Our guide introduces himself.

On a recent Walt Disney World visit, I was out the door of my resort at 7:00 a.m., not for a meal with Mickey or for an especially ambitious run at rope drop, but rather for the bright-and-early Magic Behind Our Steam Trains tour at the Magic Kingdom. I’ve been making admirable progress on my quest to eventually do everything at Walt Disney World, but this particular tour had been repeatedly pushed to the bottom of my to-do list for years. Two factors finally made it rise to the forefront: first, I was traveling solo and thus had no cranky kids or hubby to complain about the potentially “boring” topic, and second, I was staying at the Bay Lake Tower, which made getting to the tour itself particularly convenient.

First some housekeeping basics and then I’ll give my impressions of the tour.

• What the tour all about? The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour gives in depth information exclusively about the steam trains at Walt Disney World, their history, operations, and maintenance, as well as Walt Disney’s personal experiences with and interest in train travel.
• Who can take the tour? The tour is open to guests ages ten and up. This makes it one of the few backstage experiences that allow children. The official Disney website mentions that children must show photo ID proof of age. The tour I took included a 12 year old boy. He was not asked to show any proof of age. Nor were my 13 year old twins asked to show proof of age when we took the Dolphins in Depth tour a few months ago. In my experience, cast members are much more stringent about asking for official age identification when the required event age is 16 or older. In other words, don’t worry overly much about not having photo ID for a child who is not yet of driver’s license age.

Telling us stories under the Main Street Station.

• How much does this cost? The current price is $49.00 per person. I am a Disney Vacation Club member and thus asked for and received a 15% discount. There may also be tour discounts for annual pass holders, Disney Visa card holders, AAA members, etc. It never hurts to ask. Park admission is required, but not included in the price of the tour. To get into the park for the tour, you will need to use a regular park admission ticket.
• What time is the tour? The tour starts promptly at 7:30 a.m. Guests are asked to arrive 15 minutes early. I mentioned above that I chose to take this tour when I was staying at the Bay Lake Tower (adjacent to the Contemporary resort). Bay Lake is just a 5-10 minute walk away from the Magic Kingdom, thus I would not need to rely on the sometimes sketchy early morning Disney transportation system to get there on time. As a courtesy, Disney allows guests arriving by car to park at the Contemporary rather than at the Transportation and Ticket Center. Have your tour confirmation number in hand if you plan to do this. However, if you’re planning to stay at the Magic Kingdom after the tour, you’re probably better off arriving extra early and just parking at the TTC. It’s considered poor form to leave your car at a resort other than your own for more than the 3-4 hours maximum required for a meal/tour/shopping.

At the roundhouse, Anibal shows us the train.

• Where do you meet? The meeting point is just outside the gates to the Magic Kingdom. There was no specific signage pointing me to the group. I had to ask a cast member.
• How do you make reservations? Reservations must be made over the phone. Online booking is not currently available. Call 407-WDW-TOUR (407-939-8687).
• How many people will be on the tour? The tour limit is 20 guests. The day I experienced it, there were 19 in the group.
• How long does the tour last? It’s about three hours long. This includes one 15-minute break about 2/3 of the way through the tour.
• Are there snacks? The mid-tour bathroom break takes place at the Main Street Chamber of Commerce building. Guests are offered complimentary water bottles and coffee. If you’re starving, there’s a popcorn cart about 10 paces away, but you’ll have to pay for it on your own.

The manufacturer's seal.

• Is photography allowed during the tour? I’ve been on at least half a dozen backstage tours at Walt Disney World. On each of these other tours, cast members and guides were incredibly strict about policing a no-backstage-photos policy. But while both the WDW website and the reservationist on the phone were very clear that no photos could be taken during the behind-the-scenes portion of the tour, I found that this was not the case in practice with the Steam Trains tour. We were asked to put away cameras and phones for about five minutes while we passed a secure backstage cast member park entrance. Otherwise, we were free to take as many pictures as we wanted of the train and associated backstage areas. This was a very pleasant surprise.
• What happens if it rains? The show must go on. At least an hour of the tour is fully outdoors. Plan to dress appropriately.

Panoramic view of the backstage roundhouse.

Now that all the basics are out of the way, here’s what happened on the actual tour.

