Backstage Tour

We did the "Keys to the Kingdom" tour April 29th. Brad, our tour guide, was fantastic. The tour lasted about 5 hours including a lunch break at Columbia Harbor House. There was a lot of history and trivia which I can never get enough of! We got our own boat for Jungle Cruise, but instead of the usual narration, Brad told us about the ride: when, where, why, and how. We also got to enter HM through the rear entrance (used for celebrities!) and rode the usual ride. By doing this we missed the stretch room, but it was still cool. We also got to go backstage behind Splash Mountain where they maintain the floats for the parades. It was neat to see them sitting idle, batteries charging, and look inside where the drivers' sit (no A/C for them!). Did you know there is a "hidden Walt" on each of the snow-globe floats? We next went upstairs in one of the Main Street buildings - they all look alike from the rear - where we got to see there are regular offices up there. Then finally down to the tunnels. Again, more neat stories and stuff. Got to see the trash tubes, lockers, more rooms, etc. One neat thing down there is that the lands are color coded and the stairways marked so, when you are in costume, you know where you are allowed to enter onstage. Overall, absolutely worthwhile and fun, plus you get a cool key to the kingdom pin. I don't know the cost, but you can find it on Mouseplanet.com. We used our Discovery Wishes package to pay. Hope I didn't spoil anything for you. GO DO IT!

ps - absolutely no cameras allowed and you MUST bring photo id. Two couples didn't have any and were not able to go - had to reschedule.

Do they have the same thing at the other parks??? Sounds grewat!!!! Thanks!!:sohappy:

They have some at EPCOT, such as gardening, diving, and <I think> a general behind-the-scenes at World Showcase. There may even be something at AK where you get to see the animal care areas, but I'm not sure. We were only interested in the MK tour. By the way, MK is the only park with underground tunnels. I would think that since they work so well there, they would have used them in all parks! Oh, MK also has a steam train tour if that interests you. I understand you get a private ride around the park before it opens and get to see the maintenance facilities, etc.

The Keys to the Kingdom tour was the best $50 (give or take a few--I can't remember exactly) that we ever spent. There is a small discount for paying with Amex or having a Disney Club card, and the price includes lunch unless things have changed (this had just started the week we went).

Plan on doing a lot of walking and come armed with all of the questions you've always wanted answered. We also went in through the "backdoor" of HM but our other ride was the TTA--with all kinds of great info about that ride provided by our tour guide. We are told going on HM is standard, the second ride is whatever happens to interest your particualr tour guide. You definatly go in the tunnels and see all kinds of behind the scenes places (my favorite part is wardrobe) including the parade floats. So much of what you learn depends on the questions asked by your group (I think there can be 15 and it usually fills up--we went on a 40 degree day in December of 2000 and had only 6 on our tour) and what interesets your guide that we are planning to take it again if we ever have the chance (you must be at least 16--which for us means we have to have someone with us willing to watch the kids).

The best $50 or so we ever spent was for Cirque du Soleil
But "Keys" comes in a close second. Next up on my Disney wish list is a ride in the front car of the monorail. (priceless) We asked several times on the last trip, but were always shut out.

We did the backstage magic tour ( I think the name is right)
It was 200.00 per person 7hours long and started at Epcot then to MGM we saw the rehersal area for Fantasmic ate at MaMa R's
then onto MK toured bacstage and the utillador got into the main computer room, the heart and soul of the park, well worth the money, in my opinion..

Sunrise Safari

The Sunrise Safari at Animal Kingdom is great!

You must be a concierge member at the AKL to take advantage of it. You wake up REAL early, and go eat breakfast. Then you ride to AK, and go on a personalized Kilimanjaro Safari. They also give you a FastPass for later.

That's my favorite Backstage Tour! :sohappy:

It's worth it...It's so cool...I loved it.

I highly reccommend Keys to the Kingdom. Even as a huge WDW buff, I was fascinated and amazed at the things I saw and learned on that tour. I want to go again on our next trip!

We want to do the Backstage Magic tour on our next visit, but last time down we did do the Backstage Safari at AK, Gardens of the World and Behind the Seeds, both at Epcot.

All were great. The Gardens was very nice. My wife is the green thumb, but it was still interesting to see how they do all the planings and what it really takes on a daily (actually nightly) basis to keep the parks looking like they do.

Plus we had the whole World Showcase to our group for about 2 hours. NO OTHER PEOPLE except CMs. I've got countless pictures with not a single soul from the crowd in them.

The AK tour was cool, and even though they tell you you don't get to see animals, we did get up close and personal with a Giraffi and we got to touch a reptile, and spend a few minutes with some birds.

Plus you get a bit closer to the carnavors food prep than I needed to be. (lot's of frozen rats, mice, bunnies, etc...)

Behind the Seend is the walking tour of The Land pavilon. If you like the ride, you'll get alot more out of the tour.

Can't wait to go back and do a few more tours...

We recently did the "Undiscovered Future World" tour at epcot and it was really cool....They take you backstage at every pavillion..except wonders of life
They also show you several of the VIP lounges at each pavillion..The one at Living Seas is incredible
They take upstair at the JIYI pavillion and you can see many of the old attraction that were up there
You also get to skip the line and ride TT
It is 40 bucks and about 4 hours long....definitly worth it

Also did Dolphins in Depth.....that is so good...expalining would not do it justice you just have to do it..

Originally posted by bvolguards
Also did Dolphins in Depth.....that is so good...expalining would not do it justice you just have to do it..

Click to expand...

Not to get off topic, but have you ever done Discovery Cove? If so, how does it compair (the Dolphin swim I mean)?

Just curious. I did DC last year instead of DiD, but I did do their Trainer tour, and not the regular stuff, but I was just wondering how Disney vrs. SeaWorld compair.