The good, the bad and the ugly about Disneyland guides??

[Zoemakes5]

So, I was unimpressed with the UG for DL. LOVE the one for WDW, not impressed with DL's. (I think in large part because he uses way too much from WDW.)

I've found the following other guides, tell me what you know/like/dislike, please:

Fodor's Disneyland and So. Cal.

Disneyland Detective

Passporter Disneyland

Birnbaum's

101 things you never knew about Disneyland


Or is the UG just the best out there and I should bite the bullet and get it?

Also, the UG and Birnbaum's both have 2007 editions out already, does anyone know when the others will have theirs? Ideas?


Thanks!

 

[MickMan]

Was very disappointed with the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland. Love the Unofficial Guide to Disney World. Found the best one is the Birnbaum's. Had much more information on the restaurants and ride information.

Just my humble opinion

 

[iceskatejen]

Disneyland Detective and 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland aren't guides, they're trivia books. I highly recommend them, especially Disneyland Detective, if you're a repeat visitor looking to learn more about the park. Also, they focus on DL only. There's nothing in them on DCA.

 

[ScooterL]

I must admit I haven't looked at most of the guides on your list but I do have Passporter Disneyland (I got a free copy since they used some of my comments!), and I think it's pretty good...though I think most of the information in there you could also find on-line on Mouseplanet, Laughing Place, or All Ears Net (though the book is easier to carry around!) What kind of information are you looking for that you didn't find in the Unofficial Guide?

 

[HydroGuy]

FWIW, I heard recently that the Unofficial Guide to DLR by Sehlinger (the sister book to the popular UOG for WDW) was limited because the publisher put a page count on Sehlinger and he was overly restricted. Apparently the publisher has eased up, and he is planning to put more material into the DLR guide.

In any case, I agree that the current UOG is not that great.

 

[Luv_Tink]

I thought the Disneyland Passporter book was horribly out of date, especially for a book that was just released this year. Then come to find out they actually did their research 1-2 years ago and didn't bother to update a lot of it before releasing it. Not a very professional approach if you ask me.

I have found online sources to be the most valuable in planning my trips.

 

[staley7580]

i found a book at barnes and noble called disneyland with kids (i think) It was the most informative, and helpful book out there, if you have small children.

 

[Dis Ohana]

I bought all the books for our first trip to DL. After studying, I must say that the best source of trip planning information came from this message board.

 

[disneegrl4eva]

definitely Birnbaums...I get one every year

 

[darph nader]

If you don't want to 'buy' the UG,go to the library and see if they have a copy you can check out.

 

[PrincessSitka]

I get my information in here

 

[SilverCeladon]

UG is just okay but I also have the Passporter and that's pretty good.

 

[ByTheHook]

I like the UG a lot but it has its limitations: it doesn't have very much help w/ restaraunts and shopping info. per "land" like Fodors DL w/ Kids does. Instead, it just gets to these (and briefly, too!) after all the reviews/ strategies for the attractions.

I did like UG's style/ tone, though-- maybe a little too brutally honest at times, but fun reading.

UG has its errors, though: it claims, for example, that you can have your whole family wait for you in the boarding area if you're doing a baby-swap on a ride. Not true, from what several DIS'ers have told me here.

Birnbaum's seems a little too nice and not as strategic about getting around DL, but its photos help to keep the youn'uns pepped up.

Fodors w/ Kids: most helpful w/ restaraunt choices/ reviews so far. ;-)

DIS: priceless (and more current!).

 

[Zoemakes5]

Oh, Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the DIS, and frankly most of the information I get is here. When making reservations, I think I searched about 7 different hotel names to see what other dis'ers had to say. When I want ideas about restaurants, I check here. Just a bit hard to carry around the laptop at DL! Or to print out all the messages from here and bring them!

It's hard to explain why I have such a dislike of the UG. I ALWAYS get one when I go to WDW, but I was so disappointed with the DL one. In part because it seemed more "dated" than the WDW did, and in part because it didn't seem to "capture" DL, it seemed more like a bait and switch with what was listed in the WDW and just plugged in to DL's. Not as much, to me that was uniquely DL/DCA. The restaurant info. was sparse. Was very big, but I didn't feel it was very helpful.

I'll go and peek at some of the other ones at B&N when I can. Birnbaum's, in the past, has been a bit too much like a DL commercial, but might get the kid's one for the kids.

 

[ZeusNike]

I usuallly get the Birnbaum guide. We have purchased quite a few over the years and enjoyed all of them - they get us excited before we leave. We have tried other DL guides, including the UG but not enjoyed them as much (we thought the WDW UG was worth it's weight in gold...the WDW Passporter too for that matter). I guess I was becoming fairly used to them because when we went with a couple of DL "newbies" last fall and gave them our Birnbaum to read, they thought it was fabulous...they read every single page and then were quoting tips back to us when we were in the parks (very cute since we have been to the parks many, many times....) .

