Vloggers & Youtubers

[therealscotty]

I was going to post this on the HHN thread but it probably deserves its own post.

Anyone got any thoughts on the theme park vloggers/youtubers? I find myself watching vloggers on youtube more than regular TV now, and with the constant changes at the parks it's a cheap and easy way to keep up to date.

I know up until now most of them have no link to the parks and the ones that do are because they are registered "Media", but how long do we think it will be until the bigger parks start paying them to review/visit the parks, or even give them a free vacation?

I've seen talk of Disney banning mini tripods in the near future which many Youtubers are saying will effect them and their output, but seeing that most vlogs are monetized, arent they gaining profit from the parks and therefore classed as a "Commercial operation"?

As a side note, Brian and Tims visits to the parks are first class, no waffle, just updates and interesting points. Whereas some vloggers are cringey and almost hard to watch, do we see theme parks recognising the art of vlogging and engaging with them?

*Also if any of you guys are looking for worldwide park vlogs, themeparkworldwide on youtube are ace, the young lad has built up quite the empire with that channel, and he pays for entry/travel to every park, you would think parks would reach out and get some "cheap" advertising from a free ticket and travel, or would it be too difficult to regulate?

 

[Jon84]

The majority I dislike if I am honest. The Vlogging style dosen't do it for me - I much prefer informational style: things like room tours have been invaluble during planning our early trips. vLogging has a place for sure, but the market is well over saturated.

I think the ones that annoy me the most are the vain, like-hungry couples who join forums like this to specifically post their Vlog links, and and who drag out a trip into a monster 30 part epic. #rantover


Its not going to be long till the parks (Disney especially) realise how much money these guys are making, and they start exit surveying guests to ask how and where they got their information to plan a trip. Then they'll do something about it if people don't seem to be booking trips because they saw vloggers videos.

 

[Andysol]

Oh vloggers. And bloggers. How I dislike almost all of them.
Theme park vloggers/bloggers aside- the mom and lifestyle bloggers are the worst things to come about through social media.
They promote the incredibly low self esteem in many women, and it's disgusting. They become narcissistic and generally promote the fake, yet achievable lives and the unconfident or ignorant fall for it.
I've read multiple articles on it, as it's a fascinating topic to me. Each of them conclude that it's negative in basically every way. You see people who are beautiful, but not that beautiful- and people with lives who are amazing, but not unachievable amazing- and people who needed no training or skill to do what they do- like being a lawyer or doctor or actor, so why can't you be like that "ideal" family. Then these women proceed to buy the same shirt they are wearing, or purse- all brought to you by a nice r*code link by nordstrums that they get a cut of. All in an attempt to "be more like them" even if they don't realize it.
If you have a girlfriend who is into lifestyle bloggers- run as fast away from them as you can until they develop a true sense of self-worth. The blogs do nothing but tear it down.


There, rant over. As for theme park vloggers- hell ya, why not? They provide an invaluable service showing updates. I'll watch whoever go to the park and show me around when something new comes out.
As for Tim and Jen- I like them a lot. They seem grounded and nice. But I don't watch their Q&As or other stuff outside of the parks- because I don't want to get sucked into that trap of "caring" about people that I don't truly know anything about, just what they put out there. Guys like Brian can- because he knows them personally. Guys like me? I'm there watching the service they provide- park tours. Why do I care about their personal lives? I have my own.

 

[Porkchop]

We like Tim cause he and Jen are very family friendly, well spoken, well produced and just flat out put on a great video.

We live out of state and visit, maybe once a year. So his constant updates, HD tours of anything new, and exact same taste in food (Burgers burgers burgers) as me make it a must watch for years now for all of us.

My 9 year old son was with my parents last year without my wife and I (date night) and recognized Tim out in the wild and told my parents "we watch him on youtube all the time!" -- and my parents were like "ya ok sure bud".....and my son was adamant about it to the point my dad was mortified and was like "hey.....my grandson swears he watches you on youtube?"

