The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2020

by Bob Sehlinger, Len Testa

Overview

THE trusted source of information for a successful Walt Disney World vacation

The best-selling independent guide to Walt Disney World has everything you need to plan your family’s trip—hassle-free. Whether you are planning your annual vacation to Walt Disney World or preparing for your first visit ever, this book gives you the insider scoop on hotels, restaurants, and attractions. The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2020 explains how Walt Disney World works and how to use that knowledge to make every minute and every dollar of your vacation count.

With an Unofficial Guide in hand, and with authors Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa as guides, find out what’s available in every category, from best to worst, and get step-by-step, detailed plans to help make the most of your time at Walt Disney World.

Six Great Features and Benefits offered ONLY by The Unofficial Guide:

• A preview of the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: attractions, dining, shopping, and touring strategies
• At-a-glance summaries of the key information covered in each chapter
• Tips on where to find the best, most honest discounts on Disney tickets and hotel rooms—which could save you much more than the cost of this book
• Exclusive patented, field-tested touring plans that save up to 4 hours in line in a single day, plus free online customization to match your family’s plan
• A rundown of how to use Disney’s free FastPass+ ride-reservation system, including the most important reservations to get before you arrive and while you’re in the parks
• Expert reviews of Walt Disney World restaurants, bars, and lounges, backed by more than 160,000 reader surveys from the past year

OVER 6 MILLION UNOFFICIAL GUIDES SOLD!

“A Tourist’s Best Friend!”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“Indispensable”
—The New York Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628090963
Publisher:	Unofficial Guides
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Series:	Unofficial Guides Series
Pages:	800
Sales rank:	1,151,018
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Bob Sehlinger, a Lowell Thomas Award-winning journalist, is best known as the creator and producer of The Unofficial Guide series. Len Testa, a lifelong Disney theme park fan, is also coauthor of The Color Companion to Walt Disney World, The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland, and The Unofficial Guide to the Disney Cruise Line. Len leads the team at TouringPlans.com, a research arm of The Unofficial Guides.

Read an Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

For the Love of Disney

DEAR READER, we’ve been writing the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World for more than 30 years. You’ve really got to love a place to cover it for that long—and we do. Millions of you do too. Comments like these arrive at our office every day:

“Disney World was definitely the most magical and the best family vacation we ever had.”

“Holiday of a lifetime. Meticulous planning required, but amazing.”

“We’ve already booked another trip.”

Disney’s theme parks are among the world’s greatest man-made vacation destinations. At their best, they combine unparalleled imagination and storytelling with new technologies, all presented with optimism and an unwavering faith in humanity. Walt Disney World in particular is essentially a purpose-built city: a place designed to entertain, amaze, and inspire.

Why Disney World Needs an 800-Page Guidebook

DEAR READER, WE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING. The child-rearing classic What to Expect When You’re Expecting clocks in at 645 pages, and a typical version of the King James Bible is around 1,200. Does the advice needed for Walt Disney World really fall somewhere between childbirth and God’s manual for living?

If it’s your first time, yes. (That’s true for all three scenarios.)

The thing that surprises most new visitors to Walt Disney World is that a Disney vacation requires much more planning and effort than most other vacations they’ve had.

Why? The main reason is capacity. Around 60,000 people visit Disney World’s Magic Kingdom theme park every day. Almost all of them would eat at its most popular restaurant—Be Our Guest—if they could get in. But the restaurant can serve only around 3,000 people per day, or around 1 out of every 20 who want to dine there. Visitors who can’t get into Be Our Guest often end up at restaurants with worse food, higher prices, or both.

Capacity also affects Disney World’s popular rides: for some rides, there are far more people who want to ride than the ride can handle. As a result, some visitors will wait just 10 minutes to experience a ride, and others will wait up to 5 hours for the same attraction on the same day.

Don’t panic. If you love theme parks, Disney World is as good as it gets—the best in the small-w world. If you arrive without knowing a thing about the place and make every possible mistake, chances are about 90% that you’ll have a wonderful vacation anyway.

The job of a guidebook is to give you a heads-up regarding opportunities and potential problems. We’re certain we can help you turn a great vacation into an absolutely fabulous one. A mom from Streator, Illinois, who was amazed at the size of the Unofficial Guide, came back saying this:

It had been 10 years since we’d been to WDW, and I was shocked by how much your book grew. After going, I’m surprised that it’s so small.

What Makes This Book Different?

THE ADVICE IN THIS BOOK is different from what you’ll find on the Internet or in other books, in three important ways.

First, the team that produces this book is totally independent of the Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney World, and all other members of the Disney corporate family. We don’t accept free trips, gifts, special favors, or other compensation from Disney in exchange for our coverage; we pay for everything we review. Disney doesn’t request, influence, edit, or approve anything you’ll read here.

In this guide, we represent and serve you, the reader. If a restaurant serves bad food or a gift item is overpriced or a ride isn’t worth the wait, we say so. In the process, we hope to make your visit more fun and rewarding.

