Online Planner - What do you use?

[Disnead]

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to pass along a planner I've been using recently that I really like. Was going to see what everyone else uses and what they like or dislike about them.

My wife and I used the planner at http://www.mouseday.com/ which requires a small fee per trip. We heard about it via twitter, so we checked it out. We've used several other online planners in the past such as tourguidemike and touringplans which were both great and we still look to them for specific things such as crowd forecasts. Figured I'd pass along what we liked about mouseday...

First they have a page that you can look at that has all the days you are there with all the park hours and indicators on extra magic hours...its nice to be able to start planning by looking at what park you want to visit...where you want to eat...etc. We found ourselves starting off there. Here's a SS of our current one for our May/June Trip.

Second I went to it on my phone back in Dec. They dont have an 'app' but the site looks pretty well on the phone and i was able to get a lot of info i needed on the go.

One of my favorite things was reminders via text message to your phone that you can set up...we used it to remind us of our dinner reservations.

One thing I didn't like on it was the time entry when you're putting in your reservations and reminders and stuff...it was awkward.

Overall I think its a pretty solid planning tool and worth checking out.

 

[ToddyLu]

That looks great. I use my own Excel Spreadsheet that I developed by trial and error and things I liked from other spreadsheets. I was able to get my excel spreadsheet on my IPhone by using Google documents......I don't think I could do it again if I tried. Then we purchased an APP for dinning WDW Dinning, which has menus, locations and a listing that I used for my ADR #s. You could also email the Dinning list. DH also liked the waiting times App and we thought it was very accurate. Everyone thinks my planning is "odd, obsessive and quirky" but they want a copy when we pull up to the resort.

 

[Disnead]

Awesome. We used excel spreadsheets before, but the online stuff seems to be getting much better, so we've strayed away from that. I've been meaning to try a wait times app...good to hear that it is accurate.

And yes..my wife and I fall under the freakish planner category as well. People in lines would see our printouts and want to check them out! Funny how that works. We find if we don't plan we end up walking around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do next.

 

[Disnead]

Another plus for the planner i'm using. I got an email from the site that park hours had changed on a day that falls during my planned trip. It was just an extension of hours, but its very useful to get notification of that without having to go look for that info.

Only 2 more weeks til we leave!!

 

[Tara]

That looks great. I use my own Excel Spreadsheet that I developed by trial and error and things I liked from other spreadsheets. I was able to get my excel spreadsheet on my IPhone by using Google documents......I don't think I could do it again if I tried. Then we purchased an APP for dinning WDW Dinning, which has menus, locations and a listing that I used for my ADR #s. You could also email the Dinning list. DH also liked the waiting times App and we thought it was very accurate. Everyone thinks my planning is "odd, obsessive and quirky" but they want a copy when we pull up to the resort.

There are a few ways you can get your spreadsheet on your phone:

• 
  Import it to Google docs and use the Google app to view the doc. This works okay - I don't really like the Google doc spreadsheet functionality, though.

• Download QuickOffice app. It's 9.99 but allows you to open and edit any Office document. Excel files look GREAT in it. The easiest way to get the files on your phone is by emailing them to yourself.

• Download Air Sharing app. This is a little more complicated - you have to be on the same wifi network with whatever computer has a file you want to share. You put anything you want to share in a public folder on your computer and then open the app on your iPhone and you'll be able to see that folder and transfer anything in that folder to your iPhone. Then it's on the phone even if you aren't on the same network as the computer. It's a bit of a hassle AND the documents don't look as good as they do in Quick Office. I think the app might be $4.99 or $6.99.

 

[Tara]

Well, I plunked down money to try this planning site out and so far I am disappointed. I tried it in Firefox and IE and some of the drop-down menus have no choices (like attractions). Why even allow a drop down for more specificity if there are no choices? Even more disappointing and puzzling is that if you select "restaurant" as the activity, the drop-down only shows resort restaurants - NO PARK RESTAURANTS.

I think I'll stick with my spreadsheets, which I gotta say, are a thing of beauty.

 

[peabody58]

Oh the old me (micro-manager detail oriented control nut) is so envious.

Now the new and improved relaxed me simply uses my recently upgraded system - multi-colored post-its inside my ball cap!!

 

[Alexander]

Planner? Are we supposed to use a planner? Just kidding of course! The only planning I do is making villa, airline, and rental car reservations. I don't even make ADR's anymore. If we're hungry, we walk up and ask for a table, 9/10 times this has worked just great. I don't even carry reservation confirmation papers with me anymore. I just plug the reservation numbers into my phone, and voila, paperless vacation!

