Weekend Update – New Posts? Beyond Disney? Gratuitous Question Marks???
It’s been way too long since I dropped in with a random ‘housekeeping’ style of post, and I figured I’m long overdue. One of the things that I’ve always enjoyed about blogging is getting a chance to personally “connect” with readers (well, besides the ones who just lurk), and I’ve always tried to write with some personality to be conducive to that. Sometimes that gets me in a bit of trouble, as I’ve discovered with my divisive opinions on the Sorcerer’s Hat at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (I still cannot believe some of you liked that thing 😉 ), but what are ya gonna do?
Anyway, the purpose of this post is to do a few things: ramble aimlessly for 1,000 words to waste a few minutes of your Saturday, solicit feedback on what you’d like to see on the blog, give you an idea of what’s to come, and share some links to some exemplary Disney blog post that others in the community have written recently. The first aim will accomplish itself, so let’s skip to the second goal…
I’ve tried a variety of different styles of posts on the blog, from trip reports to photography tips to vacation planning. I have a pretty good idea of what “works” in terms of what is read, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. I’m more curious as to what regular readers might want to see more of, particularly if those are the types of posts that I enjoy writing. For instance, I recently started a series of posts called “Scenes From Disney Parks” as a place to share some of my new photos, and although these posts aren’t all that popular, I really enjoy doing them (even though I haven’t done one in 2014 yet, I do plan on doing more…I just need to get back to editing some photos!) and regular readers seem to enjoy them, at least based on the comments, so it’s win-win.
To cut to the chase, are there are particular types of posts that you’d like to see more of? Specific topics about which you’d like me to write? Should I purchase a selfie stick and turn this blog into nothing but photos of Sarah and me wearing crazy hats with our favorite Disneyland goats?
Okay, moving on…
One thing I do plan on trying out is “themed weeks” here and there, during which time I write a bunch of posts on the same topic. For instance, this coming week, I’m going to do “Disney Dining Week” this coming week, which will be a series of restaurant reviews from different parks. After that, I might do a week with nothing but posts about “hidden gems” or posts about a specific park or “The Many Masterpieces of Michael Graves.” Who knows…it seems like a fun idea right now, but we will see how it works out.
I also want to try more of these ‘Weekend Update’ style posts. In the past, I used these to share some random thoughts that didn’t fit elsewhere, point out links to great blog posts I’ve read, and run giveaways. They were a nice change-of-pace post, and I’m not sure why I stopped doing them (perhaps I have a short attention span). We also have another project on which we’ve been working that we’re not quite ready to share. (Cue foreboding music…)
Anyway, hopefully that gives you some of an idea of what’s to come and an opportunity to have your; here’s what else has been on my plate of late…
Beyond Disney
If any of you are crazy enough to have been tolerating me following this blog from the beginning, or even before the beginning, you probably know that the blog grew out of my passion for photographing the Disney theme parks and us sharing reports from our trips. It’s sort of grown and morphed beyond my original intent, but today I wanted to share another way my passion for photography and travel has sort of grown beyond Disney…
Growing up, my family always took two annual vacations: Walt Disney World in the spring and camping road trips, usually to National Parks, in the summer. Our college visit to Walt Disney World rekindled my passion for the parks, and the rest is pretty much history, as documented in excruciating detail almost daily on this blog! My desire to grow as a photographer (and a freak airfare price mistake!) led us to take a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park a few years ago, and that sort of had the same effect on me with those parks, and really opened my eyes to other places I might want to go outside of the Disney parks. I don’t really know where I’m going with this, so I’ll just skip ahead with the “story”…
Since then, that passion for the National Parks coupled with my wanderlust has led me to spend a lot more time in the National Parks, among other places. I’ve jumped in the car at pretty much every feasible opportunity for new experiences and new photos, even if that meant driving 14 hours in a day or sleeping overnight in a car in a parking lot. I’ve really kicked that into high gear as of late (the photo above is a “selfie” of me in Joshua Tree National Park shot this week) and started taking photography more seriously, and I have a long list of places within an 8 hour drive that I really want to visit and photograph.
