Are you someone who loves the way Walt Disney World brings extra magic to the holiday season through its decor and food? Did you ever wonder how they pull this off? If you did, then the Walt Disney World Yuletide Fantasy Tour is for you!
The Yuletide Fantasy Tour is a seasonal event held only in November and December, led by Adventures by Disney staff. As the 3 hour tour is all backstage no theme park ticket is required. The cost is $149.00 per person, and open to those 12 years old and older.
To give you some insights we attended one of the tours on November 7th. Tours start at 9 am, however you are asked to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the tour at the blue and silver EPCOT guide tours sign. We went through regular EPCOT screening, but did not enter the park itself.
Just around 9 am we were greeted by two cast members dressed in festive holiday attire - Dave and Ashlyn. They greeted all those participating in the tour and provided us with lanyards. Both Ashlyn and Dave gave us a brief history of their experience as cast members. With a combined 22 years of Disney magic, they provided lots of Disney history along with way, like the fact that Walt gave his wife Lily a puppy in a hat box as a gift. This was symbolically recreated in the opening scene of Lady and the Tramp.
After a quick headcount and a run of the no photography rules in backstage areas, we were all whisked away on a Disney bus to the Holiday Services area. This area is where the decorations that designers use to “deck the halls” throughout the Parks, all the Resorts, Castaway Cay and the Cruise ships are stored.
Holiday Services
Wearing safety glasses, we entered the building which is a storage space the size of 11.5 basketball fields. The building is filled to the rafters with glittering balls, ribbons and assorted ornaments. We learned that the designers start working on plans for the holidays 5 years in advance, finalize their plans two years out and use the theme for approximately 5 to 10 years.
A permanent cast of 46 manage the building, repair ornaments and restock items after the season has passed.
Some of the trivia we learned includes:
Walt Disney was asked to design the logo for The Toys for Tots charity
Disney uses 6.8 million lights, 1,500 trees and 1,300 wreaths decorating for Christmas
It takes 3 weeks in total to setup parks, resorts resorts and Disney Springs
Once our tour of Holiday Services was done we boarded the bus and watched a time lapse video of putting up the larger trees as we headed for the Disney Events building.
Disney Events
The purpose of Disney Events is to help people celebrate. This area provides services for special celebrations as well as Disney floral and gifts. One example of they way they ‘plus’ the Disney experience was shared. A boy going to Disney for Christmas and was concerned that Santa would not be able to find him since he would not be home. His parents reached out to Disney Events. The Disney Events team got pictures of the family tree and recreated it, down to each ornament, so that Santa could find the boy at WDW. Now that is super plussing the experience!
We were privileged to get a look into a special family event that the team had been working on for over a year. Specific costumes, music, decorations and food were all part of the preparations. We were wowed by the amount of work and details in the process!
We also visited the Floral Department for an up-close look at the arrangements being made.
You leave having a greater appreciation for the Disney Floral gifts seeing the team in action. As a special treat we all had our photos taken by a Disney professional photographer with a holiday themed background.
Cookie decorating at Amorette’s
We were again back on the bus and made our way to Disney Springs to decorate cookies at Amorette’s Patisserie. Arriving at the shop Dave and Ashlyn give us a summary of the backstory of Amorette’s as we waited to enter. The shop was open only to our tour members.
Tables were set up with icing and edible decorations for each tour member. We each received a wreath-shaped cookie to decorate with the Adventures by Disney logo (a star) stamped into the center. While steps were provided by a staff baker, everyone used their creative energies to decorate the cookie as the pleased.
We were also given the opportunity to purchase some of the delicious baked goods prior to opening to the public.
We were again back on the bus to return to the entrance of EPCOT. As we left the bus for the last time we each received an exclusive holiday keepsake!
If you are a person who loves all the decorations and magic Disney puts into their holiday experiences then this tour is for you!
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