 

[bytheblood]

I have my own spreadsheets I use and I subscribe to TourGuide Mike.

 

[3DisneyKids]

I have used both TGM and a newer, lesser-known one called RideMax. As someone who already knows A LOT about Disney, I found that the TGM site and planners were just too cluttered! Way too much information and unnecessary stuff for me. (And I know that Mike is a sponsor of the DIS, so if he is reading...love your program, but maybe offer a more simplistic version...all of the cute little jokes, comments, and smilies are over the top. I think most folks just want the information without having to read tons of little extra and cutsie things.)

RideMax, however, is the opposite of TGM in that they really give you just the basics. You put it what park, what day, and which attractions you want to hit and it spits out a schedule of when you want to hit each attraction (as well as when to send someone to get FPs), and then just a few basic tips per park. MUCH more simplified.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages. If you really want comprehensive planning, TGM is great. If you already know a lot (and considering you are on the DIS, you likely do), then I recommend RideMax. It is a bit cheaper than TGM as well--but again, it doesn't give you as much.

 

[Disnead]

Well, I plunked down money to try this planning site out and so far I am disappointed. I tried it in Firefox and IE and some of the drop-down menus have no choices (like attractions). Why even allow a drop down for more specificity if there are no choices? Even more disappointing and puzzling is that if you select "restaurant" as the activity, the drop-down only shows resort restaurants - NO PARK RESTAURANTS.

I think I'll stick with my spreadsheets, which I gotta say, are a thing of beauty.

The restaurants and activities lists get longer as you add parks you are visiting.

For example: You add a restaurant activity on a day you're not going to a park, and it will give you all the resort restaurants.

If you add that you're visiting MK that day under 'Parks visiting today'....then add a restaurant activity, it will show the MK restaurants in addition to the resort restaurants.

I thought this was a nice thing since it saves you from having to look through EVERY restaurant out there if you only really want to look through the places you're actually going to be.

 

[jamstew]

There are a few ways you can get your spreadsheet on your phone:

• 
  Import it to Google docs and use the Google app to view the doc. This works okay - I don't really like the Google doc spreadsheet functionality, though.

• Download QuickOffice app. It's 9.99 but allows you to open and edit any Office document. Excel files look GREAT in it. The easiest way to get the files on your phone is by emailing them to yourself.

• Download Air Sharing app. This is a little more complicated - you have to be on the same wifi network with whatever computer has a file you want to share. You put anything you want to share in a public folder on your computer and then open the app on your iPhone and you'll be able to see that folder and transfer anything in that folder to your iPhone. Then it's on the phone even if you aren't on the same network as the computer. It's a bit of a hassle AND the documents don't look as good as they do in Quick Office. I think the app might be $4.99 or $6.99.

QuickOffice app sounds great! I just email my spreadsheet to myself, but of course you can't edit it. This sounds perfect.

 

[Tara]

The restaurants and activities lists get longer as you add parks you are visiting.

For example: You add a restaurant activity on a day you're not going to a park, and it will give you all the resort restaurants.

If you add that you're visiting MK that day under 'Parks visiting today'....then add a restaurant activity, it will show the MK restaurants in addition to the resort restaurants.

I thought this was a nice thing since it saves you from having to look through EVERY restaurant out there if you only really want to look through the places you're actually going to be.

I'd rather look through the list - and have the list sorted alphabetically. The way it sorts now is terrible, IMO. And if the parks visited part is what's controlling the selections, then it ought to be visually organized differently so that you are adding parks first. With its placement at the far right, it isn't intuitive. And if it's going to operate that way, it ought to only show park hours for parks you are visiting on the printable itinerary page, or even on the online planning screen.

As it stands, I entered all my activities and then tried comparing usage to my own spreadsheet and still found MouseDay lacking. It was a worthwhile experiment I suppose, but after 12 years of refining, my spreadsheets do exactly what I want and no planning software can really compete with that. (For instance, I have a sheet that allows me to enter meal item prices and it automatically calculates the bill, then compares it to TIW and allows me to compare that to DDP and DxDP - that just isn't available in any planning software or website I've ever seen.) MouseDay is cute, but in the end, it doesn't offer the flexibility I want in terms of output. For instance, the trip-at-a-glance page is the only one that shows the entire itinerary, but it isn't printable. The daily pages are printable, but they make the park hours primary - they take up a lot of real estate on the page and there's no way to remove information I don't need (like water park hours, or Illuminations time - which I know is at the same time every day). Not only that, I can send it to my iPhone as an editable file that I can view anytime, even if I don't have a signal.