It is crazy expensive, but I’d still like to do it if I could join a group of 9 on the cheapest day of the year 
3 Likes
Interesting! That’s more than 60 days out, so they have pricing even if you can’t book?
I could of seen it wrong… I believe it was on Chat and I can’t search for it.
1 Like
You do have to call to get pricing because it’s seasonal and situational. A lot of people will try to go with multiple families to help offset the cost as well because it’s per hour, not per person, up to 10 people (iirc, I’ve only done it with 3 people).
Weekends and peak are more than weekdays and off season. No there’s no charge for hopping parks aside from the actual cost of the park hopper tickets. Yes you should tip the CM for their knowledge and their extensive planning and on the fly adapting for non planning families.
Yes, it’s 100% worth the money. And I’m planning several tours this winter, which I am exceptionally happy about. (Sorry if I’m sounding grumpy. I spent a lot of time “defending” my love of these tours which are PERFECT for my changing everything on a whim touring family)
9 Likes
I will amend that it’s worth it for me because my guys can’t/won’t wait in anything over 15 minutes, nor do they want to be forced into a schedule.
They want to nap when they want to, or sleep in until they’re ready and they want the freedom of making decisions based on their mood, not months of planning put in by me.
If you are good at TP’s and your family is good at following them…then it might not be worth it.
6 Likes
Can I ask: If you are doing these tours how long do you normally stay at the parks? Do you stay on property? Do you go into the parks on other days w/o a tour guide? I’m trying to imagine what this might look like. I could totally see someone doing this b/c they have limited time, but if you spend a week or two then would you need one? The tour becomes a whip around to all the rides possible. I’d never want to use my tour time to eat then… too expensive 
5 Likes
I want to answer this as best as possible because I know you’re genuinely curious. I’ll answer tomorrow when I’m not super sleepy!
1 Like
Bubblez will know better than me b/c I have never done this, but we had friends who did this a month ago. They were down there with their son’s basketball team and had one day after their tournament before they had to return home so they booked a tour for their group and rode all the main thrill rides at the parks. They thought it was worth it b/c they just had the one day to spend at the parks and were doing it just for the rides for these teenagers. I never asked if they were staying on-site or off. They were only in each park for a couple hours.
3 Likes
Thx
Oh.,… what a nice thing to do for the teenagers!!! TY I bet they had to stop and eat though. That IS the part that might irk me b/c it’s so expensive. Then again the CM needs to eat too, right?
3 Likes
In my musing about a VIP tour we accidentally convinced couple friends of ours to overlap with our trip. Guess we may be doing this after all! Going to call SS and see if they know rates for those dates now.
4 Likes
I spoke with a VIP tour guide on July 2, and the hourly rate was $750. I’d love to know when it’s $425. I’ve never been quoted less than $625/hour.
7 Likes
@len, on this morning’s podcast, you mentioned going to two different parks on your tour. What was your experience?
3 Likes
I suspect Friday counts as a weekend and those are more expensive. Plus peak summer. From what I know Aug is currently $550.
1 Like
Early June was $550 per hour.
And I think they did 3 parks, possibly 4.
1 Like
Ya, you can do as many parks as you can fit into your time
1 Like
As an update I called SS. Rates release in 3 month blocks and they expect Oct - Dec in the next few weeks. You can book 60 days out.
5 Likes
I did pay around $475 iirc, but it was Disneyland and it was midweek, during the school year.
I am going to call to inquire about Christmas - New Years, though I am already expecting the highest rate for that.
I’m also going to get quotes for early December and throughout January, for reference. I’ll post here when I get the prices.
3 Likes
I believe when we did this tour at DLR, we were only there a couple of days and MaxPass wasn’t a thing yet. We were also staying across the street. Yes, it was a spurge.
Our family favors experiences over things, and it’s one experience we remember fondly. Instead of doing either DLR or WDW yearly, we were going every 2-4 years to budget for tours like this or stays at a nicer hotel. In fact, we’ve only been to WDW once since we moved out of FL 7 years ago, even that was 4 years ago. As TSL was still being built.
Two of the weeks we’re going to be there is projected to be CL 10 for most if not all. My anxiety in crowds (remember I was physically punched in the face working crowd control at Fantasmic…) can send me into a claustrophobic panic attack that can trigger without warning.
My goodness, yes. But we don’t do touring plans as it’s our vacation and we like nighttime better than morning. So we have sometimes not even entered a single park until after 5pm and we don’t “relax” until the crowds depart after first parade/fireworks. That’s when our touring style begins, and we run to whatever has the shortest lines.
For us, this was how we used it the only time we’ve done the VIP tour. DS went on Matterhorn something like 6-8 times in a row and RR 4 times in a row. Which we loved since both had waits over an hour long both previously and after our tour.
Everyone is different. I will say I didn’t before, nor do plan on using VIP time for eating. We ended up asking the tour to end with good seating for the parade. Right up there in the Main Street station, overlooking the castle.
I will say that Touring Plans is a phenomenal company that built an exceptionally useful tool. If one is able to plan, enjoys doing so, and has a family that will follow it…this is much better than a VIP tour unless you want the personal knowledge a tour guide has to offer. In fact, wasn’t it Randall who, using TP, was able to tour all four parks in one day?
My family sleeps in late. Moseys down the street. Avoids crowds (normally). And will literally change course at least 3 times on the way to the first intended attraction. We’ll spend 4 hours on Tom Sawyers island, just on a whim and will call out randomly that one of us is off in search of a nap/drink/restroom/pretzel and we might not see that person for 1-4 hours later. As much as I am proud of my preplanning, 80% of it gets tossed out the window.
My DH wants to spoil us with another memory. My anxiety for crowds and my ill temper at their willy-nilly-ness during my months long planned trip is gong to let him.
8 Likes