INTRODUCTION
For the Love of Disney
DEAR READER, we’ve been writing the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World for more than 30 years. You’ve really got to love a place to cover it for that long―and we do. Millions of you do too. Comments like these arrive at our office every day:
“Disney World was definitely the most magical and the best family vacation we ever had.”
“Holiday of a lifetime. Meticulous planning required, but amazing.”
“We’ve already booked another trip.”
Disney’s theme parks are among the world’s greatest man-made vacation destinations. At their best, they combine unparalleled imagination and storytelling with new technologies, all presented with optimism and an unwavering faith in humanity. Walt Disney World in particular is essentially a purpose-built city: a place designed to entertain, amaze, and inspire.
Why Disney World Needs an 800-Page Guidebook
DEAR READER, WE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING. The child-rearing classic What to Expect When You’re Expecting clocks in at 645 pages, and a typical version of the King James Bible is around 1,200. Does the advice needed for Walt Disney World really fall somewhere between childbirth and God’s manual for living?
If it’s your first time, yes. (That’s true for all three scenarios.)
The thing that surprises most new visitors to Walt Disney World is that a Disney vacation requires much more planning and effort than most other vacations they’ve had.
Why? The main reason is capacity. Around 60,000 people visit Disney World’s Magic Kingdom theme park every day. Almost all of them would eat at its most popular restaurant―Be Our Guest―if they could get in. But the restaurant can serve only around 3,000 people per day, or around 1 out of every 20 who want to dine there. Visitors who can’t get into Be Our Guest often end up at restaurants with worse food, higher prices, or both.
Capacity also affects Disney World’s popular rides: for some rides, there are far more people who want to ride than the ride can handle. As a result, some visitors will wait just 10 minutes to experience a ride, and others will wait up to 5 hours for the same attraction on the same day.
Don’t panic. If you love theme parks, Disney World is as good as it gets―the best in the small-w world. If you arrive without knowing a thing about the place and make every possible mistake, chances are about 90% that you’ll have a wonderful vacation anyway.
The job of a guidebook is to give you a heads-up regarding opportunities and potential problems. We’re certain we can help you turn a great vacation into an absolutely fabulous one. A mom from Streator, Illinois, who was amazed at the size of the Unofficial Guide, came back saying this:
It had been 10 years since we’d been to WDW, and I was shocked by how much your book grew. After going, I’m surprised that it’s so small.
What Makes This Book Different?
THE ADVICE IN THIS BOOK is different from what you’ll find on the Internet or in other books, in three important ways.
First, the team that produces this book is totally independent of the Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney World, and all other members of the Disney corporate family. We don’t accept free trips, gifts, special favors, or other compensation from Disney in exchange for our coverage; we pay for everything we review. Disney doesn’t request, influence, edit, or approve anything you’ll read here.
In this guide, we represent and serve you, the reader. If a restaurant serves bad food or a gift item is overpriced or a ride isn’t worth the wait, we say so. In the process, we hope to make your visit more fun and rewarding.
Second, we use data, science, and technology to help solve problems that you’ll encounter in Walt Disney World. In many ways, the Disney theme parks are the quintessential system: the ultimate in mass-produced entertainment, the most planned and programmed environment anywhere. Lines for rides and restaurants form in predictable ways at predictable times, for example. That makes it possible for us to study them.
You may be surprised that Disney-related questions like “How can I wait less in line?” or “What rides should my kids try?” are active areas of research in schools around the world; similar problems pop up in businesses every day. The authors and researchers who write this book have years―sometimes decades―of academic and professional experience in these areas and use them to benefit you.
The third way this book is different is the amount of time and money that goes into making it. Disney research is the full-time job of most of our core team. Over the years, we’ve spent millions of dollars reviewing and analyzing Disney World’s hotels, rides, lines, and restaurants. No other book or website commits the people, skills, or budget to do anything like the research you’ll find in these pages. The only other organization that does comparable analysis of Disney World is Disney themselves. And we’ll tell you what they won’t.
