TGM and UG-Do they pick the same days?

[4Jays]

I agree with a previous poster. I use TGM religiously for planning my trips. (Third time with TGM in two years.) But I do enjoy reading the UG. I used both for the last two trips. When it comes to best days and touring tips I trust TGM.

 

[suzybeezy]

stupid question of the day - what does UG and TGM stand for?

 

[Dazer22]

Not a stupid question. Sorry for the acronyms. I just figured out that a woman named TIA wasn't doing all that posting and it actually meant "thanks in advance."

UG is Unofficial Guide (to Walt Disney World) - a book(also has a website)
TGM is Tour Guide Mike ( a website/service you can subscribe to)

 

[DutchsMommy]

I enjoy TGM and have subscribed multiple times. I do not find the site extremely difficult to navigate and enjoy having everything I need at my fingertips. One suggestion - which I have passed on to him - is to provide touring plans for all parks similar to the MK park. I enjoy being able to print out a set plan and adjust as I need to. I find the other park sample plans useful, but I could not remember all the info unless I copied down into my own 'plan'.

 

[beachblanket]

I've used both.

I see UG apealling most to those who want simple, specific recommendations on exactly what to do. TGM will frustrate those looking for that, since what Mike is really selling is logic, ergo, the issues and tradeoffs to consider when putting together your own vacation plan (which consists of a lot more than just what park on what day).

In essence, Mike preaches a vacation philosophy and how to employ it in planning every relevant element of a trip. Yes, it can get involved, and digesting/implementing that philosophy takes more effort than simply reading tips on UG.

But I've found the end result to be better. Our trips using TGM have not only been more enjoyable, they actually allowed use to be more "nimble" (e.g., able to make some spontaneous changes in itinerary) because we understood all the factors involved.

 

[kaelarad]

I had a hard time navigating the TGM website and refuse to pay the fee for information that is so outdated. I paid the much less $7.95 fee for touring plans and found them to be very accurate and very up todate.

 

[rie'smom]

I've used both and Mike is definitely more accurate. As to his website being hard to navigate,PM me. I figured out the short cuts. Mike and his tour guides are in the parks daily. He may have outdated info about a couple of attractions but his least crowded days are totally up to date. You can't beat his general touring advice.

 

[mmcguire]

Erm, no - he *likes* it that way and thinks that it should be fairly easy to navigate once you get used to it. Although he has said that he'd like to spend more time updating outdated information - Last time I was on TGM he said that the website didn't yet break even, so he couldn't justify spending more time updating the website instead of doing tours.

This is not directed at the poster, but my opinion of TGM's web site. I'm a web designer/information architect/usability analyst by profession (my job is to make web sites easy to use), and TGM's web site is one of the hardest I've ever used, even having subscribed twice. A web site should be designed for the end user's needs, not how the author feels it should be. By not addressing the complaints, TGM is basically saying that his customers' opinions do not matter to him.

I'd wager that the content is so fragmented and is such a state of disarray that Mike himself doesn't have a clear idea of everything that needs updating, or even where to start. This is a classic case where someone publishes more content than they are able to reasonably maintain, and the quality spirals downward until it becomes completely irrelevant, or in some cases, totally incorrect.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

So who do you go with......if they both pick different days?

TGM, without a doubt.

 

[beachblanket]

Just another thought - so, whatever site you use, the only value added is what park on what day and a general touring plan?

What about resort check-in strategy?

What about optimal parade and show viewing locations?

Dining timing strategy?

Strategies for entering and exiting the parks (when and exactly how)?

Specific tips on how to enter/where to sit (etc.) on each attraction?
Yada, yada Yada.

In my experience, the crown jewel nuggets on this subject matter are:

Erratically and randomly spread around the DIS.

Organized but often shallow on UG.

Abundant and readily findable (once you know where to look) on TGM.

Granted, there's a learning curve there, but IMHO those who throw up their hands at TGM because it isn't "immediate gratification" don't know what they're missing!!!

 

[ChrisAlli]

Just another thought - so, whatever site you use, the only value added is what park on what day and a general touring plan?

What about resort check-in strategy?

What about optimal parade and show viewing locations?

Dining timing strategy?

Strategies for entering and exiting the parks (when and exactly how)?

