VIP Tour Itinerary

[rynorex]

Hey Guys,

We are a group of 6 guys booked in for a 10-hour VIP tour to hit all the main attractions across all 4 parks, starting in Hollywood Studios at 10:45am with the aim to finish in MK at 8:45 for the VIP fireworks viewing.

That said, what would be your ideal itinerary? we are wanting to ride:

HS:
Rise
Smugglers Run
Slinky Dog
Tower of Terror
Runaway Railway
AK:
Flight of Passage
Dinosaur
Expedition Everest
Epcot:
Cosmic Rewid x 2
Soarin
Test Track
MK:
Big Thunder Mountain
Space Mountain
Tron
7 Dwarves

Food isn't a big deal on the day, we plan to have an early lunch before the tour and quick-serve along the way. Considering how much it is (and when you convert to Aussie dollars!) we don't want to waste toooo much time.

Thanks guys!

 

[hoffse]

I haven’t done one yet but am thinking about doing one so I’m in a couple VIP FB groups. So take my advice with a grain of salt because this is all second hand.

That being said, per the advice in those groups I would consider cutting Rise for sure and at least one of the Guardians to shorten it. VIP goes through the regular LL so you have to wait there with the other LL people at each ride. If the ride itself is also really long (Rise) or has a long pre show you can’t skip (Guardians) now you have spent a LOT of money on a single ride you could just ILL on your own. The thinking is if you can afford VIP you can probably also afford an additional $25 to just do an ILL for those rides on the day you visit the parks without VIP.

Of course, all of that assumes you have other days at the parks and could prioritize those rides at that time. It also assumes you could actually GET an ILL for those rides, which might be more challenging if you are staying off property during busy seasons. So if VIP is your only chance to know you can do it then you should do it. With 10 hours planned you might get it all done.

I’m still undecided about whether we will do VIP or not, but if we do it I definitely won’t be doing Rise and maybe not Guardians either. It’s just a time suck, and we have a small child so it’s not really the right fit for us anyway. YMMV.

 

[holden]

I agree with the above. We are planning a VIP tour and will skip Rise for sure. It takes at least 20/25 minutes if you walk right on without any wait. I'd rather pay $25pp for an ILL than waste my VIP tour hourly rate on that.

 

[SkyGuy]

I’ve done comparable to your list - GotG wasn’t open, but we did way more rides in MK than you have on your list - within the span of an 8-hour VIP Tour with only bathroom breaks and snacking while walking. The only time we were sitting was on rides or in the Minnie Van between parks. I think on a 10-hour tour, it’s doable, barring any ride issues or weather issues causing delays.

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

I would strongly consider skipping Test Track. That is going to be a big time investment. It’s a great attraction and hopefully you have some other park days to try it, but I wouldn’t use VIP time for it, personally. Our guide suggested we skip it as well.

Guardians is going to take a fair amount of time, especially doing it twice. I want to say that it was 25 minutes from entering to exiting, so you will have about an hour for that alone.

I would also recommend trying to ride Rise before your tour starts since you will be starting in HS.

Have a great time!!

 

[SkyGuy]

I would strongly consider skipping Test Track. That is going to be a big time investment. It’s a great attraction and hopefully you have some other park days to try it, but I wouldn’t use VIP time for it, personally. Our guide suggested we skip it as well.

Guardians is going to take a fair amount of time, especially doing it twice. I want to say that it was 25 minutes from entering to exiting, so you will have about an hour for that alone.

I would also recommend trying to ride Rise before your tour starts since you will be starting in HS.

Have a great time!!

Any time we have done TT on a VIP (several times), our guide has taken us up the back steps, and we enter through a door that places us in the line after guests have made the cars - after you leave the room and walk up the ramp and do the hard u-turn back toward the loading area. It’s usually no more than 10 minutes from that point. We’ve never been given the option of going through the LL on a VIP Tour.

I agree with Rise. It’s such a wild card. Buy the ILL$ for before the tour so you can control it, and if it goes down, you can get an anytime pass to try later.

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

Any time we have done TT on a VIP (several times), our guide has taken us up the back steps, and we enter through a door that places us in the line after guests have made the cars - after you leave the room and walk up the ramp and do the hard u-turn back toward the loading area. It’s usually no more than 10 minutes from that point. We’ve never been given the option of going through the LL on a VIP Tour.

I agree with Rise. It’s such a wild card. Buy the ILL$ for before the tour so you can control it, and if it goes down, you can get an anytime pass to try later.

Interesting! We didn’t ask in November, but in March of 2022, our guide definitely steered us away from it. We thought maybe there was a cool build trick or something, but they said there wasn’t and I got the impression there wasn’t much they could do line wise (more LL, less side door) so we’d be better doing it on our own.

Maybe it was also the time to go to that part of the park that they factored in since Guardians wasn’t open.

