(Part 3) Top products from r/WaltDisneyWorld

Check out Bob Gurr's Google Talk, particularly at the 12 minute mark when he hears his interviewer use the word "Process." It's pretty funny. Watch the whole video. It's great. I'd also recommend any of the D23 panels that include the Imagineering Legends (Sklar, Gurr, Tony Baxter, Alice Davis, Rolly Crump, Joe Rohde, and others).

I was fortunate enough to hear Bob speak and meet him. Very, very nice gentleman.

In terms of books, in addition to those already mentioned:

The Imagineering Way is a fun book about the way they go about things.

The Imagineering Workout is a fun companion book.

John Hench's Designing Disney is a fun, visual look at his time with Disney.

Building a Better Mouse is a very specific story about the engineers who built The American Adventure show. This might be something you'd find interesting as an engineering student.

Project Future discusses the land acquisition in Florida. Very interesting book.

Three Years in Wonderland covers the construction and development of Disneyland in detail, more regarding the business side of things (leases, sponsors and partnerships).

*Walt and the Promise of Progress City is another fun book on the acquisition and the original EPCOT concept.

The main Walt Disney Imagineering Book is a great start, and Marty's two books are good as well.

I've also found Creativity, Inc to be inspirational. It goes back to the storytelling roots, but you'll find that most of the Imagineering books, articles, and posts are all about storytelling.

Walt Disney's Disneyland is an incredibly comprehensive history of the original park. While it includes plenty of concept art it features many historical photos, planning documents, construction photos etc as well as taking the most detailed approach to the story of the park's construction and updates I've seen.

Walt Disney Imagineering is a good companion with a stronger focus on World, but this is more specific ride histories and designs than the overall park.

The Art of Walt Disney is a fantastic top to bottom look at the history of the studios and company, with plenty of amazing illustrations but is obviously art driven.

DisneyWar (already mentioned) is the seminal account of the Eisner era specifically and takes the word "comprehensive" to new heights.

The Walt Disney Studios (releasing this Sept) promises to be an excellent account of the film studios themselves and movies developed there.

As others have touched on there is a little bit of a vacuum for works that are just written histories, most have to get wrapped around "art" in some capacity to justify all of these books being $60+ 300 page hardcovers.

Buy and read [The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. ](The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2018 (The Unofficial Guides) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1628090677/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_49TPAb15EQ3KE) I know in the Internet age guide books seem a bit old-fashioned, but this is the best call-it-as-it-is source of WDW information I know of. I recommend the Kindle version because the authors sometimes release updates to each year’s editions.

Along those same lines, subscribe to touringplans.com so you can air a custom tour I plan using their research to automate the process. I know I sound like a shill but I just completed a day in each park, easily completing the attractions I wanted to see by mid-afternoon by using their plans. I was very impressed in Epcot yesterday that when Test Track went down, it was removed from the plan and then came back when it came back online.

I definitely agree with /u/claremontfish that the Imagineering book is one of the best.

Some other good options are:

• Walt Disney's Imagineering Legends and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park - Takes you through some of the different Imagineer positions, how they do things, and some of the most famous Imagineers.
  
• The Vault of Walt - All sorts of Disney history, from the movie making to the creation of the parks and rides.
  
• Four Decades of Magic - Stories about the creation and running of WDW, in 28 essays by some of the best Disney writers and historians. For example, one follows the challenge of creating WDW in an area previously filled with swamps and forests.

>looking at a good neighbor hotel as it is cheaper and nicer then the cheapest options on site. Will there be issues getting to the park daily?

Potentially, yes. Many of the off-site hotels have shuttles, but they are either at a cost, or run very limited schedules or drop off zones. Depending on what you want to do, this can be an issue, or force you to rely more on private services (taxi/Uber/Lyft). Car rental is also an option, but will add parking expense, at both your hotel and at Disney.

>I also think I will pass on the daily meal plans as they are expensive, if I got a hotel that offered the plans for free would I end up paying more then a good neighbor with me buying food myself?

You cannot buy a Disney Dining Plan from an off-site resort. So if you stay off-site, the decision is made for you. DDP is a bit of a personal decision for those on site. In general, "free" dining isn't free, as you pay full rack rate at a Disney hotel to get it. It also works best for a specific dining style. It's not designed to save you money so much as it is designed for convenience. If you have multiple Disney kids (under 10) and like buffets, you can also come out ahead. If you have 10-13 year olds, you do pay for them as adults at such meals, and for many, that's not a good thing either out of pocket OR on DDP.

>I was also thinking of doing universal for a day.

Universal is very expensive as a one-day park, as if you want to do Harry Potter you will need the park hopper there. You might want to look at staying at a Universal hotel and spending two days.

