peek from this week's episode.
you're doing a VIP tour, is it limited to a single park?
It is not limited to a single park.
Scott.
And I'm Melissa.
And we are the Sunshine Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who enjoy it as much as we do, or those who want to learn more about travel, or even those who just want to live v we or those who want do, to learn more about or even those travel, who just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our first-hand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on Earth. This week, we will be discussing an option for anyone seeking a unique experience when visiting one or more of the Disney parks, the VIP tour at Disney. While the cost may seem prohibitive for many, we will also explore some options that could make this experience more affordable for most people. So put on your Mickey ears and let's get started on the VIP tour at Disney. on
before So, Melissa, we jump into this, I read this article today, and it was about which airline is most likely to lose your luggage. Do you want to guess who that is?
it wasn't Frontier. It's actually one of the large.
Okay. American.
American. American is the most likely to lose your luggage. And I feel sorry because it was talking about all the people who check their wheelchairs and strollers and stuff like that. Even those get lost.
Oh, wow. Huh. Yikes. Yeah, that would be a very big frustration. Yeah, you get there and there's no stroller and, well, and no luggage. Well, you know, we have that one story
you know, we have that one story where when we were traveling back from the Grand Canyon and I was using the knee scooter and when we got back to Jacksonville, Delta had somehow or another crushed the back wheels on it. And those things were, you know, caved in.
I was
know, I was talking to our brother-in-law about that. And he was like, there's nothing that would be inside the cargo hold that would cause that to happen. He's like, must have just gotten put on the bottom and a bunch of luggage thrown on top of it or whatever.
Yeah, unless it just got dropped off. And so, just for people who don't know, when he references her brother-in-law, I mean, he works for Delta. So, yeah, that's interesting. It wasn't lost, though. That was the thing. I mean, it wasn't quite, it wasn't usable, but it wasn't, you know, lost. And then, you know, they took care of it so quickly. But interesting. So I would say that would be a miserable experience if you're trying to go to Disney.
it wasn't
Especially if you've packed your ears and you've had all these custom-made shirts and you have all your outfits and you have all your whatever. That would just be... I mean, most places you're like, okay, I can figure out how to deal with this if it's late or whatever. But that would be a really sad, that would be sad.
Well, let's talk about something a little bit more happy though. Let's talk about a VIP tour at Disney World. So what is a VIP tour? So
tour is where you have a personal tour guide and you can have a group of up to 10 people. That includes infants, just so people know. And it goes for a minimum of seven hours. You can go longer than that if you have more stamina. You can visit one park. You can visit multiple parks. And it's basically like, because you have that tour guide, it's basically like having a lightning lane for each of the rides that you want to do. So basically you say, I want to ride Tron. You don't have to go through the virtual queue, you know, buying a lightning lane, buying all this stuff. Like they walk you up, you don't stand in line, you know, you get in at a certain, you know, a certain point and then you ride the ride and then you, then you go on to the next thing. So that's what the VIP tour is. The other thing is that you also get to interact with them, right? So and talk to them and get a lot of or they'll tell you interesting information, right? About the parks about the history about, you know, hidden Mickeys about, I don't know, all kinds of stuff, you know, so I think that's the other thing. So it really is more than just okay, we're going to ride the rides if you really want an experience where you talk to you know somebody who i mean i think they pick the best of the best people who you know love their job love being with people and and can tell you a lot of information that's what you would
yeah you know for everybody who's been to a Disney park before, how would they recognize a VIP tour?
