Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also got a lot of dirt on the guide's prior celebrity clients. Apparently, Mariah was the worst, but he loved Brittany.

This simply did not happen.

It did! We were with another family who had used the same tour guide a bunch of times so I think that he was comfortable with us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also got a lot of dirt on the guide's prior celebrity clients. Apparently, Mariah was the worst, but he loved Brittany.

This simply did not happen.

Not PP but I’m inclined to believe it. Our safari guide (white SA) loved bragging about the A list celebs they guided.

The Disney VIP guides are consummate professionals. This is not a celebrity homes tour in LA. They would be fired for what pp is saying.

Please. I’m guessing you’ve never been on a VIP tour or if you have, got one of the few oldies still left.

Most of the guides are in their 20s and are working hard for that 20% tip so they’ll say what they think you want to hear. Their base pay is only $20/hour. Tips is where some of them hit 6 figures.

I do not pay a tip anywhere near 20% when I do this. I am paying $3000-5000 for a one day service, plus park tickets. Disney can find ample resources to pay the guides from this fee. I tip $200.

You sound wonderful.

Anonymous wrote:I know it would annoy me because I know far more about Disney and Disney World than any of these tour guides (who are most great). But I'd be hard pressed to stop correcting them.

Still, I've thought of doing it for one day just for fun. And Insta humble brags. No, not really.

We did it once (a friend is actually a Club 33 member and offered to bring us along) The friend and my sister had both worked at WDW for several years. Trust me that they know a toooon about Disney. And the tour was so awesome! Once the tour guide realized the knowledge/interest level of the group, it was so much fun sharing stories among everyone and talking about cool (and also funny and gross and stuff) experiences. Of course, we weren't arrogant jackals trying to catch the guide in an error or something.

The VIP guides are excellent at their job and are very good at seeing what each individual group wants/needs to make it a fantastic day.

But the cost... ouch!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also got a lot of dirt on the guide's prior celebrity clients. Apparently, Mariah was the worst, but he loved Brittany.

This simply did not happen.

Not PP but I’m inclined to believe it. Our safari guide (white SA) loved bragging about the A list celebs they guided.

The Disney VIP guides are consummate professionals. This is not a celebrity homes tour in LA. They would be fired for what pp is saying.

Please. I’m guessing you’ve never been on a VIP tour or if you have, got one of the few oldies still left.

Most of the guides are in their 20s and are working hard for that 20% tip so they’ll say what they think you want to hear. Their base pay is only $20/hour. Tips is where some of them hit 6 figures.

I do not pay a tip anywhere near 20% when I do this. I am paying $3000-5000 for a one day service, plus park tickets. Disney can find ample resources to pay the guides from this fee. I tip $200.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also got a lot of dirt on the guide's prior celebrity clients. Apparently, Mariah was the worst, but he loved Brittany.

This simply did not happen.

Not PP but I’m inclined to believe it. Our safari guide (white SA) loved bragging about the A list celebs they guided.

The Disney VIP guides are consummate professionals. This is not a celebrity homes tour in LA. They would be fired for what pp is saying.

Please. I’m guessing you’ve never been on a VIP tour or if you have, got one of the few oldies still left.

Most of the guides are in their 20s and are working hard for that 20% tip so they’ll say what they think you want to hear. Their base pay is only $20/hour. Tips is where some of them hit 6 figures.

I’ve done it several times. Maybe you are thinking of Universal?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also got a lot of dirt on the guide's prior celebrity clients. Apparently, Mariah was the worst, but he loved Brittany.

This simply did not happen.

Not PP but I’m inclined to believe it. Our safari guide (white SA) loved bragging about the A list celebs they guided.

The Disney VIP guides are consummate professionals. This is not a celebrity homes tour in LA. They would be fired for what pp is saying.

Please. I’m guessing you’ve never been on a VIP tour or if you have, got one of the few oldies still left.

Most of the guides are in their 20s and are working hard for that 20% tip so they’ll say what they think you want to hear. Their base pay is only $20/hour. Tips is where some of them hit 6 figures.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know it would annoy me because I know far more about Disney and Disney World than any of these tour guides (who are most great). But I'd be hard pressed to stop correcting them.

Still, I've thought of doing it for one day just for fun. And Insta humble brags. No, not really.

We did it about 8 years ago. The guide didn’t pepper us with knowledge or facts. The benefit was being able to zip around the park behind the scenes to get places more quickly and to eliminate waits. We had a list of rides we wanted to do and the guide suggested some. We did 3 parks in one day (obviously select rides at each).

Understand it is customer specific, but I sometimes hear the guides talking to their groups in lines. I think it's mostly driven by customer engagement. And I've cringed a few times.

I'll note I've been grabbed twice near the end of lines by VIP groups that weren't full and taken with them through lightning. I don't know if that's allowed anymore. Depends on the VIP I guess.

