A few weeks ago, I went with a group of agents from Small World Big Fun to Walt Disney World® Resort for the 10th annual Ear Marked Conference. While three of our friends (colleagues just doesn’t work since I consider each of these women a friend) were delegates and participated in innovative training sessions, the remaining four of us were charged with exploring the parks, experiencing new attractions, eating at new (or new to us) restaurants, experimenting with FastPass+, and introducing the agency’s administrative assistant, Stacey, to the wonders of WDW.
IT. WAS. FANTASTIC!
One of the many highlights of the trip was the day we spent with Stone VIPs, a touring company that offers a touch of luxury for clients while in the parks. Leading up to the day of our tour, we visited with the amazing Josef who set up our coordinator and then with Jeanette, our coordinator. They asked what was most important to us and what were our MUST haves! The four of us couldn’t wait to experience this treat.
On the appointed day, we arranged to meet Jeanette at 10:00 a.m. inside the Magic Kingdom. This gave us a chance to do a little (okay, a lot) of shopping for our husbands and kids we left at home while we were off on a work trip. Jeanette was easy to spot yet very low key in her appearance. After taking time to introduce herself to each of us (and she remembered and used our names the entire time we spent with her), we headed off to ride a huge favorite — Space Mountain®.
On the walk over, we learned that Jeanette was a Cast Member at the park when it opened in 1971. She shared with us that many of the cast members, including herself, were afraid no one would come to this new park, the Magic Kingdom® Park, out in the middle of nowhere. Some were so nervous that they had second jobs lined up in anticipation of the park’s failure! Thankfully, as we all know, that did not come to pass.
Jeanette loved working for Walt Disney World as a Cast Member. She went on to work as a VIP tour guide for Walt Disney World and retired a few years ago. She now serves as a tour guide for Stone VIPs. And we are so glad she does!!
The day we spent with Stone VIPs was the most relaxing day I have ever spent at the Magic Kingdom. Normally, as the mom, I am the one who plans our day and leads our family from ride to ride. And I love it! But I would have never used the word “relaxing” to describe it. On this day “relaxing” was just the word to describe it. It was such a luxury to have someone else take charge. I never had to wonder where we were going next or wonder about which FastPass we had at what time. Jeanette spent the morning guiding us from attraction to attraction. She even took time to be our personal photographer and emailed us the photos she took. It was like having our own PhotoPass photographer with us all day long!
Around lunchtime, Jeanette dropped us off at The Plaza for a tasty and leisurely meal. Another perk to having a tour guide is that they will make your dining reservations for you. While we were eating Jeanette went to arrange more fun for us! After about an hour, Jeanette came back to check on us and join us for a little bit of dessert.
The guides at Stone VIP know every trick and tip in the book! They are experts at using the FastPass system and knowing which rides to go to at the perfect time. During our day visit, we never had to wait to experience an attraction. And nearly every cast member greeted Jeanette personally and that additional warmth was extended to us as her special guests for the day.
My personal highlight of the day was the character meeting with Anna and Elsa. It is one of the most difficult attractions to obtain a FastPass for and the standby lines can be as long as two to three hours long. Not for Jeanette and not for us. We had FastPasses and were able to walk right in. Anna and Elsa were amazing and even took time to record personal messages to my children. My husband told me later that night that my kids LOVED their video messages. It was nice to be able to send Disney magic home to them.
After such an amazing experience, I can’t wait to treat my family to a day or two of touring with Stone VIPs on our future vacations and I would heartily recommend them to clients.
Who else would find this luxury service beneficial? Anyone and everyone. It is the perfect treat when you want someone else to be the guide for your family, when it is your first trip, when it is a busy time in the parks, or when you just want to treat yourself and your family to a super magical day.
When you are ready to plan your next Disney Vacation — be it Walt Disney World or Disneyland — and you want to experience VIP treatment inside the parks, give us a call and we will help make your Disney Dreams come true!