It all started with the onslaught of guide books, websites, and recommendations from friends and family. Disney World is the” happiest place on Earth.” I am now witness to that and can say that it’s true! The endless laughter and smiles from my 12 year old son and his friends will stick with me forever.
Disney World, as you probably know, has so much to offer for any age. But how do you make the most of the theme parks? What’s the best of the best things to do there? And with five tween boys how do you keep up with their pace?
In my previous post I wrote about how my friends and I led up to this surprise graduation trip for our boys. We had heard about private tour guides from one of the mom’s in the hood and we did our research.
After weighing the options (do we attempt to do this ourselves? jeepers!) we decided to enlist the services of Michael’s VIPs – a company that provides private tour guides to make the most of your time in the theme parks.
Leading up to the vacation, Michael’s VIP determined our profiles – moms with 12 year old boys. Asked us what our priorities were (coffee) and then came back with recommendations based on our interests. We were on our way!
Our tour guide, Lee, met us at the hotel one morning and guided us to Disney World’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park. We already realized we had saved time – when it took us 5 minutes to get to the park. He knew the absolute direct and fastest way to get there. (BTW…it took us 45 minutes to figure our way OUT on our own at the end of the day!).
Lee, who received the nod of approval from our boys “he’s cool!”, led our pack to a less-frequently used security check point that saved us 10 minutes off the mark!
Katie, who received the awwws and oohs from us moms because she recently returned to work from her 3 months mat leave, was our second guide who was already holding our position of first in line for when the park officially opened it’s gates. At this point I was awkward – you know, being Canadian and all, but the people standing in line behind us were all smiles and good with us there and said “these boys are lucky, what a graduation trip!”…Katie had already given them a “heads up” that she was there early enough to position us in. Katie explained that they do everything “by the book” and are respectful of Disney World and other guests. Good.
As soon as we headed in, I noticed that Lee had a flat, empty backpack on his back. What’s up with that? Yes, he will act as your Sherpa. Lee tells us that they are prepared and will carry your crap stuff. He also tells me that he’s prepared to go on any rides with you (I am chicken shit). He’s also prepared to go on any ride with your kids – if, and when, you’ve had enough.
I was asking him if he had any odd requests but he didn’t. He told me that every client that he’s experienced on this job has been really nice…only requests are those that change on the spot when kids discover rides that they love and just want to go on it several times and parents just want him to accompany them. We did challenge them to make us a dinner reservation on Disney property at the last minute..and they came through with that too…twice.
Throughout the day I see both Katie and Lee quietly handing off who does what and when. Lee vanished and reappeared so swiftly when we first arrived. He zipped off to get our boys on” the list” for Jedi Training. If we were left to do that on our own we probably would have figured it an hour or two later and would have missed the chance. Then Katie took off with our fast passes in hand to secure our next point of interest. It was like magic!
In the six hours we had them, they led us to the Indiana Jones show and managed to secure us into a VIP area. Then off to see the Car Stunt show with lunch in hand. In between we did Toy Story, Tower of Terror, Backlot tour, Rock ‘n Roller Coaster and I can’t remember all else. But they didn’t miss a beat…and we didn’t feel rushed. We went from show to show and ride to ride with washroom breaks in between…as well as my request for a shopping stop for princess stuff for my niece. No problem…Lee took the boys and the other moms to the next destination while Katie offered to take me to the desired shop. Seamless.
I wondered about Michael’s VIP. What is their relationship with Disney? Lee tells me that they have 17 guides currently with their service and although Disney is their speciality it certainly isn’t all that they can do. They also take care of other popular theme parks in the area and tend to needs from celebrities to everyday groups like ours..big or small. And you don’t need to be a celebrity to get the VIP treatment with them. But I won’t mislead you… It will cost (bookings start at $120 per hour per guide) but we split it between the 5 families. I also don’t know how many times I would go back to Disney…so to lay out extra $$ for an a more efficient experience is worth it for me. The kids enjoyed the extra treatment too. With the private tour service we had little or no time waiting in lines and no wondering. We just followed them as they guided us.
