Hidden Mickeys : A Field Guide to Walt Disney World's Best Kept Secrets
- Book Review,
by Steven M. Barrett
Allan Halcrow in FantasyLine Express on October 2003
The book is paperbound nirvana for all Disney fans who tour the parks on the lookout for the unmistakable shape.
Bob Spear, The Heartstrings Newsletter, March-April 2003
The cutest travel book for families headed for Florida’s Disney World. . . . a delightful supplement to other guide books.
Naples Daily News, July 13, 2003, by James Lilliefors
"Once we found these cleverly camouflaged Hidden Mickeys, we had an itch to search for more."
Endless Vacation, May-June 2003,
Check out our favorite new titles… "Hidden Mickeys" offers six scavenger hunts—complete with clues.
Kimberly Scholz in Travel Weekly on March 17, 2003
Barrett organizes his nearly 400 documented Hidden Mickeys in scavenger hunts. . . .[with] detailed hints . . . for those who get stuck.
Bottom Line Tomorrow on April 2003
Six scavenger hunts designed to give you a unique look at Disney World.
Readers Preference Reviews
"Hidden Mickeys" was awarded Readers Preference Reviews' 2003 Editor's Choice Award for Travel.
Robert Feder, Chicago Sun-Times Sunday Travel Section, November 23, 2003,
"A clever diversion. . . Think of it as a scavenger hunt on a grand scale."
Allan Halcrow, Editor, FantasyLine Express, October 2003
"The book is paperbound nirvana for all Disney fans who tour the parks on the lookout for the unmistakable shape."
Book Description
This first guide book on the subject of Disney World adds to the fun by turning the search into organized scavenger hunts, complete with clues, hints, points to be scored, and places to tally them. Fun for all ages
From the Publisher
Fun for all ages.
About the Author
Steven M. Barrett, paid his first visit to Walt Disney World in the late 1980s, after attending a medical conference in Orlando. He immediately fell under its spell, visiting it twice yearly with family and friends for the next several years, offering touring advice to the less initiated, and reading almost everything written about the WDW theme parks. When a job in his field of emergency medicine opened up not far from Walt Disney World in 1998, Barrett, a Texas native, Air Force veteran, and former Oklahoma City medical professor, relocated to the Orlando area from Houston, Texas. Eventually, feedback from family and friends made him realize he had better advice on touring the parks than they could get anywhere else. So he wrote the guidebook, "The Hassle-Free Walt Disney World Vacation," which includes customized touring plans for adults and teens, families with younger children, and seniors, along with lots of insider tips gleaned from his almost weekly visits to Disney World. The second edition was published by The Intrepid Traveler in November 2003. His love of the hunt led him to write "Hidden Mickeys," his second book.
Excerpted from Hidden Mickeys: A Field Guide to Walt Disney World's Best Kept Secrets by Steven M. Barrett. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
from CHAPTER ONE: HIDDEN MICKEY MANIA Have you ever marveled at a "Hidden Mickey?" People in the know often shout with glee when they recognize one. Some folks are so involved with discovering them that Hidden Mickeys can be visualized where none actually exist. These outbreaks of Hidden Mickey mania are confusing to the unenlightened. So let’s get enlightened! Here’s the definition of an official Hidden Mickey: a partial or complete image of Mickey Mouse that has been hidden by Disney’s Imagineers and artists in the designs of Disney attractions, hotels, restaurants, and other areas. These images are designed to blend into their surroundings. Sharp-eyed visitors have the fun of finding them. The practice probably started as an inside joke among the Imagineers (the designers and builders of Disney attractions). Then guests and "cast members" (Disney employees) started spotting them and the concept took on a life of its own. Today, Hidden Mickeys are anticipated in any new construction at Walt Disney World, and Hidden Mickey fans can’t wait to find them. Hidden Mickeys come in all sizes and many forms. The most common is an outline of Mickey’s head formed by three intersecting circles, one for Mickey’s round head and two for his round ears. Among Hidden Mickey fans, this image has been known as the "classic" Hidden Mickey, a term I will adopt in this book. Other Hidden Mickeys include a side