The point of this all (yes, there is a point!) is that as I’ve been branching out, I’ve been sharing a lot of these experiences over on my other blog, TravelCaffeine.com. I’ve actually had this other blog for a couple of years now, but had only posted sporadically as life, work, etc. (darned responsibilities) kept getting in the way. I’m placing a renewed emphasis on it now, as I’m really having a great time getting out, seeing, and shooting different places.
I’ll be honest with you–a lot of this renewed focus on TravelCaffeine is for purely selfish reasons: it’s a great way to showcase new photos from my photography portfolio for licensing and other purposes (and by other purposes, I basically mean “a place where companies can go to steal my photos” 😉 ). To be fair, it’s not entirely selfish. I do love to blog, share my experiences, rant about various insignificant things, unleash my terrible sense of humor on my unsuspecting victims readers, help others plan, etc., and it’s really rewarding to have others read, view, and take interest in what I have to say. So, I guess in a way that’s also selfish, but as the great philosopher Joey once postulated, there’s no such thing as selflessness. Sorry, already off on a tangent…
I’ll be posting a lot about random places I visit, photography tips, and location reviews & tips over on TravelCaffeine, so if any of that interests you, please check it out. If you’re into Florida, there’s already some content on Universal Orlando Resort (including my Universal Orlando Trip Report), with much more to come. If you’re planning a trip to Disneyland, there will be a lot covering potential Southern California excursions. If Disney is your primary travel focus, no worries. I’m not abandoning Disney to grow a ZZ Top style beard and live in the woods, and I’ll still be posting near-daily here.
Anyway, that’s probably enough random rambling here. The basic point is that I would love if you’d take a moment to visit TravelCaffeine.com, peruse the site, and see if there’s anything you might find worthwhile. If so, maybe share it with your friends…or tell your 34 cats about it if you don’t have any friends. (I’m not judging–the more cats that know about this blog, the better!) You’d be doing me a favor, and that’s basically selfless community service.
Cool Linkage
There are some amazing Disney bloggers on the internet, many of whom deserve far more attention than they receive. One such blogger who puts is Foxxy over at Passport 2 Dreams. Do yourself a favor and check that site out if you’re a fan of Disney history and appreciate scholarly research. I haven’t had a chance to read the latest series there on Western River Expedition yet, but I’m sure it’s great. Oh, and do yourself a favor by downloading Another Musical Souvenir of Walt Disney World.
Here’s some interesting insight on the intersection of business and creativity (or lack thereof?) at The Walt Disney Company.
This post covers the possibilities for the future of Disneyland Paris.
Here’s a great review of New Fantasyland from a different perspective.
Yesterland recently expanded its look at an intriguing extinct attraction, Mine Train Thru Nature’s Wonderland.
If you can’t get enough Frozen, here’s a look at what Tokyo Disneyland is doing for its “Frozen Fantasy.”
Can’t get enough of Tokyo Disney Resort? Here’s the only (as far as I know) TDR Podcast in English.
I know there are a lot of other great posts I’ve read in the last couple of months that I’m forgetting, but I hadn’t planned on writing this post, so I haven’t been bookmarking posts to share. I’ll do a better job next time. If you have read/written something good, please feel free to share it in the comments.
I think that about wraps it up for this Weekend Update. If you’re new to the blog and this is the first post of this nature you’ve read here, hopefully learning a bit about ‘how the sausage is made’, so to speak, didn’t bore you too much. If you’re a longtime reader…well, you’re used to being bored here! Regardless, I hope you can provide some feedback in the comments below.
If you’re not following along via social media, here are the relevant links: Pinterest | Facebook | Twitter/Blog | Twitter/Tom.
