guides work different schedules so you may not get the same guide 3 days in a row. Tip at the end of each day. Cash or ask if they have Venmo (we used Venmo). Tip whatever you feel is comfortable. I’ve seen a huge range of what people tip.

 

[BigBadBobbyH]

The guides work different schedules so you may not get the same guide 3 days in a row. Tip at the end of each day. Cash or ask if they have Venmo (we used Venmo). Tip whatever you feel is comfortable. I’ve seen a huge range of what people tip.

I have done multiple days of VIP tours in the past and had the same guide throughout. If unsure, though, they will definitely know by the first day of your tour so you can easily find out at the beginning if the guide will be with you for the three days. May not be the norm but I have usually tipped at the end of the final day. There is some benefit in having the same tour guide as it helps provide some continuity across the days and can help provide a clear strategy for attacking the parks over multiple days. Have fun!!!

Nice suggestion on the Venmo for tipping!

 

[BigBadBobbyH]

I did a vip tour this last week. Here is my review (cross posting) which may be helpful. Let me know if I can answer more specific ?s


VIP Tour review!

Tour date/hours: Friday 2/25/22, 10am-6pm (8hrs)

Who: 7 people: Me, my kids ages 6(son)+ 9(daughter), my parents, my high school bestie and her 6yo daughter

Parks/Rides tally: 3 parks, 19 rides

Guide: Teresa. She’s been a vip guide for 20 years and was a wealth of knowledge and amazingness. The 3 kids were obsessed with her and fought over who got to ride with her on each ride.

Cost: a lot. $575/hr x 8 hrs plus tip. It’s…not cheap. But I specifically picked up multiple extra shifts during the Omicron Surge to directly allow me to pay for this outside of my normal salary/budget.

Details: we booked an 830 breakfast at Hollywood and Vine and really filled up prior to meeting tour guide at 10am at the H&V podium. Our guide asked for our priorities then she came up with a plan to do it most efficiently. We did the following rides in this order:

HS 7 rides:
ROTR
Smugglers Run
Alien swirling saucers
TSMM x2 (a fav)
Slinky dog dash
MMRR

Quick Bathroom break. Then Boarded air conditioned van via back exit by TOT/RONC. On road ~1pm. They had three booster seats installed as we had requested and attendants folded up our strollers for us. Felt very vip !!

AK (2 rides)
Navi River
FOP

We entered/exited AK right by a back service entrance near Navi and did not Have to go through security again. To save time we just left the strollers in the van here since there was minimal walking.

MK (10 rides)
Parked in a lot in the Tomorrowland backstage area. Arrived ~230. Again did not have to go through security. Once parked our tour guide got eveyone a bottle of water and treat of their choice (Mickey bar, Mickey ice cream sandwich or strawberry bar). We then made a counterclockwise loop of park and hit:
Jungle cruise
Magic carpets
BTMRR
<bathroom break>
Peter Pan
It’s a small world
Carousel
SDMT
Winnie the Pooh x2 (my son’s fav)
Tomorrowland speedway
We then had a 615 dinner at BOG which was awesome to sit and relax and eat after our long day

So in summary: we did 19 rides 3 parks in 8 hours with 3 strollers and two grandparents. Needless to say….We did not move fast, BUT we were still able to get in a huge number of rides. And this was a day all 3 parks were “SOLD OUT” of park reservations — ie high crowds. So … I imagine if u went on a lower crowd day, unencumbered by strollers, you could easily do even more rides.

Things I think we did right:
-we had the huge breakfast before the tour which allowed us to get through the 8 hours without stopping for lunch; I packed a lot of snacks but honestly aside from the ice cream treats and a cold lemonade no one really ate much until the tour was over. Highly recommend not using valuable tour time to eat
-We met the guide at the park and did not use valuable tour time for transportation to the park
-We did intentionally skip a few headliners due to ride length or focusing on rides that eveyone could ride (we skipped splash at MK because it’s 20 mins long and we have another MK day booked. Skipped TOT and RNRC at HS because the kids were scared of TOT and only one was tall enough for RNRC).
-skipped Epcot due to it being fairly easy to navigate without a vip guide and not wanting to waste more time park hopping

Things I might do differently next time:
-Try to time the tour to end with the fireworks. Apparently they will get you a priority viewing spot

Very helpful summary of everything you did. Two comments to add: 1. I ended my last tour with fireworks. They did have a priority seating area in Magic Kingdom which was great! In the past I used to start VIP tours early in the morning. Our new strategy is to start midday and finish with the fireworks. Definitely worth it. 2. If you like Starbucks then you can ask your tour guide to call an order ahead while driving between parks. Then they will arrange to have someone with your drinks ready and waiting for you when you arrive at the next park. You need to pay for the Starbucks, but was a very efficient perk which helped with the hectic day.

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

Agree regarding the fireworks. There was definitely value for us in having the reserved and very uncrowded viewing. This was last Wednesday - MK was sold out. You can see how packed it is all around the fence outside of the reserved area.

 

[glocon]

Agree regarding the fireworks. There was definitely value for us in having the reserved and very uncrowded viewing. This was last Wednesday - MK was sold out. You can see how packed it is all around the fence outside of the reserved area.

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That looks amazing!