Tour Guide Mike?

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I keep hearing people mention this thing called Tour Guide Mike. I was wondering what exactly this is and does it cost money? I am considering using it for our potential trip in August, but don't really know anything about it.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

TGM is a paid subscription planning site which is a DisBoards Sponsor. From what I understand there is a lot of analysis which appears to allow people to get on more attractions than just going randomly. However, these plans tend to include criss-crossing the parks.

Some people have been known to swear by them, others to swear at them. YMMV.

 

[SueM in MN]

There is a link to his website at the top of the Theme Parks Board that should be able to help you out until people come to answer your questions.

We've never used him, but have heard good things about his service.
Basically, he was a WDW VIP tour guide, who learned a lot of tips and tricks in his work. I believe he set up his own tour guide service after leaving Disney and then added a website so that he could reach people who wanted advice, but not a personal guide.
For each park, there are times and days that each individual attraction is less busy - for example, at Epcot, if you go on Spaceship Earth first thing in the morning, you will probably be waiting an hour. If you go in the late afternoon or early evening, it's a walk on attraction. Kali River Rapids and the Safari at AK are the same way.
Knowing when to go and where will help you to see everything with the least possible wait. Besides that, if you are there when that park/area is not busy, it's much easier to get around and you will have a much shorter wait for other things like bathrooms and restaurants.
So, that's basically what he provides.

 

[ireland_nicole]

We're using TGM for our upcomming trip, and feel that he is really benefitting us. He doesn't just tell you what to do, but why. And that maes my planning (and the last minute changes that are bound to come) easier. There's a discount if you use the link from the attractions forum.. I think it was about $18.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Nicole: Does he have you criss crossing all over the park? What we have done in the past is go to a land, get FPs for whatever major attraction is there, do the rides in that land, then go to the next. I'm just worried about having to criss cross the park with my knee being the way it is. (I see the surgeon on Thursday, maybe I can finally get some answers!)

 

[ireland_nicole]

There is some thinking ahead, but not all the way across the park or anything, also, I have to be careful not to give away anything too specific (I promised) but only one member of your party would have to criss cross much at all. And even then, not a lot.
HIH
Nicole

 

[scojos]

TGM is great,a nd well worth the money, saved us many meltdowns with our asd child.
he explains how what where and why, allows me to explain to josh why we are doing what we are doing and why we will "loop" back to certain quieter rides.
i agree with nicole you sign a waiver not to disclose to much info...
the other thing that might help is reading other peoples trip report especially if you can find one that has a "disabled" element (i certainly do not mean to offend anyone there ) we read the trip report of a lady with an asd child which really was informative.
you can have a nose round the TGM site (well some of it) before you pay.
Tracy

 

[SandrainNC]

This will be our 4th time using TGM. I do not follow all of what he says to do (with little ones it would be hard), but I enjoy the site and I do listen to what he says about which days to go to which parks.

Sandra

 

[Selket]

We've used his advice with great success. The website is large and perhaps overwhelming at first. You need to plan some time to go through it. He does recommend at times that someone in your party cross the park to get another set of fastpasses if you want to do "X" or do "X" twice, etc. Otherwise he does not have you going back and forth to see things.

It is also easy to get back on track if you have to stop mid-tour to take care of something. He also give ideas of what time is best to see what, etc. He recommends in detail which days to visit each park (a green, yellow, red light system) - broken into day and evening. You don't have to park hop however unless you prefer that.

I will add that I've been a huge fan but lately he has *not* been updating his plans. For Spring Break/Easter this past March he never updated all of his special advice for that period - we had to use last years. I learned that he did the same to the folks who went at Christmas 2007. And also last summer's advice wasn't complete until the end of July - making it useless for many. Many of us complained - directly to him via email and on the boards there and as of last week there was no response....TWO months later.

I think it is still worth the price but I gotta throw that caveat in there.....

 

[mrsbert]

We use TGM for our Mardi Gras trip in Feburary. Because there is a "plan", I print it out and have it for reference. I can show my SID (Sensory Integration Dysfunction) DS7 and he can manage much better. He totally helps me, the mom, stay on track. I would recommend it. I actually renewed my subscription and will be using it again for our New Years trip.

Good Luck.

 

[Sandy321]

Think of it as an "e- book" - if you usually buy a book on Disney, this is an electronic book - it has that much info - and that can be overwhelming! But like others said it gives you an idea of why you want to do things, so if our DD has an episode, i'm off track, but I know how to tour due to the info... If you dont read and spend time on the site, you can still get lots of helpful info in the forums - and my favorite are downloads, my dd is 11, and we printed stuff for her to read in lines that was useful, fun ( about the attractions... )

TGM also has a list of "best days" to go that are very useful,(maybe less crowded on a particular day) and again, I found my self having to go to a different park, but it turned out great, again, based on the advice of how to tour... imho

 

[mullertwin]

I have used TGM for the past few years with much success. In fact, with my last trip being me with a pinched nerve and in an ECV it was especially helpful to know which days to go to which parks and advice on how to tour each park with minimal waits. As others have pointed out, some of his planning articles are out of date and it is the main problem with the website. However, he does have a forum over there to get more up to date information.

 

[flynnmnstr]

I considered myself a Disney planning expert, but TGM brought my planning and organizing to a new level. Just his advice on which parks to go to on which days alone is worth the $18. We do follow his touring advice and other tips most days but with 2 special needs children sometimes we need to ride Kali River Rapids 10 times in a row (yes we did this one day during our trip last August) so we do allow ourselves to be flexible. We didn't feel like there was too much zig zagging across the parks, but we are avid walkers and our kids like the ambiance of Disney just as much as the rides. AKA we rode the TTA 5 times in a row one night because Space Mountain was down and the lights were turned on so they were trying to get a good look at the ride.