Yes. So right now and for a while, they wear like a white button up shirt. And I think it's like a Navy skirt for the ladies or like Navy pants or something like that. And then they have like a plaid, you know, they had plaid markings. It's almost like, what would you say? Like almost like a captain's something. Like it reminds me like we've done things like on a cruise ship or something like that. It's like a very official, like their dress uniforms. Wouldn't you say? And then they usually have like some kind of like, it's like a straw, like not a straw. What would you say? Like I a, don't know what you call it, like a wicker hat type thing. And then it has like that same plaid you know and so it's also so it's also very branded because when you do the tour you're given like a vip pin that has that same plaid branding on it
so you're talking about how you would physically recognize them by their dress i'm talking about these are the people that just blow by you in line when you're standing there and go straight to the front and you know you've probably seen them before and you're like man how do they get to go straight up to the front and get on the ride like that and it's because they've paid to go on a vip tour yeah well
and you say go to the front so sometimes you do have to still go to like where the lightning lane would enter, right? Because that's the only way. But I will say sometimes when that lightning lane is like a longer process, let's just say Haunted Mansion, for example, you don't go through the whole process. They actually take you to the exit and then you get on where people are exiting. So, I mean, I guess if you had never done Haunted Mansion and you wanted to we want say, to actually oh, have the whole then experience, you get on where people are I exiting. I guess So, if mean, you had never done Haunted Mansion and you wanted to say, oh, we want to actually have the whole experience, then you could go through that process. I think they just do it that way to like speed up the process. You're actually like experiencing the ride. So that would depend. Buzz Lightyear is the same. Of course, there's no benefit to like stand in the line at Buzz Lightyear because you're not going to see anything else. But that's another example that if you see people getting on where everybody's getting off and then the tour guide will typically be you as there, that's know, you see well, people getting on where everybody's getting off and then the tour guide will typically be there, you know, as well, that's who that is. You
let's get into and kind of unpack what the VIP tour is, what it consists of, and then, you know, talk about some options as well for doing these VIP tours.
So, what is great about the vip tour is that they will if you want them to they will pick you up and drop you back off at the resort or you can you can meet them at the park at a certain time at a certain location or you can stay at the park at the end as well and so you can ride whatever rides that you want to ride whenever you want now there is a limit right now there's a limit of one time on tron just because that is the new uh that's the newest ride i think there's a limit of like two times on guardians of the galaxy because that's like the second newest ride but then everything else like if you wanted to ride as many times that you could so those are those are the limits as of the time of this recording that obviously could you know change depending on you know what the what the newest rides are and so the other cool thing is that you get to leave and enter the parks in the backstage areas so i think that was just really neat for us we did and we're gonna get into this like what all we did but just we left magic kingdom and yes we had gone through that area a little bit it was you leave through the place where if you leave like right after the fireworks typically they open up that whole area just to get the crowds not having to go down main street but then we like went out the side into the parking lot and our tour guide was Teresa and she had a little van and we all got in the van so you get to see and I think it's a place where like cast members come in and then so then when we drove around the back side of animal kingdom you kind of get to see like where the cast member canteen is. Right. And then you kind of go get to see the backside of the whole Pandora land. And so she told us some things about that because it's neat because, I mean, you think it's like this whole, you know, and it's like cuts off. Right. And you see the backside of that. And then she would, you point know, out different, you hidden know, Mic like cuts off right and you you see see the back side of that and then she would you know point out different you know hidden mickeys and just different things now i will say that they are you cannot take pictures you cannot take videos back there and they're pretty they're strict about
too so when you're doing a vip tour is it limited to a single park
not limited to a single park and i would say that most people probably do try to do more than one park just because the benefit of the bip tour right would be to get to leave in those cast member areas and then come in and the cast member or the you know the backstage areas but then also like just maximizing i would say maximizing your time to, you know, do, do rides that you would have to, you know, that would take a long time or to see like maybe some of the most iconic rides. So you can do, you can do one park. We did two parks on our particular day. It was the way it's planned it, but you could do, I know of people who do all four parks, right. So that they could hit what Disney calls or what people have called the headliners at each park right the most popular rides that have the longest wait time and you could you could you know hit those or hit the big roller coasters at each one you know without having to worry about you know wait times and you know transportation because they do that as well so you also like i mentioned you get some really cool information from them. History, fun facts, hidden Mickeys. You can ask them questions. So we asked who are the famous people that she had taken. And she told us a few little stories about that as well. So it just really, it really depends. And I do know that just from what I've seen and heard from other people is that if people ever go back on another one, they tend to, you know, if they've had a good experience, they tend to request that before. So she had one person in particular, a famous person that has had her as a tour guide a couple of times in Florida. And then she saw them, I think, when she went to California or something. She was telling us some story. But I have seen other people who, you know, they've done this multiple times and taken different people or whatever, and they've requested the same tour guide. So people kind of get, you know, attached to them because they are very, they're very good cast members, you know. So a lot of them have been with the company for a while. All right, Scott. So tell us a little bit about how you work with the VIP tour people and decide what to do.
