General Information:

Media Type: Book
Type: Guidebooks
Release Date: 2008-08-13

Geek's Thoughts: This is not your typical guide. I am not sure what I would call this book as it is really three pieces put together. I think it is really more of a fact book or quick reference book than a guide. The book is organized around three main sections. The first is Attractions. In this section each attraction around Disneyland (park not resort) is listed and there is a brief description, a behind the scenes section, things to look for, and quick facts. The second is a section that features some hidden Mickeys and the third contains some games to play while waiting in line.

The book is intended to be taken with you to the park and used as reference or something to occupy yourself with while exploring the park or waiting in line. It is not a traditional guidebook in the sense that you can read through it and find tips on how to plan a visit or experience the park. The format for the book is a paperback of relatively small form factor so you could easily toss it into a bag and take it with you.

 

The attractions section is by far the largest and most detailed in the book. It lists all attractions located within Disneyland and it gives you two pages of information on each. I see why this is done, but being a Disneygeek, I always want more and thought some of the E-ticket attractions deserved a little more ink. I really enjoyed the quick facts and what to look for lists. I have seen/read many of them before but having them in a single book that you can quickly reference is great. The behind the scenes section was ok.. Its hard to compare when you have read entire books or long pieces on a given attraction to what the author has tried to convey in a couple bullet points due to the format of the book. As a quick reference though or to give the average geek some trivia talking points it is a good fit.

The hidden Mickey section gives descriptions and images of some of the more popular/common hidden Mickeys around the park. I thought this was a nice touch, I would have liked to have seen color pictures, but I am sure that would dramatically drive up costs of the book.

The last section of the book contains some games to play while waiting in line. The games are designed to be played while waiting in a particular line and they have eye-spy type questions, puzzles, or riddles. Again I think found this to be a great subsection to entertain you while in line and help to round out your day.

Overall I really enjoyed the concept and execution of this book compared to so many of the other guides that exist. I would recommend this to someone looking for a travel companion or quick reference /trivia book for the park. As I mentioned at the beginning the intent of this book is not to be a guide of how to visit the park or even what to do when there, so keep that in mind. Also I think it works better for those who are repeat guests and not first timers.. If it is your first time to the park I would say you want something that gives you a more detailed description of the experience and keeps clear of the behind the scenes or trivia type information.