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 The
Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2002
(click on the image to order from Amazon.com)
For this session we will look at the second of our Walt Disney Bibles,
The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2002 by Bob Sehlinger (Hungry
Minds: August 2001. ISBN: 0764564218).
This guidebook has been around for a long time. The first edition provided
about 200 pages of information on Walt Disney World and other Central
Florida attractions. The current edition contains over 700 pages of information.
Since this book packs so much information, it would seem that it be a
tremendous help for anyone planning a trip to Orlando. Let's see.
Credibility
Early on our author tells us that this work is to serve as a "critical
appraisal" of Walt Disney World and is quick to note that the book
is very much an independent piece of work that has not been reviewed,
edited, or approved by any representatives of the Disney corporate family.
Obviously it's important to Mr. Sehlinger to inform his audience of
this fact with the hope that he will establish that the views and opinions
within the document are in no way influenced by the Disney corporate
community. It is the author's means of establishing credibility. The
book is comprised primarily of information gathered by an in-house team.
Basic features
At precisely 753 pages, this book boasts the biggest page count of
all the WDW bibles. The book is put together in a heavily narrative
style and a great deal of emphasis is placed on the book's specialty,
theme park touring plans. Very few graphics are provided, although cartoons
are placed throughout the book to drive home certain points. Comments,
supplied by readers of previous editions, are used to supplement and
support the advice that the author offers to his readers. This guidebook
has been described as one large trip report and this label has stemmed
from earlier versions when a larger proportion of the book was devoted
to these comments.
The arrangement of information is typical for a Walt Disney World guidebook.
There is an orientation and planning section, followed by a chapter
that discusses the fine art of balancing your time and money budget.
Following those are chapters on hotel selection, Disney Cruise Line
information, spending time at WDW with kids, dining and theme park information,
a discussion on tips for people with special situations (seniors, expectant
mothers, disabled guests, and so on), information on Universal Studios,
Sea World, Water Parks, and activities outside the parks. In the back
of the book is a Reader's Survey which offers Sehlinger's audience the
opportunity to send feedback on the book and their own comments on various
areas of the WDW resort.
Maps
The book is big into maps as there are 15 maps in all. The maps are
very simply presented in grayscale (the only color in this publication
is on the glossy cover.) The style of the maps is a bit inconsistent
as legends are sometimes employed while in other cases, labels are printed
directly on the map. Another inconsistency is that there is a map for
Universal Studios but not Sea World. The most important maps in the
book are the touring maps in the back portion of the guide. These maps
can be easily removed and used by first timers who need a bit more guidance
in their navigation of the theme parks.
Information Retrieval
Getting to a specific piece of information in this book may be somewhat
frustrating. Since the book is primarily narrative in style, there are
very few tables and charts to lay out information efficiently. In my
experience, books of this style make it harder to find specific pieces
of information. To compound the problem, Sehlinger does not provide
tabbing or other devices that could help so you are forced to rely on
the book's index and table of contents for searches.
Attraction Information
Each chapter that focuses on a specific theme park employs a star rating
system to demonstrate how each attraction appeals to six specific age
groups: pre-school, grade school, teens, young adults, over 30, and
senior citizens. Other information such as the optimal time to visit
and the time duration of each attraction is also helpful. However, in
my experience it is risky to follow advice about specific times which
are supposedly "best" for visiting an attraction since it's
well known that there is significant variation from day to day and from
season to season (although the book does provide a caveat stating that
these recommendations are suggestions only.) My suggestion is: "be
an early bird" and leave it at that.
Hotel Information
About 80 pages are devoted to hotel descriptions and information. The
section opens with the debate of staying on or off the property. The
chapter then provides several comparison charts to help the reader focus
in on some specific differences between resorts. They are helpful, but
the information could have been combined into one table that would be
easier to use. The strengths and weaknesses that Sehlinger uses as criteria
for comparing the Disney resorts are arbitrary. I found that not all
of those issues are important to me, but other readers may find them
of more value. One strong point of this book is that Sehlinger provides
considerable information on select hotels outside the Disney property
as well as the on-property resorts.
Restaurant Information
With over 100 pages devoted to restaurants, more attention has been
given to dining requirements than lodging needs. Each restaurant is
thoroughly profiled which should provide first time guests with a good
overview. One feature that should be noted is the summarized reader's
survey responses which provide a "thumbs up or thumbs down"
percentage rating for each restaurant. As I reviewed them the number
of ratings that I disagreed with struck me. I think it may be better
to judge things some things personally, rather than accept these unscientific
surveys as gospel.
