Walt Disney World is best visited with a plan, guide authors believe. I like Walt Disney World. But if I weren’t a WDW veteran of 20 years, I might not like it much, for I wouldn’t have devised plans to avoid the aggravation of the crowds, the prices, the waits in line.
But for those who don’t live near the world’s No. 1 tourist destination, many guidebooks offer advice.
Disney World is so popular that the publishers are now working the niche markets. The following are mini-reviews of recent books aimed at Disney World patrons, including people who are going without children and those who have physical disabilities.
Peter Smith, a paraplegic who wrote “Handicapped in Walt Disney World,” notes:
“People have disabilities; handicaps are imposed on them. In terms of (eliminating) handicaps to disabled people, Disney World is perhaps better than many places. However, many attractions are inaccessible” to people such as himself, for whom standing and walking are impossible.
“Approximately half of the rides in the Magic Kingdom require people to get out of their wheelchairs. The EPCOT Center has a few rides that fall into the inaccessible category, while the Disney-MGM Studios has only one.”
Smith, who has used a wheelchair since his spine was injured in a hiking accident in 1978, notes that park policy forbids the employees at the rides and attractions to lift or carry wheelchair-users onto the rides. That policy denies these customers rides they otherwise could enjoy.
The book notes the accessibility of each attraction and ride. It also provides such details as using a rain poncho vs. an umbrella against Florida showers, information on the hospital and pharmacies closest to the park, “accessible” rooms at each hotel within the park, and an appendix of agencies, companies and books for disabled tourists.
Smith recognizes the problems of making rides, some 20 years old, accessible to those with mobility problems, but says how relatively easy it would be to have employees lift and place the customers. Typical of his enthusiasm:
“Being carried doesn’t sound dignified, but the author left his false pride in an emergency room in Switzerland in 1978. He has places to go and things to do.”
“Handicapped in Walt Disney World” by Peter Smith; SouthPark Publishing Group, $10.95, 302 pages.
“Walt Disney World for Adults” offers detailed multiday tours to the parks-as if its targeted readers couldn’t decide for themselves.
Suggesting itineraries is common among Disney World guidebooks. Certainly some planning makes a smoother visit because, as author Rita Aero notes, “you will know ahead of time where you will be spending each day so that you can make advance reservations for restaurants, tours and sporting and entertainment events.”
But her themed tours-Education and Discovery Expedition, Sporting Life Vacation, Wild Kingdom, etc.-are regimented: “After lunch, you ferry across Bay Lake and follow the shady paths you’ll want to keep an eye out for.”
Oddly, a few of these trips involve traipsing through EPCOT Center as many as three times in four days.
Notable in this book are the ratings and comments on every hotel, restaurant and dinner show in the parks. Not that I’d agree with all of the ratings. No way do the relentless It’s a Small World and the surprisingly tame Maelstrom rides qualify as “Good fun, if you’re in the mood.” The food at the buffet-style Restaurant Akershus is far better than “Adequate,” the ambience of the Sci-Fi Drive-In Diner is inspired, not merely “Better than most.”
But the book is comprehensive: Its maps locate cocktail lounges in each park.
“Walt Disney World for Adults” by Rita Aero; Fodor’s Travel Publications, $14, 272 pages.
Closely grouped are three other guides that have the wider world as their audiences. In order:
“Disney World and Beyond” covers not only all of Disney World, Universal Studios Florida and Sea World, but also attractions ranging from the simple, uncrowded Green Meadows Children’s Farm in Kissimmee to the sophisticated and jammed Kennedy Space Center to the serene Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales. There’s even a section on best area parks and beaches and worthwhile shopping.
That sort of coast-to-coast advice is hard to come by, but author and Floridian Stacy Ritz presents it smoothly.
Nonetheless, this guide pinpoints Disney World with plenty of tips-how to sit in the front cab of the monorails, how to master the Space Mountain Dash when the park opens, which rides are worth more than a half-hour wait, when you should return to a ride for a night-time trip. There are the standard day-by-day itineraries, plus some for people touring the parks without toddlers.