We were greeted right on time, checked off the reservation list, and provided with a special Magic Behind Our Steam Trains name tag. After being given a rest room opportunity and cautioned that the next bathroom stop would be two hours away, we entered the Magic Kingdom using our park passes.

Up close and personal with the train mechanics.

I should say at this point that I am not a train person. I’m happy to ride trains to get from point A to point B, but I’m not particularly into trains as a hobby or form of study. I am, however, a Disney person – a very well informed Disney geek.

Our guide, Anibal, introduced himself and gave a bit of personal history. He is a Walt Disney World VIP tour guide and Adventures by Disney guide in training. He was extremely animated and personable, and well taught in train basics (at least he gave that impression), but he is not a born and bred train aficionado. My impression was that if you had a deep mechanical background and asked a very specific operational question about the trains, he would not have been able to answer it.

This was the only WDW tour I’ve been on where the guests were not asked at the beginning to introduce themselves and give a basic bio. However, in chatting a bit with my tour mates, my guess is that one third were Disney geeks like me, one third were train geeks, and one third were just along for the ride to keep someone else company.

Inside the engine cab.

Our first stop on the tour was the covered area under the Main Street train station. The guide gave us a brief description of the four trains servicing Walt Disney World, their unique characteristics, and how they were acquired. Anibal had great energy, but nearly everything he was saying could also be learned by simply reading the signage posted there. In fact, I took photos of the signs and read them at home to refresh my memory about what was said on the tour.

We then walked upstairs and boarded one of the trains, on our case it was the Roy O. Disney. We learned some basic protocol about steam whistles and about the jobs of the various train workers such as the conductor and the engineer. Here, and throughout the entire tour, every piece of information was recounted by Anibal, not by any cast member that actually works on or with the train on a daily basis. I’m sure this is because Anibal is trained to interact with guests and the train engineers are trained to, well, do trains. But I have to say that I found this frustrating. Again, I’m not a train person, but I do like to see/hear local flavor. Anibal’s smooth patter was fine, but I think I may have gotten a better sense of what drives someone to train work, or what powers their train passion, if I had actually heard a train worker speak.

We could pose for photos with the train workers, but they did not speak to us as part of the tour.

After a half lap around the park, we got to a rail line spur which allowed us to be backed into the roundhouse. The roundhouse is a large building, just off stage, where the trains are maintained, repaired, and stored during the night. One of the most interesting visual parts for me was seeing that the monorail roundhouse is simply the second floor of the steam train roundhouse. The trains of the past and the trains of the future sleep together. It almost seemed like it could inspire a portion of a Cars film.

At the roundhouse, Anibal took nearly an hour describing parts of the train. I enjoyed seeing the hulking size of the vehicles, smelling the acrid steam, and feeling the heat radiating off the engine, but the actual lesson about which parts of the train do what was sort of lost on me. I took notes that say things like “train swirls fuel,” “inject fuel into firebox,” “little wheels are the pilot wheels,” and “10/6.” I have no idea what those things mean. And even I was taking the notes, I found myself wondering whether the train enthusiasts on the tour either already knew everything or thought the entire experience was too “dumbed down” for their level of knowledge.

The tour's refreshment stop.

Toward the end of the roundhouse portion of the tour, we were allowed to briefly sit inside the train cab and see the various gauges and dials. It was here that I found myself yearning to actually DO something. I wanted to move a lever or blow the whistle. But nope, nothing. Not here, nor anywhere else on the tour were guests able to interact with anyone or anything. It was like a lecture hall on giant, steam-powered wheels.

After the train exploration, we hopped back on board and again went into the onstage area of the park. We disembarked at the Main Street Station and walked over to the Chamber of Commerce for a bathroom and beverage break. We then walked back to the second floor of the station where Anibal used a retro PowerPoint-esque flip chart to describe Walt Disney’s affinity for trains. This focused primarily on his relationship with Roger Broggie and other early Imagineers, as well as the installation of a scale railroad at Walt’s California home. Again in Disney geek mode, I did enjoy these stories, but I had already encounter versions of them earlier both in my general Disney reading and at the Walt Disney Family museum in San Francisco.

The last section of the tour was a flip chart talk about Walt Disney's relationship with trains.

