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Theme Park Worldwide

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Tom said:
Is this thread effectively just an authorised place to post TPWW diatribes? It seems somewhat undignified to me.
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There was another TPWW thread before this one which got locked (for good reason, I must add), and I have a feeling that the same may happen to this one soon...
 
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Dogdangling said:
If it wasn't for him I would have never been to Europa, Phantasialand or Efteling. I've visited all three and been on some fantastic rides.
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This is an interesting comment really, are people only really inspired to do/visit things if a 'celebrity' does?

I mean back in my infancy of coaster enthusiasm I was inspired to visit Cedar Point at one point purely from them building TTD (and seeing it advertised in First Drop)... Though at the same time my thoughts of visiting DisneySea come from various TRs from there, but I wouldn't say "Oh seeing TPR visit it back in 200X made me want to visit it", more of a "I wanted to visit it because I saw some pictures and went YES PLEASE GET IN MY FACE!"...
 
His IoW videos were useful for us because they gave us a rough idea what we could expect from the two parks and plan our days accordingly, but we didn't visit because he had, my wife has wanted to go for nearly 30 years.
 
Benzin said:
This is an interesting comment really, are people only really inspired to do/visit things if a 'celebrity' does?

I mean back in my infancy of coaster enthusiasm I was inspired to visit Cedar Point at one point purely from them building TTD (and seeing it advertised in First Drop)... Though at the same time my thoughts of visiting DisneySea come from various TRs from there, but I wouldn't say "Oh seeing TPR visit it back in 200X made me want to visit it", more of an "I wanted to visit it because I saw some pictures and went YES PLEASE GET IN MY FACE!"...
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I found his channel by researching a trip to Disney Paris and his vlog came up. Initially, I thought I'm not going to sit there for an hour watching him talk and walk around the park, however, some of the stuff he mentioned was useful.

I don't see him as a celebrity at all, but I do see him as a very useful in researching new parks. I hadn't even heard of Phanta or Europa until I watched his vlogs and like I said instead of just going towers I've saved up and spent holidays in Europa.

I now have friends who comment on our facebook photos of these European parks, most have never heard of them, some are now going to go.
 
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Dogdangling said:
I don't see him as a celebrity at all, but I do see him as a very useful in researching new parks. I hadn't even heard of Phanta or Europa until I watched his vlogs and like I said instead of just going towers I've saved up and spent holidays in Europa.
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The Europa Park vlogs helped me plan my trip last December. We stayed at the same guesthouse he used although we took a different flights incoming via Baden Baden and then flying out of Basel.
 
Benzin said:
This is an interesting comment really, are people only really inspired to do/visit things if a 'celebrity' does?
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I think it's more common that they are and I don't think it's a bad thing, what drives me crazy is people that experience things on YouTube and make no distinction between watching a video and experiencing something in the real world - there is less of a divide.

"The Rolling Stones sucked on this tour..."
"Do you reckon? I saw them at Manchester and they were pretty good. Which show did you go to?"
"Ah I didn't (I just watched some fuzzy video with bad sound on YouTube)"

Or closer to home... it drives me crazy when people people compare coasters they have never ridden, or tell me how good parks are when they have never visited. It's as if doing things in person isn't necessary anymore when you can get your experiences second hand or on a screen - for the record, I think that sucks.

Benzin said:
I mean back in my infancy of coaster enthusiasm I was inspired to visit Cedar Point at one point purely from them building TTD (and seeing it advertised in First Drop)... Though at the same time my thoughts of visiting DisneySea come from various TRs from there, but I wouldn't say "Oh seeing TPR visit it back in 200X made me want to visit it", more of a "I wanted to visit it because I saw some pictures and went YES PLEASE GET IN MY FACE!"...
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I guess this still happens to a degree with YouTube but your exposure to things is greater in a video than it ever was in a magazine, which I think can be positive but also negative for the reasons above.

In First Drop or Airtime you'd have seen a single photo of a rendering of the ride just before it opening and a few photos after it had - in colour if you were lucky! Now people have seemingly watched three different POVs and twelve different vlogs, which for some people people seems to build the excitement, for me it would just drain it all away. Get out there and do stuff.
 
