Our family loves Disney World! We have been 6 times in the last 6 years and #7 should be here pretty soon! We have lots of Disney guides and books and are always looking for the best travel guides when we need an update!
Recently the “Guide to the Magic for Kids” arrived at our house. This guide is written by Tim Foster. He has written a series of books under the ”Guide to the Magic” moniker. Even if you have used and read several Disney guide books in the past, there are things in here that will be new to you and will make for a more entertaining trip.
Our whole family absolutely loved this guide. For the first 30 minutes after receiving it, my 10 year old daughter asked non-stop every 3 minutes, if she could look at it. She said if she were at the bookstore and saw it, she would pick it up. She said, "The front is catchy and makes you want to look in the book!
When reviewing this book, we need to keep in mind that this is written for kids. That is the target audience. It focuses on the parks. If you want to know about the Hotels and peak seasons, that is not in here. I like that it is written for the kids. Our kids have seen us thumbing through so many Disney guides, they want to look through them too. They are now at the age that they want to read on their own and input their opinions. Most of these guides have a lot of text, not exactly what an eight year old wants to see. The “Guide to the Magic for Kids” has lots of pictures, captions, symbols and quality blurbs all over every page.
While it is not going to have the quantity of content as some other guides, by no means does it lack in quality. I have read books that had 10 times more text, but still did not provide the type of information I always wanted.
Here are some examples of what I liked in the “Guide to the Magic for Kids”
Treats – let’s face it, the afternoon snack is a big deal in Disney. They have some things there that you cannot get anywhere else. We always call these the “can’t miss treats”. They mention where some of the best treats are in every section of the park.
Scavenger hunt – they have planned a pictorial scavenger hunt in every section of the park. Inevitably while at Disney, you are going to wind up at a section in the park where there is a 45 minute line and you do not want to walk over to another section just because there was an unexpected crowd. These scavenger hunts provide a great opportunity to keep everyone entertained till you are back up and moving.
Hidden Mickeys – the “Guide to the Magic for Kids” points out several hidden Mickeys. Always a fun thing to spot.
Hidden Treasures – there are so many little hidden treasures all over Disney World, the “Guide to the Magic for Kids” points them out to you. From pulling the rope at Indiana Jones the key under the map to how to get a free Fastpass are all in there.
Speed up your day – Something I always found lacking in many of the guides was information on speeding up your day. Sometimes standing on the left or right side of a “packing room” will get you out of a show 10 minutes earlier than other people. This comes from knowing where the exits are. I do not want to invest too much time into knowing where to stand, but if is easy enough to get that information, I want to know it. The “Guide to the Magic for Kids” gives many of these hints.
We let our kids look through the “Guide to the Magic for Kids” to get their feedback. It is written for them after all. They loved it as well. While they were looking at it, they made several comments which means they were enjoying looking at the guide. Taylor mentioned that she "liked the explanations about the rides. For instance, the Teacups note says it spins and they would not recommend it to someone who gets motion sickness. She also said, "After looking at this, I think we need to take it on our next Disney trip.
I would have preferred the book to be bound differently. If it were "ring bound", you could take out the portion you wanted for the day. For example, if you are going to Magic Kingdom for the day you could just pull out that section. Also, I think you could skip the autographs in the back. The “Guide to the Magic for Kids” is not going to be the best thing to use to get character autographs. The standard autograph book you get at the park is still the best thing for that. It has a hard back and is small enough for the characters to hold. Some of the characters have limited hand movement or cannot see very well might have a hard time signing this book. Although, later on you could pull the autograph from the smaller group and attach a picture and use those pages for scrapbooking.
Overall we highly recommend using the “Guide to the Magic for Kids”. We will definitely bring it on our next trip. So, look for a follow up article in which we review it while we are on our trip using it. It is well worth the MRSP of $29.95 and is much better than the majority of Disney guide books that are available.
MomsMaterial highly recommends this fun guide for kids and their parents!
Cammie Moise