I think that's kind of an interesting place to pivot for just a minute, because if you are going as a group of your own family and stuff like that, it's 100% on you. But we're going to talk about some other options as well that are more affordable. And then it makes that question just a little bit trickier. So let's start it with if we're just going to go and you and myself and maybe our family, we're going to go hire a VIP tour and it's just going to be us. Well, the plan for the day is totally up to us. We get to choose what we want to do at what time, you know, we want to go, you know, and you work out most of those details ahead of time with your tour guide and kind of give them an idea of what you want to do. very flexible. They are 100% there for you and they go above and beyond to make this tour very special and feel very VIP. If you want to change things and you want to add something different, maybe you decided initially that you wanted to only go to two parks, but then you decide you want to go to all four. That's up to you. You just tell your guide what you want to do. And then it's based on the number of hours that you want to Like just spend. tell your guide what you want to And then it's do. based on the number of hours that you want to spend. Like you said earlier, minimum of seven hours, but you can add on to that. There is of course, additional charges for adding more time to it, but you know, you have that seven hours and you get to plan how you want to use it.
And I just wanted to add, so, you know, once you set this up and I'm going to talk about that in a minute, but then they will send you an email kind of before and say, you know, what are you kind of thinking kind of what is the layout so that they'll know. But then, like you said, they're, they're completely flexible as well. And you don't have to. So, I mean, if you want to start, I don't know that you can start before 9am. I'm not real, I'm not sure about that, but let's say you want to start at 9am and you can start then, before 9 I'm not sure a.m. about that. But let's say you want to start at 9 a.m. And then go from there. Or if you want to make sure that you end at night or whatever, then you could start later. Just depending on your amount of time. But you do kind of just have to have a good idea because that would be like their shift, right? And then they need to be able to be available. I don't know if they just make themselves available for extended time if people want to extend it or if things run long. I mean, I would guess that would be the case. So they're not just having to be like, okay, I got to go. But that's how that would work. Yeah.
we'll talk a little bit about that piece of incentive for them to stay longer. So if you wanted to end at Magic Kingdom and see those fireworks, they do have a special spot where they can take you where you're going to get the best views of those fireworks.
Yeah, but you have to end your tour in time to coordinate with that. So for example, you couldn't do Magic Kingdom in the morning, go to Animal Kingdom, leave the VIP tour, and then go back over there and that spot be available to you. It has to be. That's what she told us. It has to be that you end it there then, and they put you probably, I mean, probably like an hour before or something like that, maybe, but close to the time of the fireworks. So that's a good point to know.
How about food and stuff like that? Is that included in a tour?
as much water as you need, because, I mean, if you're there when it's hot, so they'll go by and you water I if you're grab, there know, when it's mean, so they'll go hot, by and grab, you know, water bottles and then one snack during the tour is included. So that can be, you know, whatever you want it to be. You want ice cream, you want one of the, you know, lemonade cups, you want popcorn, something like that. So if you want to stop for lunch or dinner or, you know, however that fits into the day, it's not included. It does count towards your time. So we would recommend, and this is what we've typically seen people is they'll, you'll place a mobile order, right? So it's ready quickly. And then you eat and, you know, kind of get on your way pretty quickly. But I've seen people who have had sit down dining reservations and then their tour guide, you know, waited or, you know, I guess they could invite them to eat with them or whatever, but that is included in your time so you would be paying for that time to to stop and eat we we did in particular we our group was kind of like okay eat you know we ate breakfast and then we had our snack and then you know ended like at 4 30 and we're ready for yes we actually stopped for another snack at animal kingdom and that was, you know, we paid for that.
about if you've got small kids? I mean, when Rhodes is with us and he's not tall enough to ride all of the rides, what do people do with those smaller kids?
