RECOMMENDED GENERAL WALT DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOKS FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS
Because you have this site, you don’t need any of the books below. But they are affordable luxuries!
If you do buy and read one before the trip, follow this tip: do not read the descriptions of the rides themselves.
Doing so both kills the suspense of a ride and lessens the wonder you otherwise would feel from experiencing a ride without knowing what’s next!
RECOMMENDATIONS
- Ahem. Dave Shute and Josh Humphrey’s The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit 2015
- Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa’s The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2015
RECOMMENDED SPECIALIZED DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOKS
For those with special needs, and those looking for accommodations beyond the typical, the following two books can help:
- For those looking for suites, concierge floors, and the like, Cara Goldsbury’s The Luxury Guide to Walt Disney World Resort
overstates the case (luxury at Walt Disney World is mostly relative to other Disney choices, and not comparable to luxury in world class hotels), and gushes a bit, but is still a good information source, especially on room options
- For those with special physical, health, mobility, or other challenges, Deb Wills and Debra Martin Koma have done the world a service: PassPorter’s Open Mouse for Walt Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line: Easy Access Vacations for Travelers with Extra Challenges
OTHER GREAT DISNEY WORLD BOOKS
From all the other great Disney World related works, I suggest the following:
- Neal Gabler’s wonderful biography: Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
- Lee Cockerell’s Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney
–distilling leadership strategies from leading the parks and resorts at Disney World
- Lou Mongello’s Audio Guide to Walt Disney World – Adventureland
and his Audio Guide to Walt Disney World – Main Street, USA
- Charles Ridgway’s memoirs of his time as Walt Disney’s PR guy: Spinning Disney’s World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent
- Buzz Price’s memoir about being Disney’s strategic and operational consultant: Walt’s Revolution!: By the Numbers
- Anything by David Koenig, but especially Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World
- Disney historian Jim Korkis’s The Revised Vault of Walt: Unofficial, Unauthorized, Uncensored Disney Stories Never Told