When the tour was over, we were all given Disney trading pins themed to the Magic Behind Our Steam Trains tour.

Over all, I’m glad went on the tour, but it’s not something that I’d want to do a second time. (Conversely, I’d be happy to take the Backstage Magic tour a second or third time.) And I’m glad that I didn’t take this with my three teenage daughters. They would have been itching to move at a much faster pace.

The Disney history discussed on the tour is available in other places, and the mechanics of the train itself simply wasn’t particularly impactful for me personally. I also found myself wondering whether true train lovers would have been bored because of possible oversimplification of the engine operation or because of too much emphasis on the Disney history.

If you are interested in Disney and trains, but don’t want to take the full tour, you may want to head over to the Iron Spike Room in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge Villas building. Two of Walt’s home train cars are displayed there, as well as other photos and train memorabilia. And as I mentioned, the signage posted under the Main Street Station gives a wealth of information. Also, you may be able to hunt down a library copy of the excellent book, Walt Disney’s Railroad Story.

So fellow travelers, have you taken the Magic Behind Our Steam Trains tour? How did you feel about it. Is this something that you would consider taking in the future? Are you a train person, or a Disney person, or both? Let us know in the comments below.

The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains: Tour Report is a post from the TouringPlans.com Blog. Signup for a premium subscription today! Or get news via Email, Twitter, & Facebook.

The Yuletide Fantasy Tour is about holiday traditions around the world with a little bit of Disney holiday traditions sprinkled in. It is open to guests age 16 and older and is only available select days in November and December. In 2012 it is offered Monday through Saturday at 9am from November 26 to December 29. There are a few exceptions to this schedule: the tour is not offered on 11/30, 12/1, or 12/25. This review is based on the 2011 tour, so some changes may have occurred for the 2012 season.

Like the Holiday D-Lights tour, Yuletide Fantasy is a multi-park tour offered by the Disney Institute. Since separate park admission is not required, Disney Institute tours usually have higher prices than single park tours such as Keys to the Kingdom.

At $84 (without discounts or tax) for 3.5 hours, the Yuletide Fantasy tour may look like a losing proposition compared with other tour options. For example, the 4.5-5 hour UnDISCOVERed Future World tour is only $54.

When reviewing tours, I place a lot of emphasis on value: not just the cost of the tour or the use of a ticket day, but what you receive in exchange for forfeiting precious vacation hours. As I set out for my Yuletide Fantasy Tour, I kept that in mind since a 9am tour means giving up valuable early morning park time.

Our group met outside Guest Relations to the far right of Epcot’s turnstiles. By the time 9am rolled around, all 34 folks in my group had arrived, signed in, and received name badges. Then we were off to the tour bus. In addition to providing a welcomed seat between stops, the bus also served as our locker.

Holiday Traditions Around World Showcase

Since there were 34 of us, we had two guides. We divided into two groups and split up during the stops. This meant each guide only had 17 people, which was much nicer than when I’ve been in a group of 32 with one guide on other tours. Both guides were enthusiastic about the holidays and thrilled to have the opportunity to lead this limited seasonal tour.

Our first stop was the Germany Pavilion. We entered through a backstage gate and stepped out into a deserted World Showcase. When I booked the tour, the phone agent assured me there was no difference in content between the 9am tour and the 1pm tour. [Note: the 1pm option is not available in 2012.] For me, there is all the difference in the world between going on a tour when a park is closed and when it is open. Even if a later option is available, do the 9am tour.

Since the World Showcase doesn’t open until 11am, there were still Disney maintenance crews and custodians sprucing everything up at 9:15. We were allowed to take photos onstage as long as we didn’t take any photos of the workers, vehicles, etc.

Here our guide told us about the origins of the Christmas tree and other traditions that started in Germany. We also visited the Christmas shop, Die Weihnachts Ecke, and discussed the questionable history of the pickle ornament. Afterwards, we stopped outside the miniature village and train set on the the way to the Italy Pavilion.

Shimenawa, traditional New Year's decorations of rice straw rope, grace the doorways in the Japan Pavilion.

In Italy, we learned about the witch, La Befana. This and several of the other stories we heard on the tour overlap with the tales told by the Holiday Storytellers in World Showcase. Having heard all the Holiday Storytellers before, I found that the guide elaborated on their stories rather than repeating them.

