Tom Bricker

This book is intended for a very specific target audience. If you're a Disneyland addict, like I am, and are interested in traveling there at Christmas time and need a little more information about that season at the park, than this is the book for you. I didn't actually need to read this book, but since my holiday vacation at the Disney Resort has been postponed, I was looking for a little vicarious travel time. This book sounded like the perfect way to get a Disney fix when I couldn't actually go there.

When I read a travel guide, I'm looking for two things: good information and attractive pictures. I knew that this ebook would cover the picture front, because I read Bricker's webpage and I love his photographs. His website is the Disney Tourist Blog, and he writes trip reports about his various vacations to Disneyworld and Disneyland with his wife. Trip reports are proliferating on the internet these days, but I find most of them to be tedious. Bricker's reports, on the other hand, are fun. His writing style is easy to read, full of humor and a healthy dose of self-deprecation, and lots of opinions that I don't always agree with but always find amusing. The best part of his reports are his photographs. He is a bit of a hobbyist, but his photographs are great, far better than the average amateur, and they make me feel like I an traveling along with them. When I saw on his website that he had published an ebook on Disneyland at Christmas time, and I was planning a visit for Christmas, I thought it was a perfect fit.

The book is what it advertises: it discusses just about every aspect of the holiday season at this particular park in California. The chapters are accompanied by a fair amount of pictures, and the photographs are wonderful. It certainly did provide me a Disney fix and made me want to go to the park for the holidays all the more (since my plans have been delayed now for a year or two, my pleasure was mixed with regret). I wanted more photographs. I also was a little disappointed at the grammar errors. On his website, Bricker explains that he is more interested in fast delivery of his updates and less worried about editing, and that's fine with me. This is a different medium, though, and I expect higher standards of writing, not just another trip report in book form. Other than those disappointments, I enjoyed the book. Disney fans will certainly appreciate the coverage.… (mehr)