Originally Posted By imapoohbear and it was so worth it! We were only there for a short 2-day trip to check out the new Cars Land. Our first day was miserable with huge crowds and long lines (a 3 hour wait just for the Radiator Springs Racers ride!). We rode a total of 6 rides on the 1st day Second day we decided to inquire about the VIP tour at Guest Service and were told they had a Premium VIP tour available which they described as your personal unlimited fast pass. The $300/hr price tag made us gasp but we went for it and it was our best idea of the day! Our party of 8 had the best day EVER! Our tour guide was so much fun and we all had a great experience. Our longest wait that day was 10 minutes at Soarin'. Rode tons of rides, our guide walked us right into all the fast pass rides and went right through the exit for all non fast pass rides taking us right to the front of the line on all the rides we chose. We also learned a few interesting facts making it interesting for both the kids and adults in our party. He pointed out lots of hidden Mickeys for the kids. One of the more interesting bits of info our guide mentioned were (1) they're making a slight change to the fast pass system because of all the issues they've had with the Radiator Springs ride. From what I understand, the current fast pass system allows a guest to obtain a fast pass for a specified return time however, although they don't encourage it, a guest can still use his/her fast past even after the designated return time. Our guide told us that they will be changing that shortly and NOT allow guests to return AFTER the designated return time has passed. This will allow the fast pass system to work the way it was originally intended to work and allow guest to enjoy a fast pass wait time of 10 minutes or less. (2) I didn't know this and I thought it was helpful...if a ride is temporarily out of service and they are still allowing guests to queue in line that means they expect downtime to be minimal (less than hour), if they are NOT allowing guests to queue in line, that means they expect the ride downtime to be more than a hour which you see quite often with both the Indy and Radiator Springs ride. Overall, yes it was a big price tag but it was worth every penny. It's not bad if you can split the cost with another family which we did. Would we do it again? Absolutely, especially on very hot and over crowded days. It was a special treat for sure.
Originally Posted By seafairy1622 A 3 hour wait for carsland? That sounds awful. Glad you were able to afford the VIP tour. When did you go? We went in August 2011 and it wasn't crowded at all.
Originally Posted By imapoohbear Hi seafairy! We were there in early June and both DL and CA were both so overcrowded. Elbow to elbow people in Cars Land it was just too crazy for us. Wish we waited to avoid that mess. We normally go in early October or early December when the crowds are much lighter. I think we'll be sticking to that schedule from now on
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Interesting that they're planning on enforcing the FP return times. WDW began doing it this spring, as a step toward the upcoming NextGen system they're implementing. There have been discussions of how much of that will make its way to DL, since it has a very different crowd demographic, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out
Originally Posted By berol They've enforced it elsewhere very rarely. If it happens, I wouldn't expect it on a rainy Wednesday in January.
Originally Posted By KatieKate123 I am glad you were able to do the vip tour, it seems like you guys had fun. I was planning on doing this if it got too busy at wdw but so far we have been lucky every year. I have one question though do you get to pick how many hours you spend with the tour guide?
Originally Posted By imapoohbear Hi KatieKate123! In DL, there is a 6 hour minimum for the VIP tour. Depending on how many guides are available that day, they are pretty flexible with start time.
Originally Posted By tashajilek "Overall, yes it was a big price tag but it was worth every penny. It's not bad if you can split the cost with another family which we did" Was it $300 per person? or was it for the group?
Originally Posted By imapoohbear Hello tashajiilek, it's $300/hour per group (a maximum of 10 people in your group). If you book the tour for 6 hours ($1800) with 10 people in your group, it will come out to $180 per person total which doesn't sound so bad for the fun experience. I would only recommend doing this on overcrowded days though.
