Customer Reviews

Mousejunkies!: Tips, Tales, and Tricks for a Disney World Fix: All You Need to Know for a Perfect Vacation (Mousejunkies: Tips, Tales, & Tricks for a Disney World)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

First I should start off by saying that I am not a "Mousejunkie". I have only been to Disney World once and it was so long ago I can barely remember it. What I am, however, is a Guidebook Junkie. I don't go anywhere on holiday without buying at least one guidebook first. I figure that this may be my one and only chance to visit each of these destinations, I may as well do them right the first time.
With this in mind, I initially regarded this book with quite a heavy dose of skepticism. It was actually a very last minute decision to take `The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World out of my Amazon' shopping cart and replace it with this wildcard. For starters, I couldn't actually work out what Mousejunkies was supposed to be; a reference book, a journal, an advice column??? (It is in fact aspects of all three). But also I was worried that I would find the book biased and cheesy. After all it was put together by a man who visits Disney World so many times he has titled himself a `Mousejunkie'. What I was to discover was that yes, the book is somewhat cheesy (particularly the first and last chapters) and yes, it is sometimes biased. However, it also turned out to be perhaps the most refreshing and enjoyable guidebook I have ever read. Why? Because it was different.
This is not your conventional guidebook. If you know nothing at all about Walt Disney World then this is perhaps not the best place to start. Because Mousejunkies is largely full of personal stories and anecdotes, it does not have the space or time to make mention of every single hotel/ride/restaurant etc in all of Disney World. Rather, the book maintains a personal feel and places are only mentioned if they hold some sort of significance - good or bad - to the author and his friends. Likewise the book contains no photographs or maps that might help a person plan their upcoming trip. If you are after a conventional guidebook that allows you to flip to the index, look up Splash Mountain, and then flip to the page that tells you about it's wait times and height restrictions, then buy another guidebook instead. Or better yet, buy another guidebook as well as this book. Along with Mousejunkies, I also bought The Complete Walt Disney World. The Complete Guide tells me about absolutely everything that I can do at Disney World, while Mousejunkies gives me a sense of what it's going to feel like being there.
Mousejunkies is put together in such a relaxed, easy-to-read way, reading it is like being immersed in a good novel. You don't really flick through it like most guidebooks, but instead you start at the beginning and find yourself reading every page in order right through to the end. I got so engrossed that I finished the whole book in one weekend.
I enjoyed the largely adult-perspective of the book and the way the author put about as much emphasis on Disney's food and hotels as he did on the rides and the attractions. I also appreciated that despite his obvious love of Disney World, he wasn't afraid to criticize the things he thought were truly unworthy of people's time.
Like I said at the start, I might not a Mousejunkie but I am a Guidebook Junkie, and this is one guidebook that I really rate.

I bought this book two days ago as something more "offbeat" than the typical Fodors or Birnbaum's travel books. I thought I would share it with my kids to get excited about our upcoming trip. I haven't been to WDW in 25 years and my husband and kids have never been. The book is written in paragraph style, rather than an "entry" style, so it reads like a book of essays. I read it in one evening. Although it was belly-laugh-out-loud funny in the chapter about "badly behaving guests" and I enjoyed it, this is not a book I would recommend buying to use in planning a trip to WDW. It got me thinking about the trip but I did not feel that I learned anything practical or helpful. It was more like my brother,(meaning I felt right at home with the author's conversational style--it felt like someone I already knew), writing me e-mails about his subjective opinions and experiences as well as his friends' experiences, what his very young daughter liked and what scared her, and what his wife liked, their entire "buying a Disney timeshare" experience in painstaking detail (including their salespersons name!), telling me how much he liked the beer here, or needed to get to a particular new irish pub there, throwing up on the cruise, and so on. It was rambling and conversational and therefore enjoyable to read but did not come across as objective or credible. In addition, his daughter is much younger than my three kids--there was nothing in there to help me plan for older kids. The several typos were also distracting--"jut" instead of just, for example. I agree with the reviewer who gave the book one star--if the title was not so misleading I might have ranked it higher. However, the reason I chose this particular book is because I was expecting Tips, Tricks, and All I Need to Know for a Perfect Vacation. Instead, I got Tales. I probably would not have bought the book had I known. I will be donating the book to my library (AFTER I have my husband read the funny parts about guests behaving badly) rather than taking it along with me on the trip as a resource.

Reading through Mousejunkies was like hopping a flight down to Florida and hitting all of my favorite parks from the comfort of my couch! Planning a trip to the Disney resorts can be daunting; visitors are faced with endless dining, hotel and entertainment choices and this guide should serve me and others well when planning the next trip. This is not your run-of-the-mill travel guide; it's as much a breezy, fun travelogue as it is a collection of tips and advice. Mousejunkies is a must-read for anyone who is planning their first trip to Walt Disney World or for the seasoned WDW veteran planning their annual, semi-annual or monthly (weekly?) trip back.

As a year round Florida resident, sometimes I find that I take my proximity to the Disney property for granted. Well, no longer. I found this to be a fantastic how-to guide on getting the most out of your Disney vacation. The tips contained within have already inspired me to plan my next trip to see 'The Mouse' and do it right - meaning the Mousejunkie way. The years of accumulated experiences contained within are quite insightful, and I laughed at how some of them were learned the hard way. I agree with most of the reviewers; this is a must-read for any Disney traveller.

Mousejunkies is clever, witty, well written and extremely informative...in a fun way! The book made me laugh at loud, made me exclaim "YES!" in agreement, and made me say, "awww" at times. More of a collection of stories with tips and tricks thrown in, Mousejunkies is a travel guide that you can actually read like a book, which you should. The book is separated into chapters such as "Mousejunkies Travel", "Mousejunkies Sleep", "Mousejunkies Misbehave", "Mousejunkies Confess", etc...Each chapter has different sections. The sections have various anecdotes from a group of Disney travelers known as the Mousejunkies. This book is an easy, fun read, which I highly recommend for every Disney fan.

If you find yourself daydreaming about your next trip to DisneyWorld while filling your tank at the gas station, or perhaps wondering whether it would be better to spend your last snack credit on a Dole Whip or a Mickey bar - seven months before your trip - then order this book right now! You'll love it, and laugh your head off as you realize that contrary to what you may have believed previously, you are NOT alone!!! First-timers will benefit from the tips and suggestions, but it's the closeted Mousejunkies out there who will truly appreciate this gem of a book.

Think twice about getting this book if you are not already somewhat familiar with Disney World (get the "Unofficial" tome, also sold on this site.) This one really doesn't have enough info (all existing lodging/restaurants/tours, etc.) for anyone trying to plan their first trip. But, absolutely DO buy this book if you just want a thoroughly enjoyable (sometimes hilarious) read from a bunch of people sharing the good and bad of their many, many collective trips. I read most of it on the treadmill at the gym, often drawing strange looks from the people around me when I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the Mousejunkies experiences. Just wish it had been much longer!

What a great book! Not only is it full of insightful advice, it's a chance to look through someone else's trip report. No, make that a chance to make the trip with them. The author has a knack for telling his own adventures (and those of the other Mousejunkies) in a most enjoyable way. He tells also of his own horror stories (what vacationer doesn't have those?) so the rest of us who have had similar experiences, first, don't feel so bad, and secondly, get an idea how to rectify them when they happen again. All in all, just a fantastic book. Even if you're not going to Disney, buy the book and enjoy the laugh.

I've read many books about Disney World, and been there many times, and this book captures the true experience of traveling there! The book offers many tips that even seasoned Disney travelers may not know. One thing I learned was how to book a Deluxe Villa room for about the same cost as a Moderate Resort room. That alone is well worth the price of the book. Mr. Burke also gives tips on dining and park visitation routines and strategies to avoid the crowds (As much as you can avoid crowds!!)).
As Mr. Burke says a number of times in this book, Disney World creates feelings within you that keep you coming back and in "Mousejunkies" he helps to convey those feelings to the reader.

This is a tough one to review. On one hand, the author has a great sense of humor and for anyone who's already a fan of the 'World, they will relate to the tales within.

On the other hand, however, it's not actually terribly helpful as a guide for a newbie. There's a lot of little errors and it's light on actual information. The author doesn't even address all the resorts for example, even excluding one of the most popular, Wilderness Lodge completely! It's really unacceptable.

So the book is entertaining but not terribly useful.