best Disney planning books

[kniquy]

I love all these forums there is so much useful information here, but i was wondering if anyone has a book that you would recomend that would help with the planning process. What i am referring to is the day to day park planning. Something that explains attractions, maps of the parks, restaurants and shows that are at each park. It could be paperback or digital version. Sometimes i just don't want to be on the computer searching all this stuff

 

[lentesta]

We now always buy The Unofficial Guide as it is more in depth in its planning and descriptions and it updates once a year.

Thanks very much, everyone, for the kind words about the book and site. It's a lot of fun to work on those. I hope they're useful.

Starting with the 2015 Kindle edition, we're updating the book every month. (Yeah, every 30 days.) The next update, for example, should include info on the Backlot Tour closing, and updated touring plans for DHS and Epcot (without Maelstrom). Also resort tidbits like the new 5-person rooms at CBR.

 

[jody31]

Unofficial guide all the way.I always visit WDW in the off-season ,but if you visit WDW during busy times ;it has a lot of good advice to optimise your vacation
Lots of thanks to Len Testa for a very good book!

 

[Dwarful]

I LOVE Passporter and The Unofficial Guide for different reasons with both.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Another vote for the Passporter. I have used it for WDW, Disneyland, and the Disney Cruise. I like the planning pages, maps and their reviews. It is well written and updated often with additional information on their website.

 

[Gabe1]

I like the Unofficial Guide, and in particular, its website, touringplans.com. (When you buy the book, you get a discounted rate on a subscription to the customizable portions of the website, which is cheap even without the discount.) By "customizable portions," I mean the ability to make touring plans, customized for your travel dates and the park hours/EMH scheduled for that day, along with your ADRs and FP+ reservations, with estimated wait times. You can have the website optimize the touring plans for you, or if you're like me and you enjoy fiddling around with it yourself, you can simply tinker and rearrange your plan to fit your family's priorities, and get a realistic idea of expected wait times.

This is me! I love both Unofficial in conjunction with Touring Plans. I do however recommend Birnbaum to guests that have never been or not that familiar with WDW.

 

[Susan Savia]

I buy the Birnbaums book every other year. We have them going back many years now.

 

[Weather_Lady]

BTW, touringplans.com (the Unofficial Guide) is currently offering 20% off subscription rates to the site -- just enter the code WISHGRANTED.

 

[darrelljon]

Hands down, Unofficial Guide. However if you're looking for portability or photograph illustrations forget Unofficial Guide, DK Eyewitness covers both quite nicely. Haven't read the others but for sheer comprehensivity the way I look at it is;
Unofficial Guide 864 pages
Fodor 474 pages
Birnbaum 400 pages
Passporter 362 pages
Brit Guide 352 pages
DK Eyewitness 208 pages