Birnbaum's Walt Disney World: The Official Guide (Serial)
Cinderella's Castle, Epcot Center, Mickey Mouse, Splash  Mountain, Space Mountain, and lines, lines, lines. A vacation at Walt  Disney World shouldn't be spent waiting to enjoy the attractions you  traveled so far and spent so much to visit. With that thought in mind,  Birnbaum's editors have traveled, toured, and tested every attraction  and worked with the folks behind the scenes to compileWalt Disney  World 1998to help you get the biggest possible bang out of your  vacation buck. This colorful guide, which is liberally illustrated  with photographs and full-color renderings of Disney notables, begins  with the logical "Getting Ready to Go" advice (hotels, transportation,  when to go), moves swiftly into lengthy descriptions of each of the  major theme parks--Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios,  and Animal Kingdom--and then gives the scoop on other sights and  activities in the Orlando area.The most useful information is  found in the "Hot Tip" boxes sprinkled throughout the text--sit on the  right side of the tram when going through MGM's Catastrophe Canyon if  you want to stay dry, for example--and in the descriptions of the  rides. Notes at the end of the write-ups call out height requirements  or special considerations for those who are pregnant or who have heart  conditions (Splash Mountain's "five-story drop into an aqueous briar  patch" comes to mind). The guide predicts which attractions are  busiest and when, and offers suggestions on where to go when the lines  do, indeed, get too long. People who don't have the time to map out  itineraries can follow the one- to six-day routes provided by the  folks at Birnbaum's. Be warned, though: the plans are ambitious and  assume that you will have plenty of energy to make the rounds from  morning 'til close. If your true quest is not to see and do  everything, but to find and photograph Pooh, Ariel, or Captain Hook,  look for the colored boxes that point out the best places to find your  favorite characters. Whatever your Disney fantasy,Birnbaum's Walt  Disney World 1998is sure to have you singing "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"  by the end of your trip.--Heidi Robinson