Birnbaum’s 2024 Walt Disney World

Prepare for your Walt Disney World vacation with the one and only official, up-to-the-minute insider’s guide to America’s most popular travel destination!

Updated annually with expert advice and reviews, coupons, and more!

Trust Birnbaum as your 2023-2024 guide for:

• insider tips for budgeting, scheduling, and navigating the theme parks and resorts
• detailed descriptions of all the attractions, resorts, and eateries
• money-saving strategies and more than ＄400 worth of coupons
• colorful maps, photos, Disney character illustrations, and more

• Race through the Grid on TRON Lightcycle/Run, the Magic Kingdom’s high-octane newcomer
• Have a blast at EPCOT’s dazzling new nighttime spectacular
• Add these groundbreaking attractions to your ＂must-do＂ list: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance; Slinky Dog Dash; Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway; Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind!, and the Disney Skyliner, the aerial gondola system connecting EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and four resorts

• Catch the Magic Kingdom’s beloved fireworks extravaganza: Happily Ever After
• Make a splash at the Disney water parks
• Have a meal with Mickey Mouse and his Disney pals
• Enjoy Disney Springs, a vibrant dining, shopping, and entertainment district
• Detect Hidden Mickeys throughout the theme parks
• Soar on the back of a mountain banshee at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park attraction Avatar Flight of Passage
• Choose (and book!) a Disney dining experience with our extensive restaurant coverage
• Book a backstage tour or fireworks cruise
• Get great value at Disney’s Art of Animation and Pop Century resorts
• Fly high in Toy Story Land, a cheery play zone at Disney’s Hollywood Studios park
• Meet favorite Disney characters

• Be sure to also pick up Birnbaum’s 2024 Walt Disney World for Kids: The Official Guide.

When Steve Birnbaum launched this guide in 1981, he made it clear what was expected of anyone who worked on it: The book would be meticulously revised each year, leaving no attraction untested, no snack or meal untasted, no hotel untried. First-hand experiences like these, accumulated over the years, make this book the most authoritative guide to the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts.
Our expertise, however, is not achieved by being escorted through back doors of attractions (although we would enjoy that). Instead, we wait in lines with everyone else, always hoping to have a Disney experience like that of any other guest.
While Walt Disney World has vastly expanded, and so has our knowledge of the most popular vacation destinations on the planet. On some occasions we’ve encountered sweltering weather and swelling crowds, times when even the happiest of travelers can turn into Grumpy for a moment or two. Had we known then what we know now, we could have spared ourselves some trying experiences.
In one case, a staffer waited more than an hour to get on an attraction. Standing in line with a notebook, she was asked by another guest if there was a quiz at the end. When she explained what she was doing, he expressed surprise to learn that she was waiting with the masses. But that’s always been our strategy.
We believe the best way to gather useful advice for a Disney park guest is to be one. Over and over again!
--Jill Safro, editor