Are all touring plans created equally?

[wdw-ocd]

You know you're completely obsessed with planning when you have 4 different guide books on the nightstand and your dh thinks you're nuts 'cause you want to buy a Tour Guide Mike subscription!

Are the touring plans in the Unofficial Guide comporable to the ones in TGM's site? Is one better than the other or are they essentially the same?

 

[RmrJmrGrl]

I'm wondering the same thing!!! I have the unofficial guide and I'm considering the Tour Guide Mike subscription too!!!! LOL

Can't wait to hear the answer to your question.
BA

 

[Devil_Dog99]

I don't know about TGM, but I swear by the UG plans. I was amazed at how much we got to do using them and in the time the book prescribed.

 

[MermaidMommy]

Tour Guide Mike is a great resource for doing your own trip planning, but it only has around two sample tours per park, usually broken down by thrill riders and non-thrill riders.

Now, if you really want a lot of touring plans, go to the Unofficial Guide's website at touring plans . com (all one word). They've got TONS of plans!

 

[rie'smom]

Tour Guide Mike is a great resource for doing your own trip planning, but it only has around two sample tours per park, usually broken down by thrill riders and non-thrill riders.

Now, if you really want a lot of touring plans, go to the Unofficial Guide's website at touring plans . com (all one word). They've got TONS of plans!

Mike has 7 touring plans for the MK,Epcot,2 for MGM,and 3 for AK. It's been our experience that Mike has been spot on with his Least Crowded Days. We've used the UG in the past and it wasn't even close - read lines-long lines.

 

[gk90]

I'd love to hear more input since I've become OCD about this trip too! I've been looking through loads of websites, I've read 3 guidebooks already and am planning to look for more of the books recommended in other threads--and this thread had me looking at the TourGuideMike site and wondering about subscribing!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Wow this sounds just like me. I had Birbaum's,UOG,and Passporter. Loved the Passporter the most. Then with a week to go until our trip,I subscribed to TGM. There is a lot of great tips there and I think I will give his touring plans a try. THey just seem a bit more relaxed and in keeping with my families goals. He also gives his reasoning behind each choice, maybe that appeases the scientist in me .
No matter which you choose you will so far ahead of the 90% of people that will wonder fairly aimlessly!

 

[lippylulu]

I'm a newbie. Our trip is in 5 months and I'm already totally OCD with planning. We subscribed to Tour Guy Mike and are very pleased so far.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

I use UG and TGM

 

[Marion]

3 Guidebooks and a TGM subscription here. This IS the support group right? Anyways, newest book that I haven't looked all the way through yet is the passporter one, it seems nice, great fold out maps. TGM was a bit hard to navigate at first but once you get the hang of it, there's a LOT of great tips. The touring plans as mentioned above, are really good with a lot of different options for different touring styles. Hope that helps!

 

[Praying Colonel]

Mike has 7 touring plans for the MK,Epcot,2 for MGM,and 3 for AK. It's been our experience that Mike has been spot on with his Least Crowded Days. We've used the UG in the past and it wasn't even close - read lines-long lines.

Just want to say my experience was quite different. I used both TGM and the UG for our trip last August and found that both sources had pretty much the same days for most-crowded/least crowded. And I've never had the UG steer me wrong on most-crowded/least-crowded. If something wasn't right, it was usually due to something we'd done wrong, like not showing up until late morning/early afternoon. Even a "least crowded" park is going to have lines for popular attractions by that point.

I like both TGM and the UG--IMHO the choice generally comes down to individual preference as to which site appeals to you personally. I'm more of a UG person, maybe because that's what I started with. But whether you use UG, TGM, Ridemax, etc., the important thing is to be there at rope drop and have a plan. Any plan is better than doing the zombie walk through the park.

 

[disneyfanzz]

I'm having a hard time deciding which touring plan to follow. The guide books seem to either have a plan for toddlers or teenagers. I have a 10 year old and three 6 year olds. We love dumbo and the other fantasyland rides, but my kids also love BTMRR and the mountains. Is there a plan out there that works for us?

