I was wondering about that homey award too pin trader.
I have been a big fan of tgm for a long time, but try not to post too much more about him because I figure everybody on the board knows how I feel about his excellent avp. But here i go again (cant help myself)....
TGM is an interactive website that costs 17 to 22 dollars to access (go to mary's mousesaver website for the discount or the budget board for the tell a friend deal he is currently offering.)
It is written by a proffessional disney VIP tourguide who charges 95/hour plus expenses. He knows what he is talking about. The content in his vacation articles I have never read anywhere else, and believe me I owned about 12 different guidebooks. We went in march during spring break and used his information and never waited more than 5 minutes for any ride, except the land at epcot (which i waited 15 minutes i think). Here is what makes him different i think...
He has sample touring plans, but they are not like anyone elses. He gives you reasons why you should be doing what, and gives more than one option for visiting particular attractions at different times a day.... result you can easily modify your touring to suit your families needs,,, even on the fly. For instance if your kid see characters they want to meet, or a bathroom break,,,, it does not put you behind, you simply know what attractions are good options for whatever time of day it is. It really worked for us, and I know of someone who used his stuff during the july4th week and NEVER waited in line.
Another thing different that he has that no one else does (that I know of) Is how to plan your entire itinerary to make a perfect vacation. What i mean is, he tells you which day of the week to visit which park to avoid crowds, itinerary advice on how to make the most of the waterparks, what you should consider doing on the first day you arrive, what to consider on the last day you leave, how to work in some of the great evening entertainment, how to work in afternoon breaks, which parks you should use emh in, and which arnt worth it.... everything so you can create an overall fantastic vacation. We spent two weeks at disney in March, with 3 children ages 8, 5,4, and had a fantastic time.
He also has really cool features for planning your trip... like the priority seating calculator wiith a twist... you can send yourself email reminders for when they become available. The tgm radio is really cool too, you listen to disney music while you plan your trip, and he has voice overs giving you information like if disney has changed the park hours (yet again). Now he has a search engine, and printer friendly buttons... You should see his write up of mission space.... the pictures ,,,, wow. Thats another thing,.. he is so current, a guide book could never keep up... he lets you know all the park hour changes and then how to make the most of them in your calendar clipboard and just a few days ago he let all his users know that disney has just changed something very significant about the fast pass system.
You know, I wont be going back to disney for another couple of years, but I am addicted to it, so I love keping in touch through this board, and i got another avp.I know this may sound like an advertisement for tgm... but i just wanted to say why i luv it so much. He offers a moneyback guarnetee, so anyone can look at it and see if it works for them. There have been some people on the board who did not like tgm so you should go look at those old threads too,. WW52 has a thread on the strategies board,, when he/she first got it they did not like it but read the whole thread through and I think WW52 likes it alot now. The thing is, take the time to really look around his site, its so vast... and he has to have the basics, so if you are a vet you need to dive in there to get the good stuff. I know i said this to Disney junkie a long time ago, and i dont know whether he/she liked it or not.
Anyways, sorry for the long post,
rileygirl