Other tales we heard that relate to the Epcot Storytellers were the history of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in the American Pavilion, as well as the story of the daruma dolls in Japan. Our tour group included a couple from Japan, who validated the guide’s explanation of the daruma dolls. This was really a special moment for our group and the guide, who had never had a Japanese guest take the tour with him before. The couple also identified the shimenawas, rice straw ropes, that are the Japan Pavilion’s only holiday decorations.

After we finished up the four countries (Germany, Italy, USA, and Japan), we exited backstage near Japan to our awaiting coach.

Magic Kingdom

Crowds for the Christmas Day Parade taping filled the Magic Kingdom

On our way to the Magic Kingdom, our lead guide confessed that he wasn’t sure what we were going to see or if we were going to be able to do the tour as usual. I took the tour the morning of the taping of Disney’s Christmas Day Parade in the Magic Kingdom. Organized chaos is definitely the appropriate description for what we witnessed.

We made our way into Town Square and circled around the parade crowds to the bathrooms next to Guest Relations. After a quick break, we all huddled outside the Chamber of Commerce to learn about why fruit and candy canes are used in the decorations in early 20th-century Town Square.

Next, we made our way through the parade taping hubbub and through the gift shops (which were being blocked off to guests) to little alley on the right-side of Main Street. Here we learned how the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created and handed out at Montgomery Ward.

It was a very heartwarming story – which of course I went home and looked up on Snopes. Totally false. This is just one example of how many stories on Disney tours are just that – stories: part fact, part legend. I understand many of the cultural tales we heard during the World Showcase portion of the tour may have many variations, but I sort of expected the information about Rudolph to be accurate seeing as how it is relatively recent history. My discovery didn’t devalue my experience on the tour, but my heart feel a little colder.

The whole time at Magic Kingdom, we kept hearing the parade taping crew shouting over megaphones at the crowd. They were trying to keep everyone pumped up and excited for the cameras. This sometimes drowned out our guide, but it really added to tour experience. Personally, I would never bother to go to the park during the taping on my own, so it was fun to be able to march through all the blocked off area as part of an official group.

Grand Floridian

Next we visited the Grand Floridian, the crown jewel of Walt Disney World’s resort holiday displays. The Grand Floridian not only boasts one of the nine giant trees on property, but it is also home to the famous gingerbread house (which, in true Disney fashion, doubles as a gift shop).

Here we had 15 minutes to check out the decorations at our leisure. It was pretty busy in the lobby, and I was very glad I had already visited before to get photos of the gingerbread house without mobs of people in front of it. I used up most of my 15 minutes lying on the ground waiting for people to move away from the tree.

As we boarded the bus, our driver handed out Mickey-shaped holiday crisped rice treats. I heard a few guests wondering why we didn’t receive gingerbread like what is sold from the gingerbread house. I’ll tell you why – it tastes stale! I know some people like it, but I was delighted that we didn’t receive chocolate-covered shingles.

Holiday Services

Our last stop was definitely the most anticipated – backstage at Holiday Services.

The Holiday Services warehouse is located on the north end of property in the same area as Central Shops (seen on the Backstage Magic Tour) and Event and Decorating Support (seen on Holiday D-Lights). I’ve never seen the HGTV Disney Christmas special, but it is my understanding this is the warehouse they visit on that show.

For a warehouse, it is pretty magical. Rows upon rows of decor are labeled with resort names. Trees and wreaths are stored whole, complete with wired-on ornaments and lights. There is an aisle of buckets filled with every size, shape, and color of LED lights. There are endless open bins of theme-specific ornaments. They even have shelves dedicated to gallons of glitter representing every shade in the rainbow!

We got to walk through the main storage area and workstations. We also spoke with a few of the 26 Cast Members who work on Christmas year-round. They go one by one through previous years’ decorations, inspecting them for necessary updates: worn ornaments, damaged bows, etc.

This was hands down my favorite stop. I could write whole essays on what we learned at Holiday Services, but I want to save some for you discover yourself on the tour.

After leaving Holiday Services, our bus dropped us back off near our meeting location in front of Epcot. On our way out, the guide handed us each a commemorative tour pin. These holiday tour pins change yearly, so the 2011 edition was limited to those guests going on Yuletide Fantasy that season. The 2012 tour will feature a different pin.