Michael’s VIPs was founded by Michael Hewett, a former Walt Disney World VIP Tour Guide who started working at Disney during summer breaks when he was in college. He worked his way up as one of Disney‘s own VIP hosts. What lead to starting his own company was the interest to further the experience of the guests. Our guide, Lee tells us that they have a great relationship with Disney and it was apparent as we went through the park with no problems and with friendly greetings from the Dis
ney staff. The guides are trained under Michael’s experience of knowing how to manage the park efficiently.
ney staff. The guides are trained under Michael’s experience of knowing how to manage the park efficiently.
We noticed a few other tour guides in the park. Some Disney officials, some Michael’s VIPs, and others. I had not heard about these services until we booked this trip. It was a great experience that made Disney World more manageable in my mind. I was able to enjoy the parks without having to worry about the details.
For more information on Michael’s VIPS please visit their website at www.michaelsvips.com
As mentioned, Disney World has their official guides as well. For details on Disney‘s official Private Tour Guides visit their website at www.disneyworld.disney.go.com. I heard they are fabulous! Maybe next time I’ll give them a whirl!
Do you like to plan your vacations? Or do you enlist the help of a travel expert?
This post is written by me and based on my experience and interviews. Michael’s VIPs was booked prior to me deciding on writing this post. After sifting through their website I thought this would be an interesting service to share with you. Michael’s VIPs provided an additional tour guide to make sure my chattyness would not interfere with their business of taking care of our group.
My experience with Michael’s VIP.
Wow. BEWARE and LOOK ELSEWHERE.
Four years ago, my family had a great experience with them, so naturally, I called them months in advance when scheduling our Disney World vacation. At first everything went very smoothly. I called them and they were happy I was a returning customer. I gave them some basic info – family of four, two daughters, the ages, etc. – and I gave them my credit card information. I also gave them info to process our Disney World experience for fast passes. They said they would be sending me an online form to fill out and to sign a contract. In the meantime, I had tentatively reserved the date of December 27. The contract never came by email so I called them again. The lady was very friendly, I answered some more questions about the rides we were interested in, and she said the form would be sent shortly. No email ever came. Two weeks before my trip, I called to see if I could switch the day of our tour from the 27th to 28th. No one answered, so I left a message. I then emailed again and left another phone message. I then call again the week before our trip, and then again days before our trip, but no one ever calls back. Another email – no response. Our trip has come and gone. No response. I am so utterly shocked by this “white glove” service, I do not know what to say. If it can happen to me – a return customer, regular father of four, it can happen to you. Look elsewhere. I will never call them back and I am making it my mission to let everyone know about their “business”.
These third party “VIP tour guides” do not do everything “by the book”… In fact, the very thing you mentioned in the paragraph where you said that is not allowed! We don’t allow line jumping. There’s no “reserving” a place in line. As nice as your tour guide may have been to the guests in line behind her, and as polite as they may have been in letting you guys jump into line ahead of them, those things aren’t allowed “by the book.” In fact, third-party tour guides aren’t allowed at all “by the book” and I’ve more than once seen the Magic Kingdom duty manager pull one aside and tell them they needed to stop what they were doing…
What you might not have seen is that these so-called “tour guides” lie and deceive cast members to get what they want so that they want. They’ll tell cast members that they have someone with a disability in their party, that they are with Make-a-Wish or Gives Kids the World, that they had fastpasses but they were messed up somehow. They will say anything and persistently lie and badger cast members in an attempt to cheat the system.
As for celebrities? Celebrities don’t use third-party tour guides. That is another lie these companies will feed you. When a celebrity comes to a Disney park, we will give them one of our tour guides to minimize the disturbances having celebrities wandering around unattended could cause, if nothing else. I can’t believe Michael’s VIP went so far as to include a fake endorsement from William Shatner on their website. It’s just ridiculous and so shady.
If you want really want a VIP tour, you should get one of Disney’s own. It may be more expensive, but it’s legit, and you won’t wind up with the embarrassing situations I’ve witnessed when these fake tour guides get called out by management.
that’s cool, i saw some tour guides when i was there with small groups but didn’t know what that was all about. great price if there’s a bunch of you, that’s for sure!