Customer Reviews

The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2009 (Unofficial Guides)

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Put the other books on Disneyland back on the cyber-shelf! THIS is the only guide book worth the price of admission.

The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland series is updated each year so you know you're getting the most up-to-date information available before you take your trip. From start to finish this book will be dog-eared and/or highlighted. Throw it into your bag and carry it with you at the park as you'll refer to it often if you've not already memorized it by the time you arrive.

Tips on how to travel with kids of various ages and what rides are recommended for specific age groups are included in the book. Ratings for all the rides in the various 'lands' include how scary the ride might be to young children, likelihood for motion sickness and fun scale ratings.

When planning your trek through the park you can use the helpful itinerary guides that vary depending upon the amount of time you have available for your visit. For example a 2-day itinerary with teenagers versus a 1-day with small children. By reading the book you learn where not to waste your time!

Since you'll be logging a lot of time on your feet and don't really want to spend much of that time waiting in lines, the book also gives great information on the best and worst times of the year to plan your visit. Invaluable information regarding the 'Fastpass' system is also included.

This book will give you accurate, complete insider information on Disneyland and all the issues that surround a visit there such as parking, lodging, bringing your own food versus eating in the park and security. If you read it before you go on your Disneyland adventure, you're sure to be a step ahead at understanding how to make your trip a magical event for all.

I was first introduced to the "Unofficial Guides" series back in 1994, and became an immediate convert. Each year's edition includes updates showing new rides/attractions, and includes data on weather, hotels, restaurants and even load times. The most useful feature? Clip-out "touring plans" that will allow you to make the most efficient use of your time, customized to various age levels and vacation durations. Highly recommended for long-time Disneyphiles and newbies alike.

This guide is really worth every penny! The value is in the recommended sequence of rides, which gives you the best chance to see everything you intend to at this busy park. Even though we visited during the off-season, with most lines less than 15 minutes long, the guide was still valuable to maximize our ride opportunities.

This was the only book I bought prior to our Disneyland trip in September 2009 and it helped my husband and I navigate with our three children (ages 5, 7 and 9) around Disneyland for 3 days almost flawlessly. Because of the information and tips contained in this book, we able to hit the most popular attractions so that we spent very little time waiting in lines (not entirely though). It helped us avoid additional walk time (on Day 1, we walked 15,000+ steps!) and standing around wondering what to do next.

The book is organized well so that you can quickly turn to the correct section and check out the author's reviews of each attraction. This proved indispensable while in the park and contemplating which ride to hit next.

There were a few inaccuracies in the book, however. I assume that they'll be corrected in the 2010 update of the guide but just in case they aren't, here they are:

On page 299, the author notes that "the floor drops away" on the Soarin' Over California attraction in DCA. It does not. The ride lifts you off the ground. The effect is the same, I suppose. However, there's a big difference between the floor dropping away and being lifted 10 feet or so up in the air.

On page 310, there's a note that the Toy Story Midway Mania attraction has the FASTPASS feature. It does not. I believe this to be an accidental carry-over from the guide to Walt Disney World in Florida.

Check ahead on pricing for anything rather than believing what's quoted in the guide. We had lunch in Ariel's Grotto and the book said the prices were $15.99 - $27.99 but they were actually $18.99 (for the children) and $32.99 (for the adults). Not a huge difference but something worth noting nonetheless.

While the book lists a LOT of hotels, it is not all inclusive (which would probably be impossible), so do your research and don't necessarily limit yourself to the hotels in the guide.

One last note: During the 2009 Halloween season, Disney added a "Ghost Galaxy" element to Space Mountain. We took our 5, 7 and 9 year old kids on it and it scared the heck out of them (and they aren't easily rattled). Disney is NOT kidding when the signs warns that the attraction has the potential to frighten children!

Overall, well worth the $17 I spent on this book. For future travels, I will purchase a similar book if it is available.

We found this guide excellent!! We have 3 children 3,5 and 7 and this guide provided a lot of assistance planning each day with real advice about lines and the best time to see particular attractions. The official guides tend to provide rose coloured advice and neglect to mention the amount of time you will spend in a lining up in the sun for attractions.

We found the suggested Day plans helpful but our kids were a little younger than the kids plan was pitched at. However we found them very useful especially advice on when to get fast passes etc.

In summary a good guide that really helps make the most of your stay no matter how long and doesn't sugar coat the facts about visiting a very busy theme park.

This book has a lot of good information about the attractions at Disneyland, Disney California Adventure and Universal. Also restaurant and hotel info and reviews. My only complaint is that if you want to use any of the tour plans for Disneyland, which is why I bought this particular guide, you have to either have early admission priviliges and use them or go on a day with no early admission. In other words you have to be among the first in the Park or don't bother with the tour plans.

Was very happy with my purchase. It came quickly and was in great condition. Would buy from this seller again

Absolutely fabulous book, we have studied this and can't wait to bring our children to Disneyland in 2010.

This is the first thing to be considered when starting to plan your trip to world's happiest place on earth, if you want to get the most out of the parks.
Absolutely accurate and useful. Worth it's weight in 14k gold.
Of course, look for the latest version, by october each year you should be able to get the newest edition.

This was our first trip to Disneyland and we only had two days to do everything in. Well, there's no way to do everything in two days but this book did a great job giving advice on what to do and what to skip, how to use the FastPass to beat waiting in lines, how to switch off watching the kids while one of us went on a ride without going back through the lines. While others were at the entrance, staring at maps and trying to figure out what to do, we were off and running.

When you're spending big bucks to get into Disneyland, do yourself a favor and spend the 11 bucks for the book and do what it tells you.