Books about Disneyland from Amazon.com

Should leave fans of Mickey smiling from ear to ear. -- Chicago Tribune

A thorough overview, with inside tips, facts and quizzes With more than 400 color photos, it also makes a nice souvenir -- Boston Globe

May be the most colorful, visually stunning and deeply researched guidebook on the market. A warm, loving portrait of Disney World, for people who want to love Disney World. -- Orlando Sentinel

Endless tips and trivia. -- Knoxville News-Sentinel

There are dozens of guides to Disney World, but I like this one by a husband-and-wife team who visited Disney World more than 700 times. They're not affiliated with Disney, but received much inside access by the company to provide very detailed descriptions of each ride, show and attraction. Among the gems are fun facts, suggested itineraries and little things to look for. -- Florida Times Union

Offers an in-depth history of the attractions and the parks themselves... and the most in-depth run-down of the two Disney water parks. -- Budget Travel

Book Description
The best-looking Disney World guidebook, The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World 2008 is also the most interesting. Its spectacular photography grabs your eye, then its fantastic wealth of information keeps you glued to its pages. Every aspect of Disney World becomes easy to understand, as color-coded chapters lay out everything one subject at a time, and gorgeous full-color images bring it all to life. Packed with details you just can't find anywhere else, every chapter is so helpful you'll find yourself sticking post-it notes everywhere.

The Planning Your Trip chapter offers a seven-step process to organizing your vacation, then a gold mine of practical information. As for theme parks, each ride or show gets its own article, many of which run several pages. Water parks are covered the same way, which makes the book the only real guide to Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. Even diversions such as parasailing, stock-car driving and surfing lessons are fully described and illustrated.

A new restaurant chapter is a collection of 88 reviews. The accounts are descriptive and honest, and include useful details such as which character meals can usually take walk-ins. The accommodations chapter covers each Disney resort with a photo-packed article as well as a comprehensive At a Glance sidebar. The combination gives you a nice overview of each complex, but also makes it easy to scan them all by price, amenities, location, or other criteria.

Supplemental Material
Like the most complete DVD set, the book is packed with bonus features. The best are the background articles on Disney's theme park attractions. For example, three side stories describe the history, science and set design of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Other columns cover the histories of Space Mountain and It's a Small World. An animal guide describes the odd behaviors you can witness at Animal Kingdom, from the forearm-licking of the park's kangaroos to the stick-sharing rituals of its exotic birds. Breezy feature articles cover the wacky histories of the Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella fairy tales.

The result is a hugely entertaining book, but one that doesn't flinch from the frustrating realities of a Disney trip. It acknowledges the long lines, the challenge of getting key restaurant reservations, the cluelessness you have on how to get a front-row seat to the High School Musical street show... and provides the magical solutions. Tip bars run across the bottom of most pages.

Fitting the visual beauty of its subject, The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World 2008 is printed on gloss paper in full color. The book is fully updated, with the latest park and resort information and current prices and policies..
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At age 10, Steve Martin got a job selling guidebooks at the newly opened Disneyland In the decade that followed, he worked in Disney's magic shop, print shop, and theater, and developed his own magic/comedy act. By age 20, studying poetry and philosophy on the side, he was performing a dozen times a week, most often at the Disney rival, Knott's Berry Farm. Obsession is a substitute for talent, he has said, and Steve Martin's focus and daring--his sheer tenacity--are truly stunning. He writes about making the very tough decision to sacrifice everything not original in his act, and about lucking into a job writing for The Smothers Brothers Show. He writes about mentors, girlfriends, his complex relationship with his parents and sister, and about some of his great peers in comedy--Dan Ackroyd, Lorne Michaels, Carl Reiner, Johnny Carson. He writes about fear, anxiety and loneliness. And he writes about how he figured out what worked on stage.

This book is a memoir, but it is also an illuminating guidebook to stand-up from one of our two or three greatest comedians. Though Martin is reticent about his personal life, he is also stunningly deft, and manages to give readers a feeling of intimacy and candor. Illustrated throughout with black and white photographs collected by Martin, this book is instantly compelling visually and a spectacularly good read.


