The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2008 (Unofficial Guides)

This is a must have book to enjoy the Parks at DW. We smilled all the time at the parks following the one day tours. Wait times were very reasonalble and we felt that we saw the best parts of each and rode the best rides. Most importantly we arrived each day prepared for a day of adventure. The entire family, two parents and two teenage girls had a pleasant experience.

Very informative. Love the itineraries. This is the second time I have purchased this book. The only bad thing is that the book can get real negative on vacationing at Disney and sometimes you'll be second guessing yourself on why you are going there in the first place. But generally a good book to have before going to Disney.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone visiting Disney for the first time. It can be an extremely overwhelming vacation especially if you go wothout any plan of attack. My husband, children (ages 5 & 7) and I just returned from Disney and found this book to be of great value, especially the reviews of the attractions. We didn't stay at a WDW resort so I cannot comment on that section. The many suggestions offered, like getting to the parks before they open, were invaluable. We did not follow the tour plans offered at the back of the book, but instead, catered our plan based on our childrens' interests. We utilized the book to make advance reservations for a character dinner, which was enjoyable since many characters in the park have such long lines to have a picture with them. I would definitely bring this book along to your hotel (not in the park, it's too heavy) to make your daily plan. A good buy for a few $.

The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World is huge! It contains a lot of information, but will also take you a lot of time to digest it, and it's not a particularly fun read. For fun, I prefer The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World. For better planning and organizational tools, I prefer the Passporter's Walt Disney World. But this book has much more information on touring plans, how to allocate your time, and pretty much everything else. It is very comprehensive.

We have been to Disney every year for the past 6 years and have bought the newest edition of this book before each of our trips, and our whole family loves it. There is plenty of information we don't even need, since it covers such a wide array of subjects, but the information we do use is extremely helpful. Some reviews have said this is a negative book, is anti-Disney, or makes the parks sound so crowded that it makes you not want to go at all. I think the book is merely being realistic in trying to offer strategies and the best times to visit to avoid crowds. We were there Easter week a few years ago and the parks were mobbed, but the tips in this book made things less frustrating. We are currently planning our 2009 trip and even though at this point we probably don't even need another new edition of this book, we will be buying it when it comes out next month.

A few examples of how this guide has been helpful in years past:

-On our first visit, I purchased "bounce-back" tickets which were not displayed at the ticket booth....until I asked about them, at which point the ticket booth employee turned over the placemat which had all of the multi-day ticket info on it. On the back was information about the "bounce-back" tickets. Since I knew what to ask for, I saved about $100.

-A couple of years ago, we were getting ready to leave Epcot on our last day when I noticed a sign for Turtle Talk with Crush. I remembered reading in the Guide that this was very funny and was possibly a glimpse into the future of Disney attractions. We stayed to watch, and it turned out to be one of our favorite parts of the whole trip, including our 16 and 14 year olds.

-We had debated going to see the Cirque du Soleil show, but the price had always scared us away. The Guide said that they had never received a single negative review about the show, and talked about how incredible it was. We decided to go on our most recent visit, and we all absolutely loved it.

I highly recommend this book, especially to anyone going to Didney World for the first time.