All in all, the tour was fantastic. I had low expectations based on some previous reviews and was certain it was overpriced at $84. However, as we were saying our farewells, all I could think about was how much I wanted to do it again next year.

Yuletide Fantasy was the perfect way to get in the holiday spirit. It really made me stop and admire the beauty of Walt Disney World this time of year. Learning about the various customs and legends from the World Showcase countries increased my appreciation for all the thought that goes into the decorations. Visiting backstage emphasized all the hard work and organization it takes to pull it all off.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. As I’m writing this, my desire to retake the tour has only increased. It may not be the cheapest per-hour tour, but it would be a perfect addition for anyone taking a trip to the World during the holiday season. If I had to chose between this and the Holiday D-Lights tour, I would pick Yuletide Fantasy every time.

Yuletide Fantasy Tour Tips

1. Book early. Holiday tours should be available for booking by late June. Book online or by calling (407) WDW-TOUR (407-939-8687).
2. Ask about discounts: AAA Members, DVC Members, and Annual Passholders receive 15% off. Disney VISA Cardholders receive 20% when paying with their cards.
3. Take the 9am tour. It’s worth getting up a little earlier to see an empty World Showcase.
4. Bring a camera. Do I need to repeat myself? Empty World Showcase!
5. Bring weather-appropriate clothing, Disney tours go on rain or shine. There aren’t too many hurricanes in December to cause a cancellation.
6. If you’re planning on making a Epcot lunch ADR, don’t make until 1pm or later. The 9am tour finished up around 12:30.

Have you tried the Yuletide Fantasy tour?  Do you plan on trying it out? Let us know what you think!

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Recently I had the pleasure of embarking on the Sunrise Safari Breakfast Adventure in Animal Kingdom. The Sunrise Safari is an exclusive tour offering guests an extended 45-60 minute ride on the Kilimanjaro Safaris prior to park opening followed by a private breakfast buffet at Pizzafari.

Why is it so exclusive? Because this tour is available only to Concierge Level guests at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. Furthermore, it’s only offered two days a week: Thursdays and Sundays at 7am. (Despite its name, the Sunrise Safari operates independently of the sunrise schedule.)

Unlike most Walt Disney World tours, this one is open to all ages. Current prices, including tax, are as follows, and no discounts are available:

• Adults ages 10+: $65
• Children ages 3-9: $32.50
• Children under 3: Free

Native birds flock to eat food intended for the Kilimanjaro Safari animals

Tour guests must check in at the Kilimanjaro Club (the concierge lounge in Jambo House) between 6:30-7am the morning of the tour. Tour check in was hands down the worst part of our Sunrise Safari. Not only was it at an unholy hour, but the check in process turned into a bit of a mess.

The morning of our tour, there was a line filling the small space between the concierge desk and the elevators. The 57 people on our tour were all milling about trying to get tour wristbands and coffee and read the paper and sneak breakfast before the start of the tour. You get the picture. Since the Sunrise Safari is open to all ages, there were also plenty of parents trying to navigate double strollers through the tiny lounge.

Pro Tip: Send one member of your party to check in at 6:30am. That one person just needs to bring all the ticket media for everyone in your group, since separate park admission is required for the tour. One person can have your party’s tickets scanned and collect all the wristbands. There is no reason for everyone to go to the lounge.

What about concierge breakfast you say? Kilimanjaro Club breakfast does not start until 7am. At 7am, you should be down in the main lobby with your wristbands on. Fortunately, the Pizzafari breakfast buffet is worth the wait, I promise.

Once everyone was wristbanded and in the lobby, the guides led us out to a pair of resort transportation buses waiting to whisk us away to Animal Kingdom.

Our guides were the curator and a keeper from the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Erich, the keeper, was on our bus and kept us entertained on the quick trip backstage. We learned all about the four savannas shared between Jambo House and Kidani Village. The animals at the resort keep a different schedule than those in the park. Animals in the park are called to their pens at sundown and let out again in the morning in time for park opening. On the other hand, animals at the resort aren’t rounded up until 5:30am. They are fed and then released around noon, so guests can see savannas full of animals from check-in until well past bedtime.

