Behind The Scenes Tours

[JoshUlfers]

Has anyone ever done any of the behind the scenes tours where you can go under the Magic Kindgdom and such? I would like to do this next time I go but, it's kind of costly for some of the tours. Is it worth it? Also, do they let you videotape it/take photos?

Thanks,
Josh Ulfers

 

[mhead]

I did the Keys to the Kingdom Tour in November. I feel that it was well worth the money, but it is not something I would do again. I know alot of people do it over and over but I felt like once you had seen it that was pretty much it. There is absolutely NO video taping or photography of ANY kind. They will check your nbags and in fact you can't take anything larger than a normal sized purse with you on the tour. If you somehow sneak in a camera and they catch you they will take your film.

 

[Cosmo]

i went on the keys to the kingdom tour in '98 and had a great time. well worth it. My wife and are are going on it again in February (she's never been on it). Last week we went on the undiscovered future world tour at EPCOT and it was really good too! I think its definitely worth the $$

 

[crazygirley]

I went once. The Utilidors was very neat, but nothing special. You have to keep quiet, and walk in a tight group, as to not disrupt or get in the way of cast members. We weren't allowed to take pictures, either. But it wasn't a big deal, because all we saw were staff lunch lounges, golf carts carrying cast members, maintenance men, the occasional cart with hamburger buns on it, and ton's of piping and cement. I also got to go to the costume area, way back someplace in the back near Old Key West. There were rows and rows of costumes, we couldn't take pictures of those, either. The greatest part of the tour was getting on certian rides with no wait, via the back enterances, and not having to wait in line or for your food during lunch, and the slightly royal feeling you get going behind the scenes. It was really fun, but nothing I would invest in doing again. I would, however, reccomend it to someone with the means and interest to do it. Have fun!!!:wave:

 

[mwitkus]

we did the keys to the kingdom tour last october and had a great time! it was neat to see the backstage areas and the utilidors. it was well worth the money from my perspective, but i'm not sure i would do it again, just because there are so many other tours and things to do and see... although from what i hear, each tour seems to vary, depending on your guide... i would recommend it though, to anyone who is interested... (plus - the new information comes in handy when playing disney trivia!!!):animwink:

 

[WDWFanatic]

I've been on the backstage magic and keys to the kingdom tours.
I dont know if they still offer the backstage magic tour it was a few years ago, but we took a small 20 seat bus to all the parks backstage areas, had lunch on the backlot of mgm in front of earnest saves christmas house while the trams went by us and thought we were vip's so they were taking pics of us as we waved to them, painted our own mickey cell, saw startours from underneath the ride, saw the manatees in a back area of living seas, had a drawing lesson and drew goofy and mickey, and also saw how the american adventure worked from back stage, saw all the parade floats in the storage area, and the water parade and of course the tunnel system. I had an awsome time.

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

We also did backstage magic last fall and loved it! It was easily worth the money. Our tour guide was awesome which I'm sure helped. In addition to what WDWFanatic stated, we also saw Fantasmic backstage when they were prepping for the show, ROE, Star Tours from underneath (while it was moving) and we were in the nerve center for a parade to watch all of the camera angles they have and how they track the floats. We also had a great lunch at a place in MGM (I forget the name right now). I just checked the disney website and could no longer find anything about this tour so they may have cancelled it.

 

[JoshUlfers]

Thanks for the comments everyone....

 

[sigsegv]

DW and I have done Keys to the Kingdom twice and Undiscovered Future World once. We loved Keys and found it very entertaining. The guide really does affect your experience and found the two Keys tours to only be about 60% similar. We also rode different rides on each one. (Entering Haunted Mansion through the Servant's Quarters (door on your right as you exit) was pretty cool. Even this area was well themed.)

