Hi folks. Hope you are all well on this rainy Wednesday. We’ve been asked a few good questions over the last couple of weeks and we are doing our best to answer them….
So, here goes. “Who do we follow on social media, and why”?
Well, it’s a simple question really. We love to read and watch anything Orlando/Florida related. There. Blog done…. but seriously we pick who we do because 1. they entertain us, 2. they inform us. And the two things together make great sense. There are an absolute plethora of blogs/vlogs/tweets/posts about Orlando and the surrounding areas, you can get quite bogged down in it all. The trick we’ve think is to find someone on your wavelength. Find something that makes you look forward to the new blog or vlog dropping and you’ve sort of hit the jackpot.
There is so much information out there now it’s nearly at overload, but a good way of making sense of it is seeing how people interact with the parks/places they are visiting. You won’t like everything you watch or read, so it’s important to feel you are getting the balance of information and entertainment just right. We’ve waded through so much over the last few years it’s mind boggling! We even watch the tv programme “A place in the sun- winter sun” just so we can nose at the holiday homes in the great state of Florida!! We can dream right???
So, we’re not gonna just list loads of stuff because that’s boring and we HATE boring! What we will do is point you towards some of the social media we watch and you fine folks can make your own mind up. There are people who do just WDW, or just Universal Parks. And it’s fine! We understand that some people have a love of WDW and nothing else. Or the same for Universal parks. If everyone liked the same it would be pretty boring wouldn’t it! (We love both, so we have feet firmly in both camps!)
And in no particular order away we go!
Anyway enough of my waffling..(that’s never gonna stop is it! Mrs Oh) we started by watching the man and the legend Mr Tim Tracker. With his trademark ‘tache and “ding dang” he is an absolute joy to watch. He is so full of enthusiasm for BOTH sides of the I-4 (WDW and Universal) you cannot help but feel the warmth of the Orlando sun as he meanders around with his camera and brolly. No ponchos here. Use a brolly! A Tracker top tip! With his wife Jen and the new baby Jackson, he shares his adventures and family life. This is what makes it so enjoyable, passing on his local knowledge and tips and showing his 3 month old son the scenes. If you watch the Vlog of him and Jen in the Magic Kingdom taking Jackson on his first ride (Dumbo) and meeting Mickey Mouse it will absolutely melt your heart! The way Mickey was with the little one was one of the reasons we love watching. Do yourself a favour and go take a look.
One of next faves is All ears.net. This channel is mainly WDW centric but they have shown an interest in Universal Studios recently, so fingers crossed there will be more content from there as well. The main reason we love watching this channel is the presenter, Molly. She is a delight on screen, from her insider knowledge (she used to work in guest relations at WDW) to her love of cakes and cocktails! A woman after our own heart! The channel is a mix of theme park reviews, hints and tips “team fiddle faddle” (if you know, you know!) and resort tours. We love the tours in particular as she shows some little hidden away gems for you to go and explore. For example the resort tour of the Contemporary Resort Nr the magic kingdom opened our eyes to just how many little bars and cafes there were, and also tips on how to secure some premium viewing spots for the MK fireworks. (We’ll review that in a later blog). The channel also has a newsletter you can subscribe to via the page and they also do a mail drop on a regular basis with lots of tips an treats to help you all out.
Now for a family of vloggers we found purely by chance, The Despicable 3! Are a family who travel to Orlando on a fairly regular basis and their vlogs are a treat to watch. The young lad Jimmy is a natural in front of the camera, as are the whole family. What we love is their enthusiasm with how they show the adventures they have. What we love in particular is the ‘warts an all’ style of the vlogs. If they like it it they’ll tell you, same as if they are not quite as keen. We love that. We love the fact that they are really honest with what they post. They show the rides, the accommodation and the food, and boy do they love the food!! (Don’t we all??) Their restaurant reviews have inspired us to try one or two places we would otherwise have just walked passed. The little hints and tips that they show are also great, such as money off coupons for “Dave and Busters’’ hidden in the I-trolley leaflets. It’s those sort of things that really help a holiday, after all its not cheap getting to Orlando, so if someone shows us how to save some money we really appreciate it. One of their more recent vlogs was all about how they look for and how they budget for holidays, it was genuinely a pleasure to watch and very very informative. They are on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Go and say hello!
Another channel we love watching is DSNY newscast. This channel on YouTube and Instagram is very informative, covering all things Disney related on both coasts of the U.S.A. And Disneyland across the globe. Presented by Jack, this channel is a very upbeat look at what’s happening around the house of mouse, you cannot help but get excited while watching these vlogs. And it also drives us mad looking for the hidden Mickey’s in the vids. Not found one yet… What we love about DSNY is the fact if its a “slow news day” he doesn’t post click bait or nonsense just to get a few hits. He is a font of knowledge and well worth heeding the advice and reviews. There is a common theme to all of these vloggers that we’ve mentioned so far, and that is they LOVE what they do. And we think that’s what makes watching them so enjoyable.
A couple of mentions for some other You Tuber’s. One is a guy called Rixflix. He covers a lot of Universal stuff and he really knows his onions. He’s a strait shooter, with advice and reviews and he’s on the money. For example we were looking at buying the Express tickets for both Universal parks. He puts it plain and simple, unless its a massive holiday/or bank holiday weekend don’t bother! You won’t be queuing that long anyway and the bigger newer rides are not included on the Express pass anyway so you’ll be wasting ya money. Top bloke. Looking forward to bumping into him at the parks, as, along with all the others, he seems like a really affable guy.
The last channel we want to mention is Resort Tv. These guys do some fabulous vlogs from the parks and when they do there is none of the normal just chatting for chatting sake. They are very informative and the filming is top notch. Personally we love to put on a vlog on the smart tv, and let it soothe us. What more could you want than views of the stunning blue sky and the music of the parks as they walk around. Just like being there, without being there, if that makes sense??
Right. Enough of YouTube. A few words on Instagram/Facebook and Twitter. Everyone I’ve mentioned here is on all of the other platforms so they should be easy to find. And they are all well worth the time to check them out. With Instagram, what we love best is the interaction with the accounts, its almost always an immediate response, and we love that. So when Chicken Guy in Disney Springs posts pics of the food we ALWAYS ‘like and comment” and same goes for Cinnabon. Oh man… just looking at the insta page makes us drool… We’ve found that If you follow people/places that you are visiting you get a better insight as to what’s happening in the area. So as we are staying in Disney Springs this year, we’ve started following all the new restaurants and bars…. looks like we’ll be busy…. so, take wander on the interweb and don’t be put off by the sheer volume of stuff that’s there, you’ll find a few things you like, and in turn they will lead you onto others. We hope you have as much fun as us, let us know who you follow and we’ll take a look. See y’all soon!
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