ETA - Wait! I bet I know. In March, the car building preshow wasn’t an option, and maybe they didn’t let the tours use the side door.

So if it is now an option and you can use a different entrance, Test Track might make more sense and not be such a big time commitment.

Sorry for ‘bad’ info!!

 

[SkyGuy]

Interesting! We didn’t ask in November, but in March of 2022, our guide definitely steered us away from it. We thought maybe there was a cool build trick or something, but they said there wasn’t and I got the impression there wasn’t much they could do line wise (more LL, less side door) so we’d be better doing it on our own.

Maybe it was also the time to go to that part of the park that they factored in since Guardians wasn’t open.

ETA - Wait! I bet I know. In March, the car building preshow wasn’t an option, and maybe they didn’t let the tours use the side door.

So if it is now an option and you can use a different entrance, Test Track might make more sense and not be such a big time commitment.

Sorry for ‘bad’ info!!

It could easily be that, or different guides could use different methods. Maybe some guides think it’s an important part of the experience to build the car, and as such, take you through the LL, and others gauge the group and decide you’re go-go-go (as we are) and bypass all of that. I don’t have any VIPs planned in the future, but I’ll try to remember to ask if I do one again!

 

[Marthasor]

Hey Guys,

We are a group of 6 guys booked in for a 10-hour VIP tour to hit all the main attractions across all 4 parks, starting in Hollywood Studios at 10:45am with the aim to finish in MK at 8:45 for the VIP fireworks viewing.

That said, what would be your ideal itinerary? we are wanting to ride:

HS:
Rise
Smugglers Run
Slinky Dog
Tower of Terror
Runaway Railway
AK:
Flight of Passage
Dinosaur
Expedition Everest
Epcot:
Cosmic Rewid x 2
Soarin
Test Track
MK:
Big Thunder Mountain
Space Mountain
Tron
7 Dwarves

Food isn't a big deal on the day, we plan to have an early lunch before the tour and quick-serve along the way. Considering how much it is (and when you convert to Aussie dollars!) we don't want to waste toooo much time.

Thanks guys!

I would consider geographic location of the parks plus walking time and where the guides will park to try to hone this itinerary a little bit. Is there a reason you are starting in DHS? DHS and EP are so close to each other - I would put those parks back-to-back and consider starting at AK, so you aren't backtracking with your driving - so, I think I would do AK-DHS-EP-MK. Will you be going to any of these parks any other day? If you are going to AK another day, I would consider cutting out Everest and Dinosaur and doing those on another day. Your VIP guide is going to park just next to Pandora, so if you start at AK and only do Flights of Passage, you can literally get out of the car, walk into Pandora, ride Flights and head to DHS. If you keep Everest and Dinosaur on the list, you have to walk, essentially, the entire circumference of AK just to do those rides. Same advice for EP - if you can ride Soarin' another day, do it - your VIP guide will park very close to Guardians, making Guardians and Test Track easy to get to - you would then need to hike across EP and back to do Soarin' - so, I would consider taking Soarin' out if you can do it another day. It then gives you enough time to do everything in DHS and MK.

You can also give this list to the VIP Tour department so your guide has it before he/she ever picks you up - the guides are VERY experienced and are going to be able to tell you what you are going to be able to accomplish in your 10-hour time frame. They will also know which rides are down, etc. and can give you minute-to-minute advice while you are on the tour.

 

[GoingSince1990]

Sometimes the newer rides only allow 1 ride on a tour, so you might not be able to do Guardians twice. I can’t confirm though, as I have not done a tour since that ride opened.

 

[scili]

Last August, they only allowed us to do Guardians once. When I called today to book a tour, they said that we could only do Tron and Rise once, but didn’t mention Guardians. We’re friendly with the VIP tour guide we use, and he told us the same thing. Slinky Dog you can do multiple times, but need to do something else in between rides.

 

[Kyhome]

Hey Guys,

We are a group of 6 guys booked in for a 10-hour VIP tour to hit all the main attractions across all 4 parks, starting in Hollywood Studios at 10:45am with the aim to finish in MK at 8:45 for the VIP fireworks viewing.

That said, what would be your ideal itinerary? we are wanting to ride:

HS:
Rise
Smugglers Run
Slinky Dog
Tower of Terror
Runaway Railway
AK:
Flight of Passage
Dinosaur
Expedition Everest
Epcot:
Cosmic Rewid x 2
Soarin
Test Track
MK:
Big Thunder Mountain
Space Mountain
Tron
7 Dwarves

Food isn't a big deal on the day, we plan to have an early lunch before the tour and quick-serve along the way. Considering how much it is (and when you convert to Aussie dollars!) we don't want to waste toooo much time.

Thanks guys!

Hi there, I am trying to figure out VIP tours and was doing some searching-were you able to accomplish all of these rides in your day? How was it? This is something similar to what we would like to attempt so would love to know how it went, even though this was over a year ago. Thank you!