How to Use This Book
THE BEST WAY TO USE THIS BOOK is to read in order the first few pages of each chapter, to get a feel for the kinds of questions the chapter answers. Then read in depth the chapters most important to you.
We’ve organized the chapters so that they appear in the same sequence and timeline that you’ll use to plan and take your trip. For example, Part Two contains advice on what you need to know to start your trip planning. The next few chapters guide you through choosing a hotel, finding good places to eat, and picking the best rides and entertainment in the parks.
Each chapter starts with Key Questions, a list of the most common and important queries that visitors have about Walt Disney World (and Universal Orlando). For each question, we’ve listed where in the chapter to find the answers―here’s an example:
Key Questions Answered in This Chapter
- How do I avoid long lines at Walt Disney World? (page 52)
- What is the FastPass+ ride-reservation system, and how do I use it? (page 64)
- What are Extra Magic Hours? (page 37)
- What do I do if my child is too small for a ride that we want to experience? (page 413)
If you don’t recognize a term such as FastPass+ or Rider Switch, you should read that section of the chapter―it’s probably important.
Of course, each chapter answers many more questions than the ones shown on the first page. We suggest skimming each chapter’s bold-faced section headings to see if a particular topic is relevant to your family.
Some subjects, such as how Disney accommodates guests in wheelchairs, are relevant across multiple parts of your vacation. These subjects are usually covered in depth in one chapter (in this case, Part Eight, “Special Tips for Special People”), with cross-references in other chapters when they’re needed.
Many topics are discussed in depth. For example, Disney World has hundreds of rides, from simple spinning things you find at your local town carnival to massive super-headliners the likes of which you’ve never seen. Understanding the scale of these rides, and how they’re run, will help you decide what’s worth your time. And if you visit another theme park later, you’ll know what to look for when planning that trip too.
If you use the guide like an encyclopedia or dictionary―say, you look something up in one of the indexes then go to the cited page―you may overlook information presented in previous sections that is vital to understanding the subject. Likewise, if you skip or skim over explanatory material in the introductory chapters, that might lead to a misunderstanding later on.
Your Unofficial Walt Disney World Toolbox
WHEN IT COMES TO WALT DISNEY WORLD, a couple with two toddlers in diapers needs different advice than a party of seniors going to the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. Likewise, adults touring without children, families with kids of varying ages, and honeymooners all require their own special guidance.
To meet the needs of our diverse readers, we’ve created the comprehensive guide before you. We call The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, at 800 pages, the “Big Book.” It provides the detailed information that anyone traveling to Walt Disney World needs to have a super vacation. It’s our cornerstone.
As thorough as we try to make the main guide, though, there just isn’t sufficient space for all the tips and resources that may be useful to certain readers. Therefore, we’ve developed three additional guides that provide information tailored to specific visitors.
Here’s what’s in the toolbox:
- The Unofficial Guide to Disney Cruise Line, by Erin Foster with Len Testa and Ritchey Halphen, presents advice for first-time cruisers; money-saving tips for booking your cruise; and detailed profiles for restaurants, shows, and nightclubs, along with deck plans and thorough coverage of the ports visited by DCL.
- The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids, by Bob Sehlinger and Liliane J. Opsomer with Len Testa, presents detailed planning and touring tips for a family vacation, along with more than 20 family touring plans not included in the Big Book.
- The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando, by Seth Kubersky, is the most comprehensive guide to Universal Orlando Resort in print. At almost 400 pages, it’s the perfect tool for understanding and enjoying Universal’s ever-expanding complex consisting of theme parks, a water park, resort hotels, nightclubs, and restaurants. The guide includes field-tested touring plans that will save you hours of standing in line.
Corrections, Updates, and Breaking News
LOOK FOR THESE at TouringPlans.com; see page 20 for a complete description of the site. The e-book versions of the Guide (ePub and Kindle) are updated periodically between print editions.