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It's how youtube works really. I searched for Alton Towers and his vlog came up, It then suggested another one and before i knew it i now have a large selection of parks i want to visit. I don't see him as a celebrity.

He is enthuastic and has some fun catchphrases though, and is a decent communicator.
 
Mikw said:
It's how youtube works really. I searched for Alton Towers and his vlog came up, It then suggested another one and before i knew it i now have a large selection of parks i want to visit. I don't see him as a celebrity.

He is enthuastic and has some fun catchphrases though, and is a decent communicator.
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Love him or hate him, i think people will have to admit he has fun and is good at what he does.
 
Mikw said:
He is enthuastic and has some fun catchphrases though, and is a decent communicator.
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He’s a great communicator, and you have to admire the following he’s garnered - drawing in both enthusiasts and members of the public with his infectious presentation style and fairly rich mix of content (last week’s ‘four Merlin parks in a day’ challenge was a recent highlight’).

I was also inspired to go to Phantasialand earlier this year as a direct result of seeing the park in a TPW vlog - yet I don’t see this as evidence of (as Benzin suggests) some sort of attempt to ‘celebrity’ mimic. I saw the vlog because I’m subscribed to the channel, it acted as a useful showcase, I independently decided to check out the park myself to ride Taron.

As for Coaster Crazy, Andy’s made it clear on a number of occasions he holds Shawn up as an idol of sorts, hence his attempt to repeat TPW’s success. Putting his personal associations to one side, the reason Andy has a smaller fanbase is simply that the content is weaker - his videos include all the bits he even admits should be edited out, there’s endless discussion of GoPro failings and the couple he and Lisa frequently travel with sometimes feel more like hostages than contributors - they rarely seem happy to be there. If you remove the happy vibe, you have an eminently less watchable product.
 
KolonelKlink said:
As for Coaster Crazy, Andy’s made it clear on a number of occasions he holds Shawn up as an idol of sorts, hence his attempt to repeat TPW’s success. Putting his personal associations to one side, the reason Andy has a smaller fanbase is simply that the content is weaker - his videos include all the bits he even admits should be edited out, there’s endless discussion of GoPro failings and the couple he and Lisa frequently travel with sometimes feel more like hostages than contributors - they rarely seem happy to be there. If you remove the happy vibe, you have an eminently less watchable product.
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I get about 10 minutes into Andy's videos and give up because of the excessive moaning. Almost like he doesn't enjoy being there himself... Why vlog if you are going to be negative about every detail
 
Benzin said:
On the flip side, why vlog if all you'll ever be is positive?
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True... But Shawn does criticise if that is what you are referring to? He gives the negatives in a positive way.

"We didn't enjoy [experience] because of X, I think it could be improved by Y but [this part of experience] was great fun!"
 
KingNemesis said:
True... But Shawn does criticise if that is what you are referring to? He gives the negatives in a positive way.

"We didn't enjoy [experience] because of X, I think it could be improved by Y but [this part of experience] was great fun!"
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That's one thing I like about Shawn's reviews; they go very in depth. I try to do the same when I write a trip report; I don't know if I'm successful or not!

Shawn has mentioned multiple times also that he always sees the positives in things, again a quality which I sincerely hope I possess.
 
KingNemesis said:
True... But Shawn does criticise if that is what you are referring to? He gives the negatives in a positive way.

"We didn't enjoy [experience] because of X, I think it could be improved by Y but [this part of experience] was great fun!"
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I wasn't going against Shawn in this sense (I don't particularly watch vlogs because I'd rather look at the park than some gormless mugging), but that general sense for many areas of YouTube where people are positive over a product because it's been gifted or because they want freebies...

THIS IS A GENERAL STATEMENT
 
Benzin said:
I wasn't going against Shawn in this sense (I don't particularly watch vlogs because I'd rather look at the park than some gormless mugging), but that general sense for many areas of YouTube where people are positive over a product because it's been gifted or because they want freebies...

THIS IS A GENERAL STATEMENT
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Fair enough haha! I thought as much but as it is the TPWW thread I assumed it was contextual.
 
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