I would love to pick your brain about this!
So for that unavailable dining reservation did they just book it that same day or arraigned ahead of time?
I would imagine they were able to schedule your dinner reservation for after you were finished with the tour guide
Where was the location of your fireworks viewing (how are you ensured your VIP access if your tour technically has ended?
It sounds like for what you have paid for those 7 hours you can kind of extend your VIP treatment to include a hard to get reservation and fireworks? If they are taking you through back entrances -- do you need to purchase separate park tickets (i would imagine you would)?
Did you tip your guide at the end? a percentage of the cost?
I'm sure i will have more questions when i talk with my hubby tonight. If we are already thinking about paying $400 for the dessert party might as well go all out and make it a whole day and get the great fireworks view too!
For dinning- it kind of was made before and the day of. We made the reservations for 1900 Park Fare before through the vip tour, but the day of we decided we didn't want a buffet or a character meal so the guide was able to get us reservations that day.
We had our guide for 10 hours. When you book you don't tell them how long you're going to use them for. We initially planned for 7 (basically 7 hours until our 1900 park fare reservations) but our reservations at the wave gave us the ability to have the guide for longer without paying for him to sit through dinner with us. Our guide did ask us during the day though if we were ok going over 7 hours, or if we wanted him to leave at 7 hours and he would tell us when that was. So if you don't want to go over the minimum- just let them know. I believe the max is 12 hours.
You do need park tickets. We did Epcot and MK. Our guide took our magic bands when we went on Soarin to scan tickets and again when we watched the parade.
For the fireworks you have to still have the guide with you in order to get the vip seating. We watched festival of fantasy with the guide, it was at the top of the train station. It was blocked off i think there were about 10 other people there.
We did tip- $200 at the end. We weren't sure how much to tip either.
When we did the guide DVC had a 25% off discount, so we paid a little under $400 an hour. I believe it can be up to $600 an hour depending the time of year.
Also, I would start the tour at the park, not have them pick you up if possible so you're not paying $400 an hour to get driven to the park lol
Let me know if theres anything else!