Announcing My New Book:
Tokyo Disney Made Easy-The Unofficial Guide to
Tokyo
Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea
Want to visit the Tokyo Disney Resort but unsure how to do it? Don't know the
customs? Worried about not speaking Japanese? This book provides explanations of
likely situations. You'll learn where to go, what to say, and what to expect
during every part of the trip, including the airport, transportation to the
resort, hotels, and of course the parks themselves. Language and cultural
differences no longer form an insurmountable hurdle. Visit the world's most
exciting Disney parks in comfort and ease, confident you'll know what to do at
each step
At 174 pages, this book dwells long enough on each topic to make readers
really feel ready for the next situation, even before it happens. And it's not
just my impressions; this book has been vetted by some of the biggest Internet
boosters out there for Tokyo Disneyland, including several on our MiceChat
discussion board. Their commentary, suggestions, and ideas have been taken to
heart, and led to some drastic revisions from the early drafts they saw. Much of
the strengths of this book come from them, and I owe them all a debt of
gratitude.
Here's a listing of the index, to give you an idea of what kinds of topics are covered and
in what depth:
Planning the Trip |
Attraction Descriptions |
Where to Eat |
Timeline |
Tokyo Disneyland Overview |
Themed Restaurants |
Deciding How Many Days to Stay |
World Bazaar |
Sample Menu Items and Prices |
Choosing the Right Season |
Tomorrowland |
English Menus and Western Expectations |
Avoiding Crowded Days of the Week |
Toontown |
Food Carts |
Avoiding Commuter Hassles |
Fantasyland |
Tipping |
Avoiding Attraction Refurbishments |
Critter Country |
Reservations |
Selecting the Right Hotel |
Westernland |
A Typical Dining Transaction |
Making Hotel Reservations |
Adventureland |
- |
Making Airline Reservations |
Tokyo DisneySea Overview |
Where to Shop
|
- |
Mediterranean Harbor |
Where to Find What |
Before You Leave |
American Waterfront |
Bon Voyage |
What to Pack |
Cape Cod |
Ikspiari |
Money Matters |
Mysterious Island |
A Typical Shopping Transaction |
Checklist For Leaving Your Home |
Port Discovery |
- |
- |
Lost River Delta |
Visiting With Babies, Toddlers, or Preschoolers |
Arrival and Transferring to Your Hotel |
Arabian Coast |
Surviving the Long Plane Ride and Jet Lag |
Arriving at Narita |
Mermaid Lagoon |
Baby Centers |
Transferring to Your Hotel |
- |
Changing Tables |
Arriving at the Tokyo Disney Resort |
Some Japanese Words You Should Learn |
Strollers |
Tokyo Disneyland Attractions |
Won't English Be Enough? |
Buying More Supplies |
Tokyo DisneySea Attractions |
Phrase Book or Dictionary |
Child Switch |
Shows and Parades |
Learning Some Japanese Before Your
Trip |
No Lap Infants on Rides |
- |
Initial Details About Japanese
Grammar |
Toddler Playground |
Park Admission and Touring Plan |
Phrases About Speaking Japanese |
Height Requirements for Thrill Rides
|
Buying Tickets |
Numbers and Counting |
- |
Transportation to the Park |
Phrases for Rides/Attractions |
Venturing Outside Disney |
The Golden Rule: Start the Day Early |
Phrases for Dining |
Choosing Hotels and Having a ‘Home
Base' Hotel |
Options for Creating Your Touring
Plan |
Phrases for Shopping |
Japan Rail Pass |
- |
Phrases About You |
Navigating Train Stations |
Time Savers |
Bathroom |
Bullet Train Reservations |
FASTPASS |
Travel and Directions |
City Maps |
Single Rider Lines |
Time and Calendar |
Toilet Topics |
Child Switch |
Colors |
Japanese Signs and Asking Directions |
Restaurant Hints |
Other General Words |
Miscellaneous Customs |
- |
- |
- |
Money Savers |
Maximizing FASTPASS |
Returning Home |
Coupons or Discounts |
FASTPASS Definition |
Checking Out of the Hotel |
Skipping the Monorail |
Where to Use FASTPASS |
Transferring to Narita Airport
|
Restaurant Strategies |
Where to Use Standby |
Check-In at the Airline |
Food Carts |
Obtaining a Second FASTPASS |
Returning Home and Recovering |
Snacks From Outside |
Late Return |
Planning Your Next Visit |
Eat Outside the Park |
- |
- |
Cheap Souvenirs |
- |
- |
The book is not fully ready just yet; I'm still making some very minor tweaks
and polishing the language from some professional editing. The release date is
July 1, 2008, and it will be available at Amazon.
But I've had some folks email me that they are going NOW and could really
benefit from this guide. Many ask if I have anything at all they can use. Well,
I do have one thing. I printed up about a hundred copies, with the right cover
artwork, to send out to reviewers and magazines, and I have about twenty of
those left over that I could sell. This version is missing the attractions
descriptions but is otherwise complete.
If you're interested, the cost would be
$20, including shipping. But since I have so few of those, we need to restrict
sales. Email me at [email protected] if you're interested, and I'll reply back
how to pay (or I'll let you know if I'm sold out).
Please don't order if you
don't need one right away. There are folks going in spring or summer 2008 who
could benefit from this book; if your trip is August or later, may I convince
you to wait until Amazon has it in early July?
Announcing My Other New Book:
Mouse Trap-Memoir of a Disneyland Cast Member
Last year I sold a preview version of this book, a 200-page recounting of my
time working at Disneyland over fifteen years. Now it is finally ready! Amazon
won't have it until early July, and the cover price will be $17.99 (onto which
you may have to tack on shipping). But I'm selling it directly to you for
$16.99, including tax and shipping via the link below
I spent the majority of those years working in Cafe Orleans and French Market
as a Working Lead (the hourly version of manager). If you've followed my online
columns before, that won't come as a surprise. What I've never announced
publicly before, and thus might surprise you, is the final career as a CM I had
in the early 2000s, working for Entertainment Art, a sub-department of the
Entertainment Division responsible for putting out temporary displays, temporary
decorations, and temporary makeovers. With some notable exceptions, I mostly
worked on the ‘crew' who did the actual installations and removals. While that
sounds pretty unglamorous here in black and white, it meant I got to roam the
park and backstage pretty much at will, and it opened my eyes to a lot of what
Disneyland was really like.
That silver Mickey was created by Disneyland's Entertainment
Art department.
The combined job experiences were so varied and so much fun for a Disney
enthusiast that I knew I'd have to share them with the world. I'd been planning
a book on being a Disneyland CM even in the early 90s, so it came as a shock to
me when David Koenig's Mouse Tales first came out. In that volume, I
recognized instantly many features of the CM life and attitudes. Yet there were
also gaps. David was never a CM himself, and without his ‘boots on the ground',
it wasn't really possible to provide a full snapshot of that life.
So I pressed on with my preparations, outlines, and notes. Over the years as
an online columnist, I've sometimes tapped those notes for smaller anecdotes,
and of course my views and attitudes as they exist today were originally formed
during those years as a CM, so they've really been central to me being who I am.
It's taken me years to write up those notes into a single narrative.
By way of introducing the book, let me simply present the chapters and
provide a brief synopsis of each one:
Welcome to the Disneyland Cast!
This is the story of interviewing and hiring in, and the orientation
programs back in 1987. You'll also read about job types and benefits for
each type.
Me (on the right) in 1987.
Studying at the Disney University
This chapter provides specifics on ‘continuing education' courses
offered at the Disney University, like Lead Development, Guest
Complaints for Leads, Performance Appraisals for Leads, and We Create
Happiness.
We Are Family
Disneyland did an awful lot of community building. Read my accounts
of canoe races, Disney Family Christmas Parties, Backstage Magic, Cast
Blast, Working Lead Appreciation Events, Distinguished Service Award
Banquets, Minnie's Moonlit Madness, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Spirit Award
pins, tours of WDI and the Disney Studios, Flashback, and, since this is
a chapter about family, that omnipresent visitor Arthur Holmson.
A cake in 1994, for my first parting with the company.
The Happiest Backstage on Earth
Follow along on a verbal tour of the entire Disneyland backstage,
going behind the berm, into the tunnels and underground areas, and
circle all the way around the back, passing by maintenance buildings of
all stripes.
Innovation and Reinvention
A front-line CM has the ability to suggest ways to improve the
workplace around him; these are some of my suggestions. Some were
approved; others not. You'll also read about the creation of the Fantasmic Dessert Balcony.
We're Not Carrots!
A definition and description of my department called New Orleans
Restaurants. See what it's like to work in the Blue Bayou, in the CM teria,
in the cavernous food prep kitchen downstairs, or in the
steaming dishroom with an SUV-sized dish machine.
Some Enchanted Evening
Enchanted Evenings were private parties restricted to just one land,
with lavish decorations and special menus. From the private opening of
Toontown to Liz Taylor's gala 60th birthday party in
Fantasyland, I share my observations and experiences.
The Lead costume in 1990.
Maggots, Fires, and Falling Elevators
Stories of mishaps are universal to any workplace, but somehow they
are just more fun when they take place at Disneyland. To the stories
mentioned in the chapter title, I could add stories of falling stacks of
trays, CMs stealing money, bomb threats, and even the CM with the most
Guest complaints in our location.
Stupid Guest Tricks
From lost kids to strange Guest complaints, this section tackles the
unusual interactions with the visitors. Don't miss my strange series of
things that fell from the sky: bird poop, bones, berries, and
wristwatches seem to materialize with no warning. And no accounting of
guest tricks would be complete without the requisite clam chowder fight.
Boys Will Be Boys
What could be more fun than a chapter dedicated to listing the ways
people goof off while at work? There's playfulness with the cashcart,
horseplay (some of it involving the Mouse-O-Rail), last day pranks, and
some roaming around in off-limits backstage areas.
Raging Hormones
Attraction, infatuation, and even stalking occurs at Disneyland too.
Hook-ups were so prevalent, I created a ‘kissing web' to chart who was
kissing whom, and it was astonishing to see just how connected the
department was. Hear also about the places people would retreat to for
some time alone, often just steps away from the Guests.
I folded and painted an awful lot of ribbons.
The Disneyland Ninjas
This is the chapter on Entertainment Art, with the cavernous
warehouse of props located off-property and the constant placing and
removing of decorations onstage. Almost every story here is fun and
fascinating in its own right, but two in particular stand out: crafting
many of the decorations you see in the Haunted Mansion Holiday (that is
MY name on the naughty/nice list in the snake's mouth, 17 names down
from the top), and being inside a fully deserted Disneyland at noon on
September 11, 2001.
The shadows tell the story: this is the middle of the day,
with no one around.
Escaping the Mouse Trap
From goodbye parties on the last day of work, to young people who die
during their days as a CM (and the big funerals that result), all of us
escape the mouse trap eventually. Not that we ever escape mentally.
With the exception of the chapter on EntArt, all of these stories relate
Disneyland life from the perspective of my restaurants, and doesn't try to
present a holistic view of all of Disneyland. After all, I didn't work in those
locations and didn't live those experiences. Not that my memories are unique. I
have no doubt there are thousands of DL CMs out there, current and former, who
have equally interesting memories, and I hope some of them publish their
stories, too.
Behind the Indian Village.
At 200 pages, the book relates my stories in enough detail to provide a ‘you
are there' feel, but tries to move quickly to the next topic, not lingering
overly long on any one memory. I tried to keep the audience in mind as I wrote
this, stripping out the parts that are presumably only interesting to me (the
crass term for self-absorbed writing is ‘literary masturbation'). The result is
hopefully a snappy, breezy read that paints a picture of how dynamic life as a
CM is, how fun it can be, and how much a sense of family it engendered, at least
in my case.
The final cover art has taken some time, but is now finally ready.
|