An exclusive private tour is the ultimate way to explore a theme park, but which is better: a Disney World VIP tour or a Universal Studios Orlando VIP tour?
These are two of the world’s most popular tourist attractions, hosting millions of visitors every year. Both offer luxurious VIP tours with your own private guide, fast track entry to rides, and other VIP perks and benefits.
I experienced private VIP tours at both resorts during our recent family vacation to Florida, and I’ve previously taken a VIP tour at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in Los Angeles.
If you’re planning a Florida vacation and want to take in a theme park, my guide has the information you need to make your decision.
I’ve compared all the major aspects of an exclusive VIP tour at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando. Each tour had its own strengths and weaknesses, so read on to discover which tour is the winner!
The Tours
Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, welcomes over 58 million visitors annually – that’s 159,000 visitors per day. There are 4 parks at Walt Disney World: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Magic Kingdom was the world’s most-visited theme park in 2023, with 17.7 million visitors.
Disney World offers VIP nonexclusive tours for small groups and VIP private tours. All Walt Disney World VIP tours provide you with a dedicated tour guide who will plan the perfect itinerary and spend the entire day with you, helping you experience the full magic of Walt Disney World.
You can find out more in my full review of the private Disney VIP tour experience.
The Universal Orlando Resort in Florida is one of the world’s most popular theme parks, and around 21 million people visit every year. It has 2 parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, and a third park, Universal Epic Universe, will open in May 2025.
Like Disney, Universal Orlando Resort offers 2 types of VIP tours: a small group tour option and a VIP private tour. Universal’s VIP tours include exclusive access to a VIP tour guide and a Universal Express Pass for fast entry to all the rides and attractions.
For full details, check out my full review of the Universal Orlando private VIP tour.
Disney and Universal both offer VIP guests a range of perks like complimentary VIP parking or private transportation from your hotel. Your guide also has behind-the-scenes access so you can travel through some parts of the park that regular guests never see.
Tour Guides
Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World Resort both provide you with your own personal VIP tour guide. On the day of your tour, they’ll spend some time getting to know you and your preferences to help you have the best experience possible.
Your guide will take time to discover things like your tolerance of thrill rides, any favorite attractions you want to ride, and the attractions you want to avoid. Their expert knowledge of the park helps them plan the best route around the park, which is even more important if you’re visiting Florida at the peak times of the year.
If you’re visiting Disney or Universal Orlando for the first time, your VIP private guide will have helpful tips to make your day run smoothly. They might also be able to suggest some new attractions you hadn’t considered.
On our Florida tours, the Disney VIP guide seemed more professional than the Universal guide, from the uniforms and the luxury SUV to the timing of the tour and arranging our itinerary so we ended up in the right place for our dinner reservations.
Our Universal guide planned an excellent day and was great at getting us between attractions as quickly as possible. He just didn’t seem to go the extra mile in the same way as our Disney VIP tour guide.
Winner: Disney World
The Parks
Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando are both world-class resorts offering a fantastic selection of rides and attractions. There are 4 Disney parks at Walt Disney World compared to Universal Orlando’s 2, although a third park will open there in May 2025, complete with the largest Harry Potter World anywhere!
There’s something to suit everyone, from kid-friendly rides like “The Magic Carpets of Aladdin” at Disney or “Seuss Landing” at Universal Orlando to the big roller coasters and thrill rides like Universal’s “Jurassic World VelociCoaster” and Disney’s “Space Mountain.”
I’d say that the thrill rides were more intense at Universal, and they had more character-themed rides than the Disney resort. On the other hand, visiting Disney World felt like exploring a new world compared to Universal Orlando, which felt more like a more generic theme park.
My family had mixed opinions on the park they preferred, but I personally preferred Disney World.
Winner: A draw
Flexibility
Disney World VIP tours have much more flexibility than Universal Orlando VIP Tours.
When you book a Disney World VIP tour, you can choose how many hours you’d like to hire your tour guide, from a minimum of 7 to a maximum of 10 hours per day. You can even extend beyond the 7 hours in the moment, and after the 7 hours, they charge in 15-minute increments.
Compared to Universal, Disney offers more flexibility about the start time, how many parks you’d like to visit and which Disney park you’d like to start your tour in. You can make changes to the members in your party, your starting park, and your starting time up to 24 hours in advance.
Universal Orlando offers a choice of 3 fixed start times for your tour. However, when I booked our tour, only one start time was available for the day I wanted. You don’t have any flexibility about the tour’s duration or where to start your tour.
Winner: Disney World
VIP Treatment
Disney World and Universal Orlando offer stress-free experiences that make visiting a theme park easy. Instead of staring at a map, working out how to get to the next roller coaster, you can let your guide plan the perfect itinerary that takes in all of your favorite rides.
However, I have to say that our Disney VIP experience was more impressive and gave us more of the VIP treatment you’d expect on a private tour.
