Steven Barret’s book, Hidden Mickeys: A Field Guide to Walt Disney World’s Best Kept Secrets, is the kind of book that can keep families busy for days, and keep hidden Mickey hunters on the search for the most elusive hidden Mickey at Disney World. Some Disney fans have made a hobby out of searching for the hidden Mickeys at Disney World.
Book Basics
Hidden Mickeys: A Field Guide to Walt Disney World’s Best Kept Secrets, by author Steven Barret, is a handy guide to locating the many hidden Mickeys at Walt Disney World. The 4 by 9 inch size makes this a tall and narrow sized book, just slightly too large for a back pocket, but small enough for a backpack or purse.
There are 160 pages in the book, with a number of different hidden Mickey hunts and itineraries for different locations at Disney World. A hidden Mickey is an object or imprint of some sort that resembles a Mickey Mouse head.
The book is a field guide, which involves going on hidden Mickey scavenger hunts at the Disney parks, restaurants, shops, and resorts. There are even some highlighted locations where you must ride one of the Disney attractions to find a hidden Mickey.
There are hidden Mickey itineraries to follow if you are at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, or Disney-MGM Studios, though not all of the treasure hunts follow a certain order through the parks. An index is included in the book for those who want to look up a certain Disney area and see if there may be any hidden Mickeys there.
A scoring system is provided in the book to give families a way to keep track of points for hidden Mickey finding competitions. There are so many hidden Mickeys at the different Disney World parks, resorts, shops, and restaurants, that it would take a long time for anyone to locate all of them. This book helps to at least find some of the hidden Mickeys, with hints and clues to help along the way.
The retail price for the book is listed at $11.95, but there are many places to find it at a discounted price. Since the activities in the book require that you are actually at Disney World to find the hidden Mickeys, this would be a great purchase for an upcoming trip.
Hidden Mickey Hunting
After purchasing this book, I began to see hidden Mickeys everywhere. The plates at the dining room table in the Haunted Mansion became Mickey heads, when I took the time to notice, and I found little hidden Mickeys on the bedspread in the resort hotel room. The best part about buying this book was that it managed to keep my two sons, 11 and 13, busy finding hidden Mickeys on the trip.
This is the kind of book that adds new entertainment for repeat Disney World guests. It is also a fun book for families with younger children, who might enjoy having a hidden Mickey scavenger hunt on vacation. Older kids might enjoy this book as a gift before a trip to Disney World.
Critics have long debated that some of the hidden Mickeys in the book are unofficial. Disney Imagineers spent a significant amount of time incorporating authentic hidden Mickeys throughout the parks, resorts, shops, attractions, and restaurants at Disney World, and even though all of the suggested hidden Mickeys in the book may not all qualify as genuine hidden Mickeys, to Disney experts, they still look like hidden Mickeys to the average person.
This is a book that can entertain families, while on vacation. For the reasonable price, it might make a good investment for veteran Disney World visitors, or Disney fans. I would not recommend the book for very young children, as there are parts that require advanced reading and comprehension skills, or for those who do not plan on spending some time searching for hidden Mickeys.
