Birnbaum's Walt Disney World: Expert Advice from the Inside Source

Planning for a family vacation to Disney World can be as complex as launching an expedition to Anarctica -- and nearly as expensive if you aren't careful! If you've made the decision to take the plunge and head for the most popular family vacation spot in America spend that first few dollars on the most current edition of Birnbaum's book. This book will help you save both time and money.Birnbaum's guide was a great choice for me -- I'm a "gotta have everything organized in advance" kind of person and the detailed, accurate information in this guide helped me do everything from pick out a hotel and book a ride from the airport to organize a packing list and rough-in plans for daily itineraries. Although the guide was absolutely jammed with information it was in a very readable format with lots of color, charts and sidebars. Birnbaum's also helped walk us through a lot of the decisions -- for example we decided to splurge on a nice on-resort hotel with access to the monorail knowing we would want to spend the middle part of most days relaxing at the pool with the kids. To balance that expense, we took Birnbaum's tip and had lunches at the nicer restaraunts instead of the more expensive (and more crowded) dinners. My husband also found Birnbaum's guide very helpful and he is more of a "let's just wing-it" sort of vacation planner. On the days he was in charge of activities he carried the Birnbaum's book with him and used it to pick restaraunts, find less crowded rides and choose activities near wherever we happened to be walking. The color-coding on the sides of the pages helped him quickly find the section of the book he wanted just as soon as he pulled it out of the bag.By far the best feature were the sample schedules -- these helped us avoid the crowds during our vacation (Christmas week one of the most crowded times of the year). In fact, using Birnbaum's advice we got to the parks early and walked onto many rides without waiting at all. Once the parks started getting crowded we used the tips on fast passes to cut our waiting time significantly on the more popular rides.There's lots and lots of information out there on how to plan and enjoy your Disney Vacation -- I highly recommend checking out the Disney web site (booking online can save more $$$) and buying this guide. Maybe you won't have to spend an entire semester's worth of college savings after all!

This book is invaluable for Disney guests. It's full of tips and full descriptions of the park, and rides. It explains all the ins and outs of Disney, while making it an easy read by the full color pictures and interesting commentary. A must for anyone on their way to Disney this year. Even if you have last years edition, do pick up this one! I buy a new one every year for my annual trip to Disney, and I find they do change. A good thing about Birnbaums guide is the fact that they rely on what the Disney vistors say about the rides, not just some public relations person from Disney. Also this book is sold in the Disney stores, so you know it's reliable. I recommend this book highly!

This is the most informative book on the market for persons about to journey to Walt Disney World. It is absolutely essential if you want to approach your WDW vacation with knowledge enough to make the most of it. My advice is to purchase the most recent edition, as it is updated each year to include new attractions, and there are always new attractions. The book is filled with information about hotels, restaurants, amusement parks, and attractions throughout the entire Disney property. I have made about 25 trips to WDW, and I buy a new one each year I go so that my information is current. Well worth the reasonable price.

I thought this was an amazing book. Now, I don't say that just because I love anything that has to do with Disney, but I truly think that it is very helpful. I own the 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 editions, and after reading them I have come to one conclusion, they aren't the best guide if this is your first time going to Walt Disney World. The book is published by Disney Enerprises, so it says everything in the park is amazing. If it is you first time, I would suggest a book that is not published by Disney, such as Frommers or the Unofficial Guide, because they rate the rides and attractions. Ohter than that, this book is the one for you. It can tell you some of the inside facts that ones that are not published by Disney can't. This guide is fully illistrated, so children can enjoy it also. That is my book review, I hope I didn't bore you to death.

I agree this is an absolute necessity for any Disney World vacation. It has terrific tips on what days each park is the busiest and sample itineraries for people with kids in different age groups. It is also great because it gave us information on character dining, which was so great both times we have gone to Disney. I took this book along with us so that we would have important phone numbers while we were on our trip, and it has maps of the parks. That was nice when we left ours behind somewhere. We would not have known about several things like character dining and how Fast Pass works without reading this book first. Don't leave without having read this book!