Which Tour for Surprise?

[NancyIL]

I've taken the following tours: Hidden Treasures of World Showcase, Family Magic, Undiscovered Future World, Keys to the Kingdom, and Behind the Seeds. All were worthwile and interesting. I probably enjoyed Hidden Treasure of World Showcase the most because I love that area of Epcot. I want to take the Wild By Design tour of Animal Kingdom next.

 

[maciec]

I also really enjoyed the Keys to the Kingdom Tour we took a few days later. I didn't find it boring in the least, and couldn't believe 5 1/2 hours had passed when we were done. Our guide was Steve, and he was absolutely fantastic. Our group was very interactive and gave him lots and lots of questions. Most of the really interesting things he told us came from responses to those questions. So, the more you interact with your guide, the better. There were two things I liked about the Keys to the Kingdom tour over the Hidden Treasures tour. The first is that there was a headset to hear the guide on the KTTKT. This allowed him to continue talking to us even when we were walking through crowded areas and not huddled together in a group. On the Hidden Treasures tour, the guide could pretty much only talk to us when we'd stopped somewhere and had gathered around him. On that tour, there wasn't much talking as we walked from place to place in the World Showcase. The second thing I liked about the KTTKT was that we got to go on actual rides. During these rides (except for the Haunted Mansion), the guide continued to talk to us and give us behind-the-scenes details over our headsets. One of the neat perspectives was that our guide, Steve, had previously worked in several of the rides he was giving us tours of before becoming a "vest," and was able to give us interesting tidbits and stories from that perspective, as well. Lunch is provided on the KTTKT at Columbia Harbour House. During lunch, several guides sat with us at our tables and we continued to discuss the Magic Kingdom.

WOW! Sounds like the tour experience you had was a world of difference over ours! I think that the difference is in who you get for your guide.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I have taken 10 of the tours, ALL have been great, well worth the time and money. I think the best way is to determine the park that you want to tour and then the time commitment. Make sure you get any discounts you are entitled to, AP, DVC, etc.