Everything on the Disney private VIP tour was well-planned and thought through, and it had some little extras that were missing from our Universal experience.
Our Disney experience had more thoughtful touches, like the exclusive VIP tour pins we received and the gluten-free churros our guide brought from the sit-down restaurant we didn’t have time to visit.
All in all, our Disney guide made us feel more special, which is what you want from a private VIP experience!
Winner: Disney World
Food
This category is an easy win for Universal. No full meals are included in the Disney VIP tour, whereas the private Universal VIP tours include three full sit-down meals.
On our private VIP tour of Universal Orlando, we had a buffet-style breakfast, a fantastic Mediterranean lunch at a restaurant called Mythos, and finished the day with dinner at The Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar.
There was far too much food, really, but our lunch at Mythos was excellent, a real highlight of our tour.
On the other hand, Universal’s VIP tours don’t include any snacks or drinks.
On our Disney VIP tour, light snacks and bottled water were available whenever we wanted them, and our guide could also fetch additional snacks or place orders on request.
Winner: Universal Orlando
The “Wow” Factor
After an easy win for Universal, Disney is the clear winner in this category.
Disney World has so many “wow!” moments that you don’t really get at Universal Orlando. There are far more character meet-and-greets, and the sensational Magic Kingdom fireworks show is the perfect way to end your day.
Disney World even provides an exclusive area for VIP tour guests to watch the fireworks away from the crowds.
Universal does have some character meet-and-greets, but not as many as Disney. So, if you’re planning a Florida vacation with young children, Disney might be a more popular choice.
Winner: Disney World
Time savings
One of the major benefits of booking a VIP tour at Disney or Universal is the ability to maximize your time in the park. Nobody enjoys long wait times to get on your favorite rides, especially at the peak time of year when the most popular rides can have long lines.
Tour guides at both Disney and Universal Orlando use shortcuts through the parts of the park known as “backstage” to get you to your next attraction quickly. This is helpful, but it does sometimes mean walking past smelly dumpsters and seeing employees smoking on their break times!
A VIP Disney tour will allow you to access the park’s “Lightning Lanes,” the express lanes that get you onto the rides sooner. However, your guide can’t automatically get you to the front of the line. If regular guests are waiting in a Lightning Lane, you can’t skip in front of them.
To Disney’s credit, their VIP service includes a private SUV to transport you between parks at your leisure. It is yours for the day, which is helpful for storing extra gear and moving between the parks in a much more time-efficient way than it would be to use the park shuttles. I have seen some review videos of people hitting all 4 parks in one day on a VIP tour, which I would never recommend. But, it makes it possible to easily and comfortably hit 2 parks without feeling rushed.
Universal VIP experiences offer Express Passes to get you onto the rides quicker. Their VIP guides can also let you jump to the front of the fast pass queue, so you’ll go straight onto the ride with no wait time. This is a real bonus if you’re a serious theme park fan who wants to ride the big rides multiple times!
Winner: Universal Orlando
Cost
Choosing a winner on this aspect of the VIP tours is more complicated.
Disney was objectively more expensive because they charge a single price for your entire group of up to 10 people, even if there are only 2 people in your group. This price ranges from $450 to $750 per hour depending on the season, and you have to book a minimum of 7 hours.
You also have to pay an additional charge to cover the entry ticket and Park Hopper pass price, and there’s no food included in your VIP tour price.
Universal Orlando was cheaper for our family because they charge per person, but you also have to pay for your park admission fee separately. You also get three full, sit-down meals included with the private VIP tour, which brings down the overall cost on the day (alcohol is not included…but with that many roller coasters, you definitely don’t want any).
You could make the price per person for the Disney VIP tour lower by adding more people to your group, perhaps by planning a visit with another family. But overall, I’d say Universal wins on the cost front.
Winner: Universal Orlando
The Final Verdict
Considering all these aspects, Disney’s VIP tours win 4 categories, Universal Orlando is the winner in 3 categories, and there’s a draw in 1 category.
Choosing the best option for your VIP tour experience could come down to your top priorities. If cost is a major factor, Universal Orlando Resort works out cheaper overall and the tour price includes your meals. Universal is also the best park if you want quick access to rides, as their guides can get you to the front of lines at all the attractions.
On the other hand, Disney World’s VIP tours are more flexible and have more of a “wow factor.” Their private tour guides give a more professional impression and are willing to go the extra mile to ensure you have a great time.
It’s also worth remembering that Disney’s private VIP tours are priced for a group of 10 people. So, it’s possible to bring the cost per person down by adding more people to your group.
At the end of the day, private VIP tours are the best way to experience two of Florida’s most popular attractions. You’ll surely have a fantastic experience, whichever you choose.
The Disney VIP tour is the overall winner in my comparison, and if I were choosing one to visit again, I would pick Walt Disney World over Universal Orlando.