I think something to be called out is that the main parking lot for Magic Kingdom is larger than Disneyland. The difference between on-site and off-site is much more pronounced at Disney World. At Disneyland, off-site hotels are walking distance of main gate, and often more convenient than the Disney properties. That is almost universally not true at WDW.

I suggest checking out wdwprepschool.com and yourfirstvisit.net, and/or buying/reading the excellent Easy Guide.

Podcasts:

The [Retro Disney World Podcast] (http://www.retrodisneyworld.com/) is extremely well done as far as podcasts go. Every episode is history based.

Blogs:

• Kingdom of Memories
  
• Passport to Dreams
  
  
  Books:
  Currently reading both Marty Sklar's book Dream It! Do it! and the Progress City Primer by Michael Crawford. Both are full of history and fun stories.
  
  Youtube:
  
  All of Martin's Vids are great and have a historic tint.

Play Kingdom Hearts. Get some Disney scented candles and air freshners and make your room smell like different attractions/resorts. Watch the Walt Disney documentary on Netflix. Find memorabilia you like to collect be it artwork, funko pops, books. This book is a great behind the scenes look at Haunted Mansion:
The Unauthorized Story of Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion: Second Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1683900405/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ZdYACb8D9KSEY

We also had a really nice Rapunzel dress that we gave her after the reveal that proceeded to dump glitter all over my living room. We'll need to burn the house down and rebuild to get rid of it all. At least she complained about it itching and needing to take it off prior to meeting Rapunzel at breakfast so we had that nice little moment.

This is the magic kingdom book we found. Super cheap and fun to read through before and after the trip.
https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Magic-Kingdom-Kathy-Jakobsen/dp/0786830387/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505762278&sr=8-1&keywords=meet+me+in+magic+kingdom

I've used those packable/folding style backpacks before. They work well enough but found that after walking around all day it starts to become a pain. I've switched over to the Sug Ninja Day Pack.

I've been using the SUG Ninja Pack as my dad bag (or carry on when flying) in the parks and love the thing; I could wear it all day without an issue. I need to carry enough for a family of four; we often go in the early months of the year where it can often get a bit colder in the morning/night and end up with hoodies. Trying to carry a few hoodies in the folding backpack was always a pain. I can also use the molle system to add on shock cord or D-Rings; I love doing D-Rings to hold water bottles. As an added bonus I get to add on a few patches to the rear to sport someimperial pride when in HS.

Had this as my dad bag for years and don't see it changing anytime soon.

Three additional suggestions:

The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic (From the Magic Kingdom) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1484722299/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_RSqEAbE1465J3

Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance https://www.amazon.com/dp/2080136399/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_sTqEAb0JKXXJN

Theme Park Design & The Art of Themed Entertainment https://www.amazon.com/dp/0993578918/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_MVqEAbQ1623ZW

The last one is laid out like a textbook (not a picture book) but it has a lot of good information.

Marty Sklar and Rolly Crump's books are essential reads, as far as I'm concerned. I started reading Marty's book for the info on Walt Disney World and Epcot, but came away fascinated by the development of Japan and his business management advice, the most.

https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Do-Half-Century-Creating-Disney%C2%92s/dp/1423174062/ref=la_B00DXGWXRG_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519048704&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.com/Kind-Cute-Story-Rolly-Crump/dp/098547064X/ref=pd_sim_14_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=098547064X&pd_rd_r=6TB451HQ6PJ6F2V69E5K&pd_rd_w=AgQX9&pd_rd_wg=njD96&psc=1&refRID=6TB451HQ6PJ6F2V69E5K

Hello all! From April-June 2018, I traveled around the world to visit every Disney park. I documented my experience, and my book about the adventure was just published this week!

It’s called Around the Worlds in 80 Days: One Fan’s Journey to Conquer Disney’s Magic Kingdoms, and it’s available on Amazon now!

https://www.amazon.com/Around-Worlds-80-Days-Kingdoms/dp/1683902246

You might want to grab a copy (or see if your library has a copy) of Along Interstate I-75. Each page is the same number of miles so you can say, "let's drive two more pages then stop for lunch" and you can easily see what the food/gas/etc stops are ahead. There's also little bits of trivia for things along the way.

If you have an iPhone you might also like iExit that lets you search for food/gas/etc. I have mine set up with a "favorites" search that shows me the upcoming Wendy's, Starbucks & Dairy Queens. You can flag an exit and it will remind you about it as you get closer.

If you don't already use Waze then I'd recommend that too. It'll give you real time traffic information including accidents, construction, police, etc.

Anyone have the Hidden Mickeys Field Guide and can confirm legit or fan-made?

https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Mickeys-Disney-World%C2%AEs-Secrets/dp/1937011291

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1937011461/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501990292&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=hidden+mickey+guide&dpPl=1&dpID=513iRwdFCXL&ref=plSrch

This is the one I'm referring to!

Was it The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom? If so, you can get a copy cheap.