Thinking Of Doing My First Behind the Scenes Tour...

[blueboxdoctor]

But I'm not sure which one to go with, so I have a few questions.

TLDR (though, it may be beneficial to read what is ahead):
1. Is the Backstage Tales tour worth it in terms of quality of the content?

First, my girlfriend and I are going in mid-May, and her birthday is May 4th, so I want to see if I can surprise her with a behind the scenes tour since neither of us have done any despite having gone to WDW many times.

I originally thought the Keys to the Kingdom tour would be fun for the underground tunnel access and backstage stuff, but it is 5 hours long, which 5 hours touring the Magic Kingdom would probably get kind of boring (note, we also know a lot of the fun facts just because we already researched them).

So then I saw the Backstage Tales tour in Animal Kingdom. This tour is 3 hours and 45 minutes, so like 4 hours, and it starts at 7:30, so it would be done before noon (only concern is scheduling, all fast passes are at AK that evening, starting at 4:45, but I'll manage that extra 4 hours of time somehow, no worries there). Now, I really don't know much about this tour, but it does seem kind of interesting (basically a behind the scenes of a zoo it seems like). I'm just curious if anyone has done this tour and what they think of it.

Second, I see there is a season pass discount, but my gf is the one who holds the season pass, and I don't want her finding out I booked it, so I'm fearing we won't be able to get the discount, but not a huge deal there. Really, I'm more concerned that she'll accidentally see it on the Disney app.

 

[DisAl]

My wife and I did the Keys to the Kingdom tour and really enjoyed it. The tour covers a lot more than just the utilidors, including the "back stage" areas where the parades originate and the floats are stored. I guess it depends on how good your guide is, but ours was excellent. They give you a lot of history about the park, how some things work, and little details that most people never notice. As for the length of time, remember that the tour also includes your lunch.
We will probably do it again some day when we are there without the grandchildren.

 

[blueboxdoctor]

My wife and I did the Keys to the Kingdom tour and really enjoyed it. The tour covers a lot more than just the utilidors, including the "back stage" areas where the parades originate and the floats are stored. I guess it depends on how good your guide is, but ours was excellent. They give you a lot of history about the park, how some things work, and little details that most people never notice. As for the length of time, remember that the tour also includes your lunch.
We will probably do it again some day when we are there without the grandchildren.

Oh, now that does sound interesting, I didn't realize it also did a lot of back stage stuff (I thought it was like a walk through the park, giving fun facts and stuff like that). Though, the five hours still seems like a lot, but good point about the lunch taking up time. And if I go for an early time slot, we will still have about 2 hours between that and our first fast pass in AK at 4:45. What other backstage areas are there that you go through? MK is my favorite park, so being able to learn more about the behind the scenes would be cool (though, we are both also big fans of zoos and animals so AK would also be nice).

 

[nickys]

Oh, now that does sound interesting, I didn't realize it also did a lot of back stage stuff (I thought it was like a walk through the park, giving fun facts and stuff like that). Though, the five hours still seems like a lot, but good point about the lunch taking up time. And if I go for an early time slot, we will still have about 2 hours between that and our first fast pass in AK at 4:45. What other backstage areas are there that you go through? MK is my favorite park, so being able to learn more about the behind the scenes would be cool (though, we are both also big fans of zoos and animals so AK would also be nice).

The tour covers Main Street, Adventure Land and Liberty Square mainly. Lots of info about the buildings and theming (including what I think of as hidden mickeys plus), how MK was built, and the utilisers. Then behind scenes in Pirates and Haunted Mansion, and also backstage where the parades start (when I went we saw floats being worked on and rehearsals).

I recommend an early start time. We started just before rope drop, and watched it from one of the side streets whilst talking about the early history of WDW. Won't be quite the same now though.

I would also REALLY recommend the Discover World Showcase tour. Loved it, did it on New Years Day this year. Seeing most of WS before anyone else was in, behind scenes, backstage area, and we also saw the pavilion all decked out from the NYE party with the life size ice sculptures and model snow village. Plus lunch. It covered a lot of history about Epcot, and plans that never happened, as well as plans to come.

