VIP Tour questions

[ErinsMommy]

I'm mentally trying to justify the cost. We'll be in DL last Friday of month in August 2022 and checking out the following Tuesday to go see other areas of California.

1. Are there vehicles the plaids can take you around in? Or its all walking for 7 hours from one ride to another (parades/shows aren't of interest). We're older and not in the best of shape so walking vs. jumping into a vehicle is definitely an appealing thing if its an option?

2. Would you pick a Saturday (day after we arrive) or pick last day (Monday) before we check-out. (Difference is about $350 total)

3. We have 4 park hop days booked, can we get it all in during those 4 days or will we need to spend a day with VIP to get it all done? My daughter is 15 but we've never been to DL so even the semi-kiddie rides, she'll likely want to do just to experience the differences from WDW to DL.

4. What are the general park crowds during this period of time? (End of August.)

Thanks so much!

 

[Iceman93]

1. No vehicles, just walking for 7 hours. But if you tell your guide up front that one of your objectives is to minimize walking, they'll take that into account when planning your day.

2. I'd pick the Monday. One because it's cheaper, but mainly because it's your last day and you can use what you learned earlier in the trip to maximize your time with the guide (for instance, in hitting rides where the wait time was always too long to visit before, or to re-do attractions you really enjoyed).

3. You can absolutely hit almost everything in both parks with 4 park-hop days. VIP is *not* necessary, but can obviously help.

4. All bets are off in this post-pandemic world. End of August used to be a decent time to go since schools in southern California tend to start in mid-August, but I don't think anyone has a good crowd predictor anymore.

 

[ErinsMommy]

Thank you so much!

 

[sophy1996]

Reports seem to be that VIP at DLR is not really worth the cost right now because the tours are forced to use the LL and the guides can't skip the lines like they used to. I know when we were waiting in the LL at Soarin' last week there was a VIP tour right there with us. They didn't seem to get any advantage for paying thousands while we paid $20 each. Maybe if you wanted to ride a ride multiple times, but with four full days, you will have plenty of opportunities anyway.

Here's a thread discussing the situation:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/vip-tour.3864815/

 

[ErinsMommy]

Reports seem to be that VIP at DLR is not really worth the cost right now because the tours are forced to use the LL and the guides can't skip the lines like they used to. I know when we were waiting in the LL at Soarin' last week there was a VIP tour right there with us. They didn't seem to get any advantage for paying thousands while we paid $20 each. Maybe if you wanted to ride a ride multiple times, but with four full days, you will have plenty of opportunities anyway.

Here's a thread discussing the situation:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/vip-tour.3864815/

Thank you - I'm still trying to figure out the whole Genie+/LL concept. I get you add Genie+ and can make FPs based on what you can get when you enter the park. LL seems to be the same thing as Genie+ but offers rides Genie+ doesnt? What happens if we pay for Genie+ or even LL when we get to the park that day and there's no rides to choose from? Is it just lost money?

 

[sophy1996]

Thank you - I'm still trying to figure out the whole Genie+/LL concept. I get you add Genie+ and can make FPs based on what you can get when you enter the park. LL seems to be the same thing as Genie+ but offers rides Genie+ doesnt? What happens if we pay for Genie+ or even LL when we get to the park that day and there's no rides to choose from? Is it just lost money?

Genie+ lets you make Lightning Lane (LL) reservations for a number of rides (though not all), but only one time on each attraction in a day. The Individual Lightning Lane (ILL) rides are the ones you pay for separately from Genie+ (at DLR, the ILL rides are Rise of the Resistance, Web Slingers, and Radiator Springs Racers). You can only buy two ILL per day.

At DLR the LL slots don't seem to move that quickly for most rides (unlike what I hear happens at WDW). We were there the weekend of April 23-24 (a pretty busy weekend), and it took awhile for LL times to advance. And we were able to choose times for various rides well into the evening. (Looking at the Disneyland app right now at 7:39 pm Pacific, there are GotG LL available for 8:10, and Soarin' at 8:00, Monsters, Inc. at 8:05, and TSMM at 9:20. DL park is having Star Wars Nite, so LL times aren't available.)

You can buy Genie+ day by day, so you wouldn't need to add it before your trip or even for every day if you didn't want to.

 

[Malcon10t]

Friends did a VIP tour on Monday. They started about 11am. By 130p, they had rode everything in DCA except Grizzly. Stopped to have lunch at 130, and lunch lasted 2 hours (which I kept trying to get them to go back out!). At 330, they did Grizzly, then headed to DL. At 715 they texted they were finishing up with Space, Matterhorn, and Indy and they met up with me for dinner at 8. After dinner, they did go back to hit Splash just before midnight, since they skipped it so they'd be dry for dinner.

 

[Kit Jackson]

With 4 days, I would skip the VIP tour. I think that is plenty of time to see and do everything you want without paying extra for the tour.

 

[MillauFr]

Labor Day weekend is the least crowded time of year. I would skip the tour.

 

[Brandonius]

With 4 days absolutely skip the tour. Just get Genie+ each day, it will be less than 1 hour of the tour for your whole group and it will serve you much better over the course of the trip. The tour only makes sense if money really is almost no object and you have like one day in the parks, and you aren't the type that wants to be an absolute pro with Genie.

 

[ErinsMommy]

Thanks so much everyone, we'll be skipping the tour - your all right, the cost vs. the benefit doesnt add up and we can easily spend that $5K elsewhere, and likely will. LOL.