Odds & Ends Update
It’s been a while since we did a random housekeeping post covering things that don’t really fit elsewhere, and that’s what this is. Nothing exactly exciting or informative–rather, this is mostly about you answering our questions and providing some feedback. (Feedback that could end up saving you money, though, so don’t close the tab just yet…)
One of the things I really enjoy about this is that it’s a personal blog with a sense of community. Even though I’m always writing to you, via the comments, forums, and social media there is back & forth. To maintain that personal connection, I think it’s mutually beneficial for you to give feedback and for us to hear it.
What is the blog doing well and poorly? What would you like to see more/less coverage of (restaurants, hotels, certain parks, etc.)? What kind of content (trip reports, rambling vlogs, planning tips, etc.) do you like? I’m genuinely interested in feedback here, and I know that is something people hesitate to give because most people don’t take well to it.
Please leave actual, constructive criticism and critique. It does us no good if the feedback merely showers us with flattery or faint praise. Obviously, it’s nice to know people enjoy the blog, but it’s also nice to know where there is room for improvement. Sometimes a third party perspective is necessary to see that.
I’m genuinely interested in reader feedback, and will incorporate some of that into the blog, but please understand that I’m not going to blindly follow all advice. I am not simply a barometer of popular opinion. I know some of you think the blog skews too negative, is too opinionated, and has too many posts about the international parks. (I’ve received your complaints!)
While we strive to make this as informative as possible, that necessarily requires value judgments, and some of those happen to be negative. I’m not one of those people who believes Disney is infallible, and everything is magical. (Sorry?) As for the international parks, I know most people don’t care, but there are so few resources in English about those destinations. Plus, I enjoy writing about them.
Second, I was going to do another photo update before Christmas, but I’m not really sure that makes sense. The photo/photography posts are almost as unpopular as the ones about the parks in Asia (almost), but the difference there is that I have other means of posting photo content: via social media.
I think not doing those posts is a bit ironic since this blog started out as centering around photography (in the beginning, I was a best described as a “Disney fan photographer who happened to have some opinions”) and at one point consisted primarily of “Photo of the Day” posts, but has since moved more towards the opinions. Now, I’m a “dude who yells on the internet and happens to own some cameras.” Some (newer, I assume?) readers have even asked who takes the photos for the blog!
In any case, I’m still thinking of doing an Osborne Lights Tribute post because I feel like there’s some sentiment worth sharing there, but I’ll probably nix additional Christmas photo posts. I’ll just share those photos on Instagram (@tom_bricker) if you’re interested in seeing those. (Sarah is also on Instagram: @sarahbricker.) I have a lot of Christmas photos, so I’ll probably be posting a few per day.
Next, we have a question. Would anyone be interested in a group rate November 26 – December 2, 2017 (rough, tentative dates)? Please note that this would not be a group trip, or any sort of meet-up event. What it would be is a group booking through a travel agency at a particular resort (or resorts, if there was enough demand) to qualify for a convention rate.
You don’t have to give a firm commitment right now–we’re just floating the idea to see if there is sufficient interest to justify looking into the logistics of this. Based on reader comments, I know a lot of you visit during this week, and as one of the 3 best weeks of the year that we recommend, I think there’d likely be sufficient interest. I just want to get a feel for whether my assumption is correct.
Tentatively, I’m thinking we’d try doing Wilderness Lodge (because that’s where I want to stay, and it’s an irrefutable fact that Wilderness Lodge is the best Walt Disney World resort at Christmas), assuming it’s a hotel that offers good convention rates. The whole goal of this would be to save ourselves (and you!) money if you plan on visiting during/around those dates. Again, I want to reiterate that this would not be an actual “event” or big group thing with meet-ups.
Trust me, I’m not nearly as cool in person (not that I’m cool online, but it’s even worse in person…if you can imagine that). Meeting me is like watching a duller version of Stitch’s Great Escape on loop. I wouldn’t want to ruin your vacation with that. 🙂
Anyway, if this is something in which you’d potentially be interested, please say so in the comments. Also, if there’s a resort aside from Wilderness Lodge that would interest you, please mention it in the comments.