 

[LeighM]

I've always wanted to do a backstage tour but when the time comes to reserve it I never want to lose hours of a park day to do them. So last trip, I booked the Behind the Seeds tour at Epcot. It was only an hour long and was much cheaper than other tours. Plus, I love the Living with the Land attraction My husband and I really enjoyed it! It also helped that we were the only 2 people on our tour so it felt like we had booked a private one booked lol.

 

[blueboxdoctor]

The tour covers Main Street, Adventure Land and Liberty Square mainly. Lots of info about the buildings and theming (including what I think of as hidden mickeys plus), how MK was built, and the utilisers. Then behind scenes in Pirates and Haunted Mansion, and also backstage where the parades start (when I went we saw floats being worked on and rehearsals).

I recommend an early start time. We started just before rope drop, and watched it from one of the side streets whilst talking about the early history of WDW. Won't be quite the same now though.

I would also REALLY recommend the Discover World Showcase tour. Loved it, did it on New Years Day this year. Seeing most of WS before anyone else was in, behind scenes, backstage area, and we also saw the pavilion all decked out from the NYE party with the life size ice sculptures and model snow village. Plus lunch. It covered a lot of history about Epcot, and plans that never happened, as well as plans to come.

I don't see the Discover World Showcase listed, but I think that's because during the flower show season they replace it with the flower show themed world showcase tour. The behind the scenes of Pirates and Haunted Mansion seems pretty cool, as does the parade stuff. I'm beginning to be swayed more towards this one. And an early time works for me, especially for our schedule that day.

 

[DisAl]

nickys pretty well covered it, but here are some additional details. Your guide will have a wireless microphone / transmitter, and each guest has their own receiver so you can hear the guide even if you are not right next to them or are in a noisy area. Our lunch was in a second floor dining room at Columbia Harbor House when we went. You pre-order your meals so they can serve you quickly when your group arrives. I am admittedly a Disney Trivia Geek. I knew some of what they told us but learned quite a number of new things, and of course I had never seen the backstage areas before. If you take the tour make sure you ask your guide what "go away green" is.
And finally, while 5 hours seems like a long time it takes it to see everything they show you.

 

[blueboxdoctor]

We've done both K2K and AK Backstage tales.

K2K - lots of historical info, front of line and special narration on Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise with notes about how special effects are done, history of some of the AA's, etc. Also learn about the utilidors, what they do with litter, definitely backstage access (no photos allowed) with more info on what happens on vs off stage, and lunch is included. So is a special pin only available to tours.

AK Backstage - very cool tour! Start before park opens, lots of backstage including elephant and rhino housing (all rhinos were kept backstage the day we went - so cool to see less than 6 feet away!). Also tour of the food prep area, more animal housing, vet hospital area (go backstage in the actual treament rooms) at Rafiki Planet area, etc. Oh, also learn how animals are tracked and get to actually use some equipment to find some animals (fake, but fun to do). On stage got to feed birds in the aviary (before park open), and at the end of the tour got to feed monkeys (prep backstage, watch on stage). This is a very interesting tour, but no photos allowed backstage, unfortunately! And, a souvenir water bottle.

If you have a Disney Visa, there is a discount. I would recommend both tours. Remember that you must have a park ticket to participate in either tour, in addition to the tour fee.

I continue to be conflicted. It seems you and everyone else says both tours are pretty good. The animal stuff sounds really cool, but so does the MK back stage stuff. They really are very different tours for very different parks. The good thing is, I shouldn't mess up by choosing one over the other.

