Customer Reviews

What Would Walt Do?: An Insider's Story about the Design and Construction of Walt Disney World

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

 

 

The book was an easy read BUT was really an autobiography of the author and his life. It's about his working days, especially while working on the constrction of WDW. Besides the very infrequent mention of the title "What Would Walt Do" there was next to nothing in the book about Walt's philosophies, work ethic and thought processes. Not what I exptected or what the title infers.

"What Would Walt Do" has very little to do with the design and contruction of Disney World and more to do the author's personal remembrances of his career. Fully three-quarters of this short book deals with the author's personal history outside of Disney World. All of the information found here dealing with Disney World can be found elsewhere in more detail. I do not recommend this book.

Obviously a self-published pamphlet, no proof reading done with the manuscript at all! D.M. Miller poorly recants small stories about his life, a few of them include checking out the construction of Walt Disney World, and several of them are repeated again and again through out the book, to fill space. Extremely poorly written, many mistakes. Not worth the paper that the book is printed on. Skip it!

A very short book. No pictures. Lots of fluff. Information about the author that has nothing to do with Walt Disney takes up pages in the book. Stories about mean foremen and inspectors. Boring.

What would Walt do? He'd do it right no matter what the expense. There. Save your money and buy a good book on Disney.

I enjoyed this book from the standpoint of learning how projects such as Disneyworld test all of the construction processes to ensure safety. I read this just as the Israel ballroom where a wedding dance was being held collapsed this weekend and was startled to see the first people they arrested (immediately!) were the contractor and chief engineer!

The author's assertion that Walt Disney would have nothing but the best, at any cost of time and money, shows why Disneyworld was selected by Tom Peters for his work on "In Search of Excellence". I.E., excellence starts at the bottom and trickles up....P>As the author states in the beginning, this was just "a little book" about his experiences with the project, and I found it to deliver that story in an unassuming manner. I loved the working man anecdotes!

What Would Walt Do? is a first hand look through the eyes of a young civil engineer into the contruction of Walt Disney World from Walt's Seventh Premliminary Plan to Opening Day, 23 October 1971. It's a good read for engineering students, "wannabee" engineers and lovers of all things Disney. Readers will smile at the story of Levi, the arm wrestling champion of champions; the author's night on the town with an "Acadian Queen" and amused when engineers and technicians are dumped into a very cold Reedy Creek from a supposedly all terrain (including water) 4 wheel drive vehicle called a "Coot." The Coot was hoot!

Although the author had never met Walt Disney who died in 1966, he learned through the leadership of Walt's brother Roy and others with long standing at Disney to apply to difficult construction decisions, union conflicts, contractor disputes, quality control issues the question: "What Would Walt Do?" In their considering that question, the ideal always sought was to apply Walt's standards of quality and safety to accomplish even the smallest details in the spirit of Walt's Dream. The ultimate compliment came on opening day from Walt's widow Lily who said, "I think Walt would have approved."

Other accounts of this remarkable engineering/construction feat may be more technical or more historically accurate. However, WWWD gives insight not only into the day to day operation, construction ups and downs, but also into the personal lives of the men and women who helped to bring Walt's dream into a reality. They were a very special team who soon realized that after the gates had opened, the Boston Pops had played and Mickey had paraded....they had left a part of themselves in the dirt, steel and cement that covered hundreds of acres of Central Florida called Walt Disney World.

I was pleasantly surprised by this short book. (Though I first thought that the author "D. Miller" was Dianne Miller, Walt's daughter. It's not her) Anyway, Mr. Miller fondly re-counts his life and how it led to him working on the construction of W.D.W.
It's a print on demand book and has no photos but that didn't detract from the book for me. Disney expects payment up front for use of photos of their properties and most would be authors simply don't have that kind of money. Some of the stories are mentioned in other books, other stories are only mentioned here. So go ahead, give Mr. Millers book a read.

I was a bit disappointed in the book only from an aspect of wanting to know more about the actual construction and issues that faced Walt Disney World's inception from drawing board to amusement legend. The book is a decent read and does provide some insight into the construction of the park, but has more of the author's personal story than is assumed by the title. Overall, the book is not a real indepth story about the design of the park; a good biography of a person connected with the construction, but not so much about the design and impact of Walt's legacy.

for had I paid money for this book, I would be quite upset. The book is written as if the reader has an IQ of 50. There are many typos and poor sentence construction. These typos are even evident on the back cover of the book. I am surprised an editor would have let this book go to publication in the way it stands. Even worse, the author uses a supposed history book about WDW to rant about his own political views. I don't care what one's political thoughts are when I am supposed to be reading a book about the design and construction of WDW. Several pages are devoted to the author's views about unions and past presidents. He states that Walt was anti-union, and then takes this opportunity to write a few pages on why HE is anti-union. Who cares? Then there is a favorite quote of mine on page 22, "Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President, and he seemed to me to be a real jerk." Again, what does this have to do with the topic on hand? There are many other great books about the creation of the theme parks and Disney's vision. Do not waste your time on this one.

I loved Mike Miller's autobiographical book centered on his work testing construction materials for Walt Disney World. Why? Because I spent time in construction quality assurance for Epcot. If you didn't, I'm not sure you'll find this slim, unpolished book very interesting. I met Billy Ringo from Dames & Moore and I worked for Don Edgren on Tokyo Disneyland--Miller has similar acquaintances with these men and others. Again, if that sounds interesting to you, you'll enjoy this book.

Miller's story of how he got into engineering is unexpectedly compelling--he presents his profession clearly in an unassuming way. Therefore this book would also be useful to engineer-wanna-bes. The only parts I found irritating were those in which Miller describes the history of the sixties or of Walt Disney. It's good that he wants to place his story in context, it's just that he doesn't take the time to really know what he's talking about.

I met many people during the construction of Epcot that are still in my head 20 years later. More than a few of these vivid characters obviously made an impression on Mr. Miller 10 years before me--perhaps you'll enjoy hearing a few anecdotes yourself.