Are you exceptionally attractive or something? Why would they do this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also got a lot of dirt on the guide's prior celebrity clients. Apparently, Mariah was the worst, but he loved Brittany.

This simply did not happen.

Not PP but I’m inclined to believe it. Our safari guide (white SA) loved bragging about the A list celebs they guided.

The Disney VIP guides are consummate professionals. This is not a celebrity homes tour in LA. They would be fired for what pp is saying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also got a lot of dirt on the guide's prior celebrity clients. Apparently, Mariah was the worst, but he loved Brittany.

This simply did not happen.

Not PP but I’m inclined to believe it. Our safari guide (white SA) loved bragging about the A list celebs they guided.

Anonymous wrote:We also got a lot of dirt on the guide's prior celebrity clients. Apparently, Mariah was the worst, but he loved Brittany.

This simply did not happen.

We also got a lot of dirt on the guide's prior celebrity clients. Apparently, Mariah was the worst, but he loved Brittany.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last time I went it was about $10k for a day. We were in line behind Sean McVeigh who was doing it. I think it's worth it.

So some celebs ARE waiting in the lightning lanes. There was some discussion on another thread about what level was above VIP for travelers like Tom Cruise.

He had a vip guide and he still had to wait in the fast pass line (which was very short). You don’t just go to the front like the wheelchair riders at tsa.

We did!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last time I went it was about $10k for a day. We were in line behind Sean McVeigh who was doing it. I think it's worth it.

So some celebs ARE waiting in the lightning lanes. There was some discussion on another thread about what level was above VIP for travelers like Tom Cruise.

He had a vip guide and he still had to wait in the fast pass line (which was very short). You don’t just go to the front like the wheelchair riders at tsa.

Same here, at Disneyland in CA. We had done a Universal Orlando small-group VIP tour before that (and have since done Universal VIP a second time). Disney VIP is OK, but Universal VIP is cheaper and has better, quicker access to the rides and other attractions, in our opinion.

We've done the VIP tour several times. Unlike the PP above, I don't waste any of the required time traveling from the hotel. We meet the guide inside the first park, next to the first ride we want to go on. The first time that we went on the tour, they could generally walk you to the front of the line, but now it is just a chance to walk up to the LL line and wait your turn. Obviously, these are shorter lines, but we have had 20-25 minute waits on Guardians, etc. even with the VIP. The nice thing for us is that the transfer into other parks (and the other side of EPCOT, which takes a while to walk across) is saved because you can drive to a parking spot near the rides.

We were able to do all of the major rides in one day: both Star Wars, Slinky Dog, Toy Story Mania, Guardians, Soarin, Ratatouille, Frozen, Avatar, Expedition Everest, Snow White, and the Mountains, even with a baby and a toddler, requiring baby swap. And then the guide drove us back to our car at the first park. Also unlike a PP, we don't really use this to save park days, but it makes things much more relaxed on the other days as everyone has already had the chance to ride their top rides. We usually buy a few more LLs on other days.

Once they really raised the price on VIP, last year we did the Premier Pass every day instead and it also worked great.

We have done this about 4-5 times and twice at universal. It’s great, particularly if you are a family that will MOVE and just wants to go ride to ride as fast as you can. They can take you through back exits and have special suvs and parking sports to link you to different parks. Definitely also factor in cost of tickets with Parkhopper and a significant tip.

The standard vip is not what tom cruise is getting. There is a different level for him and he just doesn’t stand in the fast pass line because it’s a security issue. That’s true at universal also.

Universal mandates the one hour lunch break and your guide. Has option of joining you. Disney mandates your guide eats separately but doesn’t require a length of break so we usually just do a fast casual and keep moving.

Universal has no ride limits — you can do hulk until you pass out if you want. Disney limits each ride to once per hour (although if there are not long lines for the ride sometimes they will fudge that). Also, if it’s a really new ride you might onto be able to do it once. That was true for guardians of galaxy and troj when we went last year. Universal also has special back stage experiences (except at epiq) — disney does not, although you sometimes see off areas just by virtue of going to the parking lots. You are not allowed to take photos in any back lot areas — they are really strict about this. The disney tour guides go through an extensive training process so know a lot about the history, design, and logistics of the park. The universal guides aren’t as well trained but will find out answers for you. I’m the one asking random questions about the landscaping design or what happened to pieces from old experiences— and they are always great about getting answers. So that’s always fun for me. The disney guide folks will make your account with notes about your family and apparently our family’s notes say that we need a guide that can walk 10 miles at a fast clip and answer a broad range of trivia—which I thought was hilarious.

One of the times I fussed about the cost, my spouse pointed out that we are packing 3 days worth of stuff into 1 days which saves us on park tickets, food and hotel, so I conceded the point.

I’m also a big fan of the special ticket entry events which are a great way to maximize ride times.