In preparation for an upcoming trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, I soon discovered one of my favorite travel sites: DisBoards.com, a Disney discussion community full of great tips, resources, and a group of friendly die-hard Disney fans sharing their experiences and advice. The folks at Disboards commonly recommend the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World as the de facto guide book to WDW. As a result, without hesitation, I bought myself a copy.
The book is indeed as good as the raves about it. It’s very comprehensive and covers just about everything you need to know about planning your trip to WDW. For the most part, I agree with pretty much everything in the book (especially the tips about arriving early). However, there were a few areas where I felt the book was either not entirely accurate or not enough details were provided. While I strongly suggest picking up the guide, here are some additional tips for Walt Disney World.
Which parks to see first: The Unofficial Guide recommends visiting the Magic Kingdom last, although they do state that most people will ignore this advice and visit it first. I cannot help but think that the authors and their team of experts have visited WDW a too many times and have forgotten the agony of anticipation to see what is WDW to most people — the Magic Kingdom. It would be like making your kids wait until after Christmas dinner to open their presents. Bah humbug. We visited the Magic Kingdom first and were glad we did.
Saving Money: I read the guide twice. It is very comprehensive but I do not recall any section of the book dedicated to saving money on your Disney vacation. Let’s face it — a Disney vacation is expensive. There are a few tips thrown in here and there, but the authors really ought to take all those tips and stuff them into a single section. Many Disney visitors save for several months, if not years, to take their “vacation of a lifetime” and it is possible to save hundreds of dollars. For example, did you know that Disney lets you take your own food into the park with you? We took everything from sandwiches to chicken to fresh fruit. We spent a total of 6 days at the park and between the 5 of us spent less than $60 on park food, snacks, and refreshments. I’ve written another blog post on Disney World money saving tips that is worth checking out.
Touring Plans: The book provides “Touring Plans”, lists that describe the order in which attractions should be visited. There are several different plans based on your age and how much time you have in each park. These touring plans are good but not great. My main issue: They simply cannot factor in all the variables and conditions that might occur in real life, let alone personal preferences or ad hoc opportunities. We tried to use the touring plans but it proved to be too difficult. Here are a couple of reasons why:
- Inclement Weather. The park (Magic Kindom) was not busy at all compared to what we were expecting because of heavy rain in the morning. Being from the Pacific Northwest, the rain did not stop us one bit. However, the rain meant great opportunities to ride some of our favorite attractions repeatedly with little or not wait. We rode Space Mountain 3 times with little or no wait.
- Broken down rides: Just our luck, our second day at the Magic Kingdom, the following rides were all broken down in the morning: Space Mountain, Big Thunder, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Splash Mountain was closed for refurbishment. The touring plan was useless.
- Ad Hoc Opportunities: My daughters bought autograph books and wanted to meet the characters for signing and photos which meant delaying or altering the touring plans.
- Lots of Walking: There are plans for families with small children, but no plans for kids in the 6 to 10-year range, where they want to ride on all the big rides, but traipsing across the park to minimize the wait time neither feasible or desirable. In fact, it’s downright aggravating… “Dad, can you carry me?” The plan creators obviously do not have 3 young daughters.
Using Hotwire for Your Hotel Stay: I don’t recommend Priceline for Disney vacations for 2 main reasons. First, you don’t know what amenities you’ll get when bidding for travel. For example, we wanted a 2-bedroom unit with a kitchen. This could not be obtained with any certainty on Priceline but we did manage to obtain this on Hotwire. In fact, Hotwire saved us about $70 per night x 9 nights = $630. If thinking about using Hotwire, it might be worth checking out these resources:
- Hotwire Orlando List of Hotels: Hotels known to be on Hotwire in the Orlando Area.
- Hotwire Orlando Discussion Forum: Here, people share their purchase details and other tips for better bidding on Orlando.
Overall, the book is absolutely fantastic. As I experienced Disney World for 6 days, I kept thinking to myself, “Why didn’t the book tell me about that?” Other than a few small items such as the ones above, I love the book and definitely recommend travelers pick up a copy of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.