Specific tips on how to enter/where to sit (etc.) on each attraction?
Yada, yada Yada.

In my experience, the crown jewel nuggets on this subject matter are:

Erratically and randomly spread around the DIS.

Organized but often shallow on UG.

Abundant and readily findable (once you know where to look) on TGM.

Granted, there's a learning curve there, but IMHO those who throw up their hands at TGM because it isn't "immediate gratification" don't know what they're missing!!!

Well said!!!

 

[dawnball]

Granted, there's a learning curve there, but IMHO those who throw up their hands at TGM because it isn't "immediate gratification" don't know what they're missing!!!

The issue is that there's no good *reason* for there to be a learning curve. I spent more than a hundred hours on TGM's website. Even once I knew *where* to find things - it wasn't *easy* to get to them.

There were significantly more mouse clicks and page loads than were needed. Most of the pages couldn't usefully be printed because they were too wide. The pages that could be printed might have one useful piece of information per page. It was so bad that subscribers compiled the information into spreadsheets and shared the information in a useful format on the discussion boards. There was an entire discussion board devoted to helping people find things. There were entire threads about what pieces of information to disregard. Erroneous information about where to go, where to sit, where to line up for shows/attractions was reported to Mike months before my trip and still wrong 60 days after my trip.

That's not and immediate gratification issue. Those are issues with data design and erroneous information. I'm sorry - but if you bill it as up to the minute - you ought to at least be up to date with 6 month old information.

 

[beachblanket]

Well said!!!

Thank you!

And an additional thought - if one's focus is primarly on the issue of "what park on what day."

I just realized that UG paints everything in black and white, ergo, on a given day, you are simply told what parks are "good" or "bad" to go to. And their charts don't add any context as to why.

On the other hand, TGM uses a sliding scale, prioritizing all the parks on a given day. They can be great, O.K., be careful, no way, etc. He also adds a lot of context as to why and even recommends a general strategy (this park is O.K. on this day - but only if you do this section first, get out by lunch, etc.).

Now, which do people think is more useful?

And per DawnBall's comments, I used TGM extensively for a 2005 trip and have re-enrolled to plan our upcoming 2008 trip. I've already spent a lot of time on his discussion boards, and I'm not seeing all the "remedial" group think they are describing. Rather, I'm seeing what I saw two years ago - people generally bouncing ideas off each other; yes, there are some templates people have constructed to fabricate portable touring plans, but that's more a "packaging" thing and less "massive frustration with the substance of the site."

As for outdated info, again if people are solely obsessed with "what park on what day" as the be-all-end-all, TGM buries UG. Unlike UG, Mike regularly updates his parks by day with the latest show and extra Magic hour info (and the latter can have a critcal impact on whether a park is "good" or "bad" on a given day). Or put another way, he understands how fickle Disney is with schedules, and does a better job than UG at keeping his clients current.

Bottom line - the level of renewal business that site has speaks for itself (if it was truly user hostile, would anyone return?). Again, I think his approach -- which requires the user to think -- will never work for everyone.

 

[dopeyfanatic]

I am extremely computer literate, but I find TGM site to be difficult. It shouldn't take getting use to to find things. I can't reccomend one over the other since I haven't used either on a trip yet. However, Ride Max is a program you put on your computer and it gives you touring plans. It's available now for WDW. I've used it three time for Disneyland and it has been AWESOME. Even when the park was super crowded we never waited in line. 10 minutes was our longest line, and that was POTC which has no Fastpass. This was late June on a weekend! I'm definitely getting this for our WDW trip! You tell it when you're going, what rides you want to do, when you're getting to the park, when you're leaving, how fast you tour and it tells you what time to be where. It was easy to adjust if we were late to something also.... Definitely worth the money!!!! My sister and I are super excited about it!

 

[beachblanket]

I am extremely computer literate, but I find TGM site to be difficult. It shouldn't take getting use to to find things. I can't reccomend one over the other since I haven't used either on a trip yet. However, Ride Max is a program you put on your computer and it gives you touring plans. It's available now for WDW. I've used it three time for Disneyland and it has been AWESOME. Even when the park was super crowded we never waited in line. 10 minutes was our longest line, and that was POTC which has no Fastpass. This was late June on a weekend! I'm definitely getting this for our WDW trip! You tell it when you're going, what rides you want to do, when you're getting to the park, when you're leaving, how fast you tour and it tells you what time to be where. It was easy to adjust if we were late to something also.... Definitely worth the money!!!! My sister and I are super excited about it!