 

[ByTheHook]

[/QUOTE] Birnbaum's, in the past, has been a bit too much like a DL commercial[/QUOTE]

I totally agree!

I did make a mistake above (oops) about the UG for DL, though (anyone notice?): it does have restaraunt info. per land, just not as much as we'd like for each of the separate lands. Who wants to do all that flipping (or shoud l say all that "flipping" flipping) while there at the park?

I agree, too, that the UG for DW looked very complete (and about twice as thick) as the one for DL. Maybe that's why we abbreviate it as UG-- like, "UGH-- how the h am I gonna read all that before I go?"

 

[amw]

I like getting the Birnbaum for a souvenir. The kids like reading it too, as there are colour pics and full maps.

The UG for Disneyland was quite the disappointment if you've read the WDW version. One thing that stood out for me was that in the WDW, he goes into such detail on the hotels -- the best views, the best rooms (by numbers) for each location. I found that to be the big chunk they edited out.

I was a former editor (pre -kids ) and for the guides to be stamped with a 2007 date, for example, they can be published any time after August 2006. To be sent to the stores for Fall 2006, they probably need to be to the printer by May or June 2006. The last "word" edits are probably done the month before.... you can see how published guides become quickly outdated. In general, 20% of any guidebook is already outdated before it gets to the public.

I agree with everyone else that the best place to do your research is online. Especially here at the boards because we are instantly notified of changes whether it's prices, opening times, character meals, events, etc. Consider how much Disney changes things up in a year and you'll see how it's impossible to keep up in text form.

That being said, I would never tell anyone to stop buying books -- only take the info with a grain of salt. As a souvenir or for newbies, I'd get the Birnbaum. The rest I would take out of my local library. If there's a particular style you like, purchase that book in the absolute latest version you can find. The info doesn't change all that much from year to year.

 

[Dale-n-Chip]

Here's my post from Aug this year:

Planning a spur-of-the-moment day trip to DL last summer, I purchased Sehlinger's UG to DL. I'm a long-time fan of everything "Unofficial Guide" and noticed immediately the book was quite thin--<300 pages. Huh?! My UG to WDW I used for my March 05 trip could be used as ballast! But UGDL was the only guide on the shelf I was willing to trust (did I mention there are currenty five different destination UGs on the bookshelf to my left?!). I used it again planning a Dec 05 trip. And I got it out again to plan my upcoming Girls Only trip in Nov/Dec. All over again, I was frustrated with it's tiny size. Where were the crowd charts? Dining reviews? What's the deal? UGDL needs more love! So I wrote a letter to Bob Sehlinger, the author. About a week later, this is the response I got from Bob:

Quote:
Hi Mary Kaye,

Thanks for writing. I agree with you completely. The publisher has constrained us from doing the things you mention by imposing a limit on the number of pages in the book. I get a lot of letters and emails just like yours and pass them all along to the publisher. It's too late for the 2007 edition that goes to press in a couple of weeks, but the publisher is finally getting the message and I think we'll be allowed to enlarge the 2008 edition of Disneyland and add a whole new dining section.

All the best,

Bob.

For one thing, I was pretty geeked to get a letter back from BOB SEHLINGER because, again, I'm a big fan. I read the UG to Las Vegas cover to cover every year, even though I don't get to go nearly that often. I just love the book (geek! ). The other exciting news was that the UGDL is getting a makeover for 2008. That's a long way away, but it's something.

I did break down and buy PassPorter's DL guide. I love the PassPockets and maps and it's pretty thorough. My, er, "realist" personality really clicks with Sehlinger and his UG crew, though. Jennifer and Dave Marx, while very informative, are a little too. . . giddy/happy/optimistic for my tastes. I'm not nearly as nice as they are!

Something for us DL fans to look forward to. . .

mk

 

[Meggera]

I like Birnbaum's but also like the quick turnaround of responses on good boards like this one. I, too, have the Disneyland Passporter but have found many of their prices are out-of-date.

 

[kd2226]

I also loved the UG WDW and found it to be a huge help in planning our WDW trip last year. Because it was so comprehensive, I recently ordered the UG DLR from Amazon and had it shipped to Australia (the shipping cost just as much as the book!) and was a little disappointed. A lot of it is recycled from UG WDW, but I thought that was ok since much of the info applies to both places. I was expecting a comprehensive description of each disney land hotel, each restaurant, more on downtown disney, etc (as in the UG WDW) but found this info to be lacking. It is a much smaller book.
I did find the section on California Adventure to be helpful, as I knew very little about this park.