Product Description

• In 2008, combined Walt Disney World Resort© theme park attendance reached over 51 million, with the Magic Kingdom alone drawing over 17 million visitors. (Orlando Convention and Visitor Bureau)
• Despite signifcant downturns in the economy, Disney theme parks have maintained attendance rates and made gains in attendance at some parks.
• Walt Disney World Resort theme parks are rated best in the world. earning high marks for things outside of the traditional theme park experience. Epcot's International Food & Wine Festival, which takes place for six weeks every fall and showcases food from twenty-five countries, was rated by Forbes Traveler as one of the Best U.S. Food and Wine Festivals.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #305 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 880 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780470460269
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Amazon.com Review

Test Your Disney Smarts!
Amazon-exclusive quiz from author Bob Sehlinger

1. Which restaurant has the best view at Walt Disney World? A. LakeView Restaurant, B. The California Grill, C. Cindarella’s Royal Table

2. Afternoon milkshakes for two kids will cost you: A. $5.72, B. $8.38, C. $12.59

3. Disney Kids’ Meals are available for children of what ages? A. 3-9, B. 3-11, C. Under 18

4. When is the best time to take the kids on Dumbo the Flying Elephant? A. Before 10 a.m. or after 9 p.m., B. Immediately following lunch, C. At exactly 3:15 p.m.

5. Which Disney theme park is five times the size as the Magic Kingdom? A. Disney’s Hollywood Studios, B. Epcot Center, C. Animal Kingdom

6. The best time to visit Walt Disney World is: A. On your child’s birthday, B. The day of your child’s final exam in math class, C. During the period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day

Answers: 1)B, 2)B, 3)A, 4)A, 5)C, 6)A

Five Unofficial Ways to Prepare For Your Trip to Walt Disney World
Amazon-exclusive content from author Bob Sehlinger

1. Select the time of year for your visit: Walt Disney World is busiest Christmas Day through New Year’s Day. Thanksgiving weekend, the week of Washington’s birthday, the first full week of November, spring break for colleges, and the two weeks around Easter are also times when visitation can peak at 92,000 visitors in a single day. The park is far less crowded during the off season, but be advised that the parks often open late and close early during that time. You can find detailed charts and info on the best times to visit in The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.

2. Shape up: Visiting Disney World requires levels of industry and stamina more often associated with running marathons. As you plan your time at Disney World, consider your physical limitations. It’s exhausting to rise at dawn and run around a theme park for 8 to 12 hours day after day. Every Disney World vacation itinerary should include days when you don’t go to a theme park and days when you sleep in and take the morning off. Plan these to follow unusually long and arduous days.

3. Formulate your park plan: First-time visitors should see Epcot first; you’ll be able to enjoy it without having been preconditioned to think of Disney entertainment as solely fantasy or adventure. See Animal Kingdom second. Like Epcot, it’s educational, but its live animals provide a change of pace. Next, see Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which helps transition from the educational Epcot and Animal Kingdom to the fanciful Magic Kingdom. Also, because DHS is smaller, you won’t walk as much or stay as long. Save the Magic Kingdom for last; it’s the park that epitomizes Disney World for most visitors.

4. Create your touring plan: Which rides and attractions appeal most to you? What are you willing to forgo? Planning your day in advance can save you up to four hours of waiting time in line. We have developed a hierarchy of categories that will help you evaluate each ride and plan the best way to enjoy them all. For example, SUPER-HEADLINERS are the best attractions the theme park has to offer – and they usually have the longest lines. MINOR ATTRACTIONS are midway-type rides, small “dark” rides (cars on a track, zigzagging through the dark) and walk-through attractions—which can be a lot of fun, without the long wait. Remember that bigger and more elaborate doesn’t always mean better. See examples of touring plans (and create your own) in The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.

