Today my copy of the new "Maps of the Disney Parks" arrived. It looks fantastic, but from the first look I can already say that it is not as good as expected. It's not bad, but it's a missed opportunity. On the cover it says "Charting 60 years from California to Shanghai" and Disney's newest resort is barely touched. There's one overview of the resort, a map of the Alicy maze, a rendering of Treasure Cove and another one of Fantasyland. The only new map is an early concept from 2008, which has already been posted here on LP. The last D23 magazine offers more about SDL. The book clearly focuses on the US parks, which is fine given the target market, but I really expected it to be more detailed and comprehensive. For example, WDSP is only mentioned once in an early concept art of the park. I know that park is an emberassement for Disney, but if you print a book about all parks, then all parks should be dealt with in a proper way, even if you are ashamed of your product. I will write a more comprehensive review after I read the book. They could have at least printed the current park maps of all Disney parks around the world. A fold out would have been even better. As a said before, so many missed opportunities.
I saw a brief review elsewhere that was also somewhat disappointed with the book. Considering how many maps have been created through the years at all of the parks, it seems like it would have been fairly easy to throw something together that showed a variety of drawings for each location Most books overlook the international parks, but it seems like a map book would be the perfect place to highlight the differences among them. It would also be a good opportunity to show how things have changed over time; WDSP still lacks a lot of the traditional Disney charm, but there's no denying that it's a significantly better park than when it opened 14 years ago, and that could easily be shown with a couple maps
They should have shown with the maps how each park evolved over the years. Unfortunately they have seperated the parks into time frames.
Now I had some time to get a better impression of the book and I'm still disappointed. On the one hand they early years of Disney parks are very interesting, but on the other hand it's still a missed opportunity to cover ALL parks in a proper way.
Agreed. I was also surprised that there was very little about the park guide maps (as opposed to the now-defunct fun maps and concept art maps), even though that's the most common type of map that guests see at the parks. Speaking of fun maps, I wish someone had thought to add a section at the end of the book listing all the editions of fun maps sold to guests. Yes, I know you can find most of that information online, but it would have been nice to have a reference for those of us who collect them...
I agree with the disappointment in selection. I probably won't purchase since I viewed it in DCA store last weekend. The person viewing it before me (only one in store opened) said he was not going to buy it either. I wanted to see the original DCA Opening Day map !