Tim smiled big and said "that's me!" and took a pic with them. It was super cool, and a great moment for my son.

My point is, I think you're right vlogging is the future, its all a part of this cord cutting movement. Hollywood producers aren't picking the actors and we have to deal with it.....we as consumers and fans pick who we want to watch! Theres a choice, and the "likes and subscribes" speak for themselves! I hope Tim and Jen are getting residuals, kick backs, free discovery cove gifts etc....because they are freely advertising these parks for families like mine! The parks are benefiting big time by working with these folks and allowing them to freely roam (within reason) and film the parks.

Win win for everyone.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I fall in and out with vloggers depending on what's going on in the parks. Soft openings and seasonal event construction time and I'm watching them a lot. I follow the Trackers, View From the Cheap Seats, IU, and Attractions the Show (even if that's more a normal show format).

 

[Porkchop]

I will say the Attractions "walk thru" videos are a breath of fresh air sometimes too! Just calm music in the background, no wind, no talking, just a full walkthrough of the parks.....we watch those from time to time as well.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I will say the Attractions "walk thru" videos are a breath of fresh air sometimes too! Just calm music in the background, no wind, no talking, just a full walkthrough of the parks.....we watch those from time to time as well.

For walk throughs iThemePark and SoCal360 are the best.

 

[Porkchop]

For walk throughs iThemePark and SoCal360 are the best.

Will add those to the vid list! Thanks

 

[therealscotty]

The majority I dislike if I am honest. The Vlogging style dosen't do it for me - I much prefer informational style: things like room tours have been invaluble during planning our early trips. vLogging has a place for sure, but the market is well over saturated.

I think the ones that annoy me the most are the vain, like-hungry couples who join forums like this to specifically post their Vlog links, and and who drag out a trip into a monster 30 part epic. #rantover


Its not going to be long till the parks (Disney especially) realise how much money these guys are making, and they start exit surveying guests to ask how and where they got their information to plan a trip. Then they'll do something about it if people don't seem to be booking trips because they saw vloggers videos.

YES! the vloggers who turn their 14 day trip into 14 "episodes" over 14 weeks (or more) really annoy me. It only shows to me that they have zero toher content apart from the park footage, and also, are slow/bad at editing.

I'll be honest, i only watch tim and jens daily vlogs, the Q & A's and mail vlogs etc just dont do it, i watch for the theme parks and they just happen to have the best coverage out there and are relatable. I'd hope they can both turn it into a full time job at some point.

Ive seen parks try to create their own "vloggers" which never works, but also, ive seen vloggers viewing figures decline due to them outgrowing the parks and trying something different. Adamthewoo springs to mind. Really nice guy, but his daily vlogs at disney get waaaay higher viewing figures than any of his regular ones, and he keeps going back for periods of time to churn out a few disney ones then some of his own stuff.

Im surprised at the amount of Disney cast members who have vlogs too, nothing backstage is shown but alot of them do tend to moan/not paint disney in the best light, which i though in this day & age would result in some kind of disciplinary, or is it classed as freedom of speech?

 

[Imagineer83]

The Trackers are definitely our family's favorite vloggers. My wife and I met them in 2015 on an Unmasking the Horror tour at Universal. I think Brian was there too. We had no idea who they were and chatted with them casually throughout the tour. We noticed people saying hi to them in the parks so asked why so many people knew them at the end of the tour. They are very friendly and 'down to earth' people. Its refreshing to see a parks vlog that isn't super obsessive about every tiny detail but instead genuinely enjoys visiting the parks while sharing some tidbits. Very genuine, and it shows in their content.

 

[GadgetGuru]

I think this mirrors what everyone else says, but there's very few vloggers I can stand. Most vloggers are just making videos in their bedrooms and don't have a set topic. They desperately need to force their personality (however fabricated) through to make people like them quickly.

I haven't seen many theme park vloggers, but most of them follow that formula. They let their antics and personality overshadow the actually interesting content they have.