As we drove backstage at Animal Kingdom, Erich pointed out various areas and shared fun facts about park operations. I’ve already been backstage at Animal Kingdom on both the Backstage Safari and Backstage Magic tours, but everything we heard on the Sunrise Safari was new information.

Even though we drove backstage, the Sunrise Safari is not really a backstage tour. Those tours are usually limited to guests ages 16+ and involve stops backstage. As soon as we disembarked the buses, we walked out onstage to the standard Kilimanjaro Safari entrance.

We stayed in our two bus groups and boarded the 2nd and 3rd safari vehicles of the day. Cast Members ran one vehicle through to check the path earlier that morning, but we were the first guests.

The draw of the Sunrise Safari is that there is no rush. A normal ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris takes about 20 minutes. On the Sunrise Safari, we took a good 45 minutes to slowly work our way through the savannas. Our driver turned off the normal Warden Wilson spiel and let the guide  do all the talking.

We made our way through the normal safari route, stopping at length wherever the animals were. While stopped, guests could stand up to get a better view and take pictures. The guide shared information about all the different species we saw, as well as answered guests’ questions. The information was more detailed than anything you could get onstage, but the guide was very mindful of his wording when talking about sensitive topics (e.g., death, reproduction) due to the little ears on our tour.

When the safari was over, we all made our way to Pizzafari for a private breakfast buffet. The chef even came out to introduce the breakfast offerings before we all dug in. By this time, the park was open to the general public, so all were free to eat and leave on their own schedules. This tour ends in the park, so guests have to use regular resort transportation to go to other parks or back to the Lodge.

The breakfast buffet had a good variety of hot and cold offerings, and we were able to take our time without feeling rushed. All the food was different from what is available on the standard Pizzafari breakfast menu, and our favorite item was the fritter-like banana french toast. Several guests had special dietary concerns and were provided turkey bacon and other offerings direct from the kitchen. We were also able to order sodas from the back instead of juice, tea, or coffee.

A flock of greater flamingos head flagging as part of their hilarious mating ritual

Was it worth it?

Definitely – if you already plan on staying Club Level at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. If I ever find myself living the good life again, I would make sure my stay was timed so I could do the Sunrise Safari. Several of the guests in our group had done the tour before. The breakfast alone was worth half the price.

What if you weren’t planning on staying Club Level?

If you’re already considering Animal Kingdom Lodge, and for some miraculous reason it doesn’t cost more than $20 per person to upgrade to Club Level  - do it! I was able to snag a Club Level room mid-January for less than a Standard Savanna View room in October using the same discount.

Otherwise, consider taking the Backstage Safari tour offered to all guests ages 16 and older. It is currently priced at $72 (without tax or discounts) and is a great alternative Animal Kingdom tour experience. The Backstage Safari takes guests to several backstage locations and also includes a private (albeit shorter) Kilimanjaro Safari ride during normal park hours.

Breakfast buffet spread at Pizzafari

If you do decide to try the Sunrise Safari, make sure you plan ahead. It is advisable to book early as the tour routinely fills to its capacity of 64 guests. Guests with an existing Animal Kingdom Lodge Club Level reservation can book the Sunrise Safari up to 180 days in advance by calling the Itinerary Planning Office at (407) 938-4755 (9am-6pm ET). If you have any mobility or dietary concerns, be sure to mention them when booking and when checking in for your resort stay.

I really can’t express how pleased we both were with our tour. It was most certainly up the caliber of other Walt Disney World tour offerings and presented a good value for those already planning to stay Club Level. I truly hope I have the opportunity to take the Sunrise Safari again in the future.

Have you tried the Sunrise Safari?  Do you plan on trying it out on your next trip? Let us know what you think!

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Of all the tours currently offered at Walt Disney World, none seems to be of questionable value more so than the seasonal Holiday D-Lights.

The Holiday D-Lights tour allows guests age 16 and older the unique opportunity to see Walt Disney World’s three major holiday events across three parks in one night: Cinderella Castle Lighting at Magic Kingdom, Osborne Lights at Hollywood Studios, and the Candlelight Processional at Epcot. In addition, Disney adds in food and visit backstage to create a whirlwind night of holiday magic.

