General Information:

Media Type: Book
Type: Parks - Picture
Release Date: 2012-01-16

Geek's Thoughts: Part trivia, part eye spy, and entirely fun this book by Meredith Lyn Pierce was inspired by a visit to the parks with her daughter. She watched her daughter in line throughout the day oscillated between happy and bored while they waited for each attraction. Everyone who has visited a theme park with a child knows how even the best of children can test your patience while in line. This book was created to help fill the time. It provides a structure, questions, and activities to make your waits more enjoyable. The book encompasses both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure parks and is organized by area of the park. Within each area you will find the questions/activities grouped by attraction and ordered roughly as you would encounter them while in line. There are 964 questions (multiple choice, yes/no), 74 scavenger hunt and 22 collections (eye spy) in the book. Each question/activity has points associated with it so you can play against/with each other or you can just play for fun. All of the questions can be answered by looking around or listening while in line. You do not need to have any prior Disney knowledge or be a Disney/trivia geek to succeed. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open as you go through the queues.

 

Even though the book is targeted at keeping kids occupied in line I think it can be enjoyed by all. It can be quite a good challenge for disneygeeks too. I enjoyed reading through the questions and trying to answer them. For a whole new dimension try to do so without reading the multiple choice selections or if you really want to test yourself doing it from home/memory as I attempted to do and it will show you how much you do not know! The questions range from observational such as how many teeth does the large gear in the Big Thunder queue have to audio clues such as what does Mr. Potato Head ask you to shout while waiting for Toy Story Midway Mania.

The book is well conceived and meets its desired goal of creating an engaging set of activities to keep you busy while you wait in line. I think it also helps to draw attention to some of the rich detail the Imagineers have placed in the queues and surrounding environments. Me being the geek that I am and always wanting more saw an opportunity that I would really like to see explored. That is the back story or additional information that could be included. For example there is a question in the Star Tours queue What is 1401? The choices all revolve around things in the room but I am sure all you disneygeeks know the significance of the number? It is the street address number for Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale. It seems to be beckoning for a geek edition or something. Where you can answer the base question then for a bonus point on some of them explain the significance of it.

The format of this book is a 4x9 inch paper back, the same format as the popular Hidden Mickey books so it is easy to carry around the park and affordable. For more information on the book as well as the app they have available check out their website: http://www.lotstodoinline.com