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caryrae
05-22-2007, 04:39 PM
What used to only be available for the famous can now be yours for a price. Includes WDW now.

What You Get With VIP Status at Theme Parks
May 17, 2007
By CHARLES PASSY



Wall Street Journal - For all the joys of a family outing at an amusement park, the pitfalls can include nearly endless waits for rides, lousy seats for shows and the prospect of having too much to cram into one day. Unless, that is, you're willing to pay to get the VIP treatment.

Theme-park operators have been stepping up their long-standing practice of offering exclusive tours that can easily add $200 to standard admission prices of $50 and up. Such packages provide guests a chance to cut in the front of lines and be escorted around the park to enjoy perks ranging from buffet lunches to complimentary souvenirs.

Six Flags Inc., with 12 theme parks throughout the country, just unveiled its private VIP tour, priced from $199 to $249 per person (admission included, with a suggested minimum of four people), that provides what it calls "concierge-level service." Busch Entertainment Corp., the company behind three SeaWorld parks and two Busch Gardens ones, says its tour offerings -- from one-hour behind-the-scenes tours to full-day "adventure" outings -- have surged in popularity, with tour attendance climbing to 200,000 last year from 140,000 in 2003.

Walt Disney Co. has been hosting VIP tours since the opening of Disneyland in 1955. Back then, the tours were strictly for bona fide VIPs (guests who might cause a commotion on their own). But now they're open to anyone willing to fork over as much as a $750 minimum in the case of private tours at Walt Disney World parks around Orlando.

The boom in VIP tours, industry experts say, indicates a mature business that is looking at new ways to drive revenue, especially given that park attendance rose only a modest 2.2% in 2006, according to one industry report. It's also reflective of a culture that seeks special treatment at every turn.

To see if spending extra money really makes you feel like royalty, we booked VIP tours at four prominent theme parks without revealing our affiliation with The Wall Street Journal. We noted everything from the guide's attitude to the number of attractions covered. We also tested the guide's knowledge of the park and threw in an kingly request or two. If we were going to be VIPs for a day, we wanted to feel, well, important.

At times, we certainly did: Nothing brings out your inner spoiled child quite like breezing past a long line of tired park-goers waiting to ride an attraction. But at other times, we didn't appreciate the nasty looks (or threats of physical harm) that our jump-the-queue status engendered.

Our conclusion is that it's worth the extra money if it is your one shot at visiting a particular park and if it happens to be during a popular time period (think summer). A properly led tour can save you time and give you an odds-on chance of having a great time. But tours may not make sense in every instance -- in some parks, it's easy to play VIP on your own, finding your way without impediment. It also pays to consider what the tour actually provides.

VIP tour pioneer Disney, for example, was the only company not to offer a tour with front-of-line access to rides. At Disneyland, our four-hour private excursion ($300 for a group of seven, plus park admission) got us preferred seating for a parade and an evening fireworks display, plus plenty of trivia from a chirpy, kid-friendly guide, who knew such details as the year the "It's a Small World" ride debuted (1966). But the best the guide could offer when it came to riding "Small World" or any other attraction was to help arrange for FASTPASS -- Disney's book-ahead ride program available free to all guests -- or to hold our place in line while we hit another ride. Disney officials later told us that's intentional: They don't want to alienate non-VIP guests by forcing them to clear the way for VIPs.

Then what's the point of VIP treatment? Mostly it's to help with logistics, especially for Disney newcomers. Our guide knew where to start -- the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which tend to get crowded later on -- and when to seek out character autographs. All that planning went haywire, however, when she arranged for seats for the "Aladdin" show at neighboring Disney's California Adventure without realizing it wasn't playing that day. That meant we shortened our lunch -- not included in the tour's cost -- for nothing. A Disney spokesman says the mishap "sounds like an error."
With a VIP tour at the Six Flags Over Georgia in Atlanta (we paid $199 per person), the biggest problems cropped up in advance. Unlike other theme-park companies that have guests simply show up at the appointed time, Six Flags puts a tour planner in touch with the group beforehand. We had a tough time connecting by phone and there was confusion over the tour's start time (the online reservation system said 9 a.m., the tickets said 11 a.m.). And though we were invited to "Brunch with Bugs," we were later told the event wasn't happening on our tour day. A Six Flags representative says the pretour issues should not have arisen and are "going to be addressed immediately."

That said, after we worked out the kinks, the tour offered bang for the buck: There's no time limit, and our helpful guide (plus another guide in training) stayed with us from 9:45 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. There's also no limit on included treats. Our four-person gastronomic tally: seven lemonades, four helpings of ice cream, four bottles of water, three orders of chicken fingers and fries, one pizza slice and a salad (and we didn't even stay for dinner!). Front-of-line access is guaranteed, helping us hit 15 attractions, and is granted on the spot. Our main guide, a pre-kindergarten teacher, even baby-sat our two-year-old while the adults went on some thrill rides.

At our other parks, SeaWorld in Orlando and Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure, the options for a private tour were nearly a king's ransom -- up to $3,000 in the case of Universal -- so we booked a cheaper group tour that still promised the VIP treatment, albeit with strangers in tow.

But at SeaWorld's "Adventure Express" tour ($95 per person, plus park admission), we felt like another face in the crowd because our group of a dozen-plus was so large and diverse -- moms, dads, toddlers, teens and even a newly engaged young couple. (We applauded them.) Plus, the tour, led by a sincere and low-key gentleman, didn't show us much of anything we couldn't have found ourselves. (Because of its emphasis on shows and walk-through attractions, SeaWorld doesn't tend to be as hard to navigate as ride-oriented parks.) The only real perk was a chance to pet a penguin in its near-freezing backstage habitat -- very cool in every sense. A Busch spokeswoman says the "Adventure Express" was meant for those who want a little more hand-holding and would rather not have to map out their day.

At Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure, our group was having too much fun to nitpick. The tour ($120 per person, plus admission) was a five-hour romp, taking in nine attractions (plus repeat rides) with barely a moment's rest, save for bathroom breaks and a quick lunch (not included). But on a day when the park was packed (and lines for some attractions exceeded 90 minutes), it was the only way to go: We were led on rides as if we were visiting dignitaries, making a few regular park-goers a tad envious, if not downright angry -- in one instance, someone attempted to trip a member of our group. (A Universal spokesman says non-VIP guests shouldn't feel left out since the parks offer other ways to gain front-of-line access, including a lower- cost Universal Express Plus pass.)

That incident notwithstanding, our tour, led by a woman with the zealous spirit of a fun-loving big sister, kept upping the "wow" factor. At the "Amazing Adventures of Spiderman" ride, one of the most complex ever built, we were taken backstage to see how the specially designed cars moved along the track. At the water rides, we were given ponchos to stay dry. Best of all, the 12-person, three-family group hit if off. One group member said he couldn't imagine coming back to the park any other way. Perhaps he'll pick up the tab next time.

Patricia
05-23-2007, 06:57 PM
Personally, I don't have a problem with VIP's heading to the front of the line. There will never be enough of them to make a huge difference to my touring time.

Ian
05-23-2007, 08:00 PM
I'm not sure I agree 100% ... sometimes I find it a tad irritating ... but I'd certainly never let it get so bad that I stooped to something childish like tripping someone!

That's weak.

JPL
05-23-2007, 09:26 PM
[B]Walt Disney Co. has been hosting VIP tours since the opening of Disneyland in 1955. Back then, the tours were strictly for bona fide VIPs (guests who might cause a commotion on their own).




Hmm I have been known to cause a commotion on my own and never got VIP treatment :confused: