Disneyland Paris: The Books

As a follow-up to my series on visiting Disneyland Paris, I wanted to post some information on books which are available regarding trip planning and park history. I hope that these titles will be of use to future visitors to this beautiful resort. 

I was surprised that relatively little has been published to help plan trips to Disneyland Paris. The two books I purchased were DISNEYLAND PARIS: THE FAMILY GUIDE by Juz Griffiths (click the title of this post for a link) and FROMMER'S PARIS AND DISNEYLAND RESORT PARIS WITH YOUR FAMILY. These titles were published in 2007 and 2008, respectively. 

 These books were worthwhile and provided a good thumbnail overview of the resorts, including descriptions of rides and resort hotels. As someone used to having a number of thick, highly detailed guides to consult for trips to Walt Disney World, the books were on the thin side, but they provided a good starting place for our trip. There are a couple other titles available which I didn't purchase either because they were a few years old or they had several negative critiques on Amazon which were thoughtfully presented. 

Turning to park history, ONCE UPON AN AMERICAN DREAM: THE STORY OF EURO DISNEYLAND by Andrew Lainsbury is a history of the creation of Disneyland Paris, once known by the less attractive title Euro Disneyland. (The park's train is still the Euro Disneyland Railroad.) I haven't started this one yet; it was originally written as a Ph.D. thesis. The book is a little over 300 pages. There are no photos, but a plus is that Lainsbury's thesis advisor was Karal Ann Marling, author of a couple excellent books on Disney theme park history.

WALT DISNEY IMAGINEERING: A BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT MAKING THE MAGIC REAL is a colorful 200-page 1996 Disney publication which contains information and photos regarding the design of Disney's parks in California, Florida, Japan, and France. If you're a serious Disney theme park fan this is a "must buy." 

DISNEYLAND PARIS: FROM SKETCH TO REALITY, by Alain Littaye and Didier Ghez, is a five-pound book which I brought home in my carry-on, and it was worth every bit of the effort -- especially as the copies I have seen available online cost twice what I paid at the resort! It's over 320 oversized, glossy, high-quality pages of color photographs and park history. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's available in both English and a French-language edition. 

Previously: Eurostar to Disneyland Paris: The Only Way to Travel!; Disneyland Paris: Walt Disney Studios Park; Disneyland Paris Resort: Sequoia Lodge; Disneyland Paris: The. Best. Castle. Ever; Disneyland Paris: The Resorts; Disneyland Paris: The Molly Brown; Disneyland Paris: Fantasyland; Disneyland Paris: Discoveryland; Disneyland Paris: Frontierland; Disneyland Paris: Adventureland; Disneyland Paris: Main Street, U.S.A.; Disneyland Paris: Once Upon a Dream Parade.