Florida > The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World With Kids

Anonymous April 11, 2010 at 8:26 pm

I have purchased the Unofficial Guide to Wald Disney world once before when we were planning a trip- we didn’t get to go, so I purchased the updated one just last month. Along with my order, I decided to add the Unofficial Guide “with kids” because we have 3 small children. I was very disapointed. This could have been a great accompaniment to the regular Unofficial Guide. For starters, in both my situations, the Unoffical Guide was A+ on info, I loved it. The “with kids” seemed to copy and paste bits from that book. But, the confusing part, is that they didn’t copy and paste parts that I found to be most useful in the Unoffical Guide. I am confused about why you would need this book- and it lacks some of his personal insight. My guess is that he did not actually do Disney with children and it seems to show. The upside is that “with kids” does give web sites for outside the world hotels that is missing from the Unofficial Guide. I also did find a couple other tidbits like the section on packing and creating uniforms for your family. There is a lot of info on parenting style that is not found in the regular Unofficial guide- but I am still not sure why it is in this one either. I was so excited to see his insight and sad to say he didn’t have any. Bottom line IMO is to skip this book, but don’t skip the regular Unofficial guide. It is a 6 star book!!

Gordon C. Duus April 11, 2010 at 9:17 pm

This book reviews everything there is to review at Walt Disney World–every hotel, every park, every ride, every restaurant, and even most of the neighboring attractions outside of WDW. Unlike the Birnbaum guide, this book has no business connection with WDW, so the author can be as honest as he wants. I bought both books, read most of both books, and this is the only book you need.

MDK67 April 12, 2010 at 12:04 am

I looked at quite a few different books before I decided on this one. I wanted a book that was small, dealt with children, and had a quick and easy references (didn’t want it to take 5-10 minutes to look up everything). This book was a winner and I would highly recommend it to any parents taking the trip to WDW. It came in very useful when planning our days activities. Rated each ride/attraction on a 1-5 scale, which included different age group. The book is also small enough to carry with during your trips to each of WDW’s parks.

Anonymous April 12, 2010 at 1:04 am

I found this book to be a major disappointment. Of the many turnoffs, one being the section titled, “Types of Parents and Types of Children” where Mr. Sehlinger goes into way out-of-touch psycho babble. “In the context of a Disney vacation, it is useful to locate your, your partner’s, and your combined parenting type on the parenting continuum and your child’s basic personality type on the personality continuum.” Please! However, Kim Wright Wiley’s book, “Walt Disney with Kids 2000″ is much more informative and leaves the parenting to the parents.

C. Ursu April 12, 2010 at 1:07 am

I have never had any desire to visit Disney World, until I read this book. In addition to the many choices you have for hotels and dining, I particularly found the “tips” to be very useful. As far as the prices – I never rely on published books: it has been my experience that prices are hardly ever the same no matter how “fresh” the book.

What I particularly liked about this book was the fact that you can engage a child to read through it with you, as you plan your trip. They can read the passages written by the kids in the book. This is a fun way to get your kids involved in planning the trip.

A great read even if you don’t go to Disney World. Travel books should not be a step-by-step guide to what you should do on vacation. One should explore and decide what is appropriate on one’s own. A travel book should be entertaining and kindle the desire to visit a place. This is just that kind of book!