Your Thoughts…
Have any post suggestions or more of a particular type of post you’d like to see? Any other feedback on any of the above? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Hi Tom
Love your blog. I actually fell in love with your photography —I saw the one of Sara in the teacups on another site and then found your blog through pinterest. I agree with Lisa that I love reading it all and really love that your personality and sense of humour come through. I also follow you on Travel Caffine so would love to see you do more on there. I am trying to talk my husband into buying a small vintage trailer so we can do more camping in national parks/torture our children with road trips. Also keep up the food iron pictures. I haven’t made it to Orlando but plan to live my life by following the top 10 cupcakes post when I do. Keep up the awesome work!
I’ve been a reader/follower for about a year and a half and I found your Disneyland posts invaluable when we were planning our first trip last year (we had only known WDW). I love seeing all of your trip reports since it will be several years before we make it back to WDW now that we’ve moved to WA (boy I miss being about to drive to Disney in 6 hrs!) I’ve found your blog in particular relates to me more than others which is one of the many reasons I keep coming back 🙂
Hi Tom,
Ive always enjoyed your trip reports and feel like they still have a place on this blog (the DW and DL ones). I have also enjoyed reading your Disney blue print posts that cover one park in a day, those are really quite helpful in strategizing without a park hopper. I would like to see more DW and DL dining posts and hotel reviews as those are most helpful in planning trips for my family. Personally I am not interested in Tokyo, Hong kong or Disneyland Paris so I don’t care to read any of those posts no matter how good the pictures are. Thanks for keeping the blog up and running though, its still a nice resource to have for future planning purposes.
Love your blog posts on both sites. I especially love the Disney trip reports because we don’t travel to Disney often so I sort of visit vicariously through you guys! Since you visit so often it is easier for you to notice updates and new things Disney is doing which helps the rest of us when we plan our trips. I’m glad you guys have ventured over to Universal. What if you guys did semi frequent Q&A posts? It seems like a lot of people ask questions and many times they are probably repeats from other posts and/or Facebook. Keep the posts and great photos coming!
i there was enough time in my life to read every post ever!! I hope you go on more disney cruises, I want to learn more about it, and continue to live vicariously through the pictures!!
I love your trip reports and really enjoying browsing (stalking?) your beautiful photographs! I may have “borrowed” one of your photos for my phone background since they are so much nicer than any I have ever taken. Like many of the other people posted, It is like vicariously visiting Disney Parks through you guys! The posts that I find the most beneficial are the restaurant and hotel reviews. Thank you for your honest opinion and for making me laugh when I read your blog!
I enjoy almost all of your posts. Check in here and Travel Caffeine almost daily. Love your photos and wish I could talk my wife into letting me by a DSLR. Have a pretty good Lumix point and shoot and am trying to do the best I can with that.
Would like to see the restaurant reviews you mentioned. We are going to WDW in Sept for MNSSHP and Food and Wine as well as a day or two at Universal, mostly for Harry Potter. So anything you post on that would be great. Although you have posted fairly extensively on both food and wine an MNSSHP.
I agree with the above comment that reading your blog is almost like having a friend that goes to the parks. I can live vicariously through your posts till I get to go. I think I just like your style of writing/sense of humor. Don’t stop with the funny/sarcastic posts. You do a great job and provide a lot of knowledge as well as awesome photos. Keep up the good work.
I think what so many of us respond to is your honesty. There are so many blogs out there that constantly sing Disney’s praises without any of the possible downsides. Now, I love Disney but it’s not always sunshine and rainbows 😉 You give honest reports based on your experiences and that can be immensely helpful. I personally love your dining reviews and can’t wait for more. I’m just waiting for you guys to have kids so you can start blogging about the best hotels, restaurants, attractions, strategies, etc for kiddos 😉
I love your reviews of restaurants and hotels so I think your “themed” weeks is a good one. I love all the dining reviews because I reference them a lot while planning our next Disney trip. Oh, and I just like to see the great food options that Disney has to offer. I like the hotel reviews because, even though we don’t often stay on property, I feel like I get to “take a peak” at a place I will probably never stay. I have visited your travelling site once or twice but I don’t feel like you are as personable in your posts there. You almost seem a bit “stand-offish”. Maybe that is intentional because you are writing to a different audience?? I don’t know, but it is definitely not the same vibe as your disney site.
