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The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2020
THE trusted source of information for a successful Walt Disney World vacation The best-selling independent guide to Walt Disney World has everything you need to plan your family’s trip―hassle-free. Whether you are planning your annual vacation to Walt Disney World or preparing for your first visit ever, this book gives you the insider scoop on hotels, restaurants, and attractions. The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2020 explains how Walt Disney World works and how to use that knowledge to make every minute and every dollar of your vacation count. With an Unofficial Guide in hand, and with authors Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa as guides, find out what’s available in every category, from best to worst, and get step-by-step, detailed plans to help make the most of your time at Walt Disney World. Six Great Features and Benefits offered ONLY by The Unofficial
800 pages, Paperback
Published August 13, 2019
112 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Bob Sehlinger
174 books30 followersBob Sehlinger is the creator of the Unofficial Guide travel series and author or co-author of over 25 travel guides. He makes his home in Birmingham, Alabama, where the catfish are jumping and the cotton is high.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 31, 2020
This is the book that will answer any and all questions you may have about a vacation to Walt Disney World. Sehlinger & Testa have been writing the Unofficial WDW guides for more than 30 years, so they are true experts in helping first-time and experienced visitors plan and experience an enjoyable, carefree vacation. They provide practical planning advice alongside standard attraction, lodging, and dining information. If you want to know how much a mickey ice cream bar costs or if there are any disadvantages to taking a “Minnie van,” you’ll find your answers in this hefty guide. We all know a theme park vacation is going to be expensive, but the sticker shock can be alleviated just a bit with careful planning, realistic expectations, and grounded financial choices. Sehlinger & Testa give you the knowledge to make the best decisions for your budget, your time, and your vacation.
October 20, 2019
If you need a guide to figure out your florida vacation this is the Holy Bible. Intensely researched, Frank, honest and balanced. Also, not in Walts back pocket so it can be brutal when appropriate. I feel so much more prepared.
November 21, 2019
An invaluable guide to Walt Disney World! If you're planning a trip there or if you just want to stay up-to-date with the latest rides/attractions/special events/prices, it's a must-read. I used their Touring Plans (computer generated plans that incorporate your own FastPasses/dinner reservations/attractions for a particular day in the parks) for our last two trips to Disney World and they were incredible -- we were able to see everything that we wanted to see in the Magic Kingdom with minimal wait times. They use years of compiled data, as well as daily ride closure information and crowd level predictions, to create a personalized daily touring plan for your upcoming Disney vacation. They even have data on the best rooms at each Disney resort to recommend! The book also contains restaurant information and reviews, hotel reviews and recommendations, attraction reviews, and anything else you could possibly think of!
September 11, 2019
Consistently helpful information. I read it from cover to cover and made lots of notes and lists, I am sure I will be referencing back to this book many times before our trip in December. The ULTIMATE Disney World Guide Book!!
November 27, 2019
This is great for planning a Disney trip! It is massive, but makes a big difference on the actual trip.
October 3, 2020
There are only a few books that I would cite as being life altering. This book (or more specifically the year 2000 edition) is one of them. The Unofficial Guide is unlike any other travel book I have read. Bob Sehlinger applied his business knowledge on operations research to formulate optimal touring plans to avoid waiting in long lines.
What is operations research? Well, consider the classic Dumbo ride - the one that spins around in a circle with the riders controlling going high or low. The line may not look long, but consider that the ride must stop, riders off-loaded, and new riders on-loaded before the ride can start again. The ride only operates one out of these three stages.
Contrast this with the Haunted Mansion, which is a continuous loader where passengers ride in their own Doombuggie. They are on-loaded and off-loaded without stopping the ride. So even if the lines look longer, the cycle time is much quicker.
Now consider where these attractions are in relation to each other. An attraction located near a theater will be subject to massive spikes in lines every time time theater discharges guests.
Factoring in all these considerations, Sehlinger crafted several touring plans - for adults, for families with young children, and the infamous Dumbo-or-Die plan.
Things have changed at Disney over the intervening years. Most notably was the arrival of FastPass and its various iterations. We are planning a two day trip to the parks as they start to open up after the COVID-19 pandemic had shutdown most of the world. There will be no parades, no fireworks, no shows, and no FastPass (all the queues will be used to aid with social distancing). We are back to old school touring techniques - and so I decided to pick up the latest edition...20 years after my first reading.
Much of the core content is the same - as I would have hoped. Great info on all the hotels (both on property and off property), every attractions, and loads of tips and tricks. Probably the biggest tip for me was learning they have a website and app called touringplans.com. It costs about $17 for a one year subscription, which is not a bad deal.
You may wonder why you should pay this when Disney gives you a free app that tells you the wait times for all attractions. Well, consider these wait times are intentionally longer than reality. This is to manage guest expectations. You want people to be happy that their wait time wasn’t as bad as it was advertised. The Touring Plans app, on the other hand, gives you accurate and real-time updates of waiting times, projected waiting times, and suggestions as to whether ride it is of wait until later.
So why was this book life altering? I hadn’t really encountered Operations Research (OR) prior to reading this book. The practical application was so clear to me that I have been applying OR principles in so many domains ever since.
