Disney’s Keys to the Kingdom Tour Review: What to Expect

Below I’ll give you an explanation, review, and our first time experience at a recent Keys to the Kingdom tour at Disney World.

Spoiler Warning: If you or your child knows that the real Cinderella lives in the castle, then this might not be an interesting article…

And a disclaimer: All photos were taken with permission or not during the tour. I didn’t break any rules no matter how bad I wanted to.

Here we are with our tour guide Scott. Very knowledgeable. Used to be a Jungle Cruise Skipper.

What is the Keys to the Kingdom Tour at Magic Kingdom?

The Keys to the Kingdom Tour is a 5-hour, historical and behind-the-scenes tour at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. The tour guide gives you a walkthrough of Main Street, Adventureland (and backstage), Liberty Square, and the Utilidors (tunnels underneath the castle), all while explaining the people and ideas that made it possible. There’s special (and obvious) attention paid to Walt and Roy Disney.

The utilidors run underneath the ground here all the way to Fantasyland.

While the tour is mostly educational, you do get to do a couple of attractions. Typically, it’s Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion because of their historical significance, but Jungle Cruise was closed when we went, so we did the Tiki Room. Lunch is also included.

Who should do the Keys to the Kingdom Tour?

The Keys to the Kingdom Tour is great for anyone who would like a deeper, behind-the-scenes, understanding of Disney World. It’s not great if you’re looking to experience a lot of thrills or a lot of attractions. 

Remember that you also have to have park admission to get into the tour.

Here we are right after we walked in to Magic Kingdom, headed to the tour. We had to wait for an adults only trip to pull this off.

Age Restriction for Keys to the Kingdom Tour

Children are also not allowed to go on the Keys to the Kingdom Tour, only Disney World guests over the age of 16. The age restriction is primarily to avoid ruining the magic for younger guests (we saw many a princess on their cell phone). However, I also think that it would be difficult for younger guests to ignore all the fun things happening around them in order to listen to a history lesson. I have one underage kid that would love it but two that would hate it.

Keys to the Kingdom for Hearing Impaired or Non-English Speakers

Another important note is that the Keys to the Kingdom Tour gives you listening devices to hear the tour guide (so you can turn up the volume if you have hearing difficulty). However, there is no sign language interpreter available. It is also exclusively in English, so you will need to bring your own interpreter if you need the tour in another language.

Our Experience

My wife and I recently attended the Keys to the Kingdom tour, so here’s our experience. For us, it was an amazing change of pace for Disney regulars, but it does eat up a lot of time (5 hours). Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend it for people with short trips or people unconcerned with the history.

Starting Area

The tour starts in the Town Square Theater, just to the right when you walk under the bridge into Magic Kingdom. We met the tour guide and were able to add my wife last minute even though the app said the tour was full. You can always tell who the tour guide cast members are because of their name tag and plaid vest (and the tour groups following them around). White plaid means Keys to the Kingdom. Red plaid means a VIP tour.

We received our pins and name tags, took a few photos, received a bottle of water, met the tour guide Scott, and learned the rules. (Random tip: the name tag is metal and can set off metal detectors if you keep it on or in your bag).

The name tag makes me official.

Here’s the rules: stay with the tour guide, don’t pull out your phone or take photos at all, especially, if you’re backstage (so the photos we took were the last ones for a while).

Below I’ll give a short version of all we did. I won’t get into the weeds about each fact and detail we learned, but suffice it to say that we learned so much about the history and careful subtlety of the design that went into the Magic Kingdom park construction.

Main Street USA

We headed first to Main Street. The tour guide pointed out historically significant landmarks like the Sharing the Magic statue of Roy Disney and Minnie Mouse. Then he pointed out all the names on the windows above Main Street, using them to give us a lesson on how Disney World was constructed and who was involved.

The Sharing the Magic Statue. These are three of the people responsible for me loving Disney World. Statue was temporarily located here for fall decorations.

We made our way down Main Street then stopped and learned about the castle. The tour guide focused a lot on the relationship between Walt and Roy, and it brought my wife to tears. After that, the next stop was Adventureland.

Adventureland

Adventureland is one of the most historically rich parts of the Disney parks. We learned about Walt and the Imagineers’ conceptions for the Jungle Cruise ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Tiki Room, and the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

As I mentioned earlier, we were supposed to ride Jungle Cruise, but since it was down for refurbishment, we got an education on the Tiki Room instead.

