Are you interested in discovering all sorts of fun facts about Walt Disney World? Or perhaps you simply want to test your knowledge of one of America’s most popular vacation destinations. Louis A. Mongello’s The Walt Disney World Trivia Book: Secrets, History & Fun Facts Behind the Magic, published by The Intrepid Traveler in 2004, provides a plethora of information on Mickey’s Florida home. Students of the Mouse will enjoy learning interesting tidbits, while “World” experts will be entertained as they have their knowledge tested and verified.
Mongello’s 224 page book is divided into eight chapters, plus an introduction and an index. Each chapter includes forty-eight to 148 trivia questions, along with answers. The answers are given at the end of the chapter – beneficial for working through the book alone – and each includes a short explanation to its corresponding question. The student hoping to increase his Disney expertise with this interactive book will be pleased by these explanations, which reinforce the questions and enable the learner to more easily retain his newfound knowledge.
The chapters are well-organized, with the first one containing general questions about all of Disney World. The next four chapters are specific to the four major Disney parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Studios (now called Hollywood Studios), and Animal Kingdom. The final chapter quizzes readers on everything else, including but not limited to the numerous resorts, Downtown Disney, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, and even the monorail system.
This book’s home is not on our shelf, but rather in our family car. On the way to ball games, church, movies, and other events, we open the book and start the quiz. We keep a bookmark in our spot so that we can continue to move forward on each subsequent trip without losing our place and unintentionally repeating some questions.
One of us – not the driver! – reads the questions, everyone announces their guesses, and the answer is checked by the reader. The questions are in multiple choice form, making it easy to remember the choices and shout out answers. This method of questioning also gives the youngest and/or least knowledgeable player a twenty-five percent chance of answering correctly.
Random facts about Disney World are found throughout the book in small boxes titled, “Did you know?”. One fact states, “More than one hundred pairs of sunglasses are turned into WDW’s Lost and Found every day – enough each year to cover the eyes of every single resident of Sun City, California, and Sun City, Florida!” (36) As we near our destination and reach an suitable stopping point in the book, I share these interesting tidbits with my fellow passengers.
While I will not yet classify myself as a Disney expert, I will say with confidence that I have passed the amateur phase with the help of The Walt Disney World Trivia Book. My family of Disney fanatics and I joyfully open our trivia book and test our knowledge regularly. We recently took pleasure in applying our new-found “wisdom” during a Disney vacation and won three Disney trivia contests held at our resort! Thank you, Mr. Mongello!
Before our next trip, it will be necessary to expand upon our knowledge in order to maintain our status as “Trivia Champions”. Therefore, Mongello’s follow-up book, The Walt Disney World Trivia Book, Volume 2: More Secrets, History, and Fun Facts Behind the Magic, published in 2006, has now been added to our wish list!
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Thanks for the review, Alison, and nice to know that you are enjoying the book as I had intended – as a game to be played with family and friends (and congrats on the trivia wins!) 🙂
Have you found any one question or bit of trivia that you enjoyed the most or made you say “Wow!”?
Thanks again! Hope to see you in Walt Disney World someday!
Thank you! I think our house full of boys was most fascinated to learn that one of the Test Track cars flipped off the track during testing. We love Test Track and are very thankful the Imagineers were able to correct that problem and still provide an exciting ride. We were also surprised to learn that the names on the tombstones at the Haunted Mansion are actually those of real people – the Imagineers who designed the ride! We all think that is pretty cool and took extra time to read through those names on our most recent trip this past September. Our family truly cannot get enough of Disney trivia!