rate these tours-keys to the kingdom or backyard safari

[sln88]

what did you like/not like?

what did you do?

which would you pick?

is it hard to get a ressie for them?

do they run the tours every day?

This would be for me and DD 16

 

[nativetxn]

I've never experienced a tour but I'm going to bump this back to page one, for you, so that some of our veterans can offer advice.

Katholyn

 

[LJC1861]

I have done both and totally enjoyed both but I think I would pick the KTTK tour over Backstage Safari. Keys is gerat in that it gives you lots of wonderful trivia and information in addition to the behind the scenes stuff that you don't want to miss. Safari, while interesting was a bit on the dry side. More technical information and not enough fun. Now, if you are an animal lover then this is the tour for you.

Keys includes lunch, Safari does not.

Keys takes you into the utilidors, the float barn, on a ride or two with lots of behind the scenes and storyline information, down Main St. with detailed explanations as to why things are the way they are and a few other places.

Safari takes you to the elephant barn, the rhino stable where you may or may not get to meet one, to a classroom where you get up close and personal with a few critters and a few other places.

Depending on the time of year, both tours can be difficult to get. Keys runs every day and Safari most days of the week, but I cannot remember what specific days.

Go for Keys!!!

Linda

 

[dgaston]

I have done both (and Hidden Treasure of World Showcase) and agree that KTTK is the better of the two you are looking at. I think that tours can vary depending on your guide, and if you read tour reports from Deb Wills site, you will discover very little time is now spent in the utilidors. We also only visited HM and JC (no PoC) on our August KTTK.

I was on Backstage Safari in April and we had a large group and I think it would have been better with an additional guide.

No matter which tour you choose, I'm certain you'll have a great experience.

HTH

 

[sln88]

I think I was leaning toward KTTK, but wanted to make sure

We are going in Oct- think there will be problems getting in?

 

[webmomom]

I have done both tours and loved both of them. It would be hard for me to decide which one to take. I will agree it depends on who you have as a guide.

We have done the backstage Magic tour twice and this last time it was not as good as the first and it was mainly on account of the tour guide. They both show you behind the scences of both places, so it just depends you what you are looking to see. Either how they do MK or how they handle the animals at AK.

If you don't choose AK, I would definitley tell you to do it at a latter date. It is very interesting. We also did the Wild by Design tour which tours the front of AK and loved it also.

 

[diswedwish]

We (myself and DH both in our 20s) did both KTTK and Backstage Safari this past Jan. and for us Backstage Safari came out way ahead of KTTK.

Keep in mind that our favorite channel is Animal Planet so we found everything we learned to be fascinating. Our guide was Paul, a retired teacher, and he was fantastic. There were 5 of us on the tour that day. We got to go to the elephant barn, where we saw an elephant and heard all kinds of entertaining (some dirty ) stories about the elephants and about the breeding programs that they have for zoos, how that works. We went to the rhino barn and got to pat Sammy (how often can you say that you touched a rhino?). Then we went to the giraffe barn where we spoke with 2 of the trainers and got drooled on by the Rothschild giraffe. We went backstage in the Conservation Station, met a snake, got plenty of snacks, a tour-guide book about AK, and other goodies. Then we went to where they prepare the food which was also pretty interesting. Then Paul took us on our own personal Safari ride; he turned off the normal spiel and pointed out a hidden Mickey, and several other details about the ride/animals/plants that you'd never notice. We heard more interesting stories and he was happy to answer any questions we had.

The next day, KTTK seemed like such a let-down. It wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination!!!! We were just much more excited by the other tour. Our tour guide was younger, and while informative, she just wasn't Paul Our group was much bigger too. Time seemed to drag, especially toward the end when about 3 people were monopolizing the questions, and kept asking the same questions in different ways...

It all depends on what you think *you'll* be the most interested in - either way I'm sure you'll have a great time Keys should be much easier to get into, I think it's offered several times a day, whereas the AK tours are only offered specific days of the week.

HTH