There’s also a subjective comment on each attraction. The book is balanced in its presentation, points out which rides favored by kids might drive adults nuts and how deceptive some of the waiting lines can be.
Speaking of waiting, Ritz has nine pages of games to play while standing in line-and a trivia quiz to prolong the Disney afterglow. Of all the books reviewed here, this is the best value for the price.
“Disney World and Beyond” by Stacy Ritz; Ulysses Press, $10.95, 270 pages. The publisher has also boiled down most of the specific tips/ratings to an ingenious set of 90 cards you can arrange into your own itinerary and carry easily into the various theme parks. The Family Fun Cards cost $7.95.
Bob Sehlinger has put a lot of time into his “Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World”-more than eight years. His first version of this uncompromising book was published in 1985. The 1994 edition, published a few weeks ago, has swollen to 534 pages, not counting the four-page survey that invites readers’ comments on the parks’ attractions, restaurants and the guidebook.
Sehlinger insists that the throngs drawn to the huge theme park pretty much eliminate the chance to have unplanned fun. WDW “is the ultimate in mass-produced entertainment, the most planned and programed environment imaginable. Spontaneity and self-discovery work about as well (there) as they do on your tax return.”
He also pronounces it a “wonder for people of all ages.” To be sure it is fun, Sehlinger sends out a flight of worker bees who ride every ride-and time the waits for them-interview other Disney World customers, check hotel rooms and generally rate everything that moves and plenty that doesn’t.
Each ride is graded from 0 to 5 stars, in 1/2-star increments, for the “overall appeal” for each of six age groups, from preschool to senior citizens. Hundreds of hotels and motels are rated; there’s even a list of the top 25 hotel swimming pools.
There are similar critiques of Universal Studios Florida and Sea World, and 13 pages of maps and suggested itineraries for readers to cut out and take along.
“The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World” by Bob Sehlinger; Prentice Hall Travel, $13, 534 pages.
It carries the prestigious subtitle, “The Official Guide,” but the lavishly illustrated “Birnbaum’s Walt Disney World” insists it is chaste. Editor Wendy Lefkon writes that she gained her “expertise by standing with all the other visitors.” But she also notes that park executives “opened their files and explained operations to us,” and the book is awash in color photos of Disney characters and park scenes-unavailable to the other guidebooks.
There is some contrary advice that can confuse:
Early on, the author recommends that readers book a two- to four-night package at a Disney hotel, to attend a lavish dinner show. Eighteen pages later, she concedes that the volume of package deals is confusing but she doesn’t offer advice on them other than to say visitors should make sure they aren’t paying for something available to all park guests.
On page 27, it advises carrying “sandwich fixings” on vacation to save money. On page 124, under “Tips From WDW Veterans,” it states, “Don’t take food into the Magic Kingdom”-yet that’s one of the basic strategies for those traveling with young children.
On the whole, though, this book is comprehensive without being fawning. It, too, offers tips: where to get a haircut in the park, don’t wait to ride the buses at EPCOT’s World Showcase (it’s a waste of time), the left-side waiting lines at an attraction tend to be shorter than those on the right.
“Birnbaum’s Walt Disney World, The Official Guide, 1994 edition” by Wendy Lefkon, Hyperion and Hearst Business Publishing, $11.95, 256 pages.
For the finicky or nervous motorist headed to Florida, there is an unusual guidebook that does everything but change the radio station.
“Along the Interstate 75” promises that it includes every gas station and motel-by brand name and location-on the highway between the Florida state line and Detroit, located precisely on 84 multicolor maps that divide the route into 25-mile strips. Charts on facing pages list, in order and by milepost, every exit and, again, the gas stations, restaurants and motels at each.
The book is spiral-bound so it will stay open and lie flat. To make the return trip, flip the book over-all the maps and charts are printed in order, going the other way.
“Along the Interstate 75” by Dave Hunter; Mile Oak Publishing, (1150 Wehrle Drive, Buffalo, N.Y. 14221), $19.95 (plus $5 for shipping and handling), 221 pages.