The pricing information that is provided certainly can be helpful for
getting an overall sense of the price range for full-service restaurants,
but I doubt the value of providing such specific information for select
items at counter restaurants. Unless the reader has a photographic memory
or lugs this tome around in the parks, such information is really of
limited value.
Table of Contents
Although the table of contents clearly shows the logical arrangement
of information in the book, it is also incomplete. For example, the
chapter on accommodations includes a section on how to get discounts
on lodging at Walt Disney World, but that section is not listed in the
table of contents. Unless you plough through the chapter page by page
you may miss that critical area. Another gap is that there are no subheadings
in the table of contents for the chapter on the Disney Cruise Line,
which is at least consistent with the text in the chapter. However,
the chapter material lends itself to being broken down into at least
seven subsections. With a book so huge, this editorial oversight can
not be attributed to a page count issue. The result is a table of contents
that is misleading. It does not give you a true picture of all of the
information that this book contains.
Appendix
The appendix for this book is comprised of reader's questions about
the book and comments about certain aspects of their WDW experience.
Although Sehlinger provides thorough answers for each question, the
information is poorly located. It would be easier to find, and be more
valuable to the reader, if the information was placed in the appropriate
place within the book instead of in an appendix where it may never be
found.
Index
On the bright side, this book boasts an outstanding index which does
offset the poor table of contents to some extent. I was impressed with
the secondary entries and was pleased to see thorough cross-referencing
of subject matter. For those who use the index of a book as their first
step in locating information this is the index for you.
Bibliography
This book contains information gathered from Sehlinger's field research
team. He also includes mention of psychologists that provided insight
on children and his own hotel and cruise line experts to help discuss
those two particular areas. Of course he also makes use of comments
from readers based on the Reader's survey, which can be found at the
back of the book, filled out and sent to the author.
Mike's Take
On the plus side, this book certainly provides a wealth of information.
It recognizes the need to provide advanced planning, hotel information,
and time and money budgeting insights. Also, for those who need more specific
guidance, the touring plans may be helpful. A great deal of effort has
been spent on the index which does make this a valuable reference tool.
On the negative side, the book may have grown almost too big for it's
britches. It just has so much that it's very difficult to recognize
the very important among that almost unnecessary. The very girth of the
book is a deterrent -- it's very discouraging to find that elusive needle
when the haystack is so big.
Down to the bottom line, I do feel that this book can be a very helpful
resource for trip planners, but that first timers may want to get a hold
of this book way early in the planning stage so they can digest all that
is here. First time WDW trip planners may already be overwhelmed. Is a
reference book with over 700 pages likely to simplify this task?
I don't think so.
Next time: The new kid on the Block - Passporter
Class dismissed.
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Photos on this page by
Brian Bennett unless otherwise noted
Here are several links
to information on other WDW Trip Planning Resources | MousePlanet's
Other WDW Resources | Walt
Disney World Trip Planning Video | MouseTips-The
Unofficial Newsletter of WDW | Other
Sources on the World Wide Web | Resources
for Non-Disney Touring (in the Orlando Area) And here is a link
to Brian Bennett's own Critiques
of Published Guide Books (including the book reviewed here by Mike
Scopa).
Here's a list of the trip
reports that Mike has written that are part of MousePlanet's archives!
Also, don't miss Lani
Teshima's column, "The
Trip Planner" for more travel planning information!
Brian Bennett, author of MousePlanet's
WDW Trip Planning Guide
(and publisher of the Disney
Trip Report Archive), writes:
The first Disney trip report that I ever
read was a report by Mike Scopa that I downloaded from the America Online
travel library in late 1994. The report was a detailed description of
the Scopa family's trip to WDW in the summer of that year.
As soon as I was done reading it, I was
hooked.
I picked my own brain and documented my
own trips and the things I'd learned from my own experiences. Then, in
1995 I actually wrote a report as the trip unfolded. I took a laptop with
me and spent some time in the evenings documenting what had happened that
day. (I've repeated that process for my own reports ever since.)
In July 1996, I started my Disney
trip planning Web site. Besides including my own reports, I asked
for permission from the authors of several other reports and added them
to the offering. Since then, the number of reports has expanded greatly.
In 1997, I added an information summary for each report to make it easier
to sort through the reports that are available.
I still 'blame' Mike for hooking me on
this Disney habit.
Thanks Mike!
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