or oblique (usually three-quarter) profile of Mickey’s face and head, a side profile of his entire body, a full-length silhouette of his body seen from the front, a detailed picture of his face or body, or a three-dimensional Mickey Mouse. Sometimes just his gloves, handprints, shoes or ears appear. Even his name or initials in unusual places may qualify as a Hidden Mickey. And it’s not just Mickeys that are hidden. The term "Hidden Mickey" also applies to hidden images of other popular characters. There are Hidden Minnies, Hidden Donald Ducks, Hidden Goofys, and other Hidden characters in Disney World, and I include some of them in this book. The sport of finding Hidden Mickeys is catching on and adds even more interest to an already fun-filled Walt Disney World vacation. This book is your "field guide" to nearly 400 Hidden Mickeys in WDW. To add to the fun, instead of just describing them, I’ve organized them into six scavenger hunts, one for each of the major theme parks, one for the Walt Disney World Resort hotels, and one for all the rest of WDW, the water parks, Downtown Disney, and beyond. The hunts are designed for maximum efficiency so that you can spend your time looking for Mickeys rather than cooling your heels in lines. Follow the Clues and you will find the best Hidden Mickeys WDW has to offer. If you have trouble spotting a particular Hidden Mickey (some are extraordinarily well camouflaged!) you can turn to the Hints at the end of each scavenger hunt. . . . HIDDEN MICKEYS, "GRAY ZONE" MICKEYS, WISHFUL THINKING For every "official" or well-accepted Hidden Mickey, there are two or more "gray zone" Hidden Mickeys. These Mickeys may not be well hidden or may have distorted proportions—ears that aren’t round or are too close together or too far apart, for example. Yet they are often accepted as Hidden Mickeys by observers. Examples include the various classic (three-circle) Hidden Mickey-shaped locks you’ll see in a number of attractions, such as the jail cell lock in "Pirates of the Caribbean" in Magic Kingdom. I include some of these gray-zone Mickeys in this book, although some enthusiasts may argue the merits of specific choices. Other Hidden Mickeys are sentimental favorites with Disney fans, even though they may actually represent "wishful thinking." For example, the "three-gears classic Mickey" at "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad" in Magic Kingdom is not proportioned quite right and so is a bit of a stretch. But many guests and even cast members call the gears a Hidden Mickey, and I’ll admit, I rather like it myself. So you will find it in the Magic Kingdom Scavenger Hunt in this book (Magic Kingdom Scavenger Hunt, Clue 3). The classic (three-circle) Mickeys are the most controversial, for good reason. Much debate surrounds the gathering of circular forms throughout Walt Disney World. The large classic Hidden Mickey outlined in the cement at the rear of Africa in Disney’s Animal Kingdom (Clue 42 in the Animal Kingdom Scavenger Hunt), is obviously the work of a clever artist. But classic (i.e., three-circle) configurations occur spontaneously in art and nature, as in collections of grapes, tomatoes, pumpkins, bubbles, oranges, cannonballs, and the like. Unlike the Hidden Mickey in Africa, it may be difficult to attribute a specific "classic Mickey" configuration to a deliberate Imagineer design. So which groupings of three qualify as Hidden Mickeys? Unfortunately, no master list of actual or "Imagineer-approved" Hidden Mickeys exists. Walt Disney World attempts to keep an "unofficial" Hidden Mickey list (accessible from its websites) but even it is incomplete! The most exhaustive compilation resides at the HiddenMickeys website, an interactive resource worthy of a visit by any Hidden Mickey enthusiast. However, a number of the reported sightings there are stretches of the imagination, or "wishful thinking," as credible verification is often hard to come by. Purists demand that a true classic Hidden Mickey have proper proportions. The round head must be larger than the ear circles, so that three equal circles in the proper alignment would not qualify as a Hidden Mickey. My own criteria are a bit looser. If three circles approximate the correct proportions and alignment, especially if they stand apart from the pack or if they’ve been identified by other observers, I include them in this book as Hidden Mickeys.
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