About Disney Tourist Blog and Sarah & Tom Bricker

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Hello and welcome to Disney Tourist Blog! We’re Sarah & Tom Bricker, and we founded this website over a decade ago as a place to assemble our reviews, recommendations, tips & tricks, and guide for doing Walt Disney World and Disneyland like pros. We strive to provide informative and unbiased advice to fans and first-timers alike planning trips to the Disney Parks around the globe.

Since being founded in 2011, Disney Tourist Blog has helped hundreds of millions of readers save money, time, and reduce stress in preparing for truly magical vacations. Our site and expertise have been featured by several prominent publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Forbes, NBC News, The Hill, Travel & Leisure, Business Insider, USA Today, and more. Our charitable efforts have also been highlighted on several television news outlets, including the Today Show and local broadcasts in Central Florida and Southern California.

We created Disney Tourist Blog after graduating from college and law school initially as a place to share daily photos and trip reports from our visits to the parks. We resided in the Midwest at the time, and this blog was a good outlet in between trips. In the years since, DTB has grown beyond our wildest expectations.

We’ve relocated on multiple occasions to be closer to the parks to gain a fresh perspective as locals. We’ve lived less than 30 minutes from Disneyland (twice!) and under 10 minutes from Walt Disney World (we could see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from our bedroom window) for over 4 years. We’ve made these moves in order to intimately understand the ins and outs of Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

While the primary perspective of this blog remains one of tourists–to help you plan memorable vacations–living near the parks offered invaluable experience as locals. We’re current Annual Passholders on both coasts, as well as Universal’s parks in Orlando and Hollywood. We’re past Annual Passholders at Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Universal Studios Japan.

To that end, we continue to visit Disneyland on a weekly basis and make monthly research trips to Walt Disney World. During those visits, we field test new strategies, put our plans through the paces, conduct hotel stays and restaurant reviews, and more to ensure that our guidance is up-to-date and accurate. On-the-ground field testing to produce planning guides is critically important to us; that along with Disney news & rumors and analysis thereof have become DTB’s primary focus.

You can subscribe to our highly popular and totally-free Disney email newsletter here for regular news, planning posts, and other updates.

Disney Tourist Blog remains owned and operated solely by Sarah & Tom Bricker. While our family has grown in recent years to include our daughter, Megatron (real name not used here for privacy), the team behind the website has not. It’s just us. You will never find a guest post on DTB, because we strive for this blog to have a singular voice and consistent, high-quality research and planning recommendations.

We take seriously being objective and critical, but we still enjoy the parks a lot. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t visit the Disney parks so regularly or have a blog devoted to the subject. Our goal is to present a frank and candid assessment of all things Disney. You will seldom meaningless fluff words like “magical” here, and this blog most certainly is not “sprinkled with pixie dust.” This is written by real people trying to offer unbiased advice based on actual experiences visiting the Disney theme parks.

In addition to Disney Tourist Blog, we also own and operate a sister site, TravelCaffeine.com, that revolves around our non-Disney trips. That mostly focuses on California, U.S. National Parks, Japan, and a handful of international cities (mostly ones with a Disney presence, conveniently enough). In addition to bouncing between residing in Florida and California, we also took two “gap years” (or whatever you call it when you’re already established adults), put our stuff into storage, and spent extensive time living as digital nomads in Tokyo, Kyoto, Paris, etc.

175 Comments

  1. I cancelled my Disneyland trip in December 2021 due to their face mask rules. A Dr’s letter from those with lung problems is not good enough for Disneyland, so I guess Disneyland dislikes people with lung problems. Consequentially I will not return to Disneyland with my grandchildren and family until they drop their politically, unscientific Covid rulings and let people think and act for themselves. Teaching our kids to be robots is not American and neither is Disneyland!

