Bob Sehlinger, a Lowell Thomas Award-winning journalist, is best known as the creator and producer of The Unofficial Guide series.
He is credited with being the first to apply research techniques from operations research and statistics to travel guides. Among other projects, he developed mathematical models that could save theme park patrons more than three hours of standing in queue in a single day.
Bob Sehlinger is the founder and co-owner of AdventureKEEN, a 40+ year-old indie book publishing company that includes The Unofficial Guides, Menasha Ridge Press, Clerisy Press, Wilderness Press, Nature Study Guild Publishers, Adventure Publications, and Shelter Publications. AdventureKEEN publishes books that inspire adventure, cultivate nature appreciation and conservation, and promote local parks and trails.
Bob Sehlinger is the author of 27 books, a past president of the Publishers Association of the South, and has served on educational missions for publishers in Hungary, Romania, and Russia at the invitation of the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Information Service.
Seth Kubersky has worked for more than 25 years as a theatrical artist, culture critic, and travel journalist. Seth is the co-author of The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando, The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland, and The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas, as well as a collaborator on The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. Seth is nationally recognized as an authority on theme parks and attractions, and contributes to Orlando Weekly, Attractions Magazine, and the Unofficial Universal Orlando Podcast. Seth lives in Orlando with his wife Genevieve and their cats Sol, Kipper, and Pumpkin.
Tammy Whiting is the coauthor of The Unofficial Guide to Disney Cruise Line. Blogger, Space Force wife, and mother of two, Tammy, has been involved in the travel industry for more than 15 years. Though she certainly enjoys vacations of all kinds, her favorite adventures around the globe have been on cruise ships, and she has been on over 50 Disney Cruises. Tammy spent five years of her childhood in Europe as a military brat and has been a military spouse for over 30 years, living in almost every corner of the US. When she isn’t traveling, you can find her enjoying her family, buying camera equipment, and planning her next trip!
Becky Gandillon is the coauthor of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. From St. Louis, Missouri, Becky has been a Disney fan since she was 18 months old! She combines her love for data and Disney by analyzing crowd and touring patterns at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Becky and her husband love traveling both to the World and around the real world with their two daughters. You might run into their redheaded family in some of their favorite places—in Orlando, at sea on a Disney cruise ship, at a ski resort in the Rockies, or at a national park!
Renee Sklarew is a native Washingtonian who adores her hometown and has spent a lifetime exploring the city’s many attractions, both on her own, and with her children. Her writing and photography has been featured in The Boston Globe, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Washington Post, Northern Virginia Magazine, and The Washingtonian. She is the restaurant editor of VivaTysons Magazine and enjoys sampling the wide variety of international cuisines found in the DC Area. She is the author of The Unofficial Guide to Washington D.C.
A lifelong Disney theme park fan, Len Testa co-authors The Unofficial Guides to Walt Disney World, The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland, and The Unofficial Guide to Disney Cruise Line. In grad school, Len’s master’s thesis described new computer techniques for generating efficient theme park touring plans, for which Len was awarded a U.S. patent. These days, Len leads the team at TouringPlans.com, a research arm of The Unofficial Guides. Len has stayed at every Disney hotel, experienced every Disney ride, and eaten at every Disney restaurant and food cart in the U.S. Len shares his time between his homes in NYC and Orlando.
Sam Gennawey is a retired urban planner, planning historian, and public participation expert. He built his approach and unique point of view based on his passion for history, professional training as an urban planner, and obsession with national parks, theme parks, museums, and historic areas. These abilities have resulted in speaking engagements from Walt Disney Imagineering, the Walt Disney Family Museum, Universal Studios Creative, the American Planning Association, the California Preservation Foundation, the California League of Cities, libraries, and dozens of podcasts. As an urban planner, Mr. Gennawey worked on over 190 projects and conducted over 1,000 community workshops and charrettes. Mr. Gennawey is the author of The Disneyland Story: An Unofficial Guide to the Evolution of Walt Disney’s Dream, Walt and the Promise of Progress City, Universal vs. Disney: The Unofficial Guide to American Theme Parks Greatest Rivalry, and Jaybangs: How Jay Stein, MCA, and Universal Invented the Modern Theme Park and Beat Disney at Its Own Game. His latest book is A Man, A Van, and the National Park Service. He has also contributed to books from the American Planning Association, the American Institute of Architects, and Walt Disney Imagineering.
Erin Foster is the coauthor to The Unofficial Guide to Disney Cruise Line. As a charter member of the official Walt Disney Parks Moms Panel (now known as planDisney), Erin has researched and answered over 11,000 guest questions about Disney travel. In a quest to consume absolutely everything Disney Destinations has to offer, Erin has visited Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland. Her travels also include Disney Cruise Line voyages throughout the world, Adventures by Disney journeys on four continents, and visits to the Disney Vacation Club properties in Hilton Head, Vero Beach, and Hawaii. She is a regular contributor to the TouringPlans.com blog and has been a guest on many Disney-related websites and podcasts. Erin has degrees from Darthmouth College, the University of Texas at Austin, and New York University. She currently lives near New York City where she, her husband, and their three young adult daughters regularly engage their other passion: attending Broadway and off-Broadway theater.
Alicia Stella is a contributor to The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando and has been covering new attractions since 2015 on her website, OrlandoParkStop.com, and her YouTube Channel, Theme Park Stop. Alicia’s work has been cited in The New York Times and USA Today, as well as on CNN and The Today Show. She specializes in reporting on new-attraction development and always looks forward to upcoming changes in the Orlando theme parks. Alicia lives in Central Florida with her wife, Jenn, and their daughter, Haley.
Guy Selga, Jr. is a theme park author, blogger, and social media personality from Long Beach, California. Guy has spent thousands of days roaming around Disney theme parks. Guy’s main goal with all that exhaustive research is to help families get the most out of their Disney vacations.
Liliane Opsomer is the co-author of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids, a guidebook that provides detailed planning and tips for a family vacation. Liliane also contributes to The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, AAA Northeast magazine, Touring Bird (a mobile-first site by Google), TheMouseForLess, JohnnyJet.com, Small World Vacations, the Norwegian American; and is one of the photographers of The Unofficial Guide: The Color Companion to Walt Disney World. Liliane is born in Belgium and lived for over twenty years in New York. She recently moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and you can find her in the parks several times each year.