I don't know the answer to your questions- but I did the tour last year and was VERY disappointed. Part of the problem was that I went on a Saturday- so we had a tour guide that was a "weekend" person (Didn't know the spiel completely, spoke broken english), and nobody was working in the Christmas Warehouse (actually- they were all off decorating the Magic in Cape Canaveral ). But I think that even without the above difficulties, I still would have been disappointed (I've done Keys to the Kingdom and an AK tour -both of which I truly enjoyed).
We started in MGM- walked up main street while she pointed out that the themeing was 1950's Christmas Americana , went to the Osborne Lights while she told us the story of Jennings Osborne (basically recited what they had on the board there for all to read) (The lights weren't on) - Got on a bus, rode to Epcot- got to WS (before it was open) walked around WS while she pointed out the Christmas decorations from the various countries and explained the significance of Mistletoe, history of Santa- got on the bus, rode to WL to see the tree there- got on the bus, rode to MK where we had a half an hour of "free time" to look at the decorations there - got on the bus and went to the Christmas Warehouse (finally)- walked thru the warehouse and went to the back to tie a bow (with cheap ribbon)- thought we'd see the special ribbon-making machine that they have- but no. We were given a mickey head ornament. That's it in a nutshell- It was a big disappointent to me. I know it's unasked for input- but I felt compelled to put in my 2 cents worth- Jill