Why do I—or anyone else for that matter—take the time and expend the effort to write a trip report detailing their Walt Disney World vacation? While a severe case of masochism comes to mind, I believe the answers can be found in the very reasons I read them:
- To take a vicarious trip to Walt Disney World—between my own trips.
- To be entertained.
- To learn something new.
Regarding the last item, I’ve learned a tremendous amount by reading other’s trip reports. It started about ten years ago when I discovered Brian Bennett’s site of archived trip reports (since merged into MousePlanet) and began reading trip reports from folks like Sue Holland, Kevin Stringer, Mike Scopa, and many others. I learned more about discounts and how to get them, restaurants I hadn’t yet tried, touring tips, attractions, etc. Sometimes it’s just refreshing to hear someone else’s perspective on something with which I am familiar. Anyway, I was hooked. Reading trip reports let me feed my Disney habit between trips of my own.
Writing trip reports is, in a small way, payback for others that wrote the reports I’ve read. There’s one other reason for writing – I will go back and re-read my own. It may sound a bit strange but, other than finding all the typos and grammatical faux pas I can’t believe I missed the first time (and unfortunately, there are many), it becomes a record of the trip. It’s sort of a literary version of the video tape or photograph book. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve looked through older trip reports to find the answers to “When was the last time we attended the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue?” or “What did it cost to rent the SUV in 2005?” or… you get the idea.
Trip Report Styles
What does a trip report look like? It can take several different shapes and styles but, typically, trip reports fall into two distinct categories:
- Summary style – a summary report is usually a bit shorter and provides only highlights of your trip. It may contain any number of shorter sections devoted to travel, accommodations, tickets, meals, attractions, and so on. The intent would be to offer the reader a synopsis of your trip; what was good and what was not so good. The reader could very easily determine that you stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and liked it; you loved the California Grill but didn’t care for ‘Ohana; Soarin’ is your family’s favorite attraction; you and your spouse prefer Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, but the kids like Wishes; etc.
- Detailed – detailed trip report is just that; filled with details. Most are written as a chronological narrative of the trip. They should offer not only what you did but why you did it, how much it cost, and how you felt about it. A well-written, detailed trip report will take the reader on the trip with you. As I mentioned earlier, it can offer the reader that vicarious trip to Walt Disney World without leaving home.
Everyone has their favorite style. A detailed trip report is, obviously, more work and harder to write, but I’ll bet you a Mickey Premium Bar it’s preferred by eight out of ten dentists and trip report readers.
Writing a Trip Report
There are those folks that will write and publish a trip report live from Walt Disney World. What I mean by “live” is… each day they will type up their notes, probably on a laptop computer, and post them to an on-line forum or news group. The reader is treated to a near real-time report on the trip. This is certainly not my cup of tea but it may be yours. Sue Holland is a former MousePlanet columnist, and arguably the most prolific trip report writer in history. Sue almost always publishes her daily reports before she turns in each evening. I tip my hat to Sue because this is something I could not do—even if I wanted to. Mainly I don’t have the stamina to stay up into the wee hours typing and posting a report, as Sue does. More importantly, my writing requires much more editing time.
Others (like me) will take notes of key events during their trip, and, using those notes, write and post the report after their return home. The downside to this method is that, when you first begin writing, it may seem like a monumental task and the author can very easily be persuaded to procrastinate until the idea of writing the report has died. I know of at least one trip report writer (and you can find Jim Pertierra’s reports at link) that has reconstructed a trip and written his report years after the trip ended. I really admire his persistence and his ability to recreate a chronology from videotape, photographs, and receipts.
What kinds of notes or reminders do you need to use in order to reconstruct your trip days, weeks, months or years after it actually occurred? Everyone has their favorite methods. Talking into a hand-held voice recorder sounds like an excellent idea—although I’ve never done that. I bring a small pocket-sized spiral notebook with me and I leave it in the room. I can hear the gasps now—“You leave it in the room!?” Uh-huh. I like to travel light in the parks and usually only carry a digital camera in a small case on my belt, and a small leather business card case that holds my ID, room key and admission media. Oh… I may also have a cellular phone as well.
Now… where were we? Ah, yes—my small spiral notebook. I’ll write some very cryptic notes in it whenever we return to the resort—usually mid-day and again in the late evening or early morning. The notes I make would be extremely difficult for anyone else to decipher; often just a quick note with a time and an abbreviation: “10:25 FP TT” is enough to remind me that we picked up FastPasses for Test Track and the window began at 10:25 AM. I might write “Illum—wk back—saw juggler” and turn that into two paragraphs about viewing Illuminations: Reflections of Earth and walking back to the Boardwalk, where we stopped and spent 15 minutes watching the juggler perform. My notes are meant to jog my memory and that’s all. I know some others that basically write their report out longhand in their notes. That’s fine—it’s just not my style.
It’s important to save everything as well. Unused Fastpasses, restaurant or gift shop receipts, as well as video and photographs can provide an excellent means of retracing your steps or establishing a timeline. Digital cameras in particular can be used to photograph anything and everything (including attraction signs and menus) that can help you later with a report. I also make it a point to ask one of my traveling companions, typically my wife, to remind me later of something interesting we encountered. Of course, her memory is often worse than my own, but I figure two of us have a better shot of remembering something than one. Regardless, it’s fairly common for me to be reminded of something weeks later that I had meant to include, but didn’t.
Should you take the time to include your costs? My vote is “Yes.” While it is often a social taboo to publicize how much you paid for something, the readers of a trip report are often looking for that very information. How much was that Town Car service? What’s the cost of a taxi from the Animal Kingdom Lodge to the Wilderness Lodge