Has anybody done the Keys To The Kingdom tour?

J

Jessie1991

New Member
Original Poster
I am re- posting this here as think I chose wrong forum before. Sorry - I'm a newbie (hello!)

I have visited all of Disney parks countless times over the years and am now considering the Keys To The Kingdom tour.

I have read lots of positive reviews on trip advisor - does anybody here want to add their experiences of it?

I don't mind spoliers at all (quite like them!) but I guess others may not so maybe inbox me those if you want to.

My big question is, and I'm aware it may sound strange, I'm from England and to be honest other American tours I've found fairly overwhelming. Not physically but the guides are quite full on and like crowd parcipation, etc. Let's be honest, us Brits are miserable and compared to the lovely Orlando folk we're as much fun as a chocolate teapot. I like watching it all but really don't want to be pushed and hassled into taking part when I'm happy to enjoy it quietly. Will this be a problem? I don't want to appear rude - I'm just not a ta-dah person and nor is my b/f (he sounds a catch right?)

Thank you for indulging me and reading this :)
 
Tinkerbell 8

Tinkerbell 8

Well-Known Member
We did this tour a few years ago and absolutely LOVED it!!! We decided to do the earliest tour that started before the park opened. We met our tour guide, was offered bottles of water, cups of coffee and I believe a snack. We selected our lunch from a menu and we were given our headphones. I thought the headphones was a great way to hear the tour guide, especially for those who were more towards the back of the group and we could hear her over the crowds of people. She asked a few questions, but never forced anyone to participate, it was more of a "who knows how tall the castle is" and stuff like that. We rode Jungle Cruise and then we went backstage near Splash Mountain where we saw where they keep the parade floats, we saw a few characters without full costumes. We also rode Haunted Mansion, then we stopped and had lunch at Columbia Harbor House. We made our way backstage again near Crystal Palace where we went down into the Utilidors (the best part of the tour). We spent about a half hour down there and we resurfaced near Tony's Town Square. I was nervous that since I am a huge Disney nerd and have read pretty much everything I can get my hands on about Disney that it would be a waste of money, but I think it was the best time we've had in Magic Kingdom. We learned some new stuff and got to see things that we've never seen before. I would love to do the tour again and I would recommend it to everyone who doesn't mind seeing Disney in a different light.
 
cba

cba

Well-Known Member
I've never done the tour before, but it would be a dream come true for me. I've only heard great things about it (like what Tinkerbell said), so if you can, do it. I think you can go inside the castle (I forget, I thought I might've heard that you can go in those castmember tunnels around the Magic Kingdom. I'm probably wrong, though) and go in places the general public can. But even if every word I just said is wrong (which there's a good chance I am), by all means, GO!
 
tink729

tink729

Active Member
I did it last year with my mom and absolutely loved it. We had a fantastic tour guide who was very personable and kept things interesting without forcing anyone to participate against their will. Like mentioned above, the questions asked were more like "does anyone know what parade this float is from?" and "does anyone know what show building that is?" Keep in mind that one of Disney's biggest goals is to always make you feel comfortable, so I wouldn't worry and definitely recommend that you take the tour! It was a great experience!
 
ThankstoMOM

ThankstoMOM

Active Member
Did it with DW in Feb of this year! Had Matt as our tour guide and it was awesome and so worth it. We are huge Disney people and enjoyed every second of it. Nothing ruined any of the magic at all!!!! Do the first morning tour available, yoy get to see the rush of people enter the park from CM point of view. WOW it is crazy. Then you realize your one of those crazy people, it's awesome
 
tink729

tink729

Active Member
ThankstoMOM said:
Did it with DW in Feb of this year! Had Matt as our tour guide and it was awesome and so worth it. We are huge Disney people and enjoyed every second of it. Nothing ruined any of the magic at all!!!! Do the first morning tour available, yoy get to see the rush of people enter the park from CM point of view. WOW it is crazy. Then you realize your one of those crazy people, it's awesome
Click to expand...

What I like to call "the running of the tourists" lol
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
I went a number of years ago, but it was like what Tinkerbell 8 described. Very low key and informative. There are certain areas of the tour that kind of bog down a little, but I truly think that it depends on the Tour guide that you get. I think it was worth it because I, personally, love seeing how things work. For me it enhances the on stage experience. That's not true for everyone.

Another Tour is the one that originates in Epcot called, if I remember correctly, the Back Stage Tour. That one is all day long and doesn't require a park ticket unless you decide to stay at some point (usually the end) in the tour. It's not cheap but you do hit parts of all the parks (at the time AK wasn't part of it) Epcot, DHS, and MK plus tours of the workshop where things are repaired, built and stored, plus something that I thought would be a real sleep-time but ended up to extremely fascinating and that was the central laundry. Amazing! That one is very low key like KttK tours. Mostly they just ask trivia questions but no one is put on the spot to answer there is no requirement to get in a circle, hold hands and sing the theme from the Mickey Mouse Club.:)
 
jlevis

jlevis

Well-Known Member
My wife and I did the tour a year ago and enjoyed it a lot. Our guide, Rae, was fantastic and had a wealth of knowledge. She made the tour informative and fun. The was no pressure to participate, some did and some did not. We rode the Jungle Cruise and Haunted Castle and had a nice lunch at Columbia Harbor House. We've talked about doing it again.
 
J

Jessie1991

New Member
Original Poster
Wow, so many replies already. Thank you so much for the feedback. It all sounds fantastic. I appreciate each of you who has gone to the trouble of answering me.

I have heard that you usually get taken on any 2 of 3 rides. Those being Jungle Cruise, Pirates Of The Carribean and Haunted Mansion. Anybody heard of a deviation to these 3?

We are going early next year so on ALL your advice we will look into booking. Cheers again :D
 
luv

luv

Well-Known Member
You can go through the tour and say nothing. :) I do. :)

But there are always people who have to ask a bunch of questions. And there are often people who design questions to show off their Disney knowledge, lol. Some of the guides are better at handling those folks than others, but it's still good. :)
 
harveyt0206

harveyt0206

Well-Known Member
We did the tour in September 2011 and I thought it was amazing and absolutely worth the money. We rode three rides during our tour - JC, Pirates and Mansion. I loved seeing the parade storage area and of course, the utilidors, which feels like you could be anywhere in the US, except for the Disney costumes you see walking around. If you even have a slight interest, I say go for it. We thought it was a wonderful way to spend 3-4 hours at the Magic Kingdom.
 
ThankstoMOM

ThankstoMOM

Active Member
We rode The JC and did HM, then a bunch of backstage stuff and the famous utilidors!!, We got a real cool experience at the HM that most never will, being a huge HM junkie I really really loved it. Can't wait to do it again.
 
KDiS88

KDiS88

Member
We just did the tour in August & I really enjoyed it! If you like to know behind the scenes stuff & know how things are done then I recommend it. It's not something I would do every year but I think everyone should try it once!
 
Tinkerbella16

Tinkerbella16

Well-Known Member
This is the only tour I have ever done in WDW and we loved it! Every single minute of it was informative and fun. Lunch was at my favorite spot in MK and we rode two of my favorite rides. I think what makes it great is the tour guide itself.. we had a phenomenal tour guide, Matthew and we was just great from beginning to end. He even shed a tear at the end of the tour, I won't say why because I wouldn't want to spoil that, but he really made it a memorable day. Definitely worth the money, even though it was only $60 per person in 2008 when we did it lol.
 
ddbowdoin

ddbowdoin

Well-Known Member
loved it.... the first part was a little boring as I knew everything about Walt they were telling, but just seeing the bones of WDW, backstage areas, and all of the small aspects of MK was amazing.
 

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