Tour Guide Mike

[BobbyRach]

Hi,

Has anyone used TourGuideMike? I've had a couple of people recommend using it.....but we are going in September which is generally crowded and wondered if it s was worth it?? This will be our first trip to DW.
THANKS!

 

[Andona]

Bobby,
I purchased a subscription to Tour Guide Mike for our last DW trip in 2008. ( I also bought a subscription to Touringplans and Ridemax as I'm a sucker for research!)

At that time I thought Tour Guide Mike was excellent. He had heaps of information, his touring-the-parks strategy was fantastic and his advice for the best parks to visit was great.

However, for our next trip I'm probably not going to renew my subscription, for a few reasons

1. I've read on the boards that his general information is not being kept up to date
2. His touring strategies were HEAVILY dependent on the ability to collect Fastpasses in the morning and save them for afternoon touring. Now that Disney are enforcing Fastpass return times he will have to radically change his strategies.
3. EasyWDW is a free Blog where the analysis of park crowds uses very similar principles to the stuff that Tour Guide Mike had. EasyWDW didn't exist back in 2008 but, this time around I think I'll just go with his (free) recommendations.
4. I'm a big fan of Ridemax. I've used it to plan touring strategies for both WDW and Disneyland and believe that it's saved us heaps of time in the parks.


Good luck with your planning!

Andona

 

[aussietravellers]

I used TGM in 2010 and thought he was fantastic. I mainly used the crowd days and it seemed to work.

Bobby,
I purchased a subscription to Tour Guide Mike for our last DW trip in 2008. ( I also bought a subscription to Touringplans and Ridemax as I'm a sucker for research!)

That is so funny! I did the same thing! I'm a sucker too Only back in 2010 Ridemax wasn't available for Mac, so I was spared forking out for that like I did for Touring Plans and I didn't even use it. But believe me, I did attempt to have Ridemax and I would have too.

At that time I thought Tour Guide Mike was excellent. He had heaps of information, his touring-the-parks strategy was fantastic and his advice for the best parks to visit was great.

However, for our next trip I'm probably not going to renew my subscription, for a few reasons

1. I've read on the boards that his general information is not being kept up to date
2. His touring strategies were HEAVILY dependent on the ability to collect Fastpasses in the morning and save them for afternoon touring. Now that Disney are enforcing Fastpass return times he will have to radically change his strategies.
3. EasyWDW is a free Blog where the analysis of park crowds uses very similar principles to the stuff that Tour Guide Mike had. EasyWDW didn't exist back in 2008 but, this time around I think I'll just go with his (free) recommendations.
4. I'm a big fan of Ridemax. I've used it to plan touring strategies for both WDW and Disneyland and believe that it's saved us heaps of time in the parks.


Good luck with your planning!

Andona

Awesome! Thanks so much for all of that info I am heading to that blog to save it now for future and that totally makes sense about the fastpasses now needing altering the plans! So glad you posted all of that info!

 

[BobbyRach]

I used TGM in 2010 and thought he was fantastic. I mainly used the crowd days and it seemed to work.





Awesome! Thanks so much for all of that info I am heading to that blog to save it now for future and that totally makes sense about the fastpasses now needing altering the plans! So glad you posted all of that info!

I agree thanks so much for the info!! It was extremely helpful!!

 

[Travel Mum]

I was a sponge for information so had a subscription for Tour Guide Mike and one for Touring Plans for our trip last year. I liked TGM but mainly for forum where I'd put in my sample park itineraries and the fantastic people on there would help me with them. However, about half way along, I discovered that the some of the same helpful people are on the EasyWDW forum and I found that I spent the last six months leading up to our trip on EasyWDW which was free

 

[Andona]

Happy to help!

I have to admit I do have a bit of a yearning to resubscribe to TGM just to see how they are dealing with the new fastpass enforcement but I keep telling myself not to waste the money.

Andona

 

[PrincessBelle39]

We used TGM for our last trip and I thought they were pretty good. I went to renew and had a problem. I've now emailed them 4 times over a 2 month period to receive no reply. I've been using these boards and EasyWDW aswell as touring plans and have been just as happy with that.

 

[Sugarglider]

I stopped using TGM a couple of years ago when the information became out of date. There are plenty on these boards who say that the site is not being managed anymore and is way out of date. I notice that TGM has ceased to be a sponsor. I suspect the site has just been left to look after itself. Unlike easyWDW and Touring Plans.
I have to admit I found RideMax a little bit to detailed for my liking - once I had my big pieces in place for each day it was too hard to stay glued to a RideMax plan.
Now I go to the park, do the important bits and then am quite random. I may find a ride has too long a wait or I want to stop and watch the street show. So I just get planned for a few important things and let the rest go with the flow.
Sometimes I don't achieve a goal. e.g. my last trip I didn't do rope drop for DHS and so in a whole fortnight I didn't get on TSMM.
I did use the Touring PLans phone app on my last trip and surprised myself at how much I used it.

 

[buffalogirl]

Bobby,
I purchased a subscription to Tour Guide Mike for our last DW trip in 2008. ( I also bought a subscription to Touringplans and Ridemax as I'm a sucker for research!)

At that time I thought Tour Guide Mike was excellent. He had heaps of information, his touring-the-parks strategy was fantastic and his advice for the best parks to visit was great.

However, for our next trip I'm probably not going to renew my subscription, for a few reasons

1. I've read on the boards that his general information is not being kept up to date
2. His touring strategies were HEAVILY dependent on the ability to collect Fastpasses in the morning and save them for afternoon touring. Now that Disney are enforcing Fastpass return times he will have to radically change his strategies.
3. EasyWDW is a free Blog where the analysis of park crowds uses very similar principles to the stuff that Tour Guide Mike had. EasyWDW didn't exist back in 2008 but, this time around I think I'll just go with his (free) recommendations.
4. I'm a big fan of Ridemax. I've used it to plan touring strategies for both WDW and Disneyland and believe that it's saved us heaps of time in the parks.


Good luck with your planning!

Andona

Just came across this thread. Thanks so much for posting this very helpful info!

 

[australiankaren]

thanks guys, hadnt heard of easywdw......

so off to check it out

I use touring plans, but going in the quiet weeks at the end of sept we really dont need a commando style touring plan.....