Holiday D-Lights is the most exclusive standard tour offered at Walt Disney World. Available only 9 nights in 2011, there were only 360 guest spaces available on this seasonal tour.

With this in mind, I made sure to book my space as soon as the Candlelight celebrity narrators were announced in June.  Since a Candlelight Processional viewing is part of the tour, I wanted to make sure I got my whole $199 worth. (Note: AAA Diamond Cardholders, Annual Passholders and DVC Members are eligible for a 15% discount. Disney VISA Cardholders receive 20% off when booking with their Disney VISA.)

Since Holiday D-Lights was only offered Monday-Wednesday for the three weeks after Thanksgiving, there weren’t many narrators to choose from. I ended up settling on a “Who’s That” as most of the big names are reserved for weekends.

Disney released an updated celebrity narrator schedule in November. As soon as I noticed my beloved Neil Patrick Harris was performing on a Monday, I called and rescheduled my tour date. (Most Disney tours can be canceled or rescheduled up to two days in advance.) Given the limited number of tour nights, I was surprised there was still availability.

Like all the Disney Institute-lead tours, Holiday D-Lights guests check in outside of Epcot in front of Guest Relations to the far right of the turnstiles. By the time I arrived at 3:45pm for the 4pm tour, the rest of the group had already shown their IDs and received their name tags and wristbands. It is important that everyone in your party brings a government-issued photo ID to check in for the tour.

After one last call for folks to use the restrooms, all 40 of us (a full tour) plus our two guides headed off to board a Disney Cruise Line bus that would serve as our chariot for the evening.

Wilderness Lodge – Whispering Canyon Café

Our first stop was the Wilderness Lodge. This was the first of several changes from previous seasons of Holiday D-Lights. 2011 was the tour’s third year of operation, and the food offering has changed each year. We started our tour off with a family-style all you care to eat meal at the Whispering Canyon.  Our meal included cornbread, coleslaw, baked beans, corn on the cob, fries, potato wedges, sausage, chicken, barbeque ribs and endless soda or tea. (Note: Guests with dietary concerns should alert the phone agent when booking the tour. Also be sure to remind the tour guides when checking in on the day of so they can make sure alternative food is available when you arrive.)

The food at Whispering Canyon was delicious as always, and I was very glad I was prepared to eat a full meal at 4:30pm that day. In previous years, Holiday D-Lights guests had a light buffet later in the tour. The guide said this year’s meal change was due to guest feedback saying that the buffet food wasn’t filling enough.

Event and Decorating Support

We headed backstage to the Event and Decorating Support warehouse straight after dinner (another schedule change from previous years). This was the first stop where we needed to use the audio headset provided to us earlier. These headsets allowed everyone to hear the guides no matter where we were standing.

Event and Decorating Support teams are responsible for the decorations for over 3,400 events a year. Not only do they handle events in Florida, but they are responsible for Disney events world-wide. They do work for corporations as well as individuals who contact Disney wanting to have Disney decorations for their events. Patrick, part of the Event and Decorating Support team, mentioned that their biggest private client is a grandfather who spends $3.5-4 million a year for his family’s Christmas celebration. That’s just for decorations!

We didn’t get to walk around very much in the warehouse, but they did have a small photo op set up exclusively for the Holiday D-Lights tour. This is noteworthy since photography backstage is an explicit no-no at Disney. On the way out, Patrick gave us all Disney Parks water bottles.

Magic Kingdom – Cinderella’s Holiday Wish Castle Lighting

Outside the Magic Kingdom, we had to stop at a security checkpoint where a guard boarded the bus and checked our bags just like they do when you enter through normal guest entrances. We did this before entering each park’s backstage area.

We entered the Magic Kingdom from a parking lot located to the right side of Main Street, U.S.A. We walked up and stopped at the entrance to the Hub just in time to see the Castle stage show lighting ceremony. (This was a major improvement from previous years, when tour guests viewed the Castle lighting from the Noodle Station near the smoking section.)

After the Castle lighting, we stopped below the 65 foot Town Square Christmas tree. Here the guide gave us a history on the tree as well as some trivia about what it takes to decorate the Magic Kingdom for the holidays. Magic Kingdom’s tree does not go up until after the taping of the Christmas Day parade. If you take Holiday D-Lights the first week it’s offered, the tree will not be in place yet.