As for Undiscovered Future World...well, DW thought it was okay, but I really don't like Future World (love WS though) and our guide really couldn't pronounce many words correctly (native English speaker too) and I found it very distracting, but that could have to do with the fact that I don't like FW and was focusing on this. At the end, they gave us discounts to lunch at the Chinese resturant (cannot remember the name) and passes to a special viewing area for Illuminations. I'm not sure if they still do this though.

-sig

 

[Cosmo]

when we went on undiscovered future world last week we didn't get passes to the chinese restaurant (which is fine with me as I don't care for asian food) but we DID get "no wait" passes to test track as well as the opportunity to see illuminations from the special viewing area.

 

[TIGGER-FAN]

Over the holidays my wife and I did Dive Quest at the Living Seas. For anyone who is SCUBA certified this is a first class tour. Best dive I have ever done. There was about 3500 fish in the tank to include 4 sharks, 2 sea turtles, countless number of rays as well as fish from over 65 species. Visibility was wall to wall 203 feet. The fish were very unafraid and would approach you if you stayed still. I had a trigger fish nip at me (not hurting) several times looking for a hand out.

 

[kennyj29]

TOUR

HONESTLY, I FORGOT THE NAME OF THE TOUR, BUT IT WAS THE 7HOUR ONE THAT TOOK YOU ALL THROUGH THE WORLD. IT WAS GREAT!! WE HAD SUCH A GREAT DAY, WE SAW AMERICAN ADVENTURE AND HOW THEY WORKED IT, WE SAW THE BACK OF BODY TOURS AND HOW IT WORKED, WE SAW THE UTILIDORS AND THE AVIARY'S, WE WENT TO THE COSTUME SHOP AND GOT PIECES OF COSTUMES FROM THE CHARACTER COSTUMES, WE HAD LUNCH AT MAMMA MELROSE'S, IT WAS A GREAT AND WORTHWHILE TOUR. EVEN THOUGH SOMEONE MENTIONED THAT THEY WOULD NEVER DO IT AGAIN, I'VE ALSO READ HERE THAT PEOPLE HAVE DONE IT A COUPLE OF TIMES AND THAT IT WAS DIFFERENT EACH TIME. I WOULD DEFINITLEY DO IT AGAIN, IT WAS REALLY INTERESTING.

 

[AkiraRaptor]

We've done a lot of these tours over the last two years:

• Backstage Magic - 7 Hour Tour of Epcot, MGM and MK. A very nice tour that gives you alot of info. I really enjoyed the Body Wars part, the Utilidor, and the rehersal and parade area of MK.
• Backstage Safari - A very informitive tour on the care taking of Ak's animals. If you are remotly intrested in the animal of AK, this one is well worth every penny.
• Wild by Design - Another tour at AK, this one is all about the hows and whys of AK. The archetecture, props, and reasons why thing are they way they are at AK. Not to many people know about this one yet, so expect a small tour group. It was just myself and my wife for us, a personal tour.
• Gardens of the World - Garden tour of World Showcase. If you're into plants, and my wife is, this one is another don't miss then.
• Treasures of the World - Architecture tour of the World Showcase. This is like the Wild by Design, but for World Showcase. They talk at length about the building, archetecture, and design decisions that went into building the WS.
• Seeds Tour - This is the walking tour version of the boat ride at the Land in EPCOT. Basicly a longer, more in-depth tour that the boat ride does. It's only a couple of $, and it's short, so if you have an hour or so to spare, check it out.

Next time we go, were going to do the Future World tour and the new dive tour that doesn't require the scuba certification.

We've also done the VIP tour at Universal and SeaWorld, and the Trainer for a Day at Discovery Cove. The universal wasn't much more than a "get to the front of the line" tour, with some info thrown in about the park, but it was fun. The SeaWorld was even less than that. Discovery Cove tour was fantastic! And except for Discover Cove, Disney has the other parks beat hands down on tour content and fun.

We had a great time on all the tours. The Backstage Magic is the longest (and most expensive at $200), but most of them are about $50-$60 a person, and you can get discounts and also use wishes to get free tours as well.

