For my 40th birthday trip me and my husband took the Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps Tour. This was the first time either one of us had taken a Disney guided tour, and before I begin my review let me preface by saying:

• Our tour guide was lovely, no matter how snarky I may seem. Lovely…REALLY!

• We took this tour on a very hot day in August. Remember…HOT!

• As ‘bare bones’ as this tour seemed compared to some of the descriptions I had read online, I would have paid every penny just to see inside of Walt’s apartment. WALT’S APARTMENT, people!

When I was a little girl my granddaddy would often take us on walks. He always made a point to let us know that it would be a walk, not a carry. With that said, this tour can be summed up in the first word of its name – WALK!

As Jon and I are rather large, let me assure you that if we could complete this walking tour in a mid-August heat wave so can you! Suffice it to say that at our size three hours on our feet is equivalent to a decent amount of exercise.

We began our tour by checking in at the Tour Gardens, at the beginning of Main Street on the left hand side. We were greeted by a young man who seemed very satisfied with his employment at Disney. Jon even pointed out that he was pictured on the brochures displayed on the counter in front of us. Sure enough!

We were given our name badges and a menu to review for our lunch order.

  
 
 
 
When purchasing your tickets make sure you give the cast member your names as you’d like them to be printed on your badges.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lunch was catered from Jolly Holiday.

 
  
 
 
 
 
We waited at tables reserved just for our tour.
 
 

There was even a hidden potty.

Our tour guide began visiting each of our tables, passing out our ‘ear gear’ which we’d use to hear both her voice during the tour and various recordings, such as Walt Disney’s opening day address at Disneyland.

Jon figuring out our tour gear.

Our tour guide…look at the very Disney way she’s standing and holding her tour baton.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We began our tour near the fire station below Walt Disney’s apartment.

We proceeded down Main Street and through Sleeping Beauty’s Castle into Fantasyland.

 
Waving her baton in the air…even her gait was Disney!
 
 
 
 
 
 

We bypassed the 40 minute line to ride Peter Pan. This was our only ride for the tour, which differed from accounts I’d read online about riding up to three attractions. So that was kind of a bummer. This was also the point that a couple of ladies from our group decided to do some shopping in Fantasyland during our ride…and I was just a little annoyed that our guide had to track them down afterwards. Really?

We then made our way through Frontierland, strolled along the Rivers of America, and on through New Orleans Square. I had read online that this tour included a visit to the lobby of Club 33. Apparently not ours. Without the lure of any more attractions, it was at this point that I began to wonder if this tour would have been better suited to a lecture hall, replete with air conditioning. Jon even said maybe a Carousel of Progress or Circle-Vision type attraction where we just rotated to different points in Walt’s creation of Disneyland? I was hot, probably dehydrated, and only half way through what to me was equivalent to Jazzercise.

I think I let out an audible whimper when I heard through my ear piece, “And now let’s make our way to the future.” On through Adventureland and back to the farthest corner of Tomorrowland, our tour continued.

A little more talking, a little more audio clips, and as we were headed to ‘it’s a small world’ one of the Fantasyland shoppers tripped, went down, and got run over by another tour member in an electric wheelchair. I restrained myself as Disney security produced an ice pack for her leg. Did I mention it was hot?

I mustered all of my remaining energy, because we were headed to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at this point, and I knew this meant air conditioning! I wouldn’t even let Jon sit next to me in the theater so my boiling carcass could cool down.

In the exit lobby of Mr. Lincoln our tour guide gave us a poignant challenge that was honestly touching (that, and my core body temperature had returned to normal). She was speaking about Walt’s final days and how Roy, his brother, was there with him in the hospital until the end. She was visibly choked up and said to each one of us that if we are not a ‘Walt’ type person, we probably know someone who is, and to be that person’s ‘Roy’ or ‘Lillian’, encouraging them in their dreams. Loved it!

Wrapping up our tour, we crossed Main Street to tour Walt’s apartment. Jon and I were in the ‘Roy’ group – we had to be split in two groups, as his apartment is tiny. Again, I would have paid every cent just for this opportunity. It was truly like stepping back in time and breathing in pure, magical history. To stand in a place that had been such an intimate part of Walt’s life in the creation of Disneyland was surreal.

Continuing with the ‘be a Roy’ theme our tour guide had left us with, the docent asked if any of us knew who the gentleman was that was sitting next to Walt in a portrait on the living room wall? I knew it was Roy Disney, and answered in kind. “I’m so glad you knew that,” she replied. “You see Roy was about eight years older than Walt Disney, so many people think it’s a picture of Walt and his father.”

She continued on by saying that on their own neither Roy nor Walt may have amounted to much. Together though, with Walt’s visionary genius and Roy’s financial wizardry, they were able to create and change the world as we now know it.

Before leaving the apartment, we were each permitted to have the docent take one picture with our camera.
 
 
 

Lunch at the Jolly Holiday completed our tour, and I have never been happier I had the foresight to bypass my fondness for Coke and choose a bottle of water with my meal.

  Jon’s choice for dessert – Matterhorn Macaroon!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Our tour guide came to each table and gave us a parting gift. We each got a special tour trading pin, that I assured my son we would not be trading.

Gorgeous and heavy, with two pin backs.

A look at the inside of our pin.

So there you have it…for anyone interested in taking a guided tour at any of the Disney parks, I wouldn’t hesitate to encourage you to do so. Disney is extremely accommodating, even figuring out a way to get a motorized wheel chair up to Walt’s apartment from the 1950’s. It was certainly an experience I will always remember!