If you are reading this blog then you are a big fan of Walt Disney World and you know what a fantastic place it is to visit. And if you’re like me I’m sure you’ve often wondered “how do they do that?” and said to yourself “I sure would like to know more about how this place operates?”. If so, have you ever taken any of the “behind the scenes tours” offered by Walt Disney World? Fortunately for folks like us Disney offers quite a few fantastic behind the scenes tours that give great insight into what makes that place tick. You can read about all the tours offered on the Tours and Other Experience Descriptions page here on AllEars.net.
Over the years my wife and I have taken a number of these tours. However, not as many as we would like. There are still a number of tours on our wish list that we hope to take in the near future. Of those we have taken some were great, other very good and only one was a disappointment. Anyway, here’s the list of my favorite Walt Disney World tours:
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1) Keys To The Kingdom (Magic Kingdom)
2) Undiscovered Future World (Epcot)
3) Behind The Seeds (Epcot)
4) Holiday D-Lights (WDW)
5) Yuletide Fantasy (WDW)
I’ve taken the Keys To The Kingdom tour a couple times, fifteen years apart. Each of these tours were slightly different, but both excellent. To me nothing beats going down into the utilidors and seeing the nerve center of the Magic Kingdom. Also, I think the tour guides do a great job giving lots of stories and history about Walt and the development of the Magic Kingdom. The Undiscovered Future World tour is also a really great tour. On the tour you visit Epcots Cast Member Costume Department, which will blow your mind, where they bring the Illumination barges to be loaded up with fireworks and other backstage areas. The Behind The Seeds tour is, in my opinion, the best value tour of all the tours. You can read my review of this tour by clicking here. Both the Holiday D-Lights tour and the Yuletide Fantasy tour give you great insight into Holiday decorating and traditions in the parks as well as a backstage look at where all those decorations are stored. Now the only tour that we took that we were disappointed in was the Wild By Design (Animal Kingdom) tour. This was basically a tour with no backstage experience.
OK, I’ve told you mine, now it’s your turn to let me know what your favorite WDW tours are. If you’ve never taken any of the tours then you can post your “wish” list of tours you’d like to take in the future. Either way, I’d love to hear from you!
You could win an AllEars® baseball cap. I will take all the names of those who post a comment (see below) with your list within the next couple weeks, and I will put them in a hat and randomly draw the name of the lucky winner. The only rules are that you must reside in the US, be 18 years old or older and you must provide your email address so I can contact you should you win.
All comments must be posted no later than Sunday, September 19, 2010 in order to be eligible to win the baseball cap. The winner of the AllEars® baseball cap will be announced shortly thereafter.
To make things a bit easier for you can just copy and paste the following into the Post A Comment section below and add your information:
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My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
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Your comments:
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In the coming weeks I will blog on more “favorite” things to do in Walt Disney World. Also, let me know if you have any suggestions as to other things you would like to see “top lists” of. I’m open to any and all suggestions. So far readers have suggested I blog on Magical Moments and Favorite Disney Tours. Great ideas! What do you think? Based on the number of comments, I think you all agree that these are fun to do.
And the winner is: the winner of the AllEars® baseball cap for commenting on my “Favorite Walt Disney World 3-D Movie” blog is: Pamela McDonald from Maryland. Congratulations to Pamela and “thank you” to everyone who took the time to share their “Must Have Items That You Purchased At WDW” with me and all the loyal AllEars® readers!
I also want to comment on last weeks blog. It was great to see so many different “quite places” mentioned. However, I would say that the Tomorrowland Transit Authority was the one most mentioned. Others were the Train Ride in the Magic Kingdom, Canada Pavilion, The Great Movie Ride, Muppet 3D and the American Adventure. The bottom line is that there are a lot of place in the parks where one can take a few minutes to cool down and relax.
Did you know AllEars® has a huge area called Rate and Review where you can share your dining reviews with fellow readers? Check it out!
Finally, be one of the first people to hear when my newest blogs go live on AllEars.net by joining “DisneyMike’s World” Facebook group.
Well, that’s all for now. As my good friend says, “see ya real soon”…DizneyMike
Hey, see this little green button? Well, it allows you to share this blog with your family and friends quite easily. Give it a try; it’s pretty neat!
My Favorite First Day Activity
1)Drop off carry on luggage and head to Magic Kingdom right away!
2)Head to the resort’s pool
3)Have lunch at the Crystal Palace and see Pooh!
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Your comments:
My favorite tours are:
1. KEYS TO THE MAGIC KINGDOM
Most informative tour ever. After this tour
you really appreciate what Disney does to
ensure guests have a great time and how
complex this operation is to run.
2. AROUND THE WORLD SEGWAY TOUR (EPCOT)
Had a BLAST!! Took this tour with my Sister
and Brother-In-Law. Surprised how easy it
was to learn how to ride a segway. Had at
least two hours of actually riding all over
Epcot. As soon as we finished we all
wanted to go again!
