Bret -
Oooh! The Haunted Carriage Ride at WDW sounds fun! From what I've seen in videos and photos of the Fort Wilderness area at Christmas time, I have a feeling they probably go all out for Halloween and trick or treating too!
Oh I wasn't offended at all that you didn't ask my ideas for a TR title. I just happened to think of the "Boo to You..." title ideas when I was reading your replies in another post, so I figured I'd either be silent about them or throw them out there just in case you liked them. But you had specifically asked PrincessInOz, and I didn't want to seem like I was butting in on her territory when you had asked her. If those titles had not popped into my mind on their own when they did, I would't have even thought about what to call your TR!
And honestly, I think your TR would be fine - and just as popular - if you had no special title to it at all!
I definitely like the TR threads that have a bunch of DLR trips in one place/thread. I think it makes it easier to find them when they are all in the same thread, and it's interesting to kind of follow someone's path or progress from one TR to another, one DLR trip to another - all in one thread.
I wish we could include non-DLR trips in the same threads, but that's only really allowed if someone made a big trip to California and happened to visit a bunch of places (including
Disneyland) in one trip. Like KCmike's TR includes Disneyland and other places he visited in the same trip, but if he were just doing a solo San Diego/Del Coronado TR that had nothing to do with a DLR trip it would have to go in a different forum. if that makes sense.
I had to put my Catalina TR - which is basically just a photo report because I didn't have enough time to spend on writing, to be honest - over in the California section, and I've had a few views but most people do not speak up.
My large number of Disneyland TR views comes from the fact that my TR thread is 4 years old, and a lot of the same people have viewed it repeatedly in that time (which I'm grateful for, as many of them have stuck with me to this day
) - it's certainly
not because I've had 200,000+
separate people viewing it! It's not even because I've taken a lot of DLR trips in the last 4 years - you have gone to DLR
way more often than I've gone in just the last couple of years!
I would bet you that if your TR thread and my TR thread had started at the same exact time, yours would probably be ahead in views!
The thing is, everyone has a different style of doing TR's that is reflective of their personalities. And just like how some people don't necessarily like other people's personalities, some people will not like certain TR's.
For example, I'm a very detailed person by nature anyway. Since I was a young teen I've been told that I am "very detail-oriented." I'm verbal
and verbose. So my Trip Reports will obviously reflect and exhibit that trait because that's who I am (inherently) and that's what my personality is. I speak in a detailed way; I write in a detailed way; I think in a detailed way; I explain and describe in detail; I take photos in a detailed way because that's how I see things through my eyes. I tend to have a bit of a dry sense of humor, but I also use dramatic expressions here and there just for the sake of comic relief (such as "The Evil Chair and the Peppermint Cone of Death" TR title, for example - that is an overly-dramatic way of giving a title to my TR, just to be funny).
That's just who I am - it has been both a blessing
and a curse in my life, believe me! People either appreciate my personality or they don't. But I don't know how to be any other way, because that's just
me.
I suppose there is some sort of an audience for every kind of TR, but the harsh truth of the matter is that there are a
lot of people who will not want to tune into
my TR's because of my specific 'style' of doing them. They won't want to have to read a lot in between all of the photos that I post. They will want to see photos only and not do a lot of reading, so even if I take 1500 photos they will not want to have to comb through all the 'storytelling' and details to get to them. Many people don't have the time to spend on extra-detailed, extra-wordy, extra-long TR's. They won't want to be subjected to my wacky sense of humor or the details I get into, and they won't think I'm funny! They will just want to open a TR, see a lot of photos and not have to follow a story. They will want a straightforward approach, i.e., "This is where I went; this is what I rode; this is what I ate; here are my pictures, The End," etc.
So all any of us can do is just carry on with our TR's in our own personal styles of doing them - or as PiO said, TR's in our own "voices" - in the way that feels natural to do them, and just hope that we get some followers. Be sure to do
your TR's in the way that feels authentic and natural to who
you are, because there is a big audience for that - which has already been proven, given your large number of views!
And I will repeat what I said earlier, Bret - I would bet you that if your TR thread and my TR thread had started at the same exact time, yours would probably be ahead in the number of views! I just had a bit of a jump start because I began my thread in 2008. Yours picked up a lot of steam and views in a much shorter period of time than mine did - so stick with the formula that works for you!
