Tour Guide Mike vs Unofficial Guide

[lyndlou]

We leave in 4 days for the world .
I bought the Unofficial Guide and have learned so much from this board that I thought I was ready to go. Now I here about Tour Guide Mike and wonder if I should also give him a try. I guess I'm just a little apprehensive going during the hottest, most crowded season with a hurricane on the way to boot. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kellymonaghan]

Just make your decision even more confusing, let me recommend Steve Barrett's "Hassle-Free Walt Disney World Vacation," which contains touring plans for adults, adults with kids, and seniors.

In addition to being the author of "Hidden Mickeys," Steve is an emergency room physician and he brings a scientist's obession for detail to the task of plotting out the most efficient ways to see the parks. He's there alomost every week, testing and refining.

I'm not much of a touring plan guy myself, thanks to annual passes and the luxury of spending a lot of time in Orlando, but Steve's book is worth a look.

 

[RevBob]

IMHO TGM would be too much to try to take in in just 4 days, unless you have internet access while you are at WDW. We used both for our trip in May and both had great info that helped, but if you have the UG and have learned a lot from the boards, don't think you also need TGM, although he is a great wealth of info. (His hints did help me score 907,500 on Buzz Lightyear!) Anyway have a great trip, and be flexible!

 

[Kristina]

Relax and enjoy yourself! With both the Dis and the Unofficial guide, I think you're set to go! The time has come to just pack your bags and go and have a blast, you deserve it! Besides if you got another guide book or whatnot now, well you would just confuse yourself even further and still miss out on stuff, so no reason to sweat it. Everyone finds things they missed when they come home, and there you go more reason to go back!

 

[Brian Noble]

I use and recommend both. I tend to rely on Mike a bit more for in-park things, but UG is fine too. Either will put you well ahead of the crowds! If you've invested a ton of time in UG's plans, they will serve you well---I don't see a need to switch now.

 

[ajcolorado]

I think TGM now has printable recommended touring plans. There was a thread on the TGM forums about, "What information does a person need who is leaving for Disney in a day and has done no advance planning". That kind of thinking is just mind-boggling to the truly WDW obsessed but it does happen out there. Anyway, folks seemed to agree that if you print the TGM touring plans, check out the schedule for least and most busy days and times, and the suggested viewing locations for parades and shows, you can have a great trip and avoid the major pitfalls.

 

[JohnNJ]

Someone just reported on the TourGuideMike forums that their neighbor snuck a peek at the TGM info the night before leaving for WDW and was able to put together a great plan in just a few hours. Mike has a Super Express Planner for people with little time to go through the whole site. Those express planning articles are worth every penny and will enhance your vaction experience ten fold.

Quick, sign up now. He has a money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose. You can actually try his advice in a few days and report back when you return. Have a great trip!

 

[jan&theboys]

I am probably going to post something in more detail later, but I just wanted to say that I came back from a trip to WDW using both the Unofficial Guide and Tour Guide Mike and they both worked well for us. One thing we did discover is that we used them more as reference tools than specific guides, as we tailored the itineraries to our specific needs. For example, neither guide recommended riding "It's a Small World" in the morning, but some of our party insisted on seeing it so we went on. It later wound up working out well for us as later on in the day there were minimum waits of 20 minutes for it. The best days list in the Unofficial Guide was extremely helpful in planning which days to visit each park, and the suggestions in Tour Guide Mike's site worked out like a charm, like taking a break no matter what and the awesome FastPass utilization tips. I could tell you that there was hardly anyone that was using the FastPass strategies when we visited, because there were many people we saw that were actually trying to barter for different times than what they received from the machine.

All in all we never waited more than 10 minutes for anything (including Soarin' and Test Track twice with a group of six) and had amazing parade and fireworks views arriving only 20 minutes before starting, and this is during the middle of July. I don't think I will plan another trip without them again.

 

[jac199]

had amazing parade and fireworks views arriving only 20 minutes before starting

Jan-
Just curious, which guide would you say provided the best parade and fireworks viewing information?