I love the international posts. I also love that your reviews and opinions seem to be objective, and you’re able to separate personal preference from actual quality (just because you enjoy something doesn’t mean you recommend it). I grow tired of people praising every decision Disney makes, because that’s not how Disney will improve. Public opinion is the fuel that drives innovation and rising quality in an operation. I’m not really sure what criticism to give the blog, though. I know nothing about blogging. I would enjoy more photography, though. The parks are always so photogenic, but I realize that spending time taking photos takes time from reviewing restaurants and show and attractions, and I find those very helpful. Maybe just a snap another picture or two per post? 😛
I really enjoy the posts about seasonal offerings at any of the parks. Reading those posts enriched my family’s last vacation in a big way.
Although the flight to Shanghai would probably end with me dying of jetlag, I do read about those parks when you post and I wish that I traveled better so I might see them.
I also always read the links within paragraphs about random Disney trivia, for example the mermaids or Howie’s Angels. History is cool. As is nostalgia. Hooray for the Osborne Lights.
While I don’t read the photography posts, I do look at the pictures. Which totally counts as reading for the six and under crowd.
Thank you for writing.
I became obsessed with reading as many of your blogs as possible this past year in preparing for our first trip. We are a family of five consisting of two adult daughters, our 17 yr old with special needs, my husband and myself. After intense research I chose the week after Thanksgiving and it was everything and more from what I hoped! The pictures I took and memories are priceless. Thank you for sharing all your tips…things from packing, photos, FP (I nailed seven dwarf mine ride and the frozen ride twice each), and all the major dining reservations we hoped for! It was perfect!! Your humor, straightforward approach and attention to detail keep me watching for new posts. Well, we returned to Wisconsin Dec 3 and I’m already looking at plans for next year. We stayed at Art of Animation, which our youngest wants to return to but am interested in learning about potentially a group rate at the Wilderness too.
Beth are you aware of disability passes? Look them up. Your family member might be eligible.
Yes, I had researched that prior to our trip and got it the first day we were there. Very helpful! Thanks.
I love your trip reports (including the international parks!) and the reviews of individual attractions/restaurants/shows. I would love to see an addition to your sidebar or “About Us” that includes a running list of your trips to the various parks and resorts by month or year.
Your international posts are how I found your blog and what keeps me coming back while I dream about the day that I will get to go on a world wide Disney tour!
Your honest detailed reviews of resorts, dining experiences, and attractions have helped me when planning DW trips so that I can make the most of my time on good experiences rather than duds.
As for constructive criticism I would appreciate if you would add the posted/updated date to your blog posts so that we know how recent they are.
Agreed! I’m always wondering when items were posted (if the info is still valid).
I’d be interested in the group rate. Thank you, Tom.
I came for the photography posts and stayed for the opinions. 🙂 Love both. While the international posts don’t apply to me beyond my general love for Disney, I actually really like reading them. For me personally, keep the photography coming in any and all forms. And there’s so much I’ve learned about trip planning from your blog. I especially love the detailed food reports as well as those on the resorts. I don’t really care about vlogs and never watch them (sorry). And just for demographics FYI – I am female, 36 years old, and have two kids (8 and 6).
I think the group rate is a great idea. Just an FYI if you set up a group rate and are at the hotel people are going to say hi to you everywhere you go at the WL. I hope you can work out some magic for us. Also do we have to stay the whole time to get the discount rates. Being a FL resident two or three days work really well for me
I am going to push the envelope how about we all take the resort tour one morning?? 🙂
I think the group/convention rate is a wonderful idea! I really love the blog, it helped me plan my trip back in October. The ones I enjoy most are the tips for beginners or just tips in general. I’d love to see those more. The news/rumors are great to because this is the only place I get that information, which is sad. I should really pay more attention, but I don’t know where to get that info so I come here.