As we boarded the bus, we each received a snowman-shaped crisped rice treat for dessert. On our drive over to the Studios, we watched a short video showing the castle lights at 4 of the 5 Disney castles across the globe. Disneyland Tokyo is the only park that does not have castle lights.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios – The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights

We headed over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights next. Each year, Disney swathes the Streets of America with millions of Christmas lights that “dance” in time with holiday music. The original lights belonged to Jennings Osborne of Little Rock, Arkansas. Once Jennings was court-ordered to take them down, they found their way to Disney.

Nowadays, the original lights have all been replaced with LEDs, but the sheer magnitude of the display remains. This was probably the most informative of the park stops, as the guide spent time explaining the history of the lights and pointing out little details and tributes throughout the display. We even found the famed purple Halloween cat that is hidden in a different place each year.

We stayed long enough to see two cycles of the lights dancing (which happens every 5-7 minutes), before we had to be off to make of final stop. While this tour needed to keep to a strict schedule to fit everything into one night, it never really felt that rushed.

Epcot – Candlelight Processional

Backstage at Epcot, we passed by the tent housing all the choir groups getting ready for Candlelight Processional. Each day, there are three shows generating over 800 choir robes that have to be washed and returned for the next night.

We entered the World Showcase from behind the American Adventure. This was our last stop, so everyone was instructed to take their bags with them. The guides did offer a ride to front of Epcot after Candlelight if anyone needed it, but everyone opted to stay in the park for Illuminations (an added bonus for the tour since we were not using park admission.)

As indicated in reviews from years past, our Holiday D-Lights Candlelight Processional seating left a lot to be desired. We sat to the far left of the stage pretty far back. Unfortunately, a pole blocked the celebrity narrator. I came to see Neil Patrick Harris, darnit!

I was able to scoot around some to take photos, but the pole was definitely a distraction. As far as tour content goes, our seating location is my only gripe about the tour. I see no reason why dining package and standby guests are receiving better seats than the Holiday D-Lights tour participants who paid $199.

After the performance, we all met up in the lobby of the American Adventure. Our guides bid us farewell and handed out commemorative tour pins. The pins for the holiday tours change every year, so the 2011 Holiday D-Lights tour pin was a limited edition run of 360. (At this point, the pin collectors in the group actually started hopping up in down in excitement.)

Our tour dispersed just in time to find a spot to view the 9:30pm Illuminations with the Holiday Tag. A perfect end to (mostly) lovely evening.

Overall, I really enjoyed the tour – but at $199 for 5 hours, I can’t help but question its value.  The only tour more expensive is Backstage Magic, which is $229 for 7.5 hours. Backstage Magic takes you to 5 backstage locations, and Holiday D-Lights only takes you to Event and Decorating Support. Both tours include a meal at Whispering Canyon and don’t require separate park admission.

Unless you’re in town for a short time and want to see all 3 holiday events in one night, you probably already have some form of admission. Even if you’re only in the parks for 2 days, you could feasibly see the Castle Lighting and Osborne Lights in one night and Candlelight Processional on the other. With the money saved skipping the tour, you could even book one of the Candlelight dining packages with reserved seating.

If money is not a concern, Holiday D-Lights is a good time. If you do decide to try out the tour in 2012, here are my top tips:

1. Book early and keep your eye on the Candlelight Processional celebrity narrator schedule for changes.
2. When choosing a date, keep in mind that the Magic Kingdom’s Christmas tree will not be installed until after the taping of the Christmas parade (usually around the first weekend in December).
3. If you have dietary concerns, alert the phone agent when booking.
4. Be prepared for an early dinner (but bring along a snack just in case the tour changes again for 2012).
5. Bring adequate clothing/rain gear depending on the weather. Disney won’t cancel the tour for rain or cold, so be prepared or be miserable. Bad weather can make Candlelight Processional the longest hour of your life.
6. If you’re into photography, bring a telephoto lens for the Candlelight Processional. You’ll need it to get any decent shots of the celebrity narrator from the tour’s seating area.

Have you tried the Holiday D-Lights tour?  Do you plan on trying it out in 2012? Let us know what you think!

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