Behind the Scenes Tours?

[castlefan]

Has anyone done the Keys to the Kingdom Tour? I would love to know all about it. What do you see? Which rides do they let you ride? I am scared of thrill rides and don't want to be embarassed. HA! Any information would be great!
Would you recommend it to others?
Thanks!

[Beast_fanatic]

I did the KttK tour in May 2001. I've read many accounts of others' experiences on the tour too, and what rides you ride and what you see seems to depend entirely on the cast member leading the tour.

When I took the tour, we rode the Tomorrowland Transportation Authority, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion.

We also spent time learning about the Keys, the names on the windows on Main Street, and hidden Mickey's. Our backstage time included a tour of part of the Utilidors, the wig department and a visit to the parade floats.

Our tour was great, and I would recommend it!

[technoarch]

We went on this tour in August and would highly recommend it. We went on 90% of the behind the scenes tours offered by Disney and found that this ranks up there at the top with the tours/ diving/ dolphins tour at the living seas and the backstage safari tour at the Animal Kingdom. Our guide Geoff did a great job.

Here is a quick synopsis of the tour. PS I will not go into too much detail, as I do not want to spoil the fun for you when you go.

You meet you group next to City Hall to get your nametags and choose what you would like to eat at the Columbia Harbor House. From there the guide walk the group up Main Street and explains the history of the park while pointing out interesting features of Main Street (architectural and theming).

Next we went to the hub and the guide discussed the Magic Kingdom Design and other important theming items pertaining to the HUB, entrances to each of the lands, etc.

Our guide then led us over to Adventure Land and we stopped by the Tiki Room to check out the roof materials and led us over to POTC to give us a detailed background of the ride and things to watch out for as this was going to be our first ride of the day. Unfortunately the ride was down but he gave us all of the detailed info. Anyway so when we rode it later that day we could see all of the interesting details of the ride. Instead of going on Pirates he took us onto The Jungle Cruise and we had a boat to ourselves and the guide was our "captain". The guide did not do the normal Jungle spiel, he went into detail about the construction of the ride, etc. BTW, we did not have to wait in the standard lines as stated on the tour brochures. We were "back-doored" into every attraction we went to.

After the jungle Cruise we headed over to Frontier land and entered the backstage area where the parades start/finishes. We got to see the Parade floats up close. Some of the staff even turned on a few of the floats so we could see them in operation. We were able to see the POTC ride building as well as the Splash Mountain ride building. This area was a lot of fun to see.

We went back on stage through Frontier Land to Liberty Square where our guide explained some of the details/ features of Liberty Square then we headed off to lunch. We had assigned tables and fortunately we sat with the guide so we tried to hit him up with all kinds of questions regarding the parks.

After Lunch we headed over to the Haunted Mansion where he told us the unofficial story to the attraction and also clued us in on all kinds of details to the effects as well has the official hidden Mickey location on the ride (It is quite difficult to spot). He pointed out the supposed wedding ring in the pavement but told us what is really is. Again, we were back-doored onto the attraction.

From Liberty Square we walked back toward the hub and this is where our guide gave all of the detailed information on the castle in terms of design/construction/ features/ etc.

From the Hub we went over to Main Street and into one of the shops on the right hand side as you are facing the Train Station. We went through a set of doors and entered the backstage area behind the shops on Main Street. Our guide took us to the Jungle Cruise loading/ repair area. We were able to see a couple of the animals out of the water as they were being repainted. You would not believe the detail they go to for these fiberglass animals!!

Next our guide led us into some of the main street administrative offices on the second level of Main Street. Here is where we learned the details of Disney’s approach/ priority to safety, theming, entertainment, etc.

Beware, you may see Mickey or some of the other Characters with their heads off ( I am scared for life )

We then went into the utilidors under Main Street (this was very cool) and we took a walk through different parts of the tunnels and he led us up to the opposite side of main street and we were able to see where Tinker Bell lands each night after the fireworks.

After some closing statements and some last minute questions he led us back on stage at main street where he quoted the opening dedication from Roy Disney from 1971 and then the tour was over.


I know i am probably leaving some stuff out (some intentionally ) but I hope you get the idea of what this tour is about. There is a cool keepsake you get at lunch but I am not going to tell what that is.

Let me know if you have any other questions on this tour or any of the others Disney offers.

[vz9p57]

We have taken the KttK tour twice - Once in 2000 and again in 2003. The two tours were very different. In 2000 we saw a lot more of the tunnel area then in 2003. Security reasons I guess. Also, in 2003 we did not enter Tomorrowland at all.

One big thing that we had fun with was the idea of being "on stage" vs being "off stage". Our tour guide answered the same question very differently depending on where you were.

I would highly recomend this tour.

[WhiteRose1]

Technoarch,

Wow! that sounds awesome!!!!

Do I gotta wait a month for my trip still????


Pam

[castlefan]

Thanks so much! That was an anwesome answer!! Did anyone not ride a ride. I hate the little drop in Pirates, and really don't like to ride it. Would I look crazy if I didn't ride? i guess I could just tough it ou!
Thanks!

[technoarch]

everyone rode the rides. c'mon, the drop in pirates isn't really that bad!!!!

you will love the tour.

[TreyB]

Excellent! I just booked this tour yesterday for our trip in November. I can't wait!

[LAMLINDSEY]

We took this tour in December and loved it. One of the things I liked was being able to see some of the floats up close. The tour got my son interested in finding hidden Mickeys and I enjoyed learning about the "secrets" behind MK.

[GoofyMum]

Do they allow you to take photographs on the tour?

[drummerboy]

No backstage pictures, at least not in the utilidors.

We took the KttK tour in 11-01, and loved it. We rode TTA, HM and PotC. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

[technoarch]

Originally posted by GoofyMum:
Do they allow you to take photographs on the tour?

\

the post above is correct, they do not allow pictures at any of the backstage areas.

[Dracula766]

YIKES!!

I need to get on the ball and book the tour for my trip next month.

How big are the groups on the tour?

[magickingdom67]

The rides seem to vary, and when I went on it we had around 12 folks. It was a lot of fun.

[piratedonald]

took the tour a few weeks ago and it was definately worth it. we learned all kinds of interesting stuff. group sizes rang depending on the day and how many people are signed up. if i remember correctly groups are no larger than about 20 people, we had 13 people in our tour group. the rides we went on were the jungle cruise and the hm. it was really cool to get an upclose look at the floats. and after the tour we were noticing all the little detailed things they had pointed out on the tour more and more, it's pretty cool. there are a lot of things you miss unless you know they're there. enjoy!

[disneykidsince1970]

Wow! I'm glad to read all the positive feedback. We are going on Day 1 in October! It sounds like a blast!

Nikki [img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]