No, there’s no intent to be stand-offish over there; if it’s happening it’s completely by accident. I’ll have to read through some old posts and see if I can spot what you mean. Maybe it’s because it’s a relatively new endeavor and I haven’t really gotten into a “groove”, so to speak, with the posts. Thanks for pointing it out, though!
Just to help you see what I’m referencing (and please know that I meant no criticism, just an observation) the one post I particularly remember was your “Versailles” post. (In fact, I commented on it). It is a great description of Versailles and gorgeous photos of course, but I just remember reading it and thinking that it was very informational but without much of your personality that comes across in pretty much every Disney post. Anyway, it could be just the nature of that particular post. I did find your personality in the Chicago “Bean” post, -hilarious story, and being from Chicago I can totally picture it! Anyway, just thought I’d point you out in the direction I was coming from with my original comment. 🙂
I feel like we are still waiting for that aulani trip report! 😉 Anyway I am with you, we’ve been to disney this year a few times, we drove from new york to Utah in May(I can’t recommend Moab enough), and we are debating our next trip and I know we will be away from disney for at least a year. I think your photography and your more “out there” tips are what make your blogs great. I think you cover a wide range of topics that work for both disney and even outside disney.
An Aulani Trip Report is actually a pretty good idea. That would also “force” me to get those photos edited, which would be a good thing…
I really enjoy your trip reports – it is obvious a lot of time and effort goes into writing them! I find your dining reviews to be very helpful as well, its great to get an HONEST and unbiased opinion of the restaurants on Disney property. I also enjoy your photography posts, not only just seeing the pictures but also the tips and hints. Per your recommendation, I purchased “Understanding Exposure”, which has been amazingly helpful with learning how to take great photos!
Hi Tom!
My husband and I are both “lurkers” but love the blog and have consulted it for a whole slew of topics! My husband has gotten into photography at the parks thanks to your blog! The one area I would love to see more of would be restaurant reviews. We follow a few other Disney blogs but they give praise to almost every restaurant they visit….I appreciate your critical palate! We visit Disney about twice a year and at this point it’s nice to know what’s worth the cost and time and what isn’t. Headed home from WDW today after some average meals to say the least!
There are a lot of restaurant reviews to come, so fear not. One of the main reasons I’m doing this “Dining Week” is because I was going through my recent photos and notice I have like 20 potential restaurant reviews waiting to be written.
Out of curiosity, where did you dine that you thought was average or worse?
This trip we were less than impressed with T-Rex (the husbands choice, I took one for the team), Tony’s Town Square, but the worst was 1900 Park Fare….we went for breakfast and dinner on this trip. Breakfast was ok, dinner was abysmal! The characters at dinner almost made up for the terrible food. Garden Grill and Biergarten also made the cut this trip and were average choices. Loved our meals at Maya Grill ( surprised by that one, thought it would be average), Jiko and California Grill. Disney dining is almost a sport for the husband and I…..we may or may not have a spread sheet of all the restaurants and indications if we have dined there or not! True Disney food nerds for sure!
I do enjoy your trip reports and planning guides! We have only ever visited Disney World, but I like the posts for the other parks including Universal. I think it’s great to show the National parks also. That’s one thing we’d like to do in the future! We were there for the Marathon weekend like you, so I truly enjoyed that trip report! We tried some new restaurants this trip based on your dining advice. We want to go back for the Food and Wine festival next, and I’ve already read up on it! Keep doing what you are doing!
If you’re interested in National Parks, stay tuned…I’m hoping to visit at least 10 more this year!
