We have a trip planned for early January 2021. DH, me and our two sons are doing a week starting on January 3. We arrive a week earlier to do other things in Orlando with DH’s family (10 people; maybe 12). His family wants to do one day at Disney on January 2. I assume that the 2nd will be crowd level 10 based on the last few years. We have a reservation for the day to get FPs. Most of them have never been to Disney (and most likely won’t return). When I say it will be busy they don’t really understand how busy. Last time DH and I went it was a 6 and he thought that was busy!
I think we should do a VIP tour or at least one of the tours (thrills?) so we can actually get one some of the rides. Otherwise I fear we will get on 3-4 rides and they will call it a day because of the crowds. Not a great introduction to Disney.
I need your help to convince DH we need a VIP tour or other tour. Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated!
I love doing the tours when it’s crowded, it makes the day much more enjoyable. I stick to the non-ride based ones though - prefer the educational tours. A VIP tour is pretty much going to get you on the rides they agree to take you on ( they usually plan the day a bit with you to setup realistic time schedule based on how many parks, etc. ). The thrill or family ride tour has a set amount and basically will get you on those too unless there is a ride closure.
We booked the VIP “Day of Thrills” tour for Saturday before Thanksgiving. We have four in our family (two teens and my wife and myself) so it came to $1400 total ($350 pp), but it was well worth it to cut the lines for 10 headliners across three parks. My sister-in-law and her spouse also did it with us and they agreed that it was worth the money.
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I’ve heard they are good. So since you have a regular ticket, either before the tour starts or after the tour is “over”, you could try to snag a couple of extra rides? Or is that not likely? I’m thinking about our next trip getting the Thrills Pckg and then either before or after the tour doing some classic MK rides like HM, Jungle Cruise, etc. I assume you can pick MK first or last at your discretion.
I think it would be tough to convince him to do a full VIP tour but the thrills tour would make sense if everyone is interested in those rides. Find out what everyone’s expectations are for a day at Disney? I definitely recommend the after hours tickets.
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For the Day of Thrills you finish in Hollywood Studio around 3:30pm. You don’t get to pick the order of the rides or parks. We secured FP+ for three more rides at that park after the tour ended and had an ADR for dinner at 50s Prime Diner. The tour includes lunch at Epcot.
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Thanks everyone. I think I’m going to see about the Classics Tour at MK instead. It is cheaper, which is an obvious bonus. I’m also worried about the amount of walking with the VIP. From the reports I’ve read it seems like most people walk twice as much because they don’t wait much in lines. We have a couple in the group who can’t walk non-stop all day.
The tour is only MK for 4 hours starting at 10 am. That should mean we can get a few rides in before the tour, depending on the time of park open. After the tour we can rest while we get a good spot for the parade and have a snack. Then use FPs in the afternoon for headliners not on the tour (i.e. Seven Dwarfs if we can get it, Big Thunder, Splash). Have dinner and watch the fireworks.
I’ll do a touring plan closer to the dates. A good TP might be just as good (or close) to the tour given some of the rides it includes often have same-day FP availability. The parks will be busier than our last trip, but we can still enjoy ourselves.
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Sounds like a good plan, I hope they enjoy it!