Amazon.com Exclusive
Three Bonus Deleted Passages from Steve Martin's Born Standing Up

On Returning to Disneyland
Ten years later, after the Beatles, drugs, and Vietnam had changed the entire tenor of American life, I returned to the magic shop at Disneyland and stood as a stranger. As I looked around the eerily familiar room another first came over me, a previously unknown emotion, one that was to have a curious force over me for the rest my life: the longing tug of nostalgia. Looking at the counter where I pitched Svengali Decks and the Incredible Shrinking Die, I was awash with the recollection of indelible nights where the sky was blown open by fireworks and big band sounds drifted through trees strung with fairy lights. I remembered my youth, when every moment was crisply present, when heartbreak and joy replaced each other quickly, fully and without trauma. Even now when I visit Disneyland, I am steeped in melancholy, because a corporation has preserved my nostalgia impeccably. Every nail and screw is the same, and Disneyland looks as new now as it did then. The paint is fresh, and the only wear allowed is faux. In fact, only I have changed. In the dream-like world of childhood memories, so often vague and imprecise, Disneyland remains for me not only vivid in memory, but vivid in fact.

On Meeting Diane Hall
During the day, I attended Santa Ana Junior College, taking drama classes and pursuing an unexpected interest in English poetry from Donne to Eliot. I would occasionally assist on a college stage production--never appearing in one--as a member of the crew. Years later I was looking through a box of memorabilia and noticed a silk-screened playbill of the musical Carousel, May, 1964, which listed me as a stagehand. The lead actress was Diane Hall. Something connected and I remembered that Diane Keaton's name was once Hall, (hence, Annie Hall). I confirmed with her that she was in that production. Neither of us remembers meeting the other, yet we must have worked in proximity. More evidence that I was a wallflower. Decades later, we ended up "making love" on the floor of a movie set on Father of the Bride.

On the Kennedy Assassination
One Friday in 1963, I had finished a class and was about to drive to Knott's Berry Farm for the afternoon shows when I saw a clump of agitated students across the campus. I asked someone what was going on. "They're saying that the president's been shot."

I drove across town to Knott's and punched radio buttons. I could hear the scheduled programs clicking off and being replaced by live broadcasts. Assassination seemed so ancient and inconceivable, I was sure that someone would soon correct the erroneous report. President Kennedy died that day and I didn't know that news could be taken so personally by a nation. Sitting backstage, watching the Birdcage's black-and-white TV drone out the increasingly grave report, we were all mute. We assumed the performance that night would be canceled, but as show time neared, word came down that we were going on. We couldn't fathom why; we believed no one would show up, much less enjoy us. I still can't explain the psychology, why the very full house that night was able to roar with laughter. The obvious must be correct: our silly show was providing some kind of balm that soothed the ache.

In 2003 I hosted the Oscars on the particular weekend that the United States invaded Iraq. The news was grim and just hours before the show I flipped on the TV and saw a report, subsequently proven false, that our captive soldiers were being beheaded. I quickly turned the TV off, sick. I knew, from my experience forty years earlier with the Kennedy assassination, what my job was, and I harbored a secret knowledge that the audience would laugh. I also felt that soldiers who might be watching would be tuning in to see the Oscars and all its hoopla, not a cheerless comedian doing what he doesn't do best. I decided to acknowledge the circumstances early in the show and then get on with the jokes. The academy had announced that the show would "cut back on the glitz." I walked out for the opening monologue, took a look around the stage at the dazzling, swirling staircases, mirrored curtains and polished floor, and simply said, "I'm glad they cut back on the glitz." It got a laugh of relief and the show could go on.

More from Steve Martin

The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z!

Shopgirl

The Pleasure of My Company

Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays

Pure Drivel

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Praise for Born Standing Up
"[A] lean, incisive new book about the trajectory of [Martin's] life in comedy...Born Standing Up does a sharp-witted job of breaking down the step-by-step process that brought Steve Martin from Disneyland, where he spent his version of a Dickensian childhood as a schoolboy employee, to both the pinnacle of stardom and the brink of disaster...tightly focused...Born Standing Up is a surprising book: smart, serious, heartfelt and confessional without being maudlin." --Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"Absolutely magnificent. One of the best books about comedy and being a comedian ever written." --Jerry Seinfeld, GQ

"The writing is evocative, unflinching and cool. When Martin takes a scalpel to his life, what you feel is the precision of the surgeon more than the primal scream of the unanaesthetized patient...Born Standing Up is neither fanfare nor confession. It gives off a vibe of rigorous honesty. With lots of laughs." --Richard Corliss, Time Magazine

"A spare, unexpectedly resonant remembrance of things past…Martin's one true subject is the evolution of his comedy--the transcendent moments...A smart, gentlemanly, modest book…winning." --Jeff Giles, Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick: A

"A charming memoir tracking what the great comic characterizes as his 'war years.' Martin offers an eloquent and exacting account... [and] approaches his subjects with generosity, warmth and integrity." --Kirkus Reviews

"Sure to delight fans and create new ones." --Laura Mathews, Good Housekeeping

"What fun to discover the humble beginnings of some of his iconic personas...inspiring." --Rachel Rosenblit, Elle