mostly what I have seen people do is the VIP tour guide. So they typically don't ride the rides with you. We'll talk about that in a second, but they typically don't ride everything with And you. so a lot of times we'll see the VIP tour So guide. they typically don't ride the rides with We'll you. talk about that in a second, but they typically don't ride everything with And you. so a lot of times we'll see the VIP tour guide waiting with kids, you know, in the stroller that aren't tall enough to ride or kids who have fallen asleep, that kind of thing. But if you didn't want to do that, you would obviously do like the same kind of rider swap thing. You'd let some people go and then let some more people go. It would just, you know, it would just take more time. But that's typically what I've
people do. I guess kind of rounding out just the generalities of a VIP tour, does it cost per person? How does that work?
it costs per hour. So again, you can have up to 10 people. Infants are included in that price. And then you pay by the hour. And we'll get into the price at the end or in a little
bit. So I would assume that we have six people in our family. If we were to go eight, if Will and Emily went with us, right? I would assume that we have to pay the same price as a group of 10. That's correct.
Yeah. So you are basically, it's an hourly price. So, I mean, it's up to 10 people, right? Including the infants. So that, you know, it doesn't, it's not a huge group, right? And so it makes sense to have like an intimate group, but yes, it's that price, regardless of how many people. Even
Even if you only had two.
Yes. Even if you only had two
people. So what if you had two people and you wanted to do this, but you didn't want to foot the whole bill?
So we went and so I guess we should share that. So we went as a group. It was it was 10 people, a group that I'm a part of, and they had set this up and it was an opportunity for both of us to do this is kind of on our bucket list. Right. So we basically, you know, shared the cost among other, you know,
everybody else. So you could do that. So let's say you're going with another family or you know other people that are going and you really want to do this, you can set this up. But there are some, I mean, of course, they're not official Disney sites or anything like that, but there are some Facebook groups. And one of them is called the Original Disney VIP Tour Share Group. Now, we didn't use that. This was a group that we were a part of that we had set up, I guess I should say. I'm going to link that just so that you can go out there and look at that. So the other thing you could do is you could ask your travel agent as you're planning your trip and say, hey, this is something that we really want to do. If they know of any groups that are going during that time, they may, if it's a big enough agency, they may have, you know, a system set up like this, that maybe one day on your trip, you know, they could set this up or something like that. So just just ask or see if they have any ideas. So Scott, you want to give, let's give an idea of like what what you're able to accomplish in a day what we did in a day. Now, obviously, we pointed out that this was completely customizable, but just to give kind of an idea of how our day worked.
mentioned earlier, this is the other part where if you've got your own family and you're all kind of like-minded and you've all talked about what you want to do ahead of time. Well, this is the other option. And it's a little bit of the downside of joining into a group like that is you may not all have the same priorities or preferences. And so it's just something to think about. However, at the end of the day, you're really getting to do some really neat stuff. And so if you're just flexible and you kind of approach this with the flexible attitude, we're going to get to do some really cool things. And, you know, it doesn't matter how we do them, what order we do them in, things like that. Then I would say that a group like this is a good option. Now, if you have to be in control and things have to be just explicitly your way or the highway, that's not a good option for you or you're going to be the hated person on the group.
And that's a great thing to point out. So, we actually, I guess we should say, so we had two groups that went when we did it and we had already pre-planned. Well, actually, both groups had kind of pre-planned and they kind of divvied it up based on what people wanted to do. And so we were doing Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. Now, for us, we have done Disney a lot. If you don't know, we have three other episodes that tell you about doing Disney with adults, with kids, with senior adults. So go back and take a look at those, and I'll link those. So for us, it was really about the VIP tour experience, right? This is something that was like, oh yeah, we really want to do this. So we didn't really particularly care what we did. We had other people in our group who they had planned their trip around the fact that then we would do Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom and they would get to do those rides and experiences. The other group who was supposed to do two other things, I think they ended up doing three other parks and they had some people who were very a little bit controlling in the group and and and i think it was more difficult for them because then there was people who you know who who weren't you know didn't assert that okay this is what i really wanted to do and and so and you don't want this experience to be something that's negative or disappointing or anything like that. So, that's a good point. Like, if you have a certain agenda and can't be flexible, it might not be a good idea to spend the money because it's still not going to be inexpensive even if you join that group. And again, we'll talk about that in a little bit. So, with our group, what did we talk about what we did?