We have our touring plan mapped out and I am anxious to give the app a try. If you are planning a trip to Disney, whether it is your first time or fiftieth time, you MUST buy this book!
What is operations research? Well, consider the classic Dumbo ride - the one that spins around in a circle with the riders controlling going high or low. The line may not look long, but consider that the ride must stop, riders off-loaded, and new riders on-loaded before the ride can start again. The ride only operates one out of these three stages.
Contrast this with the Haunted Mansion, which is a continuous loader where passengers ride in their own Doombuggie. They are on-loaded and off-loaded without stopping the ride. So even if the lines look longer, the cycle time is much quicker.
Now consider where these attractions are in relation to each other. An attraction located near a theater will be subject to massive spikes in lines every time time theater discharges guests.
Factoring in all these considerations, Sehlinger crafted several touring plans - for adults, for families with young children, and the infamous Dumbo-or-Die plan.
Things have changed at Disney over the intervening years. Most notably was the arrival of FastPass and its various iterations. We are planning a two day trip to the parks as they start to open up after the COVID-19 pandemic had shutdown most of the world. There will be no parades, no fireworks, no shows, and no FastPass (all the queues will be used to aid with social distancing). We are back to old school touring techniques - and so I decided to pick up the latest edition...20 years after my first reading.
Much of the core content is the same - as I would have hoped. Great info on all the hotels (both on property and off property), every attractions, and loads of tips and tricks. Probably the biggest tip for me was learning they have a website and app called touringplans.com. It costs about $17 for a one year subscription, which is not a bad deal.
You may wonder why you should pay this when Disney gives you a free app that tells you the wait times for all attractions. Well, consider these wait times are intentionally longer than reality. This is to manage guest expectations. You want people to be happy that their wait time wasn’t as bad as it was advertised. The Touring Plans app, on the other hand, gives you accurate and real-time updates of waiting times, projected waiting times, and suggestions as to whether ride it is of wait until later.
So why was this book life altering? I hadn’t really encountered Operations Research (OR) prior to reading this book. The practical application was so clear to me that I have been applying OR principles in so many domains ever since.
We have our touring plan mapped out and I am anxious to give the app a try. If you are planning a trip to Disney, whether it is your first time or fiftieth time, you MUST buy this book!
July 2, 2020
Having read "The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando Resort" several times and had a successful trip to UOR, I decided it was time to see what advice they had for a trip to Walt Disney World. I wasn't disappointed. This book is quite thick considering there's four parks that comprise WDW as well as an abriged section on UOR (apparently a lot of people make UOR a part of their WDW trip). The first quarter of the book was focused on the systems and lingo of WDW and what it takes, in advance of arriving at the parks, in order to have a successful vacation. The succeeding sections are on the transportation, accommodations, each theme park, the water parks, Disney Springs, and Disney activities outside of the parks.
The advice they give about what to do in advance of arriving at the parks is stress-inducing. I've heard about how crazy people get when they plan their trips and I think that Disney feeds in to this. For example, guests staying at a Disney resort get to make their FastPass+ reservations something like 60 days in advance and their dining reservations 100+ days in advance. I don't know about you, but I have no idea what I want to eat 100 days in advance of anything. So what happens is that people get up a 4am on the 100th day of their reservations and try and snap up the reservations and FP+. I'm sorry, no theme park ride or restaurant is worth that. And this is from someone who thrives off planning theme park vacations.
A lot of people seem to put a lot of expectations on a Disney vacation, and for the amount of money they pay, they should, but there has to come a limit to what you can actually expect. One, don't start a trip already stressed because you didn't get a restaurant or FP+. Two, you can't control the weather or the crowds. Three, you won't be able to ride every ride, see every parade, or experience all the facets of your resort. It's all designed to make you want to come back and enjoy more. The only way I think you can do it ALL is to spend a week or more there, which I'm sure some do.
For me, 4-5 days seems sufficient to have a good time while not going broke on the vacation. I would also sacrifice a little and not experience the full-service restaurants. It was very helpful to have them rank and rate all restaurants with in their categories. I like getting the best quality for my buck.
As far as planning rides during busy times, the Touring Plans the Unofficial Guides design have always come through for us. Sometimes you do have to wait, but sometimes the waiting is a great time to visit and reconnect with the people you're traveling with. Plus many queues are so well designed its nice to take them in. Even if you do have to wait while using a Touring Plan it's going to be so much better than without the plan.
I would highly recommend this book if you're thinking of going to WDW. Also get the Lines app to help you be aware of the crowds and wait times while in the park.
The advice they give about what to do in advance of arriving at the parks is stress-inducing. I've heard about how crazy people get when they plan their trips and I think that Disney feeds in to this. For example, guests staying at a Disney resort get to make their FastPass+ reservations something like 60 days in advance and their dining reservations 100+ days in advance. I don't know about you, but I have no idea what I want to eat 100 days in advance of anything. So what happens is that people get up a 4am on the 100th day of their reservations and try and snap up the reservations and FP+. I'm sorry, no theme park ride or restaurant is worth that. And this is from someone who thrives off planning theme park vacations.
