Private VIP Tours at Walt Disney World

The Details

I want to start with the information everyone wants to know. Prices, length, inclusions, etc. Once you know all of the basics, we’ll share our personal experiences post-2020.

• Tours can be booked up to 60 days prior to your desired date (or the beginning of your reservation if you are a Disney resort guest).
• Prices range from $450 – $900 an hour based on the season. We had guides the first week of December 2021 to the tune of $525/hr and the last week of June 2022 for the same price. For comparison, the 4th of July weekend was $700 (we opted for the late June price, of course).
• Park admission is required and NOT included. If you have a Park Hopper, you may visit multiple parks with your guide.
• Tours must be a minimum of seven consecutive hours. You can extend your tour at time of booking or on the day of. We extended both tours to about ten hours.
• Parties may contain a maximum of 10 guests, inclusive of infants, per guide. 
• You may choose to be transported from your hotel, or you may meet the guide at the park of your choice. 
• Cancellations must be made at least 48 hours prior to the tour, or you risk a 2-hour cancellation fee.
• No cameras, video equipment or cellphones may be used while in backstage areas.
• Guests 17 and under must be accompanied by a paying parent or guardian.

Transportation with celebration magnets

Our Experiences

While we have been lucky enough to have experienced Disney’s Private VIP Tours multiple times, the focus here is on post-2020 tours, as the official and unofficial offerings and guidelines have changed over the years.

Pre-Arrival

When booking a tour, you have the option to request a tour guide (or possibly request not having a specific tour guide). If you haven’t made contact with a guide, you can also layout your party details, and they will be mindful of who is assigned to your group. For example, I mention that we will have a multigenerational group who will travel at different paces. I also note our crew is comprised of kids from toddlers to teens and the triumphs and challenges that go with that (mostly from the teens, amirite?!). You might mention that your group is on a girls’ trip, a couples only vacation or a gaggle of 30-somethings looking to escape for a bit. While we’ve had different levels of connection, we’ve never had a “bad” match.

Once you’re booked, you have the option to pre-plan via phone or email. We typically don’t take advantage of this perk as I’m making dining reservations for our guests on the daily. If there’s a particularly difficult reservation we want, I will have them look while I also keep my eyes peeled.

You will also choose your start time when booking. I usually choose to start later than park opening simply because there’s no need to arrive at rope drop if you have the guide with you for attractions. This lets us sleep in and skip the heavy lines at bag check and the turnstiles. As long as you have enough time to get your seven hours in, you can choose to start anytime. It’s also a good idea to specify whether or not you’d like to park hop at this time, especially if you have kids who require car seats and/or strollers, as they will need to ensure they have the proper transportation and safety features for you. On that note…

To Hop or Not to Hop

In general, we’re hoppers. We typically stay close to the parks and end our days at the closest park to our resort. We’ve had mixed experiences with tours.

I feel like we end up with the best experience staying in one park. The vibe is more relaxed, we get to experience more attractions and we stay in the onstage magic most of the day. I will say, though, that Magic Kingdom is probably the only park that would truly fill an entire day with attractions.

When hopping, you do lose some touring time between parks, although it is minimal due to the private transfers. Additionally, you’re also getting backstage glimpses. Being a “how things work” geek, I kind of love this, but it can also take away some of the magic.

Hopping also puts you in your subsequent parks later in the day, and your waits can be a bit longer. Which brings us to the inclusion of “efficient” access to attractions. 

While back door entrances, or as our first VIP guide Erin put it – John Stamos entrance, were once part of the tour, guests are now ushered through the Lightning Lanes to access attractions. This is why I mentioned waits may be longer when hopping. Where other guests typically didn’t affect wait times for VIP guests, this is no longer the case. However, there is no need to schedule or wait for open windows to enter Lightning Lanes, which is nice. Individual Lighntning Lane purchases are also not necessary. 

In addition to rides, characters are also accessible with a guide. Our princess wait time was particularly lengthy, but it was air conditioned, so we opted to wait it out. Parades and nighttime shows also have reserved areas allowing you more time for attrations instead of staking out and guarding a spot hours before show time.

But Is It Worth It?

The $525 an our question, right? If we’re looking at dollars to tangible benefits, probably not. For this single mama teacher, a day with a Disney VIP tour guide comes to about a month’s salary. Not the smartest spend. I will also note that I paid for all of our VIP tour guides myself and all after I had quite a bit of savings built up. Not traveling in 2020 left a nice chunk of green in my bank account, and since COVID literally almost took me out (I was in the hospital/ICU for a month and still have long COVID struggles), I’ve been in “can’t take it with you mode.” Would I do it again? Probably. We live pretty modestly everywhere else, so on vacation, we go all out.

Looking at the bare facts, it’s not going to be worth it for many, but when I know we’re going to be able to get everything we want accomplished with little to no waits, we’ll have great viewing areas, we receive a little extra magic and I don’t have to think for a day or two at Disney? Yeah. I’ll do it every now and then.

If you’re still truly considering a tour, here are a few ways to…

Get the Most Bang for Your Buck

I’m most definitely not in the tax bracket to not care a little bit how I’m making my money work for me. My mom is a coupon queen, I live for Target clearance and never make an online purchase sans promo code. While this tour is never going to be an amazing value, a few tweaks may help you feel your getting the most out of it.

1. Meet your guide at the park. While you can get door to door service, your tour time starts when they pick you up at your resort. Why spend $200 of your touring hour just riding in the back of a Suburban? Have a lesisurely breakfast at the resort or the park of choice, then meet your guide and hit the ground running.
2. Skip table service meals. Again, time is money. An average table service meal will cut an hour out of your touring time. If you’re at character dining, probably more. On top of the bill, you’ve also just wasted $450-900. Signature Services will schedule any time during your tour day, so if you have reservations you want them on the lookout for, have them make them before or after your tour time.
3. Stay in one park. As I mentioned earlier, traveling between parks does put you at a bit of a disadvantage and you’re spending money on transportation time. Parks with fewer attractions probably warrant hopping, but try to spend as much time as you can touring and less time driving.
4. Split the tour. If you’re traveling with others or as a solo/couple who’d consider linking up with other adults, split the cost! You can have up to 10 guests on a tour. If the 10 of you are adults who are paying your own way, the price is much more digestable. Even splitting it in half with another family can take the sting out just a bit.
5. Skip Epcot I know, I know. That sounds terrible. We love Epcot, but there really aren’t that many attractions in Epcot that would warrant a tour guide, and you would most likely end up park hopping. If you do need some Epcot in your tour day, consider adding it at the final part of the tour so you can hit your attractions and end with the fireworks viewing to get a little extra bang for your buck. Your guide can end the tour 15 minutes prior to show time and still allow you to utilize the VIP viewing area. Our guide Mr. Michael was able to drop us off, grab us some bottled water, snap a pic and head home all before Harmonious began.

Parade at Magic Kingdom