I’m thinking we will make a Food & Wine Festival trip this year, too. I’m not exactly excited about the idea, but I want to put together an itinerary (for ourselves) that is heavy on F&WF stuff but low on cost. Not sure that’s actually even possible, so it might be a fun challenge.
Just wondering where you met Oswald? My husband really likes that character. Love reading your blogs.
Oswald meets in Disney California Adventure on Buena Vista Street (where we met him) and Tokyo DisneySea in the American Waterfront. Those are the only two places at present, to my knowledge.
I love the commentary, opinions, and personal notes that you include in your blog posts. These are the kinds of things that attracted me to your blog in the first place (along with the awesome pictures). Injecting your personality into it makes your readers feel a connection with you and Sarah–almost like we are getting travel advice from an imaginary friend. There are many places that I can go to get Disney news, but I like getting the perspective of others’ experiences–that’s where all of the trip reports, opinions, and even speculations come in. I have looked at Travel Caffeine, but it seems that you go much more into detail about photography there, and I’m not interested in photography beyond just looking at the pictures. I liked your weekend update-style post, and I think you should do that weekly. I also like the idea of theme weeks. You might feel like trip reports would not offer anything new because you have done so many of them, but I would still be interested in seeing them because it gives possible templates for experiencing the parks in new ways. So I love the play-by-play “We went here to look at this, then we went here to eat, then walked over here and did these attractions, etc…” Thanks for all you do! 🙂
Imaginary friends really are the best type of friends! 😉
It’s funny that you mention that, because I get that feeling from people we meet in the parks. Sometimes, we don’t know these people at all, but the vibe is that we’re like old friends because they’ve learned so much about us online.
The photography stuff is not for everyone, and I’ve had trouble balancing it over there just as I’ve had trouble balancing it over here. Personally, I feel that everyone should have the *EXACT* same interests as me, that way, everyone would love every random oddity that I post. It would certainly make my life easier (and make everyone else’s life better!) 😉
Hi Tom,
I’ve recently discovered your blog and love reading all of your posts. I love the trip reports and dining reviews, and would like to see more of those. Giveaways would be nice too ;). As someone who has newly discovered photography I like hearing the thought process behind certain shots and any places you have found photograph really well. I’m headed to WDW in two weeks, and reading your trip reports have gotten me really excited. My boyfriend and I are planning to take lots of pictures with our DSLRs and look for the details in the parks. Thank you for spending so much time writing, I’m enjoying all of it!
When you and Sarah stay after park closing is it hard to get a bus? I’ve read that buses only run for an hour after park closing and just in case I wanted to know. Thanks!
In fairness, I didn’t specify what kind of giveaways. You might just find yourself the proud winner of the “Send Tom $20 Sweepstakes.” 😉
As for your question, Disney will not leave you stranded. If you’re still in the park, there will be a bus waiting for you when you leave. There is no set time on how long they still, or how long you’ll be allowed to stay in the park.
Thanks! I don’t know if I have the stamina that you have in the parks, but the possibility of getting some empty park photos is appealing! Also have you ever done the Keys to the Kingdom tour? We signed up to that while we are there and I’m very excited. I’ve heard great things about it.
Hi Tom! First time I write a comment in a blog… Just to tell you how much I like your blog and really appreciate everything that you and Sara shared with us. Your trip reports are so fun and insightful and your photography is an inspiration for those like us that love to capture the best moments of life. Well, what I like to see on the blog is definetly more vacation tips and trip reports, as well as the themed weeks that you propossed, it sounds great!. I am regular reader by the way… Warm regards from Mexico! Erika
Thanks, Erica! Any particular types of vacation tips you might like to read?
Hi Tom! I would very much like vacation tips for very special ocasions, like star wars weekends or new year’s, of course with your personal perspective, opinion and review. What I love about this blog is how personal it is! Looking forward for the “themed weeks” by the way!
