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If you like secrets, this is just the ticket.
When it comes to behind-the-scenes tours, there is a tantalizing variety of choices out there. Of course, you’ll have to decide upfront if you really want to know and understand just how everything works. Part of the fascination with some attractions is the mystery that surrounds them.
In this case, seeing may lead to more believing than you want. Sometimes, it’s comforting to not have to think too hard. I think they call it escapism.
This is especially true of movie-making tours. Once you’ve learned how they do many of the things you see in movies, some say, you’ll never watch one with the same wonder. Good or bad? You decide.
The other side of the argument is that they really won’t show you the good stuff. In other words, tours will only scratch the surface because to do more would be like a magician showing you how he accomplishes his “magic.”
Unmasking Mickey
The “do I really want to see this” line of thinking may be especially relevant for the granddaddy of all behind-the-scenes-tours, Disney’s Backstage Magic tour at Disney World. If ever there was a place where you might be inclined to suspend belief, it would be here.
Still, there is much to learn on this seven-hour excursion. Like the story behind hundreds of hidden Mickeys, the strategic placement of trash cans and the real story of the utilidor, a network of tunnels under the Magic Kingdom. To learn more, call 407/939-8687 or visit their website.
Fin and fur
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, offers daily one-hour behind-the-scenes tours which ask guests to ponder questions like these. “Have you ever wondered what it would be like to prepare meals for 12,500 animals?” or “Can you imagine what it would be like to maintain a goldfish bowl the size of three football fields?”
The tour goes where typical guests never go, and you get answers to the two questions above-plus lots more. Touring guests must be at least seven years of age, and group size is limited to 10 people. For details call 592/951-1630 or visit their website.
At the St. Louis Zoo you can get up close and personal with a zookeeper and the animals they attend. The zoo offers a variety of behind-the-scenes tours to let guests zero in on their area of interest. Each tour gets you close to the animals, and they present wonderful opportunities for photography.
Tours include Penguin Encounter, Gentle Giants (giraffes), Snakes Alive, Tour de Tortoise, Leaping Lemurs, Playful Primates, After-School Zookeeper (for children K-grade 5) and Night Adventures. For details call 800/966-8877 or visit their website.
Backstage secrets
You can learn the backstage secrets at the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Civic Opera House. But only if you hurry. Their backstage tours are given only three times per year, and for 2007 they are scheduled for Sunday, February 18; Sunday, February 25; and Sunday, March 11.
Stops on the tour include the Wardrobe Department, Wigs & Make-up, Scenery-Handling Facility, Stars’ Dressing Rooms, Orchestra Pit, the Mainstage and more. Tours run from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and lunch is available at extra cost.
If you want to upgrade to a Premium Tour, you’ll get a private tour limited to 10 persons. It includes a free lunch with an opera star, complimentary parking and free gifts. But at $150 per person, it’s not for everybody. To make reservations for any of the tours, call 312/827-5626.
If you’re into backstage tours, here’s a chance to kick it up a notch. The Radio City Music Hall in New York, home of the famous Rockettes, offers a one-hour behind-the-scenes tour. You’ll see rehearsal halls, dressing rooms and historic backstage murals.
You’ll even get close enough to the 4,000-pipe Wurlitzer organ, the largest in existence, to feel its vibrations. And have your camera ready because a Rockette will stop in to demonstrate a tour-stopping kick. Call 212/307-7171 or visit their website.
Ask. Who knows, you might receive.
This is only a small sampling of the many behind-the-scenes and backstage tours available. Such tours are often listed in guidebooks or in the literature distributed by individual attractions.
If you don’t see anything available and are still itching to peek behind the curtain or that “Employees Only” sign, ask if they offer a tour behind the scenes. Why did one New York restaurant owner start offering tours of his kitchen and wine cellar? He kept getting requests from his customers.