Your blog is the quite informative and has helped me tremendously with planning our Disney vacations. And, I adore your photography. If it wouldn’t be creepy for you and Sarah to adopt a 39 year old with 4 kids….ummmm. I can’t think of anything other than that there are questions I have with the recomemdations of shows/dinners/resorts being different with kids, rather than just the two of you. But, that’s understandable. Anyway, I’m interested in information on a group rate, especially at Fort Wilderness during Christmas season! We I’ll be celebrating both my 40th bday and our 20th anniversary during that week and I have already put the buzz in my hubby’s ear about going to WDW.
Just wanted to throw in my opinion on the International Parks Posts. Had I not read ALL (yes, all) of your posts about Tokyo Disneyland Resort, I have no idea how I would have managed it on my own (I’m only 22 and this was my first time alone internationally). I have been to Japan before, so I had some background, but knew NOTHING about TDR before reading your posts. I only had 3 days, so the 1-day Itinerary posts were the most helpful for me. Luckily it wasn’t very busy, and I was by myself, so I was able to get a ton done and didn’t have to follow the plans directly. However, they were a huge help on where to go at park opening. The only issue I ran into when I was there was getting to the airport from a non-Disney hotel. I was really lucky because a cast member allowed me to get on a bus from one of the resorts, even though I wasn’t supposed to. That said, it might be nice to throw in a more comprehensive guide about how to get to/from the airport. Also, it would be nice to have a link to a map. I was able to find one online and it was super helpful for planning purposes. Thanks again for such a great blog. It has become my favorite Disney blog to read!
Please continue the international posts, they are the best ones! To me the US Parks posts are the most mundane, why constantly read about something that is so much more accessible to the masses to experience on their own. If your blog encourages just one person to get a passport and experience some of the best things Disney has to offer (or the BEST, TDR and more specifically TDS) then it’s a success. Thanks for all you do!
Long time reader and lurker here. 🙂
I love the international posts! Please don’t take them away. 🙂 I originally came for your trip reports, but I’ve really enjoyed the switch from plain old trip reporting to entries about everything from construction rumors to dining reviews. I appreciate that you temper your love for Disney with (what seems to me to be) logic. I can generally count on you guys to offer informed opinions about whatever you’re writing.
I’d be VERY interested in convention rates. Would love more details (cost, etc.) as you get them.
Thanks for all you do!
Just curious, but how are the rates at the wilderness lodge if we go for convention rates? 🙂 would it be good for a first time WDW visitor? Hehehe
I don’t understand what you’re saying about the International Parks posts being unpopular. Those are the main entries I come to read! I enjoy them so much. I get to live vicariously through you and dream of one day visiting them all.
I also enjoy when you give insight and detailed reports on the food at the parks. One of my main focuses when I go to the parks is all the delicious and exclusive treats haha.
My girlfriend and I would definitely be interested in a group buy. We are planning for DW next Christmas!
Photo posts are what drove me to your site in the first place. I used to long for Fridays to see your weekly Friday Foto Face-off on touringplans.com, and would love to see something like that here. Hopefully any stipulations in your non-compete clause with them have expired and allow you to do so! Endless Disney photos are my favorite feature, and trip reports, those are also cool.
Or maybe I’ll just break down and get am instagram account and look like a creeper by only following both Brickers. But we all know that the picture quality is subpar and doesn’t do justice to your work.
Oh and a year end wrap up like the Planies, assuming the Brickies would also be exempt from a CNC.
I started reading DTB about 4 years ago while I was deployed in 2012 and planning a vacation to WDW for the first time. I had a LOT of downtime in between daily tasks, so I read every trip report through then very thoroughly and took extensive notes on what my husband and I would like to do for our first trip. We kind of planned it like it might be our only WDW trip because we we had never been big “Disney” people before. Fast forward to the end of 2016, we are DVC members (thanks to your guide!) and go to WDW, DL, and Tokyo Disney at least once a year (hahaha, who knew). DTB and Travel Caffeine have also given us the confidence to travel both across the country and internationally to non-Disney places on the reg. That said, I am a huge fan of the blog and many times, my husband will ask “What did the Brickers think of XYZ?” whenever we try a new Disney restaurant or attraction because he knows I’ve probably read about it in advance. I hope that’s not as creepy as it sounds!
