What day to day changes are you seeing?
Differences for us from 2019 (i.e. pre-Covid) to August 2021 were:
- Need to sign a Covid waiver pre-tour
- No snacks from behind the scenes when switching parks - previously they literally had CMs sitting in parking lots with refreshments that would hop out, move the car & offer snacks/water.
- This time the VIP CM would grab drinks for us while we rode some things and she grabbed ice cream backstage prior to dropping us off at the VIP Fireworks area.
- My impression was before we could switch vehicles between parks - now I think we always had the same one and the Plaid was responsible for parking etc.
I didn’t notice much else different, but I’m only comparing 2 tours and of course we toured a little different between the 2. We did have the RotR back and forth just prior to our tour of “you can ride”, “oh no you can’t”, “well one ride” that was giving me whiplash with hope and then worry on if we’d get on for the first time…
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The car thing is super interesting.
I recall being in the FP line for TSMM and a group with a plaid was able to jump in ahead of the FP line. I don’t know if that was a one off time or something regular for TSMM.
I’m wondering if I should rethink our park order or if it doesn’t really matter. Does a park being busy have much bearing on how efficient you can be with the tour?
We just got back from our trip that included a VIP Tour. It was a one time splurge, but we all had a great day. I haven’t read everything on this thread, so if this has already been covered, I apologize. The VIP Tour gave us access to Remy’s Ratatouille. We had already done Rise of the Resistance 4 times on this trip and it is very long so we didn’t do it on the tour–but we could have if we wanted to ride it.
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I don’t think it should make a huge difference that I would juggle plans over it. A busier park may slow you down a little going from attraction to attraction, but you’re mostly cutting the line so it won’t make a big difference in lines. But I don’t think a crowd 3 vs. a 5 really matters when you’re being escorted by a plaid…
Ya, we ended up shifting both start time and park location because it works out better with plans. Will see what difference genie is going to have though.
Our first VIP tour was when FP+ was still around and it was still great so I doubt Genie+ will affect you a whole lot. Should still be a great time.
What’s the new schedule? If meeting in the parks, do make sure to give yourself plenty of time to get there. I saw an orphaned plaid at HS whose tour group was over 30 minutes late and it made me incredibly sad at all that lost high priced touring time…
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Starting after lunch so we can be well rested and well fed! Meeting inside Animal Kingdom, right near FOP, and plan to be in the parks well before that, maybe doing a couple shows or something/eating.
So a few rides at AK, then a bunch of rides at HS, then ending in EPCOT. Hoping we can have our last stop be the Space 220 lounge (they aren’t sure if that’s possible yet), then leave our guide and stick around for F+W dinner plus fireworks.
That was similar to our plans. We ended up doing a VIP elephant tour at 9AM in AK then ate at Yak & Yeti and met our Tour Guide outside Tiffin’s at 2PM to start the tour. Hit Navi and FOP and then headed to HS - we did QS in Galaxy’s Edge for dinner. We ended at MK instead as the plaid was able to drop us off at the VIP area for the Fireworks just as our tour ended. Worked out great.
You should have a wonderful time…
That’s great to hear! Between deluxe resort hours and boo bash we think MK will be well covered, thus the EPCOT, especially with access to Rat.
How many rides did you end up getting in? Do you remember?
When we did it in August obviously Remy wasn’t open yet so Epcot wasn’t a huge thought for us.
Let’s see - if memory serves we did: Navi, FOP, RnR, MMRR, Slinky, TSMM, RotR, Smuggler’s (twice), ToT, Big Thunder, Splash & Space. So I think that’s 13 rides, time for a QS meal plus the drop-off for fireworks. The MK portion is a slight blur - I remember we were hoping to do 7DMT & Space and ending up choosing Space as we were running out of time - I don’t think we did Pirates or Haunted Mansion on the tour - if anything I undercounted, but I think the above is accurate.
In general you can ride so many spinning rides back-to-back that it can get a little dizzying - I sat out a couple - in part because one of the friends were were touring with skips a lot of the motion rides so I’d take strategic breaks to talk with her while others rode, but it also wasn’t a bad thing to just take a break…
Ya, I keep thinking about whether my body is going to be able to take this!
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Just talked to a CM who didn’t seem to know what they were talking about. Called VIP tour exclusively attractions based and said things like fireworks location and dining weren’t a part of it? Which…does not match other reports at all.
We’re going the week before Thanksgiving week, and there’s no tour availability as of today, but she did let me know the rates range $575-$675/hr that week. Only 11/3, 11/10, and 11/28 were still available the whole month of November, if anyone is looking at those days.
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Was this a random CM? Or a VIP Tour CM? I would suggest calling (or emailing) the VIP contacts directly - I think they should have sent you an email with info about your tour which includes a VIP phone line. If it was someone that should know VIP Tours that does seem incredibly odd.
It was on the direct VIP tours line. I just decided it wasn’t worth discussing further. I’ll call back another time.
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Though I’m starting to wonder if this is a policy change? There used to be references to meals during a VIP tour on the website and that’s gone now.
Don’t really know on the meals - we just ate QS that we remote ordered at HS. Worked out well for us to minimize the non-touring time.
For the fireworks, that was something our tour guide asked us about up front when we met. So unless they changed that policy since August 1st, I would imagine you won’t have an issue getting dropped in the VIP viewing area, at least if you’re starting your tour around 7 hours prior to the show you want to be dropped at. We did a 2PM tour and got dropped off at 9 at MK.