DestiNations discovered

[rosiebun3]

Originally Posted by sky13

Just did this last Wednesday. Will post a more complete review when back on my computer later this week but essentially you do get VIP viewing near Italy for illuminations, lunch is included at rose and crown. I booked it the day before the tour, 6 people on my tour, with an AP discount.

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That sounds good. Looking forward to reading you review

[sky13]

More complete review as promised

I booked the tour the day before - had been thinking about it for a while but wasn't sure if I had enough time to do it on this trip. Got an AP discount for the tour.

Tour started at 8.15am (park opening at 9am). Checked in, ordered my food for lunch, and met the CM guiding us around and the other 5 people on the tour. He gave a brief spiel about Walt Disney and origins of Epcot, brought us out to the Fountain of Nations, talked about it and the set up of Epcot and we wandered out to the showcase plaza. Then we went through the countries one by one from Mexico to Canada.

Our guide kept up a pretty constant spiel (we had those little audio things to hear him better) and would point out things along the way. Some of these were things I knew about but never saw before (e.g. the few metres along World Showcase near Mexico where you see the Tower of Terror blending in nicely with Morrocco), or things I never even appreciated before (e.g. the various statues in Germany/Italy and the history/inspiration/design for them, or the fact that there is a giant Epcot logo on the ground next to the Fountain of Nations).

When the tour started the park was "open" to people with pre-park opening ADRs at Akershus, so there were still people wandering along the path at Mexico and Norway. Our guide brought us into the Mexico pyramid (closed at that time), backstage, then out into Norway. Then we went past into the "closed" area of World Showcase from China onwards, and also backstage in a few other places including to see the Illuminations barges. Before 11am the CMs were still setting up around World Showcase, and it is a bit bizarre to look through a door in Italy and see cars beyond it! We were in Japan around 11am and that was when everyone started streaming into World Showcase, so it got a bit more crowded after this.

When we got to the UK pavilion we went to the Rose and Crown for lunch. As there were only 6 of us plus our guide on the tour we were all seated together at the same table. Food was good. The nice thing about the tour I was on is that we were all huge Disney fans so there was plenty to talk about!

Then we went through UK and Canada. Finally we went backstage at Canada and our guide pointed out how close Canada is to Soarin, and brought us to ride Soarin through the FP line (ensuring that we were all in the centre of the theatre). After the ride he got us to go to the front of the theatre (as the next set of guests were being loaded into the ride) and pointed out some of the ride mechanics to us. He then brought us back backstage and back to Canada and gave us all a Destinations Discovered pin and left us at Canada.

Went back at night for the VIP area viewing of Illuminations. Basically it's a little roped off area near Italy with a CM there checking your name, and we all had a great view of the fireworks. Our of the 6 of us on the tour, 5 of us turned up for Illuminations, and it was quite nice to just chat with the rest while waiting for the fireworks and after when walking out of the park.

Wow this has been a longer review than I expected it to be! But overall I really enjoyed the tour. I consider myself a bit of a Disney geek (I think I spend too much time on the Dibb and reading various Disney blogs), but there was a decent amount of stuff I didn't know on the tour, and it was nice to be able to see backstage as well. Our guide was really fantastic too and there was so much he knew about all the World Showcase pavilions and of WDW in general. (He had one of the blue CM name tags, and had been working for WDW for I think close to 30 years!) And it's always fun to be able to talk with other people who love Disney and Epcot!

[rosiebun3]

Thank you so much for posting your review. I definitely want to do this now when we head to WDW in September. Good to know we don’t have to book too far in advance too.

[sky13]

No problem, it was a good tour and I think I might have enjoyed it more than KTTK (but that might also have been because guide for this tour was better).

Not sure how many people book the DestiNations tour but my guide said he once had a day when there were 36 people on the tour (there were apparently 2 guides) - so maybe it does book up in advance when this happens! But for the dates I was there there were at least 3 days that were available within the week (for all the 3 days I asked the CMs at guest relations to help me check availability).

[starwarsclark]

Hello everyone, this tour sounds great, can I ask do you get a full lunch meal at the Rose and Crown please as we could use this and not use an ADR for another meal on the same day, saving an ADR for a 2TS treat somewhere else.

[sky13]

Originally Posted by starwarsclark

Hello everyone, this tour sounds great, can I ask do you get a full lunch meal at the Rose and Crown please as we could use this and not use an ADR for another meal on the same day, saving an ADR for a 2TS treat somewhere else.

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Yes it's a full lunch meal with starter main and dessert! You get to choose your main and drink but the starter and dessert are pre selected.

[zdickens]

This sounds really good. Think I might add to my list of things to do next year.

[starwarsclark]

Thank you for the reply, that may well save me an ADR to use somewhere else. Does the tour always start that early or are there different start times please?

[zdickens]

Originally Posted by starwarsclark

Thank you for the reply, that may well save me an ADR to use somewhere else. Does the tour always start that early or are there different start times please?

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I’ve had a quick look and can only see 0815

[sky13]

Originally Posted by zdickens

This sounds really good. Think I might add to my list of things to do next year.

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It was a good tour and I enjoyed it!

Originally Posted by starwarsclark

Thank you for the reply, that may well save me an ADR to use somewhere else. Does the tour always start that early or are there different start times please?

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I believe it's always 8.15am. But the start time is great - as it means that when you first get into the park, the park is only open to people with early ADRs - so you have the Future World section to yourself. And then once you're past Norway, you really truly have the park to yourself until 11am - no one will be in World Showcase except for your group on the tour and various CMs setting up for the day. I have lots of photos around World Showcase with no one in them