A lot of people seem to put a lot of expectations on a Disney vacation, and for the amount of money they pay, they should, but there has to come a limit to what you can actually expect. One, don't start a trip already stressed because you didn't get a restaurant or FP+. Two, you can't control the weather or the crowds. Three, you won't be able to ride every ride, see every parade, or experience all the facets of your resort. It's all designed to make you want to come back and enjoy more. The only way I think you can do it ALL is to spend a week or more there, which I'm sure some do.
For me, 4-5 days seems sufficient to have a good time while not going broke on the vacation. I would also sacrifice a little and not experience the full-service restaurants. It was very helpful to have them rank and rate all restaurants with in their categories. I like getting the best quality for my buck.
As far as planning rides during busy times, the Touring Plans the Unofficial Guides design have always come through for us. Sometimes you do have to wait, but sometimes the waiting is a great time to visit and reconnect with the people you're traveling with. Plus many queues are so well designed its nice to take them in. Even if you do have to wait while using a Touring Plan it's going to be so much better than without the plan.
I would highly recommend this book if you're thinking of going to WDW. Also get the Lines app to help you be aware of the crowds and wait times while in the park.
February 19, 2020
This will be my first trip to WDW and when I was first handed this book by my boyfriend (who has been a few times before!) I was so overwhelmed that I didn't know where to start!....it is a HUGE book! However, once we started properly planning our holiday I started to read it and I honestly couldn't put it down! The amount of detail is amazing and it covers things you wouldn't have even thought of! It has really helped with our planning and we will be using some of the touring guides it provides. My book is currently covered in post-it notes and yellow highlighter pen so I don't forget all the top tips and recommendations.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning a trip to Orlando. Don't be overwhelmed, be EXCITED!
I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning a trip to Orlando. Don't be overwhelmed, be EXCITED!
February 22, 2020
This was a very informative book on how to navigate Disney World. It really helped me in planning out my time there. It is a long book, but I read it in sections. The book also gives information on Universal Studios.
I think if you want to know everything there is to know about the park unofficially this book is for you to read. This includes rides, food, transportation, entertainment, tickets and more. I put in markers on pages for reference to go back when we're at the park.
It is a little pricey, but just being able to sit down and read the book and not online as in a blog was very helpful to me as I planned our trip to Disney World.
I think if you want to know everything there is to know about the park unofficially this book is for you to read. This includes rides, food, transportation, entertainment, tickets and more. I put in markers on pages for reference to go back when we're at the park.
It is a little pricey, but just being able to sit down and read the book and not online as in a blog was very helpful to me as I planned our trip to Disney World.
January 25, 2020
If you are looking for an incredibly thorough book on Disney World, this is it! It has almost too many details, but if you want to make the most of your trip and take advantage of everything Disney while saving money, this book will help. This is not for the just go with it traveler. This is for the planner. It is overwhelming, but I found the insider tips saved me lots of time. Do check out the companion Touringplans.com.
January 28, 2020
It's Disney and Im a Disney fanatic. So why wouldn't I give a five star review when reading about my favorite place?
February 16, 2020
You need to read if you’re going to Disney!!! So much inside information that is NOT in the official guides! Disney now a days requires SO MUCH PLANNING, but this book will make it so much easier!
November 12, 2019
Disney drinking from a fire house. So so helpful! I don't get to do Disneyworld very often, so when I do, I want to make it count. And this is the book to do it! Full, like FULL of information. If you're going to Disney, get this book!
January 27, 2020
Very pleasant reading experience,
Love this book, plenty of info and detail descriptions of everything Disney. Also enjoyed the customer comments. I spent hours binge reading and couldn't put it down.
Love this book, plenty of info and detail descriptions of everything Disney. Also enjoyed the customer comments. I spent hours binge reading and couldn't put it down.
June 30, 2020
I read most of this between last year and this year, it was helpful for planning initially, but now everything has changed and I'll put this away for now. Have to wait and see what the new normal will be in the future.
November 18, 2019
Super helpful
March 10, 2020
Fantastic
Always a terrific guide. If you don’t want to stand in line, follow the advice in this book. Also great work or reviewing the restaurants and telling you how to snag reservations. Fastpass advice is wonderful as well.
Always a terrific guide. If you don’t want to stand in line, follow the advice in this book. Also great work or reviewing the restaurants and telling you how to snag reservations. Fastpass advice is wonderful as well.
April 5, 2021
The book read like a commercial for their WDW app. If they took out the testimonials, the book would be easily 30% shorter.
April 10, 2021
Lots of details supplemented by reviews by readers make this a useful guide. This particular edition doesn’t include COVID and post-COVID changes, but the bulk of the book is useful.
February 1, 2022
Very informative and helpful. One must be fully prepared for a trip to Disney!
September 23, 2019
Didn't learn anything new
If you have been before even just once you don't need this book. I felt like the main purpose was to sell you their touring plans. I didn't learn anything new.
If you have been before even just once you don't need this book. I felt like the main purpose was to sell you their touring plans. I didn't learn anything new.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews