Customer Reviews

The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2002 (Unofficial Guides)

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a great find because it tells it like it is--it gives you both the good and the bad of Disneyland and its attractions. The problem is, since this book has been released, many more rides have FASTPASS options, including Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Small World Holiday, and Pirates and Haunted Mansion are almost done. Plus, if you purchase flex passports and take advantage of early admission, you can do five major attractions within two and half hours in the morning. For early admission, Space Mountain and Star Tours have basically no wait. Matterhorn gets a bigger line but still manageable (usually only Fantasyland and some of Tomorrowland is open during early admission). After riding those three rides, and a few other Fantasyland rides, jam up to Splash Mountain when the park officially opens and ride that with no line. Then hustle back to Indiana Jones and grab some Fastpasses. Go ride Pirates and Haunted Mansion with minimal wait, and then use your Fastpass on Indy Jones. You can probably squeeze in Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, also. Then, you've got the whole day for whatever else, and you can use Fastpasses later for Autopia or Small World Holiday. This book doesn't work as well with early admission days, that's why I'm telling you all this. Go on an early admission day (sometimes as early as 6:30, but more likely 7:30 or 8:30--check the night before, it often changes) and you will not be sorry. We did all of this the day after Thanksgiving, between 7:00 and 11:00 in the morning. This book is especially valuable in giving reviews of the rides, and touring plans, but as I said, it's now off because of all the new Fastpass options and early admission (or Magic Morning). If you're not sure what Fastpasses are, you simply insert your passport into a machine at the entrance to the attraction and it tells you when to come back (within an hour block) and you can ride with minimal (5-10 minute) wait! Go back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon and come back in the evening for parade and Fantasmic! and you've had a great day! If you don't have early admission options (one day visit) then good luck. Use the touring plan in this book and keep your fingers crossed. My advice--go for three days using a three day flex-pass which gets you at least one early admission, and make sure one of the days you go is an early admission day--not all days at Disneyland have early admission. Currently, Sundays and Wednesdays don't, but of course that could change. If you get the five-day flex passport, you can go in early admission all of the days it is offered during your visit.

Disneyland is a relatively small park, and it is quite possible to experience everything within a day or two and enjoy it - unless you have to stand in long lines. Unfortunately, the latter happens most of the time. The strategy how to avoid long waiting in lines and to make the most of your visit to Disneyland is the most valuable part of this book. Description of the rides is interesting, but you most likely do not need it since once you came to Disneyland, you will not leave until you experienced all of them. Description of places to eat in the park is also not that important because food is not the purpose of your coming to Disneyland. A hotel can be booked on the web or through a travel agent, you only sleep there anyway. The only thing you really need is to be smarter than the crowd, and this is what you will get from the book in full. I bought this book and I learned from it when I whould go there, how long I will need to see everything, and where to go to first thing in the morning, and where to in the afternoon. This book saved me and my family much more time and money than I paid for it, and made our trips there so much more enjoyable than the could have been without the "Unofficial guide".

Complete and up-to-date! Covers Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. Includes hotel and restaurant ratings. The guides for getting the most out of your trip to Disneyland are worth the price of the book alone. Of course, you don't have to follow the guides exactly. But, by reading them through they give you great insight into how to maximize your time in the park and see what you what to see in the time you have ... even with crowds. I wish I had this book on my previous trips. I know they would have seemed a lot less frustrating and harried

I had been to Disneyland twice before I found this book so I can tell you first hand what a differnce this book makes in trip planning and in making your day at DL the most complete. The book covers every ride and attraction at DL. It has great information on the local hotels. It has goobs of information on going to DL with kids of all ages. If you are not experienced at doing DL, then get this book. Because of the information in this book you'll be able to see and do twice as much especially on busy days at the park. If you are going to Disneyland, do yourself a favor and get this book. It's worth its weight in gold. 5 stars at least!

I've lived in Southern California all of my life, and Disneyland is something we do at least once every year. But until this guide, even we were missing out on all that Disneyland had to offer. This book even covered the best time of year and day of the week to go to avoid the crushing crowds, and ways to avoid the hour and a half-long lines for the most popular attractions. It even had information on beating the daily traffic on the freeeways! By following Sehlinger's sound advice, we were able to really enjoy the park, get a great room at a great price, see more of the park in less hours, and avoid the worst days of the year to visit. It has made our trips to Disneyland more magical.

We went to DLand in September of '99. We found the ride ratings useful in selecting what to take our 4-year-old on. The park restaurant information was useful too for finding the less congested eateries during lunch. We didn't adhere to the tour plans since we had about 3 days in the park and the crowds were light. The book does have hotel quality ratings and advice on selecting packages. We, however, opted for the convenience of the DPacific Hotel. The guide is just a tad dated since it doesn't include Tarzan's Treehouse (formerly the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse) and there's just a big construction mess in the parking lot for Disney's California Adventure.

I used this book's sister publication, The Unofficial Guide To Walt Disney World 1999 (UG-WDW), when we travelled there last year. That book was an invaluable source of information, complete in the extreme. (I'd rate it 5 stars.)

This year we're heading to Disneyland, so I purchased The Unofficial Guide To Disneyland 2001 (UG-DL) sight unseen. While it does provide much of the same valuable types of information as the UG-WDW, it falls short in a few significant ways:

- The UG-DL doesn't include individual reviews of each area restaurant as the UG-WDW does.

- The UG-DL doesn't include individual reviews of the major area hotels as the UG-WDW does (though the former does include overall ratings).

- The UG-DL doesn't include information about the behind-the-scenes tours provided at Disneyland as the UG-WDW guide does for Walt Disney World.

- In many cases, text in the UG-DL is copied directly from the UG-WDW, just the name of the park is changed. While this is appropriate in some cases, in others it is downright misleading. An especially egregious error is the inclusion in the UG-DL of a chart of annual attendance patterns for Walt Disney World, rather than Disneyland.

- The UG-DL doesn't include the chart of recommended attraction visitation times present in the UG-WDW.

- The UG-DL doesn't contain a section of tips for specialized groups like singles or seniors as the UG-WDW does.

The UG-DL DOES include something that isn't present in the UG-WDW (but should be): an interesting comparison of the attractions at Disneyland to those of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

A trip to Disneyland is sure to be a less involved affair than a trip to Walt Disney World, so I wouldn't expect the UG-DL to be as comprehensive as the UG-WDW. Nevertheless, the UG-DL feels a little too skimpy in comparison.

All that said, the UG-DL is still a more valuable book than any other on the same topic.

Absolutely indispensable. We spent 3 days at Disneyland and California Adventure in the middle of June...a busy time. I am so glad we got this book ahead of time.

Here is the key. THE key: GET TO THE PARK AT OPENING TIME! Get your butt out of bed early, scarf down breakfast and head to the park while everyone else is still getting their beauty rest. We arrived at the park a few minutes before opening time each day. (The book recommends 30-40 minutes, but they opened up additional gates right before opening time)

We used the two-day tour plan for adults (our son is six and wanted to ride and see the major attractions). We actually completed most of the rides and attractions by noon! Some of them had NO lines. Again...GET THERE EARLY. The crowds outside the park may seem huge, but they disperse throughout the park quickly. Most of the long-line rides we rode twice! After lunch, we were able to casually see all the lesser attractions while everyone else was waiting in line for the headliners. I saw families all around looking miserable because they didn't know what to do or where to go - and kids screaming to ride something with a two-hour line.

This book is an honest and whimsical approach to all the rides; though remember that the author's assessment of the rides is opinion. Some of the rides he thought were boring, we enjoyed. Follow the tour plan and you will have a great time. We saw and did everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) and never waited in line more than 15 minutes for anything. I hope the secret doesn't get out!

Another tip: eat at the Blue Bayou Restaurant in New Orleans Square one night. Call ahead and make reservations. Ask for a table by the water. You can watch the Pirates of the Carribean boats float by while you eat. It is simply beautiful. And surreal. But call ahead. They fill up days ahead of time.

Did I tell you to get to the park at opening time??

Two weeks ago we packed our four kids and this book and headed west. We spent two days in Disneyland, one day in Disney California Adventure, and one day in Universal Studios. We followed all instructions in the book about when to arrive and how to use fast pass, and most importantly, we followed the itinerary (which rides to do and in which order) with only a few changes to suit our tastes. The result? We flew from one to another to another ride with minimal or no waiting. Our longest wait ever was a half hour, and that was in the afternoon when we wanted to repeat a ride we'd done in the morning. ("Soaring over California" is not to be missed.)

We'd never been to a theme park before, mostly because we had heard about the horrendous lines, but this was a breeze. We shudder to think, though, what it would have been like had we not used this book.

We want to add a recommendation that the author might even like to include in the next edition: if you're flying west, stay on eastern time if you can. By doing so, the kids were willing to get up at the crack of dawn and hit the parks before they open. Waiting a little while on line before the park opens is way better than waiting on ride lines. (It maximizes the number of rides you get to do, it eliminates standing on line at security, and it's cooler in the morning.) Furthermore, on two of the four days, we discovered upon our arrival that the park was opening sooner than they had posted!

We also appreciated all the ride descriptions. Knowing what to expect enhanced the experience, and on a few occasions, helped two of our family members decide against a ride. At those times, we found an alternative ride nearby by reading the book and checking its map, and the family split up temporarily.

We rate our experience at these theme parks a ten on a scale of one to ten, and it's because of this book. If I were forced to choose either my camera or this book, I'd leave the camera home and bring the book.

This is the only book you'll need if you plan on making a trip to the Disneyland Resort. I have found in the past that the "Unofficial" guides give you the real lowdown and this book is no exception.

This book covers everything. It tells you the best route to take around the park to cover all the good rides in case you only have a day or too. It goes over how to handle children at Disneyland and what they'll most want to do. If even tells you how to get your kid on a ride two times in a row without waiting. It rates all the hotels in the area in terms of quality and value. In addition, it has chapters on Disney's California Adventure as well as Universal Studios.

What I like best about this book is the ride descriptions and ratings. Not only does the author rate the ride, but surveys on each ride have been done and broken down by age group. It tells you how long the ride is, what type of ride it is, how long you'll likely have to wait for the ride and the best times to ride. Not to mention a candid description of the attraction.

For anyone visiting Disneyland, this book is well worth the investment, escpecially for under $20.

Complete and up-to-date! Covers Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. Includes hotel and restaurant ratings. The guides for getting the most out of your trip to Disneyland are worth the price of the book alone. Of course, you don't have to follow the guides exactly. But, by reading them through they give you great insight into how to maximize your time in the park and see what you what to see in the time you have ... even with crowds. I wish I had this book on my previous trips. I know they would have seemed a lot less frustrating and harried. If you are going to Disneyland, do yourself a favor and get this book. It's worth its weight in gold.