The Curious Case of the Missing Imagineering Field Guide

Surely I couldn’t have been the only one with bated breath waiting for the release of the fifth member of the Imagineering Field Guide, Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Disneyland took fourth place honors). Scheduled to be released on April 28, 2009, the timing could not be more perfect, coinciding with the park’s 20th anniversary.

Checking online just a few days before, Amazon was accepting pre-orders (they now promise shipping in 12-14 days). Barnes and Noble had it ready to be sold on April 28. Only Borders’ website was showing a release date of April 2010 (?!).

When April 28 came, I headed to the travel section of my local Borders store. I found the field guides for Epcot and Animal Kingdom, but no Hollywood Studios. I checked their self-help kiosk and all it would say was released April 2009. Their website still insisted the book would be released in April 2010. What do they know?

Dejected, I moved on. I checked Barnes and Noble’s website which now said the book was not available for order (currently, the book can only be found by searching on its ISBN number). A call to Barnes & Noble confirmed that the book had not been released with no further notations. The customer service agent insisted it’d be best if I just let it go.

I then contacted Walt Disney World merchandising who had no knowledge of this particular book in the series.

I decided to go right to the source and ask Disney Press what the heck was going on. A representative has confirmed that the release date for the book has been pushed back to at least July 2010. She was also very careful to include wording that suggested this date is not set in stone and subject to change. No reasons for the apparent delay were given.