Second, we use data, science, and technology to help solve problems that you’ll encounter in Walt Disney World. In many ways, the Disney theme parks are the quintessential system: the ultimate in mass-produced entertainment, the most planned and programmed environment anywhere. Lines for rides and restaurants form in predictable ways at predictable times, for example. That makes it possible for us to study them.

You may be surprised that Disney-related questions like “How can I wait less in line?” or “What rides should my kids try?” are active areas of research in schools around the world; similar problems pop up in businesses every day. The authors and researchers who write this book have years—sometimes decades—of academic and professional experience in these areas and use them to benefit you.

The third way this book is different is the amount of time and money that goes into making it. Disney research is the full-time job of most of our core team. Over the years, we’ve spent millions of dollars reviewing and analyzing Disney World’s hotels, rides, lines, and restaurants. No other book or website commits the people, skills, or budget to do anything like the research you’ll find in these pages. The only other organization that does comparable analysis of Disney World is Disney themselves. And we’ll tell you what they won’t.

How to Use This Book

THE BEST WAY TO USE THIS BOOK is to read in order the first few pages of each chapter, to get a feel for the kinds of questions the chapter answers. Then read in depth the chapters most important to you.

We’ve organized the chapters so that they appear in the same sequence and timeline that you’ll use to plan and take your trip. For example, Part Two contains advice on what you need to know to start your trip planning. The next few chapters guide you through choosing a hotel, finding good places to eat, and picking the best rides and entertainment in the parks.

Each chapter starts with Key Questions, a list of the most common and important queries that visitors have about Walt Disney World (and Universal Orlando). For each question, we’ve listed where in the chapter to find the answers—here’s an example:

Key Questions Answered in This Chapter

• How do I avoid long lines at Walt Disney World-yet (page 52)
• What is the FastPass+ ride-reservation system, and how do I use it? (page 64)
• What are Extra Magic Hours? (page 37)
• What do I do if my child is too small for a ride that we want to experience? (page 413)

If you don’t recognize a term such as FastPass+ or Rider Switch, you should read that section of the chapter—it’s probably important.

Of course, each chapter answers many more questions than the ones shown on the first page. We suggest skimming each chapter’s bold-faced section headings to see if a particular topic is relevant to your family.

Some subjects, such as how Disney accommodates guests in wheelchairs, are relevant across multiple parts of your vacation. These subjects are usually covered in depth in one chapter (in this case, Part Eight, “Special Tips for Special People”), with cross-references in other chapters when they’re needed.

Many topics are discussed in depth. For example, Disney World has hundreds of rides, from simple spinning things you find at your local town carnival to massive super-headliners the likes of which you’ve never seen. Understanding the scale of these rides, and how they’re run, will help you decide what’s worth your time. And if you visit another theme park later, you’ll know what to look for when planning that trip too.

If you use the guide like an encyclopedia or dictionary—say, you look something up in one of the indexes then go to the cited page—you may overlook information presented in previous sections that is vital to understanding the subject. Likewise, if you skip or skim over explanatory material in the introductory chapters, that might lead to a misunderstanding later on.

Your Unofficial Walt Disney World Toolbox

WHEN IT COMES TO WALT DISNEY WORLD, a couple with two toddlers in diapers needs different advice than a party of seniors going to the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. Likewise, adults touring without children, families with kids of varying ages, and honeymooners all require their own special guidance.

To meet the needs of our diverse readers, we’ve created the comprehensive guide before you. We call The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, at 800 pages, the “Big Book.” It provides the detailed information that anyone traveling to Walt Disney World needs to have a super vacation. It’s our cornerstone.

As thorough as we try to make the main guide, though, there just isn’t sufficient space for all the tips and resources that may be useful to certain readers. Therefore, we’ve developed three additional guides that provide information tailored to specific visitors.

Here’s what’s in the toolbox:

• The Unofficial Guide to Disney Cruise Line, by Erin Foster with Len Testa and Ritchey Halphen, presents advice for first-time cruisers; money-saving tips for booking your cruise; and detailed profiles for restaurants, shows, and nightclubs, along with deck plans and thorough coverage of the ports visited by DCL.
• The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids, by Bob Sehlinger and Liliane J. Opsomer with Len Testa, presents detailed planning and touring tips for a family vacation, along with more than 20 family touring plans not included in the Big Book.
• The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando, by Seth Kubersky, is the most comprehensive guide to Universal Orlando Resort in print. At almost 400 pages, it’s the perfect tool for understanding and enjoying Universal’s ever-expanding complex consisting of theme parks, a water park, resort hotels, nightclubs, and restaurants. The guide includes field-tested touring plans that will save you hours of standing in line.

Corrections, Updates, and Breaking News

LOOK FOR THESE at TouringPlans.com; see page 20 for a complete description of the site. The e-book versions of the Guide (ePub and Kindle) are updated periodically between print editions.

The Unofficial Guide Publishing Year

WE RECEIVE MANY QUERIES asking when the next edition of the Unofficial Guide will be available. Usually our new editions are in stores by late August or early September. Thus, the 2021 edition will be on shelves in August or September 2020.

