What day is it?…

Well, first off we hope everyone is safe and well. Keep washing your hands folks! We’ve been quite busy here at Oh! Orlando towers, we’ve been doing all the jobs we’ve be meaning to get done and some we just thought “ah well, while we are doing this staying home thing…”

It’s a funny time for all us who have got trips booked. It’s a little stressful not knowing whether we will be able to travel or whether we will have to reschedule. As we stand today, Saturday 18th April, we have 98 days until we are supposed to travel. At this moment in time we don’t know anything about whether we will travel or not. Virgin will not comment on any flights that far in the future until a few weeks before the travel date at the earliest, so there is no point in asking. None of us really knows when we’ll all be able travel anywhere, but obviously safety is at stake here so that’s just the way it has to be for the time being.

Orlando Attraction Tickets have been great, they have confirmed that the theme park tickets we purchased will be able to be ‘carried over’ to next year if necessary so that’s one less thing to worry about. The same with the hotel, Holiday Inn have said they are being flexible about bookings where guests are unable to travel. So plans are in place for the worst case scenario.

What we love about the blogger, vlogger and the theme park community during this unusual time when all the parks are closed, is the way that everyone has come together. There are quizzes, games and virtual rides online if you are missing your dose of what’s happening. It’s great that everyone pulls together at times like this, we’ve been chatting with quite a few of the people we love and follow, and trust us if you think its hard here in the U.K. writing about Orlando, try living there and doing 3 vlogs a week AND keeping the content fresh!

What we’ve seen so far is brilliant, you have the likes of Josh Gad from Frozen reading stories and leading a Beauty and the Beast sing a long with Luke Evans. Look for the hashtag Disneyfamilysingalong. Or the stars of Moana, and lots of the other Disney films, reading stories. These are the things that we are currently loving about how people are coming together during these difficult times.

If you are looking for thrills lots of parks and vloggers are doing “virtual tours”. The good folks over at Resort tv1 are streaming some of the older vlogs and they are well worth watching if you need to get your dose of a park. They always stream in 4K so when you put it on the big 60’’ TV at home it’s a lovely way to spend an hour, and your feet don’t get sore from walking around…The only things you need for it to feel more authentic is a bag of popcorn, a turkey Leg and a pallet of Churros.

Over at the Rix Flix channel he’s keeping everyone updated on what’s happening. As a Orlando resident he’s ‘boots on the ground’ and keeping us up to speed with developments as they happen, as well as creating some cracking content. It was because of Rick we had Spotify so we could listen to his playlist. It’s like walking around Universal Studios with the music wafting over us.

At Allears.net they are doing some really funny head to head contests on their social media pages, best rides, best films, best soundtrack songs.. the list goes on. And you would not believe how people vote! It’s caused a few arguments in this house we can tell you.. Molly from the channel has been very entertaining as per usual. She really brightens the day up when she pops up on the screen. Her vlogs are well worth watching, last weeks was a Q & A on how to plan and what to do for an Orlando Adventure. If you are in the process of booking or planning a trip much later in the year which is likely to go ahead, it’s really worth a watch. Even if you’ve watched them already, the vlogs are sometimes worth re-watching because you always miss something the first time round that you’ll remember after a second watch.

Walt Disney World are uploading some good content to all the social media platforms at the moment, virtual rides, and showing you how the rides work, (I’d sometimes rather not know!). We love the backstage stuff from the Animal Kingdom, it shows the dedication of the staff and how hard they are working to look after the animals and keep them happy during the lockdown. With a reduced amount of staff it’s going to be hard work but they are doing a sterling job. WDW have not been idle in other areas either, they have donated massive amounts of food from all of their closed hotels and restaurants to the local food banks – so well done there. It’s gotta be very hard for the staff in parks and resorts at the moment as quite a few have been furloughed, with only essential personnel on site. All building work has been suspended as well, with no plans to start until the parks re-open. Some restaurants in the area are doing collection only so as to help the local economy and keep morale up.

Universal have also furloughed staff and closed parks but they have kept the building work going using the safe working/distancing for staff. Work continues apace on the new Jurassic Park coaster (as yet unnamed) – we’ve seen a few vlogs where they are using the time to deep clean and spruce up certain areas that needed it, and while there is no one there it can be done a lot quicker. Universal have also been quite strong on social media with the virtual rides and behind the scenes videos. I think I’ve ‘ridden’ the water coaster, Krakatau about 50 times.. and I’ll do it 50 more! Due to cinemas being closed Universal have also started streaming new releases online.

We’ve also now got Disney+ so we’ve been watching quite a bit on that. We are particularly enjoying the Imagineering series which shows you Walt right from his early days planning and getting the theme parks up and running, and his determination and drive to create the vision he had. He absolutely achieved it and we wish he’d lived longer to see all of the parks and his full legacy, but somehow even after any remaining members of the Disney family no longer had any part in the management of the Disney companies, everyone has closely followed Walt’s dreams and ideas, and vision of always moving forward and never standing still. It’s really worth a watch.

With the updates from the parks it’s important to take stock of what’s actually happening and make sure you don’t succumb to the amount of ‘click bait’ that’s going round. We’ve stopped following a few sites/vlogs due to the way they sensationalised the news. Yes, we know the parks are closed, and yes we know they are not going to open soon but please stop putting “Disney to close for ever’ headlines and then basically repeat the press release verbatim.

One beacon of common sense has been the DSNY channel on YouTube and Instagram. This channel has actually said from day one they WILL NOT post rumours or conjecture with regards to the parks. He is instead focusing on future project that the Disney companies are involved with. Top man Jack.

With the news out of Orlando being quiet we’ve been taking stock of how things have been reported, in either print or on video and we’ve been talking about setting up either a YouTube channel or doing some video content or a few voxpops that we can upload to our social media pages. With our ‘’downtime’’ we will be investigating these options over the next few weeks. The only thing stopping us doing it is we can’t stand to hear our own voices! I suppose it’s different to begin with but we’ve just gotta bite the bullet and try it. We are looking at what type of subjects we can cover – our bookings, travel plans and why we chose to do things a certain way. We will also spend some of this downtime learning more about our cameras and filming equipment and hopefully getting a bit more competent with it before our trip.

So there’s still lots we can do and will do. There’s still plenty of blogs and vlogs to help you plan for upcoming trips and answer any questions you might have about your visit or about booking something. There’s lots of content from around and about the parks if you’re missing your fix of the rides and sights and sounds. There are lots of restaurants and parks sharing their recipes for some of their most popular foods and snacks, and funnily enough we’ve just made our first batch of cinnamon rolls, so we’ll let you know how they turn out. Not quite Gaston’s Tavern standard we’re sure, but they will do nicely hopefully. There are singalongs and stories being told and you can even find a lovely video chat performance from The Dapper Dans if you care to look for it, which definitely brightened our day and which, just for a moment, transported us to Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom.

Hopes and dreams are what’s keeping us all going at the moment. Well that and also knowing that our loved ones and dear friends and colleagues are all safe and well. We will all enjoy Orlando and it’s attractions, weather, wonderful people, food and wildlife again – whenever that might be, we are ready, we are always ready. If we can access some of the fantastic and inventive online content that’s around in t he meantime that will put a smile on our faces, and smiling is one of the most positive things we can do right now, so let’s keep doing that!

Speak to you all next week – take care of yourselves folks.