-Janine

 

[letterdavidman]

I've been a long time user of the Unofficial Guide, and swear by its indispensability (it is the Holy Grail of WDW info, IMO). And I also recently signed up for Tour Guide Mike's service, and, while he does have a LOT of awesome-sounding tips (especially for utilizing Fastpass to its fullest), I still give the edge to the UG touring plans, as their plans literally incorporate nearly every ride and attraction at a given park (and if it's a ride or attraction that you don't want to experience, you just skip to the next step), while TGM is all about making "hard choices", and relegates certain attractions that are headliners to me and my DW, like Hall of Presidents, as attractions that are to be done "only if there's time".

Also, the touring plans from the Unofficial Guide are a LOT better organized, more succinct, and easier to read. TGM's "articles" aren't as easily located or parsed, again, in my opinion.

 

[PamPasH200]

I have used both many times, and give TGM a big edge for being up to the minute (he updates his advice every few days) and for teaching his members how to plan your trip for you, not for the masses. He doesn't tell you when to do each ride; you have to do that based on your group's likes, needs, and situation, but he shows you how to avoid the crowds and lines. The UOG is distributed in September for the coming year, which means it was printed and written much earlier than that. The powers that be at WDW change things all of the time, and TGM changes his advice based on that. Once you join the forum for the month(s) you plan to go to WDW, he will even PM you with important changes during that month. It doesn't get much better than that! He is also in the parks daily with his VIP guests and can spot a trend immediately and lets his members know about it. My husband hated WDW until he tried touring with TGM. Now we go 2-3 times a year!

Pam

 

[lentesta]

Pam, are you aware that the Unofficial Guide has a website that contains free up-to-date changes to both the book, and breaking news about WDW? It's updated, on average, two or three times per week. And, of course, we've got a team of Orlando-based researchers to investigate anything new in the parks, too. The crowd blog is an example of this.

Len

[edit: typo]

 

[Carol1973]

I just realized that UG on their website offers a fee-based touring plan. I think the cost was $6.95. Has anyone used that? What is your opinion on that service? I currently have TGM and have read the UG book cover to cover. Should I also purchase the UG touring plan service?

 

[cinder1]

What is the UG website? UG is my favorite. Even though we do not follow the plans exactly (with 4 kids ages 10 to 14 mths, can't really follow a specific plan), we use the info on what days to go, use of fastpass, how the rides operate (how fast they load and unload) and much, much more. We have always gotten to do everything we wanted to do and then some. The kids ride their favorite rides (SplM or Brer Rabbit as my kids call it, BTMR, RnR, ToT, TT, MS, Buzz--all the big ones) many times over during each stay.

 

[eeyore45]

I love Unofficial Guide, and the Best Days, and other great helpful information is free on the touringplans.com site - awesome!!

I did sign up for the $6.95, and I printed out the tours, I love the maps, the information, tips and hidden Mickey's!! I've always used the tours in the back of the UG, we also at times 'skip' something if we need an ice cream break etc.. but I always feel well informed, and prepared thru UG...

 

[letterdavidman]

I just wanted to reiterate what the Mighty Len Testa said in his earlier post: The Unofficial Guide (or "UG"... boy, what an unfortunate acronym ) does have a website that features free updates to the touring plans published in their books. They're at www.touringplans.com.

In addition, I'd like to reiterate that, of the two, I give the edge to the Unofficial Guide over TGM, chiefly due to the fact that, to me, it's much, much easier to find stuff in both the Unofficial Guide and tourplans.com than it is over on TGM's website. (And, yeah, I guess I am kinda being a shill for the Unofficial Guide, but, what the hey, I've read all kinds of posts on the DIS trumpeting the awesomely keen observations of Tour Guide Mike, and more power to 'em! And, no, I'm not on the Unofficial take... currently... of course, should they feel moved to send a sawbuck-or two- my way, well, who am I to refuse a gift? )

Anyway, I really don't think you'll go wrong, no matter who you choose to go with.

Just my twelve cents...