As we waited for the Tiki Room, tour guide Scott gave us a history of every voice in the show, as well as the lore of how the birds ended up in Florida.

Quick Etiquette Note: There were some rude people in our group that refused to pay attention and kept wandering off. It delayed our tour significantly. Don’t be those people. They will give you bathroom breaks.

Backstage behind Pirates of the Caribbean

After the Tiki Room and learning about Pirates of the Caribbean, we headed backstage. Behind the Pirates of the Caribbean ride are many offices and warehouses. The most interesting part was getting to see the Festival of Fantasy parade floats up close. I was only feet away from the Maleficent dragon. We also saw the Electric Water Pageant Boats docked. This rivaled the Utilidors and Haunted Mansion for my favorite part of the tour.

After we saw the floats and construction, we headed back into the park, learning about how the berm dampens sound from the outside world. On the way in, we came across two guests that got lost and ended up coming through the backstage door. 

Liberty Square and Lunch

Then we walked through Adventureland to Liberty Square, learning about the amazing details they put into place to give it a colonial feel. After this, we went to Columbia Harbour House where lunch was provided for us. We sat in a room dedicated to shipwrecks that looks out at the Haunted Mansion. We've heard of other groups eating at Pecos Bills.

We had custom Oreos for dessert at Harbour House.

Haunted Mansion

After lunch we stepped onto the Liberty Square Riverboat Landing to look at Haunted Mansion. Our tour guide gave us a detailed understanding of the history of Haunted Mansion and how it functions. Then, we got to go through the back door and ride it. I have a much greater appreciation for the technology and special effects now.

Liberty Square and Haunted Mansion: you can see the brown cobblestone in the bottom right that is supposed to represent the filth trail in a colonial city.

Utilidors (Underground Tunnels)

The Grand Finale was the headline of the tour. We went into a gift shop near the Fantasyland Carousel, through an unassuming door in the wall, down some stairs, and into the Utilidors. The utilidors are a tunnel system that runs underneath Magic Kingdom. It’s how the cast members get to their areas without being seen.

A promotional picture of the utilidor from the 1970s. Photo cred Disney by way of this article

We saw the costume repair room, saw a Cinderella dress up close, and got a souvenir of fabric from a retired costume. We also saw and interacted with many cast members on their way to work including several princesses. The whole time we were doing this, our tour guide was giving us a construction history of the park and the castle.

We climbed another set of stairs and made our way back to the start for the end of the tour. After 5 hours we had learned so much, seen so many things most people can’t, and we have a greater understanding and love for the most magical place on Earth. My wife and I had a great time.

How to book Keys to the Kingdom Tour?

You can book the Keys to the Kingdom tour in the My Disney Experience App. The fastest way is to hit the search button at the bottom and type it in. It's a pretty popular tour, so you may have trouble finding it last minute. I recommend using a Dining Alert App for booking tours. Check out my article on dining and tour alerts here.

When are the Tour Times?

There are usually four tour times each day, beginning around park open and then starting every 30 minutes. For instance, at the time of writing, there is a tour at 8:00AM, 8:30AM, 9:00AM, and 9:30AM today. Click here to check your dates. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/keys-to-the-kingdom-tour/

Conclusion and Further Reading

Again, I highly recommend this Magic Kingdom tour for anyone interested in the workings and history of the Disney theme parks beyond the rides and movies. The subtle, hidden creativity and easter eggs are two of my favorite things about Disney, so it was great to have a tour guide point it out. There was a lot of information, so I may want to go back. I did have a decent working knowledge of the trivia of the park (I write a blog, after all), so I don't know what the the experience would be like if everything was new. This tour was a dream for aspiring Disney history buffs.

If you don’t want a history lesson or want to listen to a cast member talk for hours, this may not be for you. I felt the price was reasonable given the length and exclusivity, and there's a discount for annual passholders. It's a lot of walking, but since we weren't in any lines, and we stood stationary a lot, it would be easy to do in a mobility scooter.

I do wish we had gotten to ride jungle cruise and hear more about Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. It was surprising that we didn't tour the entire park.

If you love Disney and Disney trivia, check out my facts and trivia about Disney World post. And have fun on your next trip to the Walt Disney World Resort. And if you've been, have questions, or don't like this article, let me know in the comments at the end of this article.