Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps Guided Tour

[casperthegm]

We're huge fans of Walt and we'd like to take the tour, but with only one day to visit we want to be sure that we have time to see the entire park if we take the tour. My understanding is that the tour will take about 3.5 hours, ending somewhere around 12:30 pm. Visit would be in June.

We've never been to Disneyland, but my understanding is that the park is considerably smaller than Magic Kingdom, which we've been to about a hundred times. We won't be going on many kids rides and don't really like shows, if there are any there. So, we'd be looking at going on some of the bigger rides during our visit. Is it doable without rushing, doable with rushing, or not doable? Any feedback would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[MagicalMicycles]

Well, I've never done the tour, but I believe they either backdoor or give you Fastpasses to a couple of attractions. If you don't do the tour, and olan on only doing E-ticket attractions, then it'll be a breeze. Are you doing both parks? Even if you're not, many of our attractions have Single Rider lines. I imagine you wouldn't be too upset about having your group split. Trust me, Single Rider is the best way to go about getting all the rides done. It eliminates the need for many Fastpasses, and there's not usually a huge wait.

 

[ballarinamom]

A few questions. Will you be park hopping? When you said Disneyland is smaller than Magic Kingdom, remember that they are a little different. There are a few more rides at DL over MK. And with DCA being literally right next door, there are those rides too.
When are you going? Crowd levels and park hours vary and make a difference.
We have done the tor twice and will be doing it again this December. It’s a great tour but we will be there for five days. Only you can decide if the time of the tour vs time on the rides is the best.

 

[casperthegm]

Visiting during early June. We'll be only visiting Disneyland on the day of our visit, no hopping to DCA (we'll visit there on a separate day), so just looking at the big rides in one park. With Disneyland being open pretty late- at least 11 pm I think- and having a solid plan, making use of fast passes, I think we'll be able to take the tour and still get on the big rides. But if anyone has any words of caution I'd love to hear them. Thanks.

 

[BecAus]

We did the tour last September - it's great and well worth it.
I certainly think it is doable if you are only planning to do Disneyland that day. Early June it is possible the new land, SWGE 'could' be open. That would make it busier - probably won't know opening date for that till next year sometime.
Having MaxPass for the day would be advantageous - currently it is $10 p/p per day but it is expected that the cost 'may' rise sometime next year in anticipation of SWGE opening, the $10 was listed as the 'introductory' price when it first came out and it hasn't risen since.
You could probably still get away without MP and just use traditional FP but MP just makes it easier to obtain the FP's and you could select some whilst you're doing the tour - it's a little hard to duck away from the tour to go to the actual FP machines if you're doing it the 'traditional' way.
Perhaps consider doing the midday tour? The first 2 - 3 hrs in the park are the quietest all day and you can get so many of the headliners done in that time compared to later on.
If you do the 9.30am tour you could be using up valuable 'quiet' park time but it's up to you what you would prefer.
If you do the 9.30am tour the included lunch is served after the tour at around lunch-time. Note: if you do the 12pm tour the lunch is served after - ~ 3.30pm - so make sure you have a snack beforehand if you take that option.
The 'included' attractions in the tour are not usually the headliners so you're not likely to get any of the 'big' rides out of the way during the tour. The included attractions do seem to vary a bit from reading reviews but on our tour we did: Alice and It's a Small World.
My son and I did the tour last year and I intend to do it again when my husband and I go next July as I know he would really enjoy it too!
Best of luck with your decision and trip, I'm sure you'll have a blast whatever you decide.

 

[Stitch808]

Visiting during early June. We'll be only visiting Disneyland on the day of our visit, no hopping to DCA (we'll visit there on a separate day), so just looking at the big rides in one park. With Disneyland being open pretty late- at least 11 pm I think- and having a solid plan, making use of fast passes, I think we'll be able to take the tour and still get on the big rides. But if anyone has any words of caution I'd love to hear them. Thanks.

I haven't done the tour, but with the park open late you should be able to get in rides on the e-ticket attractions. I'd also suggest depending on crowd levels to look into the Maxpass to get your FPs.