Private VIP Tours & Customized Experiences | Walt Disney World Resort
I was lucky enough to go on a Disney VIP Tour on a Saturday in October. This is a private tour for your group of up to 10 people. Your group decides what you want to do and your guide will take you there and put you through the Lightning Lane on every attraction. Some even have special (themed!) entrances like the Haunted Mansion.
You don’t have to wait for a bus. You don’t have to walk alllll the way from the parking lot. They park back-stage, practically right next to an attraction. You walk 20 steps from the car to a wall, walk around the wall, and you’re at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Compared to walking all the way up there from the bus stop at Epcot, and going through the line to scan to get in, you’ve easily saved 30+ minutes.
We were able to do 16 rides in our 10-hour tour. During that time, we also stopped for a quick-service lunch and built a droid. Additionally, we didn’t want to have to deal with busses that day, so she picked us up at our hotel. Your clock starts ticking when your guide meets you. To maximize your time, you can have your guide meet you already in the park, so you could easily eek out another 2.
How much does this cost? Well, it’s not cheap, but it’s not as expensive as it seems, either. You can’t see the exact prices online and have to call for an exact quote (which your friendly neighborhood travel agent is happy to do!) based on the day you want to attend. The tour is charged hourly, for a minimum of 8 hours to a maximum of 10. As of this writing, the hourly price ranges from $450 – $900. On top of that, you also have to purchase a Park Hopper park ticket for that day. It is surprisingly, not included in your tour cost.
This means that depending on the season and number of hours, your tour could cost $3,600 – $9000. Plus park tickets. For a single Best Day Ever. The price is the same regardless of whether the tour has one person or the maximum of ten. If you divide that number per guest, assuming the maximum of ten, that works out to $360 – $900/person. Dividing that out by rides, let’s pick a more conservative number of 13. We were all adults, so we didn’t have to stop as much as a family with kids might. So that works out to be $27 – $69/ride.
Still seems ridiculously expensive? Let’s also consider that you can get a LOT in on one day, which would normally take closer to three or four days. That’s four days of hotel reservations, park tickets, food, transportation (if staying off-property), maybe Genie+, and days off work (which can get expensive fast for Americans that usually very little PTO).
Granted, it’s a lot harder to “stop and smell the roses” if you’re doing it all in one day vs three or four. And there’s a LOT to smell at Disney World. But also, your entire group doesn’t have to go on a ride. If someone with motion sickness can’t handle Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, she can go shopping in Paris or relax with a glass of wine while the rest of her group is on the attraction. Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting that your guide can separate your group and treat them like two groups. She can’t get half of you into one attraction and get the other half into another. Just that if you want to split off FROM the group and do your own thing temporarily, you can.
So IS one of these tours worth the money? It’s down to a factor of money, time, patience, and mobility. In my opinion, yes, these tours are absolutely amazing and I want to do another one. If you have a member of your group that has a hard time walking, a VIP Tour will give her a much better experience.
One more cost I didn’t mention earlier. The vast majority of Disney employees except for traditional tipped positions (like servers and bellhops) can’t accept tips. But VIP Tour Guides can. How much is up for debate. Some argue that every position that can be tipped deserves at least 10%, but 10% of $9,000 is quite a lot. Some say a simple $20 will do. I feel it’s somewhere in the middle. Of course, your Tour Guide will never ask for one or give you a hint about what’s appropriate, or yell at you if it’s not enough, so just give what you feel is fair.