I like your trip reports but I’d like them framed a bit more with things like when you took the trip, where you stayed etc. that’s just because I like context. I’m looking forward to using some of your Top 10 posts and planning guides when I take my trip later in the year.
Is that info not in the current trip reports? I feel like it’s pretty well covered in all of them, although it might be hard to find amongst all the rambling I do in those reports…
Apparently words aren’t my strong suit, I meant the reviews (restaurants, hotels) rather than trip reports.
It’s cool, words aren’t my strong suit, either. 😉
I always recommend your planning guides and restaurant reviews to people looking for advice for WDW. I realize that planning guides aren’t things that change too often, but just wanted to let you know they are quite helpful. Truthfully I like all the posts you write (must be because I have no friends AND no cats so I just read everything). I also like your non-Disney posts on your other blog and would seeing some Universal Studios reviews/planning if you visit more times would be cool. Anyway, keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing what new ideas you come up with. Hopefully other commenters can help you out more than I did!
The planning guides actually do change fairly often (I’ve already updated all of the main ones for 2015), as Disney always seems to be changing things here or there, or I learn something new…
More stuff on Universal is coming to TravelCaffeine, but I don’t quite feel I’m ready to do planning posts covering it yet. I’ve only been a few times as an adult, so I’ll probably just stick to anecdotes and random stuff until I feel I’ve attained some good knowledge through more visits.
You really need to buy yourself a cat. Actually, buy 2. Then, in like 3 years, you’ll have your own cat zoo!!! 😉
I love your trip reports, I feel like they have petered out lately and would love to have ones on your second Paris trip and more ones for Tokyo/Hong Kong. The photos are awesome although I’m not up in the technical aspects. I also would love to know what an ‘average’ and ‘inexpensive’ airfare would be to Tokyo.
There are definitely fewer trip reports (although I just did a sorta-report for the WDW Marathon) for a couple reasons…
1) They are a ton of work, as they require editing a large number of photos and I invariably write a ton for them
2) At least with the WDW and DLR reports, I have a feeling of “been there, done that” with them. Most of the time, the unique content in those is dining or hotel, and I do separate posts for those things.
As for the last trips to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Paris: it was a lot of travel crammed into a relatively short window, and I just didn’t have the time. Now that the trips are long over, it feels like I’ve sort of missed my window.
I do plan on writing more trip reports here and there in the future, especially for the foreign parks, but definitely not one per trip. Probably only one per year for Walt Disney World, too.
As for Tokyo airfare, it depends on the city. Under $1,200 is pretty good out of most cities. If you’re on the West Coast, under $900 is good.
Yes I can see how the trip reports would be a ton of work, extreme detail, snarky/hilarious comments, amazingly edited photos. I have read and reread a bunch of your reports and even though we know you have been there done that each time you change a few things to make it worth the read. You’ve certainly never missed the window, I know a few blogs that just finished reports from 2011. Thanks for the airfare tip.
One thing I guess I didn’t mention before is maybe a twitter/facebook/instagram/something Q&A with you. I know there are so many personalized questions, but maybe once a month or once every two months for an hour on a weekend a Q&A? You could get the questions in advance or do a rapid fire.
Maybe for the 60th or in a few years the 50th of WDW if you visit the parks you could do a meet-up a la Disney Parks blog or some of the meet-ups from EPCOT 30th? I’ve seen how you describe yourself at the Parks so it feels like it would cramp your style, but I get the feeling from consistent readers that people would like to meet you.
Tom…I visited your travel caffeine site weeks ago and it’s great. My husband is a professor of geology and has lead expeditions All over the world. Having been introduced to your photography and pithy prose on this site, I was quite pleased to see you’ve expanded your horizons beyond Disney. You’re extremely talented and we too believe the national parks are the treasures of our country. There are many places in our country that are little known but are magnificently beautiful, if you ever want ideas of where to go just give me a shout.