    Reply

  2. Love your site, it’s the best Disney blog IMO… I have a question about dining reservations, that I was hoping you may at least have a theory about. My daughter and I go to Disney almost every year, and due to divorce it’s just the two of us. I was looking up our dining reservations, which will be available to book tomorrow (18th) and just gaging availability by looking up 17th time, etc. I noticed when I ran a search under a party of 4 vs a party of 2 (which we are), there was a ton more availability for a party of 4, specifically for in park dining, like the Crystal Palace, Tusker House, The Plaza, etc. Cleary, if a party of 4 will fit so will a party of 2, I understand limited availability for large parties.. but the only thing that makes sense to me is that they’re hesitant to seat a party of 2 in a 4 top table because clearly it’s not the same amount of money/price, which strikes me as pretty unfair when I have a smaller family size and it’s putting me at a disadvantage. I’m considering making the reservation for a party of 3 or 4 (which had similar availability and downgrading it later. Think that would work? Is that a good strategy or should I not do it? Thank you so much! And again, love all the good info on the site!

    Reply

    1. Your suspicion is correct. However, downgrading typically doesn’t work until it’s time to check in for your reservation, at which point you might run into some resistance from the restaurant.

      It’s a YMMV thing and bit of a gamble. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it for 1-2 must-do restaurants over a trip, but I probably wouldn’t do it for every single reservation. That’s just me, though.

  3. Just wanted to say how much we enjoy DisneyTouristBlog – it is a go-to site for us regarding all things Disney. I’d say I want to be you when I grow up, but I’m twice your age … and don’t blog. The photos are gorgeous, the information relevant, and the writing is exactly what I want. You have an amazing ability to write what we’re thinking with added information and tips to allow us to put our thoughts into practice on our next Disney trip. So grateful for your blog and wanted to send our praise to Sarah and Tom.

    Reply

  4. I love that it’s just the two of you — when I’m researching things, I often say “well, TOM says….” (even if it’s sometimes Sarah — maybe a monthly musing post by her sharing some of her thoughts and observations?)

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  6. Tom (and Sarah), love your blog and your simple humor. I just see your blog as a chance to enjoy Disney when we are not there. I do envy you having the ability to go so often and experience more than most of us can. We try to go once per year but don’t always make it. ( I did calculate that I could stay at the Polynesian resort 365 days a year for only $182,000 ! ) Thanks for sharing.

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  8. JUST WONDERING IF THERE ARE ANY PLANS IN THE MAKING IN REGARDS TO WHEN THEY WILL BE STARTING FIREWORKS AGAIN.

    Reply

  10. My wife and I always enjoy your opinions and our next trip is going to be a split between the Boardwalk and Anamial Kingdom DVC. You usually cover ever hotel and ever restaurant, except one. I realize you are not a Veteran or an Active Duty family, but can you develope a relationship with a source that could get you into the property, to rate and review Shades of Green. I believe your opinions are worth while and military people could benefit from them. Semper Fi

    Reply

    1. I was getting e nails. for some reason they stopped. The link will not go to my e mail. I want to subscribe again. Can you please add my e mail again. T Y

  12. I am an avid Disney Parks visitor and full blown Disney addict. This is hand down the best blog there is for all things Disney Parks! I have been a follower for years and have brought others on board to see the light. Thank you Tom and Sarah…keep up the good work!

    Reply

  13. I truly enjoy your blog. I’ve used your tips on trips to both WDW and Universal as well. We’re in absolute agreement about a lot (down to the Frog Toggs chill pads)!! I’ve been rummaging for information all over the web about Adventures by Disney. Have you done one yet? Any thoughts? We’re currently booked for ABD Alaska June 2020. I read your blog about your Alaska cruise, and it definitely is making me feel better about the cost associated with our trip since we’re going to get to experience SO much. Just curious for any thoughts / tips you may have. Keep up the great work!!

    Reply

    1. Definitely interested in your opinions on the ABD! Just recently looked at the ABD European River Cruises and thought they looked very interesting. Then, a coworker of my husband’s told him that we were about 40 years too young to consider these type of trips. I would love to hear from someone else who has done a similar, non-oceanic Disney cruise.

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