TourGuideMike - Stay Away

[Sadie22]

It is so unDisneylike to hit a man when he is down. Shame! Mike is coping with his depression and working on updating his site. I enjoy reading it. It has entertainment value for me. I used his site for the first time years ago and weeks ago renewed for the trip I am planning which is still over a year away. That's right, Mike's terms run from when you start to plan until well after the planned trip. I feel good knowing I'm helping Mike.

 

[reelmom]

I don't think we are hitting a man while he is down. We are stating a fact that his website is not what it used to be and people should be aware that it is not up to date.

 

[CanadianPaco]

Aside from personal issues, the site is outdated and to pay for out dated info makes no sense. I used it once and found it of no use.

 

[Alesia]

It is so unDisneylike to hit a man when he is down. Shame! Mike is coping with his depression and working on updating his site. I enjoy reading it. It has entertainment value for me. I used his site for the first time years ago and weeks ago renewed for the trip I am planning which is still over a year away. That's right, Mike's terms run from when you start to plan until well after the planned trip. I feel good knowing I'm helping Mike.

I feel bad for him, but the fact is that he's taking people's money and not providing the promised service. That's stealing, plain and simple. He should take the website down and stop accepting people's money if his personal issues are preventing him from updating.

 

[rascooby]

I've been so disappointed with that website too. I used it in 2004 and it was great, in 2010 we used it again and it was fairly outdated. This time I signed up again, knowing it was not as good as it used to be, but hoping it would get better. It hasn't. I'm sorry for whatever issues he may have, but he hasn't even logged on to the site since the end of May. He shouldn't still be taking people's money. I no longer think it will get better before my November trip. I'm compiling what I can from other sites and I'm sure we'll still have a great trip.

 

[LuvSnowWhite]

I am sorry to hear that Mike is going through a rough patch and I hope he comes out of it, but I do agree that he should stop the site for now if it's not being maintained. Granted, it has a very good group of people on the forum, so that info and those tips would be up to date. But we have that here for free.

 

[funfam]

We have used all of the above mentioned site and I can say that I do not recommend TGM at all anymore. I loved his site and felt that I got so much out of it, but he seems to have given up on it completely. I don't know if it is due to health or other concerns, I just know, as a customer, that he no longer provides the promised service.
I do like easywdw and touring plans. Both are great for the planner who is looking for advice. The crowd charts are great and you can really research to your heart's content.
For those who are looking for a one stop shop that takes care of everything, I recommend Custom Mouse Plans. That is the service if you don't want to do your own research and plans. They get some information and do it all for you.
That is my two sense on the planning sites out there

 

[Dreamer2012]

I also swore by TGM when we used his site to plan our family of sevens first trip to WDW from Xmas day 2004 to January 5th, 2005 and by following his advice we had an AMAZING trip! The one day we did not follow my "plan" - was the day it took us over an hour just to walk down Main Street - did not ride anything - only made our ressies for lunch and dinner - we all agreed to continue to follow moms plans the remainder of the trip and were sooo happy. I joined his site again last year to help with my PHM trip and again found his info invaluable. Last week I rejoined for the upcomming PHM 2013 and was very dissapointed. I paid the fee - there was no mention of anything before paying...then as I began reading I realized there were things I knew from this site that were not written...but when there was no mention of the new rules of using fast passes I knew something was terribly wrong...I went to the forum and the super great people still there were kind enough to tell me what was going on. I am very sorry for Mikes difficulties. I wish him well. The problem is that I immediately requested a refund and after the automated message saying my email was recvd I have not heard anything. Again I feel for Mike, but to continue to take peoples money for a service he is no longer providing is just plain W.R.O.N.G....

 

[Dizisfun]

We used TGM a few years ago.....and paid his fee. We only bought his service the one time though. There other other free sites out there that we can use to gather basically the same info.

 

[Mickeynutty]

i feel bad for him, but the fact is that he's taking people's money and not providing the promised service. That's stealing, plain and simple. He should take the website down and stop accepting people's money if his personal issues are preventing him from updating.

ita!

 

[dsanner106]

Sorry to hear of his troubles, I have been a loyal customer for years and will evaluate later this year when my membership is up. Hope is ok and the site up to date then

Drew

 

[WelovMickey!]

It is so unDisneylike to hit a man when he is down. Shame! Mike is coping with his depression and working on updating his site. I enjoy reading it. It has entertainment value for me. I used his site for the first time years ago and weeks ago renewed for the trip I am planning which is still over a year away. That's right, Mike's terms run from when you start to plan until well after the planned trip. I feel good knowing I'm helping Mike.

I understand this but I have been hearing complaints about his site not being updated since we started going to Disney as a family over 6 years ago. If it has been an issue that long then perhaps he needs to rethink continuing to charge customers for the site. :

 

[reelmom]

Mike has stepped down from his website. His crew is now updating the website. It is still not where it used to be years ago but the Least Crowded Charts are up to date. I would still not recommend it to a first time trip goer.

 

[SusanDK]

I'm having an issue with TourGuideMike's site and came here to do a search before posting a new thread.

I have postponed my trip, but the system wouldn't let me edit my date to keep my subscription active. I've been back-and-forth with support a couple of times, but after my last email to them, there has been silence for almost a month now.

If 'Mike' is no longer involved, he should remove his name and picture from the page as it damages his reputation.

I guess his team is not honoring the previous policy of keeping one's subscription active until a trip has been completed.

 

[Chuck65]

Thanks for posting this. We used TGM back in 2008, our last time there, and was going to use it again. When I clicked on the sample link, my virus and malware protection immediately went off. I use Webroot Secure and it didn't like it all. It said the site had malicious content and closed it down. It was really useful when we used that service last time, but I guess I'll need to find another one now.

 

[mnosky]

I have always been a huge TGM supporter, having used his site for years. I cannot in good faith anymore recommend his site to people who are NEW to Disney. If you are familiar with Disney, you can still find some useful info, especially on the forums. However, if you are new to Disney, the site is so out of date. I used it only for his Least Crowded Parks guide up until recently. Once my membership runs out, I will not be renewing. I understand and sympathize with his issues of depression. I feel sorry for him in that aspect but to continue taking people's money for a service he is no longer providing is wrong.

Agree with this - except I didn't even wait until my membership was up - this lack of service and wrong info didn't deserve my hard earned money - I asked for a refund - which BTW took a few requests but I did get it. Park days was the same as easy wdw but guess who "speculated the new Dumbos would still be crowded and you must rush there first thing" and uh, we never waited at any time of day for Dumbo - such wrong info. Now Princess crowds were terrible and that woudl have been nice to know because we didn't go until later in the day and Rapunzel (my girls FAVE) was only there until 4pm and we missed her.
Thanks Mike. Should have followed my own instincts.

 

[micknme]

I was thinking of renewing just for the forums but I've been hearing that even they are quiet these days. I let my membership lapse about six months ago so I'm wondering if this is this true?

 

[davedmaine]

No offense to anyone, but you're crazy to be spending any amount of money on touring sites/planning. You can get everything for free.

 

[the_green_machine]

I use easywdw.com for my park day recommendations. They have always been spot-on for us.


And FREE!

www.easywdw.com is Awesome! Im on this site, almost, daily. Huge thumbs up!

 

[Jacqui]

www.easywdw.com is Awesome! Im on this site, almost, daily. Huge thumbs up!

Are they better than touringplans.com?

I've looked at both of their recommended days and there are some differences that could change things for us quite a bit.