Guide to the Magic for Kids--A Great Keepsake!

Part of our bedtime routine while staying at Walt Disney World, is to fill in our reviews of attractions that we have visited that day using the Walt Disney World Resort Guide to the Magic for Kids. This book is a great keepsake.




Inside the front cover is a place to record your child’s name, age during the trip, dates of the trip, and who your child traveled with. Then there is some informational pages like “Tips to Enjoy the Magic”—which has a check-off for all the monorails—click here to read more. Scavenger hunts and character spotting are also included.

The next portion of the book is divided into 4 parts, one for each park—Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.  The pages for each park are color coded, so you can turn to a specific park.  Each park section starts out with a map of the park and list of attractions in that park.  The attraction icons match the stickers that are included with the book.

Within each park section, there is an entry for each attraction.  This is where you get to record your review of the attraction and place the appropriate sticker next to the attraction.

The neat part about this section of Guide to the Magic is that kids can read about and see portions of attractions before they get to Walt Disney World. The guide also mentions any height restrictions—reduces disappointment, and tells if an attraction is dark, noisy, scary, etc. So in addition to being helpful for kids, it is also very helpful to the parents of those kids in planning for what their kids might like or not like. It can be frustration to get to a theme park and then discover that your child may not participate in some attractions due to fear, anxiety, height restrictions, etc. And, we want to keep as much magic in the vacation as possible, so planning ahead can alleviate potential frustrating moments.




There’s also a daily journal portion where you can record the weather, modes of transportation, what was eaten and where, daily favorites, etc. The pages are labeled “Day 1 of our Trip,” “ Day 2. . . “ etc. through “Day 14.” There’s even a tip of the day included with every journal page and a place to record souvenirs. Like I said, a great keepsake!



The last portion in Guide to the Magic is blank pages for autographs. While that is an excellent idea, the book is slightly bigger than 8 ½ X 11 and 200 pages, making it a bit cumbersome. We have seen folks lugging the book around at the parks for autographs, but due to the size and weight of the book, I wouldn’t recommend it. You could use those blank pages instead for drawing, writing, etc.



If you want to order your copy of Guide to the Magic check out their web-site: http://www.guidetothemagic.com/. Even exploring the web-site can be fun!  If you are a subscriber to Allears.net’s weekly e-mail newsletter, you will often receive a link in that newsletter to purchase Guide to the Magic at a discount. They make great gifts, too!