 

[Joshua Porter]

I watch a number of vloggers and some have their quirks, but generally the content is great. I could see anyone who goes to the parks regularly could maybe get a little bit bored of some of the content, though. For me, it is great that I can watch these vlogs to keep up to date with what is going on (visually) until my next trip.

TimTracker, Ears2You, OhYeahTV, Tom & Sophie, Happiest Vlogs on Earth, Mickey Views. All good, some have little things you could find that would maybe be frustrating about their videos if you really wanted to. However, I find it best to just ignore that and enjoy the content! There are occasional videos I will skip because they drag on a little, but when you're having Orlando withdrawals, they are great.

 

[epcyclopedia]

I find the vloggers that just enjoy themselves to be the best to watch. And i dont mean just videos of them having fun like home videos, but that they actually really care about the experience and aren't shilling anything. The "oo, that's new and neat, let's go check it out" vloggers.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I find the vloggers that just enjoy themselves to be the best to watch. And i dont mean just videos of them having fun like home videos, but that they actually really care about the experience and aren't shilling anything. The "oo, that's new and neat, let's go check it out" vloggers.

As I say the best way to get others to enjoy your content is for yourself to enjoy doing it.

 

[MrRoamer]

We tend to watch a lot of theme park vlogs even though we are in the area, its a nice way to see whats being added, removed, how an event went, etc quite a bit. Also partially to give out extra hits and likes to their videos. A lot of them I found out about through here either meet ups or through word of mouth. We thought about trying out hand at just some updatey stuff, but they all put so much time and energy into it.

Like others have said Brian's videos are good and insightful, the Trackers are great (TheTimTracker - YouTube Kyle has been doing some great stuff with View From the Cheap Seats (ViewFromTheCheapSeats - YouTube and can't forget Brady (Around Orlando Vlogs - YouTube

 

[epcyclopedia]

Just a reminder for any aspiring blogger/vlogger...

Photos/video NEED context. Often there's this urge to get a photo with no one in it - the serene area or a tight close up shot.

The problem is that area can be 3" or 30ft, you cant tell without context - especially in the theme park environment. So with video you work with establishing shots - wide, middle, to close up - and with photos it's the same in how you present the photos. Zooming in or adjacency should dictate how your photos are ordered in an article. And don't be afraid to include humans. They quickly provide scale. Yeah, you're gonna have to wait a hot second for them to not be all facing your camera or waving at you or whatever, but that context is so much more valuable than a people-less void where things could be any shape or size.

 

[UK-Trigg]

Not really aimed at any particular video blogger, but any video shot in portrait annoys the hell out of me.

SHOOT LANDSCAPE ALREADY :fist:

only thing worse is iPad photographers :doh:.

Ok, I'm done.

 

[Miketheboss]

I watch the Tim Trackers and View From the Cheap Seats (VFCS). I've been watching Tims vlogs for years. When he started vloging it was a lot more adult oriented. This is why I like watching VFTCS. One thing I hate is when a vloger that has nothing to do with politics starts bringing it up. I can care less what vlogers on youtube think about our current political climate. Tims wife, Jen, cried in a vlog when Trump won, super dramatic.

I think the best youtube channel for Disney information is "The DIS" or "The DIS Unpluged"

"Kevin Heimbach" is also an entertaining vloger.

 

[Viator]

I would say for ride-throughs, SoCal360 gives some of the best in general. As for Haunts, particularly SoCal haunts; ThemeParksHD would be a good eye to look at (miss TPA doing povs of haunted attractions).

As for Vloggers; to shadow everyone else (along with adding a few), Tim/Jen Tracker, Fresh Baked, VftCS, and In The Loop as an added one, only to see their thought-puts for attractions and theme parks from a lot of places and not just typically one park in particular.

Although, I am surprised no-one set up a thread dedicated entirely for Theme Park podcasts, as we have a ton of them around the community that should be acknowledged.

 

[Miketheboss]

Does anyone else on here live for the drama?

If you do, whats the deal with Midway Mayhem and TPR.