Comparing Optimal Magic to the competition
If you do a Google search of "Disney World Planning" you get a million options. However, Optimal Magic is the best, easiest option for your planning, and will give you a better, more fun trip with the least amount of planning/research time for you. Here's how we stack up against the competition:
Option 1: The "We'll just wing it" approach
Frankly, over 90% of Disney World guests go this route. And they're the ones waiting 75 minutes for Peter Pan's Flight, 90 minutes for Soarin', and 120 minutes for Toy Story Mania. I doubt you're planning on going this route if you're at my site, but please, please don't - you're not going to have fun, and you're going to be one of those people at the water cooler telling your horror stories of Disney World.
Option 2: Travel Agents
Travel agents are great at making hotel reservations, plane reservations, and (in some cases) dining reservations. Some even offer their own tips and tricks for Disney World. However, their focus is on the various "tickets" and "reservations" for a trip - after all, they get a commission from Disney for whatever you spend. The more you spend, the more they make! In addition, their park "tips and tricks" tend to be of the most basic variety, because that's not how they make their money - they make their money through commissions.
I don't take any commissions from anyone - I work only for you. Through years of research, I can put together the absolute best plans for your vacation.
Option 3: "Do It Yourself" Research
If you want to research Disney yourself, I can understand - it was my own research for trips that led to creating this company! I would spend 40 hours or more planning a trip. Now, I find that fun, so it's not a problem. Most people don't.
If you're going to go this route, be forewarned:
Optimal Magic, on the other hand, does all the work for you. It's truly a "turnkey" approach - I learn what works best for you, and personalize your trip plan exclusively for your needs, and give you concise, easy-to-understand plans for each day of your trip, enabling you to do what you want to do without waiting in the long lines.
Option 4: Personalized Tour Guides
Here's where things start to get expensive - some services offer personalized tour guides. This is a person who will travel with you to the park, be with you the entire time, and make sure you get to see and do everything.
The problem? Cost can run upwards of $1000 per day for independent tour guides, and more than $2000 per day for official Disney VIP tour guides. Optimal Magic provides better advice and planning for a mere fraction of the cost. The biggest difference? I won't actually be there with you. (Which you will probably consider a good thing!) But never fear - if you ever get lost or in trouble, I'm only a phone call or text away.
Option 5: "Disney World Geek" Advice
There are plenty of sites and services that profess to give advice for enjoying Disney World. But their focus tends to be on their opinions of the best Disney has to offer. Since these people are almost always "Disney World Geeks" (not that there's anything wrong with that), their focus is on trivia like "what's the back story of the Haunted Mansion" or "where can you find hidden Mickey silhouettes?" You're going to get pages and pages of information that really won't help you enjoy your vacation more.
This isn't bad information, per se, but it's not the information you need to plan a great trip! I plan your trip based on what's important to you, not on learning arcane Disney facts. If you're a regular, non "Disney World Geek" family, I'll help plan your trip based on what you would enjoy.
Option 1: The "We'll just wing it" approach
Frankly, over 90% of Disney World guests go this route. And they're the ones waiting 75 minutes for Peter Pan's Flight, 90 minutes for Soarin', and 120 minutes for Toy Story Mania. I doubt you're planning on going this route if you're at my site, but please, please don't - you're not going to have fun, and you're going to be one of those people at the water cooler telling your horror stories of Disney World.
Option 2: Travel Agents
Travel agents are great at making hotel reservations, plane reservations, and (in some cases) dining reservations. Some even offer their own tips and tricks for Disney World. However, their focus is on the various "tickets" and "reservations" for a trip - after all, they get a commission from Disney for whatever you spend. The more you spend, the more they make! In addition, their park "tips and tricks" tend to be of the most basic variety, because that's not how they make their money - they make their money through commissions.
I don't take any commissions from anyone - I work only for you. Through years of research, I can put together the absolute best plans for your vacation.
Option 3: "Do It Yourself" Research
If you want to research Disney yourself, I can understand - it was my own research for trips that led to creating this company! I would spend 40 hours or more planning a trip. Now, I find that fun, so it's not a problem. Most people don't.
If you're going to go this route, be forewarned:
- There is a lot of bad information out there (much of it provided by Disney, and more provided by fan sites). Just because someone who is an "authority" suggests you should ride a certain ride at a certain time does not make it right - I would estimate that 70% of advice I see online or hear from other experts is mostly or entirely wrong.
- A lot of people think they're experts and give out three pieces of advice - 1) get to the parks early, 2) ride the big attractions first, and 3) use Fastpass. While this rudimentary advice isn't technically wrong, it is barely even the beginning - if that's the extent of your "expert advice", you're going to be waiting in many 30-120 minute lines, skipping some rides due to the wait, and you won't be fully optimizing your use of the Fastpass system, leading to more waits and fewer rides. Wouldn't you rather enjoy Disney without waiting in any big lines, and riding on everything you want to?
- There are some pay sites out there with some good information. But be forewarned - to fully get the value out of these sites, you need to do a lot of planning and spend a lot of time doing research (honestly, we're talking 30-40 hours). The pay sites usually glaze over this fact - they insist it'll be "easy" to plan for yourself, but they don't say is you'll be wading through hundreds of pages on their websites, trying to find the best information for you and discarding the unimportant information. They can have arcane or difficult-to-use tools, and also often have bad or out-of-date information. If you find this sort of research appealing, by all means go for it! (Send me an email - I'll lead you to the best sites.) If you'd like a better, simpler, optimized plan for you, then Optimal Magic is the solution for you!
- You're going to end up with lots and lots of printouts and spreadsheets and you're going to be shuffling a lot of papers.
Optimal Magic, on the other hand, does all the work for you. It's truly a "turnkey" approach - I learn what works best for you, and personalize your trip plan exclusively for your needs, and give you concise, easy-to-understand plans for each day of your trip, enabling you to do what you want to do without waiting in the long lines.
Option 4: Personalized Tour Guides
Here's where things start to get expensive - some services offer personalized tour guides. This is a person who will travel with you to the park, be with you the entire time, and make sure you get to see and do everything.
The problem? Cost can run upwards of $1000 per day for independent tour guides, and more than $2000 per day for official Disney VIP tour guides. Optimal Magic provides better advice and planning for a mere fraction of the cost. The biggest difference? I won't actually be there with you. (Which you will probably consider a good thing!) But never fear - if you ever get lost or in trouble, I'm only a phone call or text away.
Option 5: "Disney World Geek" Advice
There are plenty of sites and services that profess to give advice for enjoying Disney World. But their focus tends to be on their opinions of the best Disney has to offer. Since these people are almost always "Disney World Geeks" (not that there's anything wrong with that), their focus is on trivia like "what's the back story of the Haunted Mansion" or "where can you find hidden Mickey silhouettes?" You're going to get pages and pages of information that really won't help you enjoy your vacation more.
This isn't bad information, per se, but it's not the information you need to plan a great trip! I plan your trip based on what's important to you, not on learning arcane Disney facts. If you're a regular, non "Disney World Geek" family, I'll help plan your trip based on what you would enjoy.