about what we did? So, with the group that we were with, we started out at Magic Kingdom. That's where we all met up that morning. We spent the majority of our time at Magic Kingdom doing a lot of the things, the big rides and stuff like that, that you would want to do there at Magic Kingdom. And I thought one of the neatest things was you talked a little bit about the hidden Mickeys and stuff like that. Well, on the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger spin or whatever it's called, the one where you have the little laser pointers or whatever. She actually told us the key to getting a perfect score and how to do that. And so there was like she had expected and said there'd be a prize at the end for anybody who got a perfect score. Well, all of a sudden everybody comes out. And I think out of the 10 people that were with us, six or seven of them had a perfect score. And she was like, oh my gosh. But it just so happened that like for us, the ride stopped for a minute in a perfect spot where you could hit one of those targets that just gave you like a boatload of points. And we were just nailing it. And so like two seconds into the ride, we had a perfect score already.
Yeah, that's true. So she did go get like Mickey ice cream. She got a couple of them. So but yeah, that was fun. So let me say real quick. So I used to not really care anything about doing Buzz Lightyear because I was like, this is not a fun ride. I never can get many points. And our son, Will, and our son-in-law, Brady, love doing this ride. And so now I get it because now the last ever. Well, ever since we did the VIP tour, I'm always like, oh, let's ride Buzz Lightyear and see. Because then it's a challenge to see if you can, you know, get in the spots and get that perfect score. So anyway, that that was something for us that, you know, besides just the whole experience that kind of came out of that.
And I would say that, you know, depending on what you're doing, if you're doing a single park, you might want to just, you know, use that opportunity to hit every single ride inside that park. If you're wanting to do multiple parks, I would say just like what we did is we just hit some of the biggest ones. Like Tron was one of them. And it was when Tron was still really new, being able to just go right on and get on the ride. That's a big deal. We did that. We left from there and went over to Disney's Animal Kingdom. And that's where Melissa was talking about that we came in through the back lot. Matter of fact, we left out of Magic Kingdom through the side lot and she had a van there. I think somebody had even already cranked it up and had the air condition running and cooled it off and stuff like that. Then we took that van, went around to Animal Kingdom, came in through the back lot. And along the way, she told us stories about, you know, different people that she had the opportunity to host as their VIP tour. And then she even shared a little bit about the experience of it. Like some of them became her new best friends. And Melissa talked about that she saw one of them out in California and, you know, they ran up and hugged her. And then she talked about another one that was not so great. And she just kind of sat in the back and the VIP guide was even told, oh, you don't talk to this person unless they talk to you. And so, you know, she said, sometimes you have this high opinion of people and then you have the opportunity to take them on a VIP tour. And then maybe you have even a higher opinion of them afterwards, or maybe you have a very low opinion of them after that. So, you know, I've just always say is be friendly to these people, right? It doesn't cost you anything to just be friendly and to talk. Because quite when we first started we didn't know her. honestly, out, She didn't know us. And I don't we maybe had know, thought that she was a little bit too official, that just was there for that official whatever. But then when we started all asking her a ton of questions and stuff like that, all of a sudden, she would start offering information to us, and she opened up and told us a lot of stories. And so, it really made that very special. And then we went over to Animal Kingdom, and we didn't have a whole lot more time left and so we got on one of the rides and it was one that like i don't personally care to ride it's a one that makes me feel kind of motion sick the the avatar ride yeah the flight of
flight of passage yeah you wrote it the first time
yeah i wrote it the first. And then you guys decided you wanted to ride it a second time. Because I think we just, we only had enough time to do that. Yeah.
it the
Yeah.
