A Nextgen Tourguide Mike for in-park advice and assistance?

[ScrapYap]

Is there one? I really miss him.

Disney VIP Tours has amazing reviews on Trip Advisor.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attract...Reviews-Disney_VIP_Tours-Orlando_Florida.html

All perfect five stars, and many of them very recent. So they must do a great job and know a lot of up-to-date information about everything.

Same for My VIP Tour and Stone VIPS. Amazing reviews. Former CMs would be really, really good at this. They'd even know the shortest walkways between any two rides!

I think they're not much cheaper than an official tour guide from Disney. There must be others out there. Anyone used a great one?

I was very naive in the past - I didn't realize people used Disney knowledge to make money. Not that I haven't bought lots of unofficial Disney guidebooks over the years! Or watched unofficial Disney YouTube videos that have ads! Or gratefully paid subscription money to the fab Kenny the Pirate.

Of course, the DIS is still the best place for advice - and it's free! But I'm curious about people who are willing to pay for help from folks like Tourguide Mike and how it worked out.

 

[chiisai]

Interesting. I'm curious how the folks with the ak review ride fop twice during emh with no wait.

Do they friend the guides on MDE and the guides just constantly refresh fastpasses while you are riding?

I mean, that would be cool, I could just enjoy rather than be on MDE scoping out line waits and refreshing fastpasses.

 

[FelisLachesis]

I poked around that site that TA of reviewing, looking at the Reservations page, I find:

Começar suas férias AQUI ...

Umm... The Brazilians haven't gone away?

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

I think they're not much cheaper than an official tour guide from Disney. There must be others out there. Anyone used a great one?

I think as long as they remain just a little bit cheaper than the official Disney tour guides there will be a market for this.

I don't know. Services like this just don't seem very appealing to me. For me, the researching, planning, and learning as much about a travel destination as I can is a big part of the "vacation experience". Sort of like a months-long pet project.....or maybe "hobby" would be a better word.

Whenever a small window of free time, whether it be 5 minutes or 50, presents itself in my daily life, I will go online to research, study maps, read reviews, and try to learn about the history of wherever I'm going to visit. The return on my time investment is two-fold. First, I am better prepared to get the most enjoyment possible for my vacation dollars. Second, and better still, I get the feeling of having 5-50 minute mini vacations while researching. (No, that couldn't possibly be me sitting in the employee lounge eating my lunch. Because right now (in my head) I'm in Orlando and I can hear a horse trotting down Mainstreet, or early morning Yellowstone as the fog begins to lift, or NYC on my way to see the Yankees play the Red Sox after convincing my DW it will be awesome (no way I'm paying Hamilton prices!. Besides, she looks really cute in a ballcap!)

Wow! Talk about getting off topic. Sorry about that.

Anyway, in reading the reviews it's obvious that this is a VIP experience masquerading as a tour guide experience. I'm pretty sure these 'tour guides' are not leading their customers through parks describing Walt's vision, how the parks came to be, the challenges faced during construction, or this is the exact spot Roy stood, etc. It's really just about the front of the line access for their customers. I guess it's just like anything else in life. If there are people willing to pay for something, there will be people willing to sell it to them.

But me, I enjoy my lunch breaks just the way they are thank you very much.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

I know the guided tour approach is costly. For newbies, making a "once in a lifetime" visit to the 4 parks, may make it worthwhile for them.
We use a touring plan and try to pick our fastpasses in a smart way. We visit several times a year, so we know we will always be back to visit something we missed. I'd rather spend that much money on an extra day or two at WDW than pay big bucks for the front of the line tour.

 

[supersnoop]

Disney's VIP guides take you through all the fast pass lines. These third parties can't do that. I don't see how they'd be worth anywhere near Disney's price.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Disney's VIP guides take you through all the fast pass lines. These third parties can't do that. I don't see how they'd be worth anywhere near Disney's price.

Good point. Nevertheless, Disney VIP tours range $400-$600 per hour. Apparently this is $150/hour. Big difference.

Imagine if a Deluxe resort that is normally $400-600/night suddenly became available at $150/night. The rooms would sell like hot cakes.

Still, this is not something I would personally be interested in.

 

[CJN]

I could see doing it if for nothing else than research - to actually see how they do it. Plus, I always thought it would be cool to travel the parks with TGMike.

 

[FastPasser.]

Disney's VIP guides take you through all the fast pass lines. These third parties can't do that. I don't see how they'd be worth anywhere near Disney's price.

And they take guests in and out of the parks via backstage, saves a lot of time. They also have access to off limit areas within the parks. As CMs, they go through extensive training and so are more knowledgeable than 3rd party tour guides. You do get something extra for the money, but I'd never use a tour guide. Not that I'd ever need one.