3. MAGIC BEHIND OUR STEAM TRAINS (MK)
Took this tour with my Brother-In-Law who is
a real steam train afficiando and he said
it was on of the best tours he had ever
done. A great appreciation of the daily
preparation for the steam trains and the
safety precautions they take. Great
anecdotes from some of the train operators
and our tour guide. Also got a great pin.
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1) Keys to the Kingdom
2) Epcot Seas Aqua Tour
3) Gardens of the World
4) Undiscovered Future World
5) Backstage Magic
Your comments:
I’ve never been on a tour so this is my wish list based on the descriptions on All Ears Net. I noticed that most of them have an age limit and the tours seem to be geared to an older audience or a very young one (Family Magic). There is not a lot geared toward “tweens.” I see I can take my son (age 10 when we next go) on the Epcot Seas Aqua Tour, so I might give him that option.
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1) DiveQuest
2) Dolphins in Depth
3) Backstage Magic
4) Wilderness Backtrail Adventure (Segway)
5) Around the World (Segway)
6. Nature Inspired Design (Segway)
Your comments: DiveQuest was my first tour and I will repeat it. I have loved all the tours I’ve taken, and plan to take more.
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1) Backstage Magic (Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios)
2) Backstage Safari (Animal Kingdom)
3) Around The World Segway Tour (Epcot)
4) ***WISH LIST*** Wild By Design (Animal Kingdom)
5) ***WISH LIST*** Behind The Seeds (Epcot)
Your comments:
I’ve taken part in three tours so far, and have loved them all, but my favourites were Backstage Magic and Backstage Safari. We were lucky enough to have wonderful guides (Johnny and Marie, respectively) who really made the tour memorable experiences for us, which we still talk about with fondness now. On our next visit, we are planning to do the ‘Behind The Seeds’ tour at the land pavillion (my parents are coming with us and my mum loves anything to do with plants and agriculture) and the ‘Wild Be Design’ tour at Animal Kingdom which is my favourite park. We’re also very excited to hear about the new rumoured tour that will be taking place at AK that involves zip lines and a trek through the savannah – count me in for that one!!!
Wow, Rob Brookhart read my mind almost exactly — here are my favorites:
1) Around the World at Epcot Segway Tour (Epcot)
2) Keys to the Kingdom (MK)
3) Wilderness Back Trail Adventure
4) Behind the Steam Trains (MK)
5) Behind the Seeds (Epcot)
My comments:
1) I took this tour for the first time on my 60th birthday last year. As a result, the other 9 members of the tour voted that I should be first in line following the “leader”. As a result, I was able to hear everything the leader was saying, whereas most of the others could not (they really ought to use those transmitters/receivers like they do at Keys). Additionally, since I had booked the last tour of the day, we got to negotiate thru some pretty good crowds, which added to the experience (the tour is supposed to be 2 hours long, but ours was closer to 3 — we hit crowds in the World Showcase about the time we got thru Morocco). The icing on the cake was the fact that, because I was up front & wearing my birthday pin, every (& I mean “every”) cast member we passed on the Segways wished me a “Happy Birthday”! Since I was celebrating “unaccompanied”, this made it extra special.
2) I thoroughly enjoyed the Keys tour — the first of the Disney tours that I have booked. Even though I had read the description of the tour, I still didn’t know exactly what to expect. While I enjoyed the utilidors, I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see things being repaired (I was hoping for a behind the scenes tour where we would see animatronics being worked upon — kind of like in the movie “West World” where the gunslinger, Yul Brynner, had the back of his head removed for “adjustments”. I understand the need for clean rooms, but still…). Aside from that minor disappointment, the tour was really a wealth of information.
3) The only reason we tried this tour was to try out the all terrain Segway. Not an exciting tour, but fun nonetheless.
4) If you’re at all interested in trains, this is a must-see.
5) For the same reason as the author — great value, as well as being interesting.
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1) Around the World on a Segway (WS)
2) Keys to the Kingdom (MK)
3) Wild By Design (AK)
4) Behind the Seeds (Epcot)
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Your comments: Love, love, LOVE the Segway! My only suggestion is to do this on your last day. The Segway uses foot muscles you NEVER use. We took ours on a Tuesday and my husband hobbled around the rest of the week! (He was only 27 at the time!)
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1)Behind the seeds
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Your comments: We have small children and except for food and wine we dont get much chance to go on many tours. Some are very expensive I think disney should offer some discount rates for passholders on slow days.
