TourGuideMike - Stay Away

[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!]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by reelmom

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]

Originally Posted by MHSweb79

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]

Originally Posted by the_green_machine

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.

[westie22]

I've tried to renew at TGM's website (under their renewal discount) and got the automated reply they'd get back to me within 24 hours and nothing. Tried twice. Only reason I considered doing this is to be the tie breaker between Easywdw and Touring Plans. On one of my days in particular, they go from most recommended to avoid, on the same park! I used to faithfully follow TGM's advice without fail. Makes me sad that he's having issues and his totally great service and business is failing because of it. Are there any other sites besides the above two that offer day to day park planning? I've been many times, but still research out least crowded park days when I plan our trip.

[siskaren]

Originally Posted by Jacqui

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.

What I like about easywdw is that Josh explains why he makes the recommendations he does.

[maxiesmom]

Originally Posted by Jacqui

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.

I did my own un-official comparison when we were at the parks last March. EasyWDW seemed more accurate when it came to crowd level predictions.

Touring Plans is great for touring plans. I have used them during peak period visits, and they truly awesome! During one day, the plan worked so well we ended up having to skip over shows that weren't even open yet. However if you just want an estimate of how busy a park will be on what day, and if you should avoid a certain park or not, EasyWDW is the way to go.

[Jacqui]

Originally Posted by siskaren

What I like about easywdw is that Josh explains why he makes the recommendations he does.

Originally Posted by maxiesmom

I did my own un-official comparison when we were at the parks last March. EasyWDW seemed more accurate when it came to crowd level predictions.

Touring Plans is great for touring plans. I have used them during peak period visits, and they truly awesome! During one day, the plan worked so well we ended up having to skip over shows that weren't even open yet. However if you just want an estimate of how busy a park will be on what day, and if you should avoid a certain park or not, EasyWDW is the way to go.

Thank you both!! It looks like I will be changing our days around for our trip

[joanchris]

Originally Posted by 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?

I joined up last spring for our December trip, didn't do my research first, since I had used his site before, and didn't know things had gotten bad. The forums are very quiet. I will say that I met a group of people on there and organized a photopass share that I probably wouldn't have done otherwise, so at least I got my money's worth that way. But I did not use his site for most trip planning. The recommendations were last years at the time of my reservation window---for Christmas week--and I needed good info to make ADRs with. I used Easy WDW mostly, though I looked at touringplans.