I’m only about 5 years into my obsession with all things WDW (a relative newbie compared to most) It started with a Xmas present from my oldest daughter back in 2017 when she gifted me a copy of the Unofficial Guide. In fact I just noticed that I recently earned my 5 year anniversary badge here on Touring Plans. I’m mostly on the chat side of things but dabble in the forums from time to time, especially with trip reports. Every now and then I see a username I don’t recognize and get curious and click on their username to see how long they have been a member and I’m surprised to see just how many of you have been around for such a long time.
I enjoy enjoy most of the Blogs, Vlogs, Podcasts, etc … I read them daily. They flood my new stream and I subscribe and follow to most on YouTube. Their are a couple of click-baity ones that annoy the heck out of me but I just unfollow or unsubscribe. Everyone’s taste differs. I personally enjoy this forum and the chat side as my #1 source of info. On YouTube I enjoy ResortTV1’s Livestreams on Friday nights, the WDW Tonight show on Thursdays. I also enjoy the Dis unplugged, AllEars, TPM vids, DFB guide and WDW Today. As for podcasts I enjoy the Disney Dish, the BOG podcast, and WDW radio
With all of that said, I often see/hear references from some Vloggers,Bloggers, Podcasters (I’ll hereby reference those as VBP’s) towards other VBP’s. Sometimes the comments are kind and endearing and sometimes not so much. It seems like a close knit but rather competitive group of individuals. I haven’t been around long enough to fully understand all the comments but it seems like there’s a history there that I’m not just privy to.
So where did this all start? Was there a group of 3 or 4 people who started it all and then all these other VBP’s sort of branched off from there? Why do we like some and not others? What’s the history behind all these Disney VBP’s? I’m curious is all. Would love to see an unbiased article written about it. Until then I’m sure there’s enough people here on the forums that could provide some history.
I have tried to remember if I started listening to wdwtoday or WDWNT as my first podcast. I just know those are my first two. At that time wdwtoday was Len, Mike, Mike, Matt and Annette would join them every once in a while? I believe it was available one day a week (and increased later). I just saw that wdwtoday podcast on Twitter calls itself “the longest running WDW travel podcast” (well- ok- but not the same). For me, WDWNT started with Corless in NY (he may have been living with his parents - or was that just where his Disney “stuff” stayed?). His podcast at that time was my first experience with a video version and he was funny and had great news. His “weekly” show would disappear for months but he always promised he would “do better”. I generally don’t listen to either of these anymore. I dropped wdwtoday when Len and the crew left and WDWNT is way too long for me.
My perspective is that there seems to be a divide between Disney bloggers that routinely get free stuff from Disney and never same anything bad about Disney’s decisions. I know the Dis always refuses to report on anything they get free? If you read some of the comments regarding Josh from easyWDW I think it is mentioned a few times?
Tom Corless is generally criticized by many as “click bait” for his RUMORS! (He loves to start posts like that) but I will never forget a D23 live stream where you can hear him laughing because he had reported almost every announcement (you can hear him saying “oh, I didn’t hear about that” when they announced a theatre behind Main Street- since cancelled). I also always trusted he couldn’t be so bad if Josh was in his circle (but that is just my personal feeling).
I have stopped following many of the popular podcaster/YouTubers that are selling something. I have heard too much bad advice based on what is best for a travel agency (you have to buy two packages for a split stay), not for the person asking the question. Once I hear that. I am gone- so my listen list is pretty small.
I do not like the Disboards but I have been listening to most of the Dis YouTube/Podcast offerings since Covid. Add The Disney Dish, ETicket Report and DVC podcasts from Welcome Home and My DVC Points Community (and if Enchanted Tiki Birds returns that too).
I’m not sure about the history, but I tend to watch people based on liner recommendations.
Like you, my primary source of information is on here and I watch vloggers after visiting here.
I’m currently subscribed to…
Tim Tracker
All Ears
Touring Plans (obvs!)
Rix Flix
UOFan
Paging Mr Morrow
All things Universal
The Pugh Two (based on liner recs and I’m not sold on them yet)
I’m generally only watching UOR content at the moment.
Interesting. I didn’t know that WDWToday was originally a Len thing. Did they just sell it to Tom? or did Tom become part of it and the rest just left?
As I prefaced in my opening post, “Everyone’s taste differs”. As for WDWToday & Tonight I enjoy the humor and appreciate seeing the progression of the actual production of the shows over the last couple of years. I don’t know Tom’s history. I do know he isn’t afraid to call out Disney when they get it wrong. Same for Pete over @DisUnplugged. I appreciate that. Thanks for the insight
They’ll report but they won’t review. Their policy is not to offer opinions on experiences that were comped by Disney, but they will share factual information.
That said, after the Galactic Starcruiser media event, Pete did give Craig and Deni leave to share how much they personally would have paid for it. To me, that’s more opinion than fact, but since it’s a voluntary policy in the first place, they can ultimately decide how they interpret it.
There are also liners here that are very loyal to podcast/YouTube communities that might be on other liners “I will never follow this crap” I think we should all be aware of that. It was my main reason I didn’t list any of the ones I think of as giving bad info or selling their “news”
For WDW Today it’s mainly 10 minute semi-daily Vlogs of news related to WDW hosted soley by Tom.
For WDW tonight it’s a weekly 2 hour-ish skit show. Hosted by Tom and a co-host named Nick (think more of Carson/McMahon or Lettermen/Schaeffer type set up) The best part of the show is the produced satirical commercials IMHO along with the dry humor from some of the skits.
I’m fully aware. Thanks for the heads-up. Kinda sad that it crossed my mind when I started this post. I mean, I started it because I just wanted to learn about the history of VBP’s as it relates to WDW. But as I was writing it occurred to me that this post could derail quickly based on loyalties. I almost deleted everything and then decided not to. I’m curious as to who the first ______ (lol, don’t know how to post a blurred image) will be to take this post out of context and detail it. Hopefully Nobody will. I have faith
So are there any spinoffs from the originals? (Ie; Jeffersons/Maude via All in the Family, Frasier via Cheers, The Simpsons via the Tracy Ulman Show, etc…)