"Lots To Do In Line: Disneyland" - A Days in the Park Review

If there is one thing we love to do while waiting in line for Disneyland Attractions, it's looking around at the scenery.  With the amount of time and effort that the Disney Imagineers put into their work, shame on you if you don't!  In fact, we've been known to play a little "I-Spy" here and there, on our own, just to liven things up a bit.  So when The Intrepid Traveler asked us to review their newest seriously cool little book all about Disneyland Attraction queues, including trivia and loads of things to keep us busy for hours just looking around, we were sold immediately.

If ever there was a title which described itself aptly and left little room for interpretation as to just what it's about, Lots To Do In Line: Disneyland may be just that book.  Many guests find Attraction queues extremely boring and dull, even at Disneyland.  We know.  Shocking, right?!  And the ones with kids usually find themselves telling the little ones to behave and to stop swinging on the chains the majority of the time that they're in line.  With a queue experience like that, it's no wonder they dislike the waits so much!  Trust us (if you don't already know) when we say that kids need something to do at all times, and if you're looking for a great way to keep your child busy, and have fun at the same time, we think we have just the solution for you.  Heck, even the cover of this book has children pointing at something they've just discovered.  We take that as a pretty good sign this book knows what it's doing!

Everyone loves playing games.  And the heart of Lots To Do In Line: Disneyland is just that; it's a game, and a really fun one at that!  The book is divided into two primary sections: one for Disneyland Park, and one for Disney California Adventure Park, and within each of these two main sections, it's further divided up into the different Lands around The Parks, with questions for each and every Attraction within the different Lands.  And each Land presents its Attractions in alphabetical order, so if you were in Fantasyland looking for the questions assigned to Dumbo the Flying Elephant, you would know to look before Mr. Toad's Wild Ride but after Alice in Wonderland; and the different Lands are listed in alphabetical order as well.  It may seem like only logical that the book was set up this way, but believe us, we've seem some pretty will-nilly work before, so we like to see it when things are done right and make sense.  And if that wasn't enough, and you don't feel like flipping, there is an index at the back of the book with each and every Land and Attraction listed, so you know exactly where to turn should the mood seize you.  We loved how it was super easy to find exactly the Attraction that you were looking for, and it would make it super easy if, like us, you were looking to answer the questions for a particular Attraction rather than just going through the book from cover; though we're almost sure that would be quite a lot of fun as well.  And there are, of course, answer keys at the end of each and every Land's Attraction questions, so you never have very far to go to find out whether you were right or wrong.

The game itself is very simple.  Answer the Attraction's trivia questions, look for the "treasures" (particular certain visual items within the Attraction queue), and collect items from the "collections" given in each section (such as weather vanes, little girls dressed as Princesses, or different types of Mickey Mouse ears) and for each item you answer, or see correctly, you get to add one point to your total, and five bonus points for every collection you've found more than 10 of as you've gone through your day.  Tally up the totals at the end of the day, and whoever has the most points, well, they win, of course!  It would be a lot of fun to just play if you were killing time in The Parks, but of course, the real beauty and fun of the book lies in the competition!  Kids vs. Adults.  Adults vs. Adults.  Kids vs. Kids.  Just think of the combinations!  Large groups, small groups, and every size group imaginable, there's something in here for everyone to enjoy, look at, answer, and have tons of fun with.

Not only will children find this book entertaining, but honestly, parents should too.  And if you're a competitive bunch, look out!  You might even, on occasion, find yourself competing with your child to find the right answer to some of the questions.  You might even discover just how much more your kid knows about The Park than you do, but feel free to keep that little embarrassing nugget to yourself.

What's that?  You say you have no children?  Well, there's not much that we can do about that.  You only go with your friends, you say?  That's no excuse!  If there's one thing we've found that good friends like to do, it's have a little competition.  Splitting up into teams is great way to use this book when playing with groups of people, or friends, finding all kinds of new things and goodies about your favorite Attractions.

We recently took the book out to Disneyland with us, and turns out, that was the easiest part of the entire endeavor.  The hardest part was deciding just what Attraction to try out the new book on!  With something for literally every Attraction at Disneyland, we knew that there was simply no way to give it a complete run in just one day, but then it hit us.  What's the one Attraction we keep coming back to time after time again?  The one Attraction we once rode on 30+ consecutive trips into The Park?  Arrrr, mateys, it be Pirates of the Caribbean then!  Having been Annual Passholders, who have ridden Pirates many, many times in the past, it's easy to believe we knew almost everything there was to know about the Attraction, but boy, were we wrong!

We opened the book and started answering (or at least attempting to answer) the questions.  "A breeze", we thought.  "Simple!", we told each other.  So we went down the list, one question at a time, remembering our answers (we were remiss to muck up the book at that point with pen marks), and then we reached the loading bay and rode; we couldn't wait to see the correct answers after.  Post-Attraction, as we went down the list marking off correct answers, we stumbled across a shocking discovery.  We had an incorrect answer!  Insert "Wa-Wa-Wa" sound.  So, we did what any wrong doer would do; we went to observe the location of our incorrectness.  And by jove, could it be?  We had never payed any attention to this before!  The book was right (imagine that!).  It was at this point we found that not only is it a great way to kill a lot of time in the queues, but it also heightens your senses.  Who knew with a simple guide in the form of a book, if one were to pay more attention to detail in the queues, one might actually discover new things they'd never noticed before?

As a whole, we highly recommend this book to any Disneyland fan.  Anyone who loves the detailed work done around The Park by the Imagineers and everyone involved in queue detail will absolutely love all of the questions and insights found here.  Finally, to all of those who love a good challenge and can still have a good time doing it, this is your kind of book.  We absolutely loved taking our copy of Lots To Do In Line: Disneyland into The Parks with us, and we can't wait until we get another chance to see just how much we don't (and do!) know about one of our favorite places on the planet.  If you love Disneyland, and love all of the little details spread all around The Parks, this just may be the book for you.  Check it out!

---

Meredith Lyn Pierce's Lots To Do In Line: Disneyland is published by The Intrepid Traveler, and is available in bookstores nationwide, from online bookstores (such as Amazon.com), or by visiting The Intrepid Traveler website.

Meredith Lyn Pierce has been visiting Disneyland regularly since her childhood in Orange County, California.  She decided to create Lots To Do In Line when she began visiting the parks with her husband and young daughter, on trips from their home in Washington.  "When families are immersed in the magic together", says Pierce, "Disneyland truly is 'The Happiest Place On Earth'" (from rear cover)

A review copy of Lots To Do In Line: Disneyland was provided to Days in the Park, courtesy of The Intrepid Traveler, for the purposes of this review.  All opinions contained herein are solely ours.