Left. Yeah. And so, she ended up riding with you guys. Yeah. On that second time. She
Yeah. On that second time. She also rode the Safari with us. Because I think what happened is some people started having to, like, peel off, right, of the group. We had, you know, some people had to catch a flight. And then some people, like, again, I don't want to ride this and this and that so as people you know had to leave you know toward the end but yeah she rode a couple of roads rides with us and like you said that flight of passage the second time I wanted to add to before I forget the other neat thing about coming in that backside of the of animal kingdom is i never realized that they had some kind of evening type safari thing at one time and so she was telling us that when they did that they had these big lights that they would turn on and so the animals still thought that it wasn't like getting toward dusk it
was a billboard with the sun on it yeah and
then like super bright lights right that was the kind of light you you know, a section of it. It probably wasn't the whole thing. And she showed us like where, I mean, they still have it. They just don't. I don't think they offer that at this current point in time. And so she just things like that that you would not ever know or notice where like where the Club 33 is, which is like a very exclusive club,
was the kind
where it is at Animal Kingdom, and just little things like that that you may not notice. So all in all, we rode eight rides at Magic Kingdom, and then, what, five or six things, a couple of things once at Animal Kingdom. Our tour was from 9 till about 425. And again, Scott mentioned, but I would say, like, if you have that one day, you know, ride the main ride, you're not going to have a chance to do everything. I wouldn't spend time on the shows and stuff like that. Because that's something that if you had another day, you know, you could you could go back and do I mean, unless it's something that you just have that one day. But also you probably want to prioritize the things that have long, you know, wait times as well or that are the additional, you either have to do the virtual queue or the lightning lane that you can't just stand in line for. Like Tron, like Guardians of the Galaxy, if you're going to, you know, you're going to Epcot.
And if you wanted to have a VIP tour of each park on multiple days, you can do that. It's just you have that full amount for the tour on each day. But you can get the same tour guide, I think.
I mean, I'm sure they would probably rearrange their schedule to try to accommodate that as well. So, okay, Scott, something that we like to share on a lot of our trips, who is this good for? Who would you say this is good for?
So, if I was going to answer that realistically, it's good for rich people. I mean, it's not an inexpensive tour, but I also say it's good for people who maybe you only have a set amount of time. You've got things that you just absolutely want to do and prioritize. This is good for you. There's
a lot of planning that goes into Disney and working out lightning lanes and virtual queues or Genie Plus, that kind of thing. And if you're just like, nope, not my cup of tea, and you can do this, this would be perfect because then somebody literally is leading you. You don't have to worry about where the rides are, how long the lines are, you know, any of that. They literally, and like I said, they will pick you up at the hotel, follow along with them and enjoy the day.
Yeah, I would also add, if you're a person who just really enjoys very exclusive experiences, this is right up, you know, your alley because everything about this, they make it feel so exclusive and like the name says, like a VIP. That's
Yep. And even though we were a group and they do this a lot, even though we were a group of, you know, a bunch of people and some of the people we knew and or had met, I guess I should say, and some people we didn't meet till that day. But they were perfectly used to that as well. So yeah, it's totally catered. So let's talk about the cost.
Yeah, let's dig in.
it varies very widely. And that's what's so interesting about this. So but here's the range. It's from $450 to $900 per hour, depending on the day and the season. And so you have to call to get the pricing, okay? Or if you have a travel agent, you have your travel agent call. So it's not like you can go and there's some kind of chart. You can see what it is before you try to book it. It doesn't work like that. So you have to call to make the reservation. And at that time, they'll tell you this is how much it is. Weekends, holidays, peak seasons are going to cost more than the weekdays in the offset in the off season too and when you need to call you need to call 60 days in advance and i'm going to give the information i'm just say the phone number here but i'll give it in the in the link in the show notes and put that there if you want to have that. So 60 days before the day of the tour and I believe it's either 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. I'll have to double check that. I thought I had looked that up and put that in my notes maybe later than that since you call. But anyway, and then they'll tell you and you book it. And so basically it works. This is one of the ones where they don't charge you on the card until you actually do it. And then they get the email address and you go back and forth. So it can either be you or your travel agent or, you know, whoever's kind of organizing that. So if you do have a group, though, somebody has to be the one to foot the bill on the credit card and then, you know, rely on the people to pay. So that would be, you know know what is worked out in the the groups if that's the way that you decide to go so i will also say that the price does not include gratuity so and and you think we think that you should always tip your tour guide unless you just have a horrible experience you should always tip the tour guide so that's totally up to you but this is going to be a fantastic experience and and So that's totally up to you. But this is going to be a fantastic experience. And so that's part of what they make. So I also will point out that the park tickets are not included. And so that is something that you have to get ahead of time. And of we would like we mentioned, course, definitely, we'd recommend that you have the park hopper so that you can spend more than one spend more than not but so that you can one, go to one required, more than one park as well. how do you book it? So, again, 60 days in advance. I'll put that number in there.