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Diagrams

Introduction

PART ONE Walt Disney World: An Overview

• What Is Disney World-yet
• Universal Orlando

PART TWO Planning Before You Leave Home

• Gathering Information
• When to Go to Walt Disney World

PART THREE Making the Most of Your Time

• Allocating Time
• How to Avoid Long Waits in Line

PART FOUR Making the Most of Your Money

• Allocating Money
• Walt Disney World Admission Tickets
• Optional Expenses

PART FIVE Accommodations

• The Basic Considerations
• The Disney Resorts
• Readers’ Resort Report Card
• Walt Disney World Hotel Profiles
• How to Evaluate a Walt Disney World Travel Package
• Hotels Outside Walt Disney World
• Hotels and Motels: Rated and Ranked

PART SIX Dining In and Around Walt Disney World

• Reader Surveys Plus Expert Opinions: Our Approach to Dining
• Dining in Walt Disney World
• What’s New?
• Disney Dining
• Character Dining
• Disney Dining Suggestions
• Counter-Service Mini-Profiles
• Full-Service Restaurants In Depth
• Dining Outside Walt Disney World

PART SEVEN Walt Disney World with Kids

• The Ecstasy and the Agony
• Lost Children
• Disney, Kids, and Scary Stuff
• Waiting-Line Strategies for Adults with Young Children
• The Disney Characters
• Character Meals
• Childcare
• Special Children's Programs
• Birthdays and Special Occasions

PART EIGHT Special Tips for Special People

• Walt Disney World for Guests with Special Needs
• Walt Disney World “At Large”
• Walt Disney World for Seniors
• Walt Disney World for International Visitors
• Walt Disney World for Expectant Mothers
• Walt Disney World for Singles
• Walt Disney World for Couples

PART NINE Arriving and Getting Around

• Getting to Walt Disney World
• How to Travel Around the World (or, The Real Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride)

PART TEN Bare Necessities

• Money, Etc.
• In-Park Issues
• Services

PART ELEVEN The Magic Kingdom

• Overview
• Arriving
• Getting Oriented
• Main Street, U.S.A.
• Adventureland
• Frontierland
• Liberty Square
• Fantasyland
• Tomorrowland
• Magic Kingdom Entertainment
• Traffic Patterns in the Magic Kingdom
• Magic Kingdom Touring Plans

PART TWELVE Epcot

• Overview
• Arriving
• Getting Oriented
• Future World
• World Showcase
• Epcot Entertainment
• Traffic Patterns in Epcot
• Epcot Touring Plans

PART THIRTEEN Disney’s Animal Kingdom

• Overview
• Arriving
• Getting Oriented
• The Oasis
• Discovery Island
• Africa
• Asia
• DinoLand U.S.A.
• Pandora—The World of Avatar
• Animal Kingdom Entertainment
• Traffic Patterns in Animal Kingdom
• Animal Kingdom Touring Plan

PART FOURTEEN Disney’s Hollywood Studios

• Overview
• Arriving
• Getting Oriented
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios Attractions
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios Entertainment
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios Touring Plan

PART FIFTEEN Universal Orlando

• Overview
• Universal’s Islands of Adventure
• Universal Studios Florida

PART SIXTEEN The Water Parks

• You’re Soaking in It!
• Planning Your Day at Disney Water Parks
• Water-Park Touring Plans
• Blizzard Beach
• Typhoon Lagoon
• Universal’s Volcano Bay

PART SEVENTEEN Behind-the-Scenes and VIP Tours at Walt Disney World

• Multipark Tours
• Behind the Scenes at the Magic Kingdom
• Behind the Scenes at Epcot
• Behind the Scenes at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Behind the Scenes at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• VIP Tours

PART EIGHTEEN Disney Springs, Shopping, and Nightlife

• Disney Springs
• Shopping in the Theme Parks and Orlando
• Nightlife at Walt Disney World Resorts

PART NINETEEN Recreation, Sports, and Spas

• Walt Disney World Recreation
• Run, Disney, Run
• ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
• Miniature Golf
• Serenity Now! A Look at Disney-Area Spas

APPENDIX A Readers’ Questions and Comments

• Readers’ Questions to the Authors
• Readers’ Comments

APPENDIX B Understanding Walt Disney World Attractions

• Cut Your Time in Line by Understanding the Rides
• Cut Your Time in Line by Understanding the Shows

Accommodations Index

Restaurant Index

Subject Index

Touring Plans

Editorial Reviews

In the Disney world, there is one source of information revered and trusted above all others: [The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World].”
—Paul Gauder, WDW Family Style

“If you’re looking for a reliable guidebook, the leader is the Unofficial series.”
—The Mail (London)

“A Tourist’s Best Friend!”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“Indispensable”
—The New York Times

“The Unofficial Guide is, without question, one of the best Disney travel guides available.”
—MouseChat.net

From the Publisher