 

[Tam1067]

For straight touring plans, you should look at UG, or its accompanying website.

TGM is more tips and such, but it's not a touring plans site at all. It has a few, but they're outdated and not inclusive.

I am a huge fan of UG and its website. The first time we used them was in July of 2003--we never waited in lines. We used them again in July 06 and never waited in lines longer than about 10 minutes. We're going again this July, and I'm sure that if I follow the plans, we'll be good.

The only problems we had with lines were on two days when we messed up. I'm sure if we'd followed the plans, we would have been fine, but we didn't and suffered.

 

[Amirah95]

I only use touring plans from TGM. I was going to try touring plans from UOG, but from the samples I've seen it just doesn't look right to me. I guess I've been using TGM for too long now and plus we've had nothing but success on our routes.

 

[missypie]

Here's my take on it: If you're short on time to plan, use the UG touring plans. They work well.

If you have time for more reading, use TGM. The beauty of TGM is that if you spend some time reading his articles, you will understand WHY you are doing what you are doing....that way, if you want to vary the plans, you can figure out the consequences, how best to vary them, etc.

 

[wdw-ocd]

I'd love to hear more input since I've become OCD about this trip too! I've been looking through loads of websites, I've read 3 guidebooks already and am planning to look for more of the books recommended in other threads--and this thread had me looking at the TourGuideMike site and wondering about subscribing!

I wonder if there's a support group for people like us!

 

[wdw-ocd]

Wow this sounds just like me. I had Birbaum's,UOG,and Passporter. Loved the Passporter the most. Then with a week to go until our trip,I subscribed to TGM. There is a lot of great tips there and I think I will give his touring plans a try. THey just seem a bit more relaxed and in keeping with my families goals. He also gives his reasoning behind each choice, maybe that appeases the scientist in me .
No matter which you choose you will so far ahead of the 90% of people that will wonder fairly aimlessly!

I can't wait to show dh everyone's posts about owning more than 1 guidebook! He's totally into the "let's just go and explore" mode but I know that would be the beginning of the end for me--- Can you even begin to imagine "exploring" wdw on your first trip...with 4 kids...in July?!?

I'm not planning on going all commando, but I definitely like to be prepared! (Can you say "type A" personality? )

 

[wdw-ocd]

3 Guidebooks and a TGM subscription here. This IS the support group right? Anyways, newest book that I haven't looked all the way through yet is the passporter one, it seems nice, great fold out maps. TGM was a bit hard to navigate at first but once you get the hang of it, there's a LOT of great tips. The touring plans as mentioned above, are really good with a lot of different options for different touring styles. Hope that helps!

I was considering buying the passporter (until dh banned me from the travel section of the bookstore!) but it looks like it'd be too long/big to carry around the parks. I have all my reservation numbers, etc. in a small notebook and I was thinking of writing down my own loose, general touring plan from the different books I've read. Is the passporter as big as it looks on the internet?

 

[ProudMommyof2]

I was considering buying the passporter (until dh banned me from the travel section of the bookstore!) but it looks like it'd be too long/big to carry around the parks. I have all my reservation numbers, etc. in a small notebook and I was thinking of writing down my own loose, general touring plan from the different books I've read. Is the passporter as big as it looks on the internet?

THe passporter is too big for a fanny pack but not that big. Probably a little bigger than a paperback book.

 

[gk90]

Wow this sounds just like me. I had Birbaum's,UOG,and Passporter. Loved the Passporter the most. Then with a week to go until our trip,I subscribed to TGM. There is a lot of great tips there and I think I will give his touring plans a try. THey just seem a bit more relaxed and in keeping with my families goals. He also gives his reasoning behind each choice, maybe that appeases the scientist in me .
No matter which you choose you will so far ahead of the 90% of people that will wonder fairly aimlessly!

LOL ProudMommyof2 on "maybe that appeases the scientist in me", I just realized that as a researcher myself and I'm focusing my research skills and compulsions on WDW right now.