if this one doesn't really meet your there are some So, other opportunities to get exclusive criteria, experiences at the Disney parks. So let's
Yeah. So one that is high on my list and we need we need to, to book this and do this is called the Disney keys to the kingdom tour. This is a tour at magic kingdom. And the way they describe it is, is that you can unlock the fascinating history and gain backstage access to the legendary hidden areas and enjoy lunch. So the one thing that we did not do on the VIP tour is go into the tunnels. Now, not that you get to wander around the tunnels in this Keys to the Kingdom tour, but you do get to see what that is like in that tour. And that one is from 129 to 149 plus stacks and i would assume that you person and that's
and that's
person the price varies by date you do not have to call to book this one you book this one online 60 days in advance still you can book this and that's how that one works so that one one is, I don't know, I think it's four or five hours. And you get a lot of information. So when you see this one, it is also limited in group. But I think it's like 20 or 25 people. But they give you headphones and you kind of get to hear all that stuff. So just a totally different experience. It's not focused on the rides, but it's focused more on the history and learning things and then getting to go into the underground tunnel. So that one is on my list.
That one sounds really neat. You know, you hear about the stories of the underground tunnels and how it's very secretive that Mickey can never be in the same spot at the same time in two different places in the park or, you know, can't be seen without full costume and stuff like that. And they use these tunnels to get around to different places in the park.
And also the cast members can't be in another area of the park not in costume. And so that's how they coordinate that, right? So you couldn't have like a Fantasyland costumed person in Frontierland, for example. Also, there is an age requirement on this one, and I believe it's 16 years or older. So, this one is not for kids.
And so, if you're then a dolphin lover at Epcot, the Seeds of Adventures, you can have an in-depth encounter with dolphins. You know, this is one where you can, it's a two-hour tour. It's limited to a group of no more than eight guests per day. So, you know, they don't want to stress the animals and things like that. And this one starts at $209 per person. Yeah.
So, again, there's lots of exclusive behind-the-scenes type things that are very educational that are, I would say, very reasonable in price as well. There's also a dive quest at Epcot. And if you've ever been in the aquarium and you've seen the people, you know, doing the diving, so it's a scuba experience. So calm seas, no current, unlimited visibility. People are seeing you, you know, you see people waving at you. So you get to experience that one. And that one is between $22 and 249 plus tax and of course depending on you know the dates and of course weekends and peak times are always
then it seems like a lot of these are at epcot so epcot does have an opportunity for some exclusive experiences but the other one is if you like the land and that's one of your favorite rides, like it's one of my favorite rides. I love it. And they have a behind the seeds tour. So you can go behind the scenes and visit four different greenhouses. They take you through the laboratories and a fish farm. And the prices on this are really reasonable. They range from like $39 to $45. And, you know, of course that varies by date and how busy they are.
