If crawling in and out of roller coasters and carrying a Mickey Mouse-shaped balloon all day strikes you as the opposite of a luxury vacation, well, a lot of people would agree.

Hit the Walt Disney Co. parks in Anaheim on your own, and it’s hard not to feel like giving up somewhere between lunchtime and Splash Mountain’s 90-minute wait. But there’s a much better way to conquer Mickey’s kingdom—one with secret passageways to bypass queues and personal attendants to hand you ice-cold bottles of water as soon as the sunshine creeps up over Main Street, U.S.A.

A new, three-night offering (from $2,129 per person) by group travel outfitter Adventures by Disney is the latest way to open up the gates of the Happiest Place on Earth. (The company typically takes families to such global locations as Italy or Japan, rather than to the parks themselves.) It debuted just now with a slew of long-standing VIP opportunities—skip-the-line access, personal tour guides—as well as never-seen-before amenities. Most notable among them: unprecedented access to “backstage” locations, such as Walt Disney's apartment and Walt Disney Imagineering.

The Ultimate Backstage Tour
Being granted entry to Walt Disney Imagineering—the studios in which all the rides and experiences for the company’s global theme parks are created—has typically been the Disney equivalent of earning top-level clearance at the Pentagon. Even Imagineers need special “camera” passes to take photographs with their phones in certain areas of the building that Adventures by Disney is opening up to its groups.

On a recent trip, the highlight was a conversation with artists working on the forthcoming Frozen-themed land that will open by 2023 at Hong Kong Disneyland—and possibly in Paris after that. No design details or attractions have been publicly announced for that project, but travelers were able to see scale models that hinted at a bobsled-style roller coaster, a traditional Nordic village, Elsa’s ice palace, and a Frozen-themed confectionary. Even members of Disney’s trusted inner circle are unlikely to see these designs for years.

For real Disney die-hards, the Imagineering tour also offers a fun, retrospective look at how far the company’s attractions have come. On display are pieces that most people have never had a chance to see, such as the molds that were used to create the audio-animatronic pirates in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride or the original statuettes from Snow White’s Grotto. They’re vestiges of a time when ride designers were more sculptors than robotics wizards.

VIP Status
Many of the off-site activities are more appropriate for adults than younger children, for whom a full day without rides can prove challenging. But guided group tours within Disneyland are loaded with perks that cater equally to all ages.

A dedicated team will escort you into secret locations, including Walt Disney’s private, Victorian-themed apartment hidden above the Main Street Fire Station. (Among the curiosities on display are the separate pull-out couches on which Walt and his wife Lillian sometimes slept.) A real-life ride on Radiator Springs Racers includes a lesson on the complex systems that magically move the Cars-themed ride’s anthropomorphized automobiles through the attraction—and glimpses of the “Hidden Mickeys” underneath their hoods.

Nighttime events such as World of Color and Paint the Night can be seen from reserved locations, complete with complimentary light-up mouse ears that flash in unison with that evening’s show. And when you skip the line on Peter Pan’s Flight—a ride whose legendarily long queue is otherwise impossible to skip—it’s via a little-known side gate. As we slid through, one regular park guest asked, “How do you get to cut the line?” Only half-joking, a tour attendee responded: “You spend a lot of money!”

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