Behind the Seeds Greenhouse Tour

[Ms.Disney]

DH and I will be at the world in Sept. We have always talked about doing the behind the seeds greenhouse tour. I was wondering what everyone thought of the tour. Also do I have to make reservations for it? How do we go about arranging it? :mickey:


Thanks

[KineGirl]

I did this tour a 2 years ago and while it was interesting it wasnt exactly what I thought it would be. I thought it would be more "behind the scenes" of Disney horticulture. And it was.. kind of. They take you through a bug room where they are researching various bugs and their benefits to plants whether through pollination, disease prevention or insect invasion. We had a "bug" guy ( I dont know the technical term but he studied bugs ) so he was most informative about this area. Then you go into the area that the boats pass through on The Land ride where fruits and veggies grow off the ground and they tell you about how DIsney has all this neat technology for growing plants with minimal waste & optimum growth. You get to see "cinderella pumpkins" here - they are really big!! Also cute Mickey Head pumpkins :mickey: The next stop is the fish and alligator tanks. These are the fish raised for WDW restaurants. The (little) alligators are raised until they are bigger and then sold to a farm. All in all as a gardener it was slightly interesting to see their techniques and some of the neat imagineering thats gone into some creative fruit/veggie cross breeds. If time was limited or if its a first trip I wouldnt recommend it but if you are taking the World at a more relaxed pace and these types of things sound interesting for you then its worth it. Just dont go expecting to see topiaries or info on how to prune the perfect rose bush. You do have to rsvp - You can sign up for it when you go to Soarin- its right there at the desk. It was only us and another couple when we did it. I dont think its terribly popular so several times should be available. I think the cost was somewhere in the $22 range :confused: but dont quote me on it.

[DunkieKong]

We did the tour on our last trip in December. It was great. They take you walking through the Living with the Land ride, and lots of the rooms where they do a lot of the work. We got to feed the fish, and they let us try some veggies that were grown inside the greenhouses. They teach you about beneficial insects and different growing techniques. I'd say, if you enjoy the ride, definitely take the tour. Everyone in our group really had a good time. Oh, and there is no need to make reservations. We just walked up and got tickets.

[Diznee4Me]

I enjoyed the tour and found it pretty interesting. All in all I agree with most everything the previous two posters wrote.

The only thing I did find a lilttle different, and it may have been because of the time of year, was the tours did fill up and you might have to wait until the next tour time. I believe they are limited to 12 or so people.

[OhToodles!]

We haven't done the behind the seeds tour yet, but we're doing it this October. I have already set up a time to do the tour and called 180 ahead, but they told me you can make reservations a year in advance. If you have a Disney Visa you get a discount (10-15%). I think it ended up being like $11 per adult, and I did have to pay for it upfront.
Hope you enjoy it!

[MsMin]

We did it in 05 and we loved the tour. It is as described like a behind the scenes of the "living with the land" ride but I've always wanted to learn more about the hydroponics and that's what they teach you and they gave us a print out of how to do it at home. We did the lady bug release and fed the fish and ate a tomato from the tomato tree that was trying for a Guinness record. We did the Back Stage Safari and found we learned as much on just the little 1 hour tour, just more compact and no break time. It's also great for kids b/c it's one of the few they allow children. :thumbsup:

[ThunderChunky21]

My DW and I did this tour in Sep. 2005 and we still talk about how much we enjoyed it. To book it, we just pushed the button on our room phone at POFQ for information and they directed us to the desk for Behind the Seeds. We booked it 24 hours before we went and we had no trouble getting the time slot we wanted.

The Land is my wife's favorite attraction and this tour shows people some really interesting ways that food can be grown. Near the end of the tour they gave us plans on how to make our own hydroponic garden using an aquarium. We never got around to implementing it home, but we have always talked about doing it. This tour is a great value and a good way to spend an hour and a half. The tour guide did a great job answering questions and made it so everyone, even 8 year olds, could understand without talking down to the adults.

[brad192]

Do they allow cameras on this tour? I believe all of the other tours do not, but since you're "on stage" for this one do they let you take photos?

[DunkieKong]

I think I remember them letting us use cameras. I'll have to check my pics and see, but I'm 95% sure it was fine.

[KineGirl]

Do they allow cameras on this tour? I believe all of the other tours do not, but since you're "on stage" for this one do they let you take photos?

I took pics of literally everything including their plant food formula :thumbsup: Seriously! There was a cinderella pumpkin there ... did they really think I wasnt going to get my pic taken with that?!? LOL I dont believe there are any camera restrictions at all and in fact the tour guide would pause so we could take them. :photo:

[comicguy]

We did this tour last Aug. and really enjoyed it. My 14yo son loved it and was able to tell all family memebers about what he learned. I recommend doing the tour particularly if you are trying to do WDW at a bit slower pace. You can resies for the tour near the entrance to Soarin'. I think the tour is 15 per person, but you can get a Disney Visa discount and also in the back of the current Birnbaum's book there is a coupon that you can use for a discount.

[Ms.Disney]

Sounds, great! thank you everyone for the info!