but I mean, that's super affordable. So there's also specialty cruises that you can take. And so we've seen these and these look like a lot of fun specifically to do fireworks at Magic Kingdom and then to do the fireworks cruise at Epcot. So these are a little bit more, but $4.49 to $4.99 plus tax, of course, it varies by date, but it is for like a group of people. So again, I've seen people who are like, we're going and you're going and they like, you know, meet up and or, you know, have a have a big group of people. But so that'd be a lot of fun, a different experience to get to see those fireworks. And you meet a little earlier. And I know that you can either take or have them, you know, put on some snacks and beverages and stuff like that and just get to have a like a little bit of a different experience now
now i know they used to i don't know if they still do but they used to do bass fishing out there on those lakes so yeah so
also and i don't know that i included this one because i was trying to do ones that are more like kind of like disney experience type things but yeah you absolutely can they have all these boats that they use for that but then during the day we've seen those leave out of i think the polynesian and the grand floridian but yeah you can take kids out and do like fishing tours and and stuff like that during the day there's lots of lots of boats so a couple more one animal kingdom that i've heard is a lot of fun is the wild africa trek so it's one where you get to do a little bit more like um i don't know almost like a like a mini ropes course type thing and like go over some and get to see some of the exotic wildlife on a guided expedition um and so that one is make sure those big cats
those big cats have already eaten yeah
true so i think it's over by the like where the crocodiles and the hippopotamuses are so i don't know how far back in there it goes but that one's like 219 to 229 and then there's also one that's called savor the savannah that's a private safari tour and you can enjoy african-inspired tapas drinks and um stuff like that so 189 to 199 so i also want to say so i don't think they do this anymore but years ago we took our kids we stayed at animal kingdom lodge and this was back when i don't know disney wasn't quite so busy they were offering some really great deals we we told the kids okay y'all can pick this was going to be our this one bear like our last big disney trip with our kids we've been a million times since then. But they picked Animal Kingdom Lodge. They wanted to stay in the room that overlooked the Savannah. And so that was really cool. And we ended up in a club level room. And this, like I said, this was the time when the prices were not what they are today. So somewhere along the line, I found out if that was what you were doing, like if you were staying in Animal Kingdom Lodge in a club level room, you could book an early morning safari, like a small group like this, a small group safari. I don't think they do this anymore. I haven't been able to find any information about this. And you had your little small group. It was enough people that like filled up the truck maybe. And then you had breakfast at Tusker House after. And that was a really cool experience. We did that. We did that with our kids when they were like teenagers. And that was a really cool experience. We did that with our kids when they were like teenagers. And that was a really neat experience. And I don't remember it being like much more than this. Then I wanted to point out a couple of other ones. If you've got kids who love animals, here's a couple of very affordable, very neat experiences. One of them is called Caring for Giants, also at Animal Kingdom. It's taking a look at the elephants. I think it's a couple of hours. I have had friends who have done this and they said probably kids need to be eight or older to really get a lot of out of that experience. Just saying, I don't think there's a limit on it, but that one is like $39. And so if you have a kid who really loves elephants and you have a couple of extra hours, again, I would book these. These are also all bookable 60 days in advance. But some of them, if they're not booked up, you might be able to snag one at the last minute. And then there's also something very similar with the rhinos. That one I think is called Gentle Giants and it's like $49 so there are some really exclusive behind the scenes experiences that you can do that don't have a hefty price tag and it could be that you might you might have you know kids of different interest right and so one person could take one child and do like a special experience and you know know, that kind of thing.
well, it sounds like you've got a ton of options that you can look at for these exclusive experiences, you know, just to kind of wrap things up is if you are looking to do a VIP tour, that is a great way for you to just get the best experience possible that Disney offers. And remember that you don't have to do it alone. So it is a pretty hefty price tag to do that. So remember, you can break that out into groups. Maybe you get a couple of groups of friends together if you're going all at the same time, and then you split that cost amongst those friends and then it becomes a little more affordable. And then also, like Melissa said, there are Facebook groups out there where you can find those where they'll put groups together. And so, you know, a couple of options available for you on that. So, Melissa, is it worth it?
So for me, yes, it was definitely worth it. And when I had the opportunity to do this, like I jumped on it in like two seconds, right? Because it was something that I had said, this is something I would love to be able to do. And it was definitely worth it. It was worth the, what it cost for us. It was worth, you know, the time to take the time to do that experience to get to say, you know, we've done this and we've had this experience and this is what it's like. And then to, you know, be able to share that with people. What about you?
I don't think that I would pay the full price and do it that way. But the way that we did it, yes, absolutely was worth it.
worth it. We were just at Disney over Mother's Day weekend and I kept finding myself wishing we were on one of those VIP tours. There's just something about having them whisk you past the crowds and straight onto the rides. What's something that you've done that gives you that feeling of being part of an exclusive experience? Email me scott at sunshine travelers.com because we are always inspired by your travel stories. We hope you
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