Be prepaired to walk! I can't stess that enough. Most of the tours are non-stop on you feet. The BS tour does have a bus, but you really will be standing or walking most of the day.

Out of all of them I'd say the Backstage Safari was our favorite, and I liked Wild by Design and the Gardens tour a lot as well. They are all good though.

Have fun!

 

[tmp]

Originally posted by mhead
I did the Keys to the Kingdom Tour in November. I feel that it was well worth the money, but it is not something I would do again. I know alot of people do it over and over but I felt like once you had seen it that was pretty much it. There is absolutely NO video taping or photography of ANY kind. They will check your nbags and in fact you can't take anything larger than a normal sized purse with you on the tour. If you somehow sneak in a camera and they catch you they will take your film.

I went on the Keys to the Kingdom Tour and was allowed to videotape everything that was "onstage." I just had to turn off the camera near the parade floats and in the utilidors.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Do they check ID ? Cause id like to take my two eldest but the middle one is only 15.

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

They usually do check ID's.

Pam

 

[Cosmo]

they checked ours on the Undiscovered Future World tour and told us to be sure to bring them for our upcoming Keys to the Kingdom tour.

 

[Maerj]

I have been curious about these tours too. But let me ask everyone this:

Does going on one of the backstage tours take away the magic at all?

I think it may be cool to see how it all works, but in some ways I like the not knowing everything aspect as well. Seeing how it is all done might actually give one a greater appreication of the parks. Anyway, I am curious to know what everyone here who has been on one of these tours thinks.

 

[wishiwere@wdw]

Thanks for all of that info AkiraRaptor! I didn't even know about the AK tours. We've done a few of the tours and found BSM the best by far. (even though it cost most than double!) I guess we will need to do the AK tours on our next visit. Btw- A few years back, I guess I looked younger even though I was in my twenties because they asked ME for ID. I also remember them checking many other teens for ID's before our BSM tour. I think there were 3 teens but they were all over 16.

 

[AkiraRaptor]

Originally posted by wishiwere@wdw
Thanks for all of that info AkiraRaptor! I didn't even know about the AK tours. We've done a few of the tours and found BSM the best by far. (even though it cost most than double!) I guess we will need to do the AK tours on our next visit. Btw- A few years back, I guess I looked younger even though I was in my twenties because they asked ME for ID. I also remember them checking many other teens for ID's before our BSM tour. I think there were 3 teens but they were all over 16.

You're welcome. The tours are really fun, and not a lot of people know about them. I've been there on numorus vacation trips, and on countless trips for work (in the area) and so just going to WDW doesn't hold the same type of magic as before since there hasen't been a lot of new things for a trip of 8-10 days for us.

But then we discovered the tours, and that has changed our whole experence of the WDW vacation. We don't really care to "do everything" any more. No more commando style tacktics for us. If we miss stuff, no big deal.

We relax now at our resort, take our time getting to the parks in the morning, return to the resort in the afternoon to relax a bit more, and now we do the tours, so that takes up some of time as well.

It's a whole new experiance for us, no more rushing around, just pure fun and relaxation.

As for Maerj question, I would say no. The magic is still their for us. It usally is more like were just astounded after we find out how its really done and its even more magical that they did it that way.

A lot of the magic, most people don't even notice, and when the tours point them out, you're like "Wow, never even noticed that...". For example, all the names in the windows on Main Street of the MK, or the how much work goes into the gardening of a theme park, or how the costuming department works.

All of these things are very cool, and when you see how a large company like Disney has streamlined the process, it just blows you away. I've been on a few tours, like the BSM one we took in Oct, that had buisness men on the tour as well. They were there to see how Disney does it, cos' no one does it better for cheaper than them.

And for me, Disney is as much about education as it is about fun. I guess that's why I like EPCOT and DAK the best. The rides are fun, but I could vist WDW and never go on a "ride" and still have a great time.

Ok...long post over now...