PassPorter's
Walt Disney World for your Special Needs: The Take-Along
Travel Guide and Planner ,
by Deb Wills & Debra Martin Koma
It would be fair to label me a cynic when it comes
to evaluating the vacation opportunities afforded by
either Disneyland in California or Florida's Walt Disney
World. But now that I have read and reviewed two excellent
guidebooks about these popular destinations, my outlook
has softened considerably. The first was Louis Mongello's,
The
Walt Disney World Trivia Book, and the second
is the brand new Walt Disney World for your Special
Needs, by Deb Wills and Debra Martin Koma. Unexpectedly,
I have found this guide book to be incredibly useful
and informative not only for special-needs visitors
to the Disney resorts, but also for all travelers regardless
of destination. The book provides fresh and unique ideas,
tips, and suggestions for embracing the joy and challenges
of travel in general. For visitors to any of the Disney
resorts, this book is a definite must-read.
With incredible detail and focus,
this guide addresses travel-related challenges faced
by two dozen special-needs categories including mental
health disorders, hearing and vision impairments, pregnancy,
religion, and mobility disabilities. Especially compelling
and helpful were the segments contributed by parents
of special-needs children detailing what their experiences
were like.
The book has been designed to be used
for both pre-planning and on-the-spot logistics. Each
of the profiled special needs is assigned a letter icon
(like "G" for allerGies or "D"
for Diet concerns). These icons appear throughout
the guide alerting readers to specific features at each
of the venues that should be either avoided or sought
out by visitors with those health challenges.
In the first part of the book, the
authors provide pre-planning tips for traveling to the
amusement parks, special considerations to take into
account on arrival, and then remarkably detailed suggestions
for things to do and to avoid specific to each of the
twenty-four profiled conditions. Even though I would
not consider myself to be a "special-needs traveler,"
I was struck again and again by how useful this book
will be the next time I travel anywhere. The tips about
the pros and cons of different travel choices, especially
tips about what to ask for when making reservations,
are the best I have ever read in any guidebook.
Walt Disney World has twenty-four themed
resort hotels, and this book provides an in-depth
look at each one with drawings and schematics of all
of the rooms, restaurants, and other guest services.
This makes it easy for someone with special needs to
quickly determine which resort offers the best combination
of amenities and attractions for them. The authors also
evaluated other hotels in the area and the Disney cruise
ships with the same exacting detail. In fact, the section
of the book on menu selection for restaurants throughout
the greater Orlando area is nothing short of phenomenal.
I would recommend this book for all travelers on that
basis alone.
Beyond all the tips, suggestions,
and local "intel," I think all travelers
would benefit from reading this book at least once because
it provides a real, "nuts and bolts" view
of the scale of challenges that special-needs travelers
overcome on a daily basis. I know that my one-time reading
of this excellent guidebook will directly affect my
perception and empathy towards people I see wherever
I am -- on a holiday trip or not. This book has also
given me a grudging appreciation for the behind-the-scenes
commitment the Walt Disney resorts have made to serving
special-needs travelers. PassPorter's Walt Disney
World for Your Special Needs: The Take-Along Travel
Guide and Planner surprised and impressed me, and
I highly recommend it as a valuable tool for all travelers.
Mark
Sedenquist
11/20/05
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