5. Getting hungry?: There are three lessons to learn before you dine in the parks. One: Theme-park restaurants rush their customers in order to make room for the next group of diners. If you want to linger over your expensive meal, don’t order your entire dinner at once. Order drinks. Study the menu while you sip, then order appetizers. Tell the waiter you need more time to decide among entrees. Order your main course only after appetizers have been served. Dawdle over dessert. Two: If you’re dining in a theme park and cost is an issue, make lunch your main meal. Entrees are similar to those on the dinner menu, but prices are significantly lower. Three: Disney adds a surcharge of $4 per adult and $2 per child to certain popular restaurants during weeks of peak attendance, including Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and in 2009 every day from Memorial Day through July 4.

From the Back Cover
"Best Travel Series of the Year"
—Booklist

"A Tourist's Best Friend!"
—Chicago Sun-Times

"Indispensable"
—The New York Times

Five Great Features and Benefits offered ONLY by The Unofficial Guide:

1 Exclusively patented, field-tested touring plans that save as much as four hours of standing in line in a single day

2 New color section with practical information for your trip

3 More than 200 hotels rated and ranked for quality and value, including the top non-Disney hotels for families

4 A complete Dining Guide with ratings and reviews of all Walt Disney World restaurants, plus extensive alternatives for dining deals outside the World

5 Attractions rated and ranked for each age group; extensive, objective, head-to-head comparisons of the Disney and Universal theme parks

Customer Reviews

Missing pages.
I would be giving this book 5 stars but I'm posting this review as a "heads up". I received my copy and discovered it was missing pages 179-242. I've got the 2009 version and use it often but the missing pages in the 2010 ed. dealt with Disney resorts we were looking to stay at. It's obviously a printing error but I'm holding off on a replacement until they've had time to correct it.

Don't go to Disney World without it!
This guide was invaluable... it made the trip so much more hassle free and enjoyable. We visited a different Disney park each day and were able to do all the things we wanted to in the least amount of time(except for Fantasmic at Disney Studio park... because it is only available two nights a week - and one of the nights was when we had to watch the BCS Championship... being loyal Longhorns - choke,sob.) . We were fortunate that it was not peak season, but even so, we would not have been able to do all we did without the guide. The only time we had any problem was on our Epcot day because we ignored a couple of steps in the plan and got off schedule. We then ended up missing several things that day...but was OK b/c we had an extra day of time and on our pass to come back there.

The most useful aspects of this guide were the overview, the on-line guide to best days to visit each park, and the "one-day plans" for each park. We tore out the chapters for each section to bring with us each day... but kept the one-day plans along with the and event/ride and resturant one-page overviews available at all times. (Note, were I doing this again, I would make back-up photocopies of those one-day plans. We would have been sunk without them). I know some people don't want to be so regimented, but if you want your money's worth in terms of experiencing the parks - this is the way to do it. Also, the guide has great info for non-Disney activities as well. (as an aside.. if you have time and are an art lover - don't miss the Morse Museum in Winter Park..which is a neat area of Orlando. The Tiffany work will take your breath away!)

THE Definitive guide to WDW
Purchased the Unofficial Guide for our previous Disney visit way back in 1997, and loved it. So naturally, bought the 2010 version in advance of our just-completed trip - and loved it AGAIN!

Contains all the information you could possibly want about each park and individual attraction/show. Book purchase includes access to their website and customized online touring plans, which we printed and brought to the parks each day. Didn't follow the plans step-by-step, mainly because we could never make it there in time for opening. But the plans gave us an idea of what order to see attractions in, when to use FASTPASS, etc. And it helped to have an idea about which attractions were "musts", and which could be skipped.

Plus I LOVE the way the book is written, with a combination of wry humor and frequently hysterical reader comments. The authors love WDW, so they don't pull punches when they feel let down by poorly conceived attractions or outright money-grabs. I even kept reading after we returned home, because it was such an enjoyable read!

I also purchased The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids (Unofficial Guides), but found that it's a "companion" to the big book (doesn't contain all the info of the big book) - and once I had the big book, I didn't really need 'For Kids'.

The only downside to this book is its size. At over 800 pages, it was simply too hefty to carry to the parks, though others might disagree. Of course, it HAS to be big in order to be so comprehensive, so it's not really a fault.

To sum it up, this is the ONLY book you need for a Walt Disney trip, period.