The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World

Best Disney related item you can buy for the money. You'll save $$$ just for following their simple how to save money tips. In one word, this guide is COMPREHENSIVE. Thick and heavy and covers all topics. I compared this with other guide books in the book store. Believe me, stick with this guide. Read the tour plans and follow it!!! It tells you the order and most efficient way to see the attractions. It really works!!! Spent 4.5 days in March with my gf. 1.5 days at Epcot, 1 day each at others. Had enough time to do everything and ride Thunder Mountain 3 times, Space Mountain twice, Buzz Lightyear twice, Toy Story twice, Test Track twice, Everest twice and I forgot what else we did multiple times. Ok, so you don't have to follow the plan 100%, but definitely follow the early morning portions. The only lame part was that in order to get more tour plans on their website, you have to pay extra. Don't pay extra. The book has enough tour plans to fit your needs. My top Disney recommendations: 1) Use the tour plans. 2) Show up early to the parks, at least 20-30 minutes before it opens. 3) Bring snacks and water bottles. Yes, they let you bring food in. 4) Use FastPasses, as recommended in the book. 5) Leave your kids at home. Thank you for your cooperation.

I was planning a trip to Disneyworld (from California) for my Mother's birthday. We had been to Disneyland dozens of times, and figured this would probably be about the same. How complicated can a trip to an amusement park be? After reading this book, we got the answer: VERY complicated. Disneyworld is a whole different beast, and the details and plans in the Unoffical Guide are invaluable. If you're spending a bundle on a vacaction, you want to get your dollar's worth- and this book will help you to do just that. Beat the crowds, skip bad weather, ride the best rides without standing in long lines, eat well, and end your trip feeling refreshed and happy, rather than exhausted and broke. I'm buying another Unofficial Guide now, for a trip to Disneyland. We've been to Ahaheim nearly every year for the past 30 years, but I figure if the Unofficial Guide to Disneyworld was this helpful, the authors probably know more than I do. Great value for the money!

I have been buying the unofficial guide..for every trip to Disney world..since the mid 90's..... when a fellow park hopper..showed me her touring plan. And..they are always worth the price of the book/ALWAYS. As other posters have stated...not everything is perfect...but it will save you a few bucks..and..most valuable..a TON of time. My son is pretty much a Disney expert...gives private tours...and worked there for years.. But,to his dismay..The book was up to date on a few important things [for me] that he was not aware of. So yes..Disney may have raised a few prices..after the book was published[no big surprise there].. but..most of the info is on the money..and a huge time saver.

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!)

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.