"The archetypical story of the underdog's rise and a particularly American story...beautifully written, honest, engaging, and quietly brave." --Frederic Tuten, Bomb Magazine

"Son, you have an ob-leek sense of humor." --Elvis Presley

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From the publishers of The Unofficial Guide® to Walt Disney World®

"A Tourist's Best Friend!"
—Chicago Sun-Times

"Indispensable"
—The New York Times

Five Great Features and Benefits offered ONLY by The Unofficial Guide®:

1. Every attraction ranked and rated for each age group, based on interviews and surveys of more than 7,500 families
2. When and where to go: the best times of the year and the best days of the week for each park
3. All the Disneyland-area hotels ranked and rated for value and quality of rooms
4. Field tested itineraries for adults and families with children that can save more than three hours of waiting in line
5. Complete coverage of Disney's California Adventure® theme park and Universal Studios Hollywood

Sample Rating

Soarin'

Appeal by age Preschool — Grade school Teens Young adults Over 30 Seniors

What it is Flight simulation ride. Scope and scale Super headliner. When to go First 30 minutes the park is open or use FASTPASS. Special comments Entrance on the lower level of The Land pavilion. May induce motion sickness; 40" minimum-height requirement; switching off available (see pages 266–268). Author's rating Exciting and mellow at the same time; ......5. Not to be missed. Duration of ride 4 minutes. Loading speed Moderate..
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This updated edition of Birnbaum's Disneyland Resort, the most respected and well-known name in Disney guides, takes readers through Walt Disney's first theme park with ease and flair. Since our guide is the only guide that's official, this book includes the most accurate and current information on prices and attractions. This edition includes updates on newcomers to the Downtown Disney District, such as the edgy new Disney Vault shop, plus Fossil, Travelex, and more.

Other updates include an up-close, underwater look at Tomorrowland's newest attraction: the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, and info on the recently refurbished Pirates of the Caribbean, including where to find Captain Jack Sparrow! We've also got an insider's perspective on new attractions and shows at Disney's California Adventure.

Our guide is also the only one allowed to feature Disney characters. And Birnbaum's DisneylandResort is the most comprehensive guidebook, offering complete information on the Magic Kingdom, Disney's California Adventure, and Downtown Disney, as well as details about Anaheim area attractions, things to do in Los Angeles, and special driving routes around Southern California. This is the only guide to Disneyland that readers need, entirely updated every year.
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Camouflaged images of Mickey Mouse are hidden around the Disney theme parks and resorts worldwide-just waiting to delight the visitors who spot them. Searching for them adds extra fun to any visit and has become something of a mission for many Disney fans. At their request, Barrett, whose Hidden Mickeys field guide has been helping Disney World visitors hunt these elusive characters since 2003, now offers equal sleuthing aid to Disneyland visitors..
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Read one Cast Member's stories of backstage areas, fights, fires, private parties, orientation, cast events, cast romance, pranks, stupid guest tricks, mishaps, accidents, helping to create the Haunted Mansion Holiday, and working on September 11, 2001. But this is no mere listing of things that go wrong at Disneyland. For the first time, readers can experience what it's like to really work at Disneyland, from the mundane to the extravagant. The book is aimed primarily at current and former Cast Members, who will recognize so much of their experience captured in these pages. Readers who have worked at the park will be entranced all over again by the magic of working in Walt Disney's park. It's not an experience one soon forgets, and readers will find themselves inevitably drawn in as well..
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You have probably heard a few "interesting facts" about Disneyland over the years. Perhaps you've heard that Walt Disney kept an apartment on Main Street? Or that there is a secret, members-only club in New Orleans Square? It's all true... but these are only two of the interesting facts pointed out in "101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland." Many of the stories here deal with more obscure, yet equally interesting, histories of Disneyland. In fact, the majority of the material comes straight from interviews with the Imagineers who helped to build, maintain, and revitalize Disneyland. The book pays special attention to the inside jokes and hidden references to Disneyland's past, as these samples illustrate:

Do you know which play on words pays tribute to a former Mexican restaurant at a certain site?

Do you know how Tarzan's Treehouse honors its predecessor in two different ways?

Do you know what is so unusual about the decorations atop "It's a Small World"?

Do you know why one palm tree in Adventureland is special?

Do you know what the sign says at the bottom of Splash Mountain's big drop?

Do you know which pumpkin is an homage to a Disneyland official?

It's a certainty that you haven't heard all these stories before. Although there are 101 such highlighted stories, each comes with a fuller description and is followed by a second story that is thematically related, so this volume really offers 202 Things you haven't heard about Disneyland before. You will find these facts delightful and unforgettable once you've heard them!.
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