Now that DTB has grown so much, I do have to say it can be really tough finding information or navigating the website. I have taken to bookmarking certain pages knowing that I might not find them easily again. While the posts and writing style have changed over the years, it might help to corral all of the posts by month/year in a sidebar or be able to click on something like “Odds & Ends” and then have all the “Odds & Ends” type posts show up thereafter. I’m not sure how else to improve the overall web design or backend of the website, but that’s just my two cents!
This is one of my favourite blogs, and my favourite Disney blog. I reread your posts multiple times a week. I’d like to see more Top Ten posts because I really enjoy those and you always find things which others seem to miss. I would like more posts on the Japanese parks, because while I haven’t visited them, they’re really high on my list. Like you, theming is more important to me than anything else (second is quality of the food, third is shows. Rides, I’m sorry to say, are low on the list). I bought Understanding Exposure because of you. I’m learning photography because of this blog, so obviously photography posts are super interesting to me too and I’d love to continue seeing those in the future. I’d like to see more posts about the ambiance of the parks and what the Imagineers created – I understand those aren’t popular (why?) but that’s what interests me and you always talk about that so well.
The one thing I think this blog could do better is web design. It’s super hard to find anything here. The park plans pages don’t have everything and I always seem to stumble upon posts that just seem featured as a link buried in paragraph 3 of that one page that was linked in the second sentence of something I clicked on two pages ago. I also know that you’re against that but more ‘last updated’ info on each page would be helpful especially since none of the posts here have any posted on dates. As far as content, I skip what I’m not interested in and that suits me fine 🙂
I really enjoy the mix of content on the site. The reviews are useful and I like the photography content. I might never visit the parks in Asia, but I probably would have said that about France a few years ago and now I’ve been.
I don’t care at all for vlogs, so that is something that coule go away and I wouldn’t miss it. Nothing personal, I just prefer reading to being spoken to
On improvement I think would be really useful is dates on your articles. You often link to articles from Facebook, and one has to scroll down to the comments to see if it was written today or two years ago. With changes to restaurants, photography gear, and even hotels, dates of publication would be useful.
Totally agree on the dates! I would love to see the original published date right under the post’s title, and then if it’s one you update a lot to have that clearly marked at the beginning of the text (** Last Updated 12/18/16**) or something like that.
Otherwise, I enjoy the blog and appreciate the more conversational tone. I’m most interested in (and annually visit) WDW so I enjoy those the most.
I’d love to hear more about the convention rate idea!
A convention discount would be nice since I am thinking about traveling during that time frame next year but I’m not sure even a discounted rate at Wilderness Lodge would be cheap enough for my single traveler’s budget (especially if I pull the trigger and get an AP pass next fall). Love the idea though, and you know you would have to have some kind of meet up at the Lodge at some point.
As for your blog, I read it as a single person around your age (in my 30s) so I like your perspective from my age bracket. I like how your blogs have information that others don’t think of, like how to use Uber or ranking the Good Neighbor hotels near Disneyland (I referenced your articles in my decision to stay at the Tropicana and was really pleased; I did have a renovated room though). I like that you give good practical tips while also giving your opinion. I too, though would like to see dates on post as I’ve been following this blog for a couple years and realize halfway through that I’ve already read certain posts.
I don’t travel to Disney much (every 2-3 years) but I like reading your predictions on when and why certain times would be good to travel. I can’t think of anything else to really add to this blog to make it even better, maybe more of Sarah’s perspective/writing on things, like what adventures she’s on while you stay at the park and get more photos 🙂 Thanks for the post and letting the readers know you are listening!