I used RideMax for a 2003 trip to DL and like you found it useful, albeit it did mandate a somewhat rigid "stopwatch commando" approach to park touring. Does the WDW version cover all the parks, our just the Magic Kingdom?

 

[dopeyfanatic]

I'm not sure. My sister just noticed it's available for WDW when she checked about a week ago. I'm not sure how often it's available. I didn't find my touring to make me look at my watch frequently. I adjust it to how fast I want to go and never had problems. If you want to go super fast you can tell them that. If you want to take your time, it adjusts. I did find it easy to work around if we ran late on something or were ahead on something.... I'm guessing it's available for all parks because it doesn't specifically say just MK....

 

[nancydrew79]

Well I just compared my TGM days compared to UG's days and the only thing that differs is Easter Sunday. UG says its a good day for Epcot and everything Ive read everywhere else screams NO at that idea....

 

[Jalva22]

One reason TGM has so many customers on these boards is that the UG site is blocked by the moderators. I keep expecting a pm from the mod's chastising me for coming up with ways to get it in a thread anyway. I understand TGM's a sponsor, and I understand capitalism. I just believe these boards are first and foremost a community of those seeking info on WDW, and it does a disservice to the members to block links to one of the best resources out there. Especially if our sponsor "doesn't have time" to keep his site updated. That just rubs me the wrong way.

 

[rie'smom]

I am extremely computer literate, but I find TGM site to be difficult. It shouldn't take getting use to to find things. I can't reccomend one over the other since I haven't used either on a trip yet. However, Ride Max is a program you put on your computer and it gives you touring plans. It's available now for WDW. I've used it three time for Disneyland and it has been AWESOME. Even when the park was super crowded we never waited in line. 10 minutes was our longest line, and that was POTC which has no Fastpass. This was late June on a weekend! I'm definitely getting this for our WDW trip! You tell it when you're going, what rides you want to do, when you're getting to the park, when you're leaving, how fast you tour and it tells you what time to be where. It was easy to adjust if we were late to something also.... Definitely worth the money!!!! My sister and I are super excited about it!

I use TGM for least crowded days and RideMax for day to day itineraries. It's a great combo. The 40.00(= or - a few dollars) is a bargain when o ne considers the cost of a WDW vacation.

The issue is that there's no good *reason* for there to be a learning curve. I spent more than a hundred hours on TGM's website. Even once I knew *where* to find things - it wasn't *easy* to get to them.

There were significantly more mouse clicks and page loads than were needed. Most of the pages couldn't usefully be printed because they were too wide. The pages that could be printed might have one useful piece of information per page. It was so bad that subscribers compiled the information into spreadsheets and shared the information in a useful format on the discussion boards. There was an entire discussion board devoted to helping people find things. There were entire threads about what pieces of information to disregard. Erroneous information about where to go, where to sit, where to line up for shows/attractions was reported to Mike months before my trip and still wrong 60 days after my trip.
That's not and immediate gratification issue. Those are issues with data design and erroneous information. I'm sorry - but if you bill it as up to the minute - you ought to at least be up to date with 6 month old information.

1. I never had any problem with pages being too wide for printing. If someone did,maybe they should check the printer settings on their computer.

2.If there was only 1 piece of useful info on a page, cut and paste-

3.Spreadsheets-I believe that I have read this word on the DIS about 5 million times. It's called organizing information.

4.Personally,I never had a problem with erroneous info. Sometimes mistakes happen.Did you email Mike with the error so that it could be corrected? When I found something helpful on my trip,I emailed him and it was included in info w/in a week.

 

[Mickey Mania]

I think UG might have recommended EPCOT on Easter Sunday because his philosophy is that when ALL the parks are going to be extremely crowded he thinks EPCOT is so spread out it can handle the crowds best.
Sometimes he says there is truly no "good" park on a day like that so he goes for the best of the worst.
Hope that helps you understand the reasoning.

By the way I have used UG numerous times and it has been invaluable.
But since I've found ya'll I find I reference it less and less.