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1) Keys To The Kingdom
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Your comments:
This is the only tour I’ve taken and it was WONDERFUL!!! We had a great guide and the tour lasted 6 hours! (Including lunch @ Columbia Harbor House) If you’re afraid that learning what goes on backstage will spoil it for you, have no fear – they show just enough to peak your curiosity a bit more, to make you want to keep coming back to WDW…
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1)Keys to the Kingdom
2)Behind the Seeds
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Your comments:
So far the only two we have done. Looking forward to doing the one at EPCOT.
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1) BackStage Magic
2) Any and all Segway Tours
3) Gardens of the World
4) Keys to the Kingdom
Your comments:
We were truly fortunate to have done the Backstage Magic tour. It was an absolutely amazing day of behind-the-scenes views of how Disney works, culminating with a trip to the utilidor. What a treat! Even though it costs a lot, I highly recommend this tour – you will never look at Disney World the same way again. I still keep all of the little goodies we received throughout the tour in a special place to remind me of that amazing day. Keys to the Kingdom would rank higher on my list, but we took this tour AFTER BackStage Magic and didn’t really learn much new. We’ve taken all of the Segway tours also and love having the chance to ride these unique vehicles. I’d go on any one of them again. And because I’m a gardener myself, I really enjoyed the Gardens of the World tour. The landscaping in and around Disney World is spectacular.
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1) Keys to the Kingdom
Your comments: Unfortunately, the KTTK tour is the only one we have ever taken so far. Fortunately, it was amazing! Totally would do it again in a heartbeat and with my Disney Visa I think for 2 adults it was $104. That included a delicious lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Going down into the ultilidors and to different backstage areas of the MK was surreal and just wonderful. Can’t say enough good things about this tour!
Wish List
1)Backstage Magic
2)Keys to the Kingdom
3)Backstage Safari
4)Around the World Segway Tour
5)EPCOT Seas Aqua Tour or
Dolphins in Depth
1) Seway Tour – Around The World
2) Backstage Magic
3) EPCOT Seas Aqua Tour
4) Dolphins in Depth
5) Behind the Seeds
My Thoughts:
1- The Segway tour is no doubt number one. In fact in two weeks I will be going o the tour for a third time, with my DBF. It will be his first time on a Segway. I am so excited. The first tour were both with my mom. We both had such a blast the first time we went, we had to go again the next time we were in the world LOL
2- This tour is second only because i went in high-school and probably don’t remember as much about it as I should. It is probably is much more interesting than the Segway, but hey what can I say. I really did enjoy the actor that joined us for lunch at Mama Melrose’s though. She was a hoot.
3- This tour was also memorable for me. I technically only went as a chaperone my my 10 year-old niece. For you see her mom got her this tour as a b-Day present and well since her mom didn’t come on our Disney trip, and my Mom won’t were a wetsuit I got to go out of default. Yeah for me. It was super fun though. If anyone loves snorkeling I would recommend it.
4- This tour was ok, I put it fourth on because have only been on 5 tours so it had to be put some where. It was fun to interact with the dolphins, but with the $150 price tag the amount on time in the water was very minimal. I would tell people to do the Aqua Tour over this because of that fact.
5- Lastly is the Behind the Seeds. I put this last because I took this tour in high-school as a request of a teacher since I left during school to go to Disney. I don’t remember the tour being fun, but I blame that on being 17. I read the tour now and think WOW I want to go. So I plan to go again now that I’m 30 I think I can appreciate it for what it is, then rather slugging through it counting down the minutes till I can go on Test Track (which had just opened that day we were there!)
Our Favorite Walt Disney World Tours:
1) Around the World Segway Tour (Epcot)
2) Keys to the Kingdom (MK)
3) Wild By Design (AK)
4) Wilderness Back Trail Adventure
5) Magic Behind the Steam Trains and Backstage Magic
Your comments:
1) We have done the Segway tour twice and are doing it again this October. We love this tour because of the Segways, getting into World Showcase before the crowds, and awesome people free pictures in World Showcase.
2) We liked Keys because of the behind the scenes part. Never knew about the line behind the gate in Frontierland.
3) We were never fans of AK until we took the Wild tour. It was interesting to see and learn just how much detail and research went into the designing of the park. It was also good for getting some people free pictures during the first part of the tour and an early fastpass to Everest.
4) The only reason we tried this tour was to try out the all terrain Segway. Not an exciting tour.
5) We are doing the Magic Behind the Steam Trains and Backstage Magic tours on our trip this October. Hopefully, they’ll be on our list of favorites when we’re done with them.
If you are a pin collector, the tours are nice for getting exclusive pins without having to buy them on eBay.
My Favorite Walt Disney World Tour
1)Backstage Magic
2)Keys to the Kingdom
3)Holiday D-lights
4)Backstage Safari
5)Behind the seeds
Your comments:
Backstage Magic while being one of the most expensive is also one of the most encompassing of the tours. The backstage safari gives you a chance to see how Animal Kingdom creates the magic on stage of the safari ride. It’s a must do for animal lovers.