Danger----

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-07-2004
Danger----
7
Sat, 09-08-2007 - 3:19pm

Since we are going for a short time next month.......I had a dangerous thought.............


Tour Guide Mike...........


Could I subscribe for our May/June trip but use him for October as well??


Thanks for your comments!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: mom2jedis
Sat, 09-08-2007 - 8:46pm

Well, you aren't supposed to, but....I'm sure it's been done. I used TGM last year, and I joined again for this year. The "best days" alone was worth it, and of course, I like reading about all things WDW. Really nice people on the boards there too!

Steph

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-07-2004
In reply to: mom2jedis
Sat, 09-08-2007 - 9:37pm
Aren't you paying for a certain amount of time?
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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-21-2007
In reply to: mom2jedis
Sat, 09-08-2007 - 11:14pm
I used it for our August trip and thought it was worth it, but if I were you I'd only do it for the May trip. How it works is once you're in, you can read the information for any month if you know what you're looking for, but you get the "special" email reminders and tips for your month only, and you only have access to the "private" board for the month you sign up. So if your main motivation is to talk to people that are going in October, that wouldn't work as much (although you might still "meet" those people on other, "public" boards). But like the OP said, the main thing of value I found was the days for each park, as well as the general tips. You are obviously already planning your May trip as well so I don't see the harm on signing up for that now.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: mom2jedis
Sun, 09-09-2007 - 11:54am

Your subscription ends 60 days after the last day of your trip. Our trip isn't until May of next year, so I paid the $16.50 and get until pretty much this time next year.

We definitely thought it was worth it. I didn't follow his tour plans to the letter, I used some of it and changed things around to suit us, but the recommended days were right on. A lot of people complain that the site is confusing, but I don't think it is. It took me a few days to get the hang of it, but after that it was fine.

OK, I answered more than you asked.

~Steph

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-07-2004
In reply to: mom2jedis
Sun, 09-09-2007 - 12:01pm

Steph,


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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-14-2003
In reply to: mom2jedis
Sun, 09-09-2007 - 5:06pm
who/what is tour guide mike?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-21-2007
In reply to: mom2jedis
Sun, 09-09-2007 - 10:30pm

A former Disney employee who now makes a living by leading (expensive) guided tours, and also has a website for which you can buy "membership" for about $20. The membership begins when you buy it and expires 2 months after the dates of your trip that you enter when you register.
I did find a lot of useful information, some stuff that overlapped with other guides (particularly the Unofficial Guide), and some that didn't apply to us. So I would compare it with buying a 'paper' guide from a bookstore, with the main advantage as someone else posted, that he has a system where he rates the crowd levels for each park for each day (not just by the day of the week or any other predictable pattern, but specifically for each date that you want) by taking into consideration several factors combined.

I used him but not to the letter, but in a general sense for tips and stuff (besides the basic which-park-on-what-days info) in combination with the maps from Passporter (which I LOVE!) and my own little system I came up with for organizing things (what can I say, I'm a geek) and was very happy with the results.

Another fun thing about the website is the message boards (pretty much like this one, or actually modeled after the DIS boards...is that OK for me to say that here?) which can get very addictive!

I am one of those that did find the page design quite confusing to navigate. I also was frustrated at one point when Disney had announced some calendar changes (when the dates for the new P&PPs came out) for the time of my trip, and TGM still hadn't update his info and it was getting closer and closer...he did come through at the end though, and in general I found it a good value. Hope that helped, and it would be interesting to hear more from others here that have used TGM, both the positive and negative!