Is Tour Guide Mike worth it?

[dogodisney]

If you buy the UG book, you get a FREE subscription to the touringplans.com website. They have a couple of questions asking you to name certain words on certain pages, and if you get them right you get a full subscription.

It amazes me that the unnoffial guide people trust people to not just just nip into the local bookshop (or library) and find the answers to the two questions they ask and and get a free subscription without buying the book.

Unless it has changed recently, you do not get a full subscription. You get access to info for that day. Everytime you go to the site it will ask you different questions, so someone would not be able to go into a store and look up questions. Unless they had a computer with them and did it right there on the spot.
This has been my experience. I have not been on the site in a few months though. It may have changed.

 

[jfortsch]

Hi,

Just wanted to put my own plug in for TGM. I went to Disney in March 2009 and was very happy with the TGM info I used for my plans. Did not wait in lines for more than 20 minutes, and that was for maybe 3 rides out of all 4 parks. Totally worth the $$ which is not that much. Plus then you get a discount on subsequent renewals and so we're using him again for our Sept vacation!

It does take work and effort on your part, but it's nice to be able to customize and know the rationale behind his advice. Plus like other said, you get into group forums and more experienced people can critique your plans, or you can even find plans from others that you can use. Well worth it!!
Jacqui

 

[robinbutterfly]

If i bought TGM now, how can he give me the info I need now since I am going in January?? Park hours and prices haven't even come out yet.

 

[vicki_c]

When you subscribe to TGM, it's "per trip", so you can join now for a vacation date at any time in the future (and change it if you need to).

Once you're a member, you will have access to all the information that's there, including all the previous years' info for the time you're going (and all times), and a specific vacation club for your trip dates. In that vacation club, most of the members will already be making tentative plans based on previous years' hours, EMHs, etc. even before Disney releases the hours. That can be very helpful because lots of people go the same time each year and have lots of experience.

It's really best to join as early as possible - he has lots of great info on planning your trip from the very first part - when to go, what resort to stay at, etc. And there's a LOT of information there so it can take a while to get up to speed.

If you only want it for the park recommendations (which would be a mistake in my opinion, because you'd be missing a lot) then you can join closer to your trip. But your subscription expires 2 months after your trip, no matter when you join.

 

[SamMac]

I found TGM to be helpful but probably not worth the $18. The main benefit that I can see is the low crowd calendar. His sample touring plan for DHS doesn't even have TSMM on it. I could see where someone going for the first time could find his site very helpful, but someone who has been before and planned before will not find enough useful information for it to be worth the $.

 

[Mama to Three]

Our first trip to WDW is just a couple of weeks away. I am a HUGE planner and have logged many, many (many) hours into this trip. I bought and read the UG, check DIS almost daily, and have spent a great deal of time on TGM.

The TGM site did take some getting used to, but I also had nine months to prepare for this trip. I was able to take my time and do my research/planning at my own pace. This is also a first trip for our family so I have had lots and lots to learn.

Once park ours are out and TGM lists the red/green/yellow parks you can do more extensive planning. I planned my ADRs around green days instead of planning my days around ADRs.

The forums, especially your vacation club forum, has been especially helpful IMO.

If you are one that enjoys the planning and you have the time for it what is another $20 when you are already likely spending thousands. If you aren't satisfied you can ask for a refund. I know that I've already gotten my money's worth out of TGM and I haven't even gone yet. I'm sure I will use him again too for our next trip.

GL!

 

[missesdisney]

OP, don't want to hijack your thread, but I have a question that maybe you have too.... Since TGM info is based on historical data, and since this year seems to be a lot different from previous ones because of the economy which effects crowd levels in many different ways...is the info on TGM relevent for this year?

Has anyone used TGM this year and found his recommendations on crowd levels & which park to go to, to be on point?

I used TGM for a short May trip which included Mother's day (not a huge holiday for Disney but thought I'd mention). He was spot on as usual. On the flip side, touringplans was estimating that week at crowd levels of 8 and 9 and it was way off. TGM parks by day is based not only on history but general crowd patterns. If he is sending you to a park on wednesday, it's often because of what he is estimating the majority of non-knowledgeable visitors are doing on Tuesday and Thursday. Hope that makes sense (can't give away too much info).

In summary - we go every year, are DVC members, and we swear by TGM best parks by day. And we go off season usually. Have been there on Thanksgiving more than once and July 4th and had no problems with lines because that $20 for TGM got us to go to the right park. Priceless in my opinion.

 

[missesdisney]

Thanks for all of the opinions and links everyone! Since we're not going until Dec., I think I'll think about it a bit more. The new version of UG is due out in August, and I may get the book and subscribe to the site. Or I may go with Mike. I'm feeling very indecisive this far from Dec!

If you are making any ADRs you should decide before that date rolls around. I plan my ADRs based on best parks by day.

 

[Kim1964]

I subscribed twice and thought it was worth it. The message boards are a great source of information and there are lots of nice people on there. I found out about different money saving codes there that saved me well over $100 on our last trip, so the subscription more than paid for itself. IMHO, the downside is that Mike isn't always very timely in publishing the crowd charts, which is frustrating when you want to use them to make ADRs.

I chose not to subscribe for this year's trip but the park hours this summer are similar to last year's and I have all my stuff from last year so I am still using TGM to help me plan this year.

 

[NJ Mets fan]

TGM was helpful. A few of the things I remember were to avoid the parks that were having extra magic hours since they tend to be more crowded on those days which makes sense. The other thing I remember is that if you get to MK for rope drop and have small kids, head to fantasyland because in the first hour you can do everything once including Dumbo if you hit that first. Then you can head to toontown after when that opens an hour later.

 

[Pirate1+Princess4]

It amazes me that the unnoffial guide people trust people to not just just nip into the local bookshop (or library) and find the answers to the two questions they ask and and get a free subscription without buying the book.

I've had to answer the questions everytime I wanted to enter the subscription portion of the site. Each time, it asks about different pages. Also, sometimes, they pages are all graphics and I couldn't figure out what to enter, so it didn't let me in. It is bothersome enough for me that I was thinking about just paying the $$ to subscribe and be done with it.