 

[blueboxdoctor]

nickys pretty well covered it, but here are some additional details. Your guide will have a wireless microphone / transmitter, and each guest has their own receiver so you can hear the guide even if you are not right next to them or are in a noisy area. Our lunch was in a second floor dining room at Columbia Harbor House when we went. You pre-order your meals so they can serve you quickly when your group arrives. I am admittedly a Disney Trivia Geek. I knew some of what they told us but learned quite a number of new things, and of course I had never seen the backstage areas before. If you take the tour make sure you ask your guide what "go away green" is.
And finally, while 5 hours seems like a long time it takes it to see everything they show you.

Yeah, the value definitely seems like it is there for the MK tour. This was the one I was originally inclined to go to since MK to me is what WDW is all about. While I am conflicted, this one seems like it is the way to go (but then I read about all the animal stuff for the AK tour and that sways my thinking that way).

 

[nickys]

I don't see the Discover World Showcase listed, but I think that's because during the flower show season they replace it with the flower show themed world showcase tour. The behind the scenes of Pirates and Haunted Mansion seems pretty cool, as does the parade stuff. I'm beginning to be swayed more towards this one. And an early time works for me, especially for our schedule that day.

It's called World Showcase: DestiNations Uncovered under the tours drop down menu. And it is on in early May too.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/epcot/world-showcase-destinations/

I think what I like about this is that it covers WS at a time when you can't normally see it. We booked fastpasses to FEA for sometime after, others had Soarin (and got taken the back way from Canada to Soarin, DS and I went too just because we could lol!). And I wanted to spend time in WS as well, there were several nations I hadn't spent much time in. Starting in Mexico, we had people around there and in Norway, but got all the way round to Morocco before people really started to "join us". And as DisAl said, the headphones are great, so you can wander around looking as the guide tells you about the architecture. You don't have to be within normal hearing range.

PS sadly you don't get to ride FEA during the tour, for sensible reasons though. As in, if it broke down the rest of the tour is *******ed because lunch is then waiting!

 

[blueboxdoctor]

It's called World Showcase: DestiNations Uncovered under the tours drop down menu. And it is on in early May too.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/epcot/world-showcase-destinations/

I think what I like about this is that it covers WS at a time when you can't normally see it. We booked fastpasses to FEA for sometime after, others had Soarin (and got taken the back way from Canada to Soarin, DS and I went too just because we could lol!). And I wanted to spend time in WS as well, there were several nations I hadn't spent much time in. Starting in Mexico, we had people around there and in Norway, but got all the way round to Morocco before people really started to "join us". And as DisAl said, the headphones are great, so you can wander around looking as the guide tells you about the architecture. You don't have to be within normal hearing range.

PS sadly you don't get to ride FEA during the tour, for sensible reasons though. As in, if it broke down the rest of the tour is *******ed because lunch is then waiting!

This one sounds interesting too. But I think for this trip I'll keep debating between AK and MK, then save this and whatever I don't do this trip for the next trip's debate since the World Showcase is one of my favorite parts of WDW.

 

[LSV]

We did the Undiscovered Future World tour in December (loved it) and are scheduled for the Destinations Discovered tour May 1. We have Keys to the Kingdom booked for August, it fills up at least three months in advance, I called every day in December hoping for a cancellation(there were only two of us). You may be limited by what is available.

 

[sxeensweet]

Me and DH have done both KTTK and Backstage Tales. We absolutely loved them and they were so worth it and would even do them again. I highly recommend both. We did KTTK first though then a year or 2 later did Backstage Tales.

 

[blueboxdoctor]

We did the Undiscovered Future World tour in December (loved it) and are scheduled for the Destinations Discovered tour May 1. We have Keys to the Kingdom booked for August, it fills up at least three months in advance, I called every day in December hoping for a cancellation(there were only two of us). You may be limited by what is available.

True, good point, I'll have to call and see what is available, I would imagine the MK tour is more popular than the AK one, so with such short notice I may end up having to go with the AK one. I would actually love to do the Future World one because I have spent a large amount of time researching and learning about the history of Future World.

 

[stillgoofy]

I've done several backstage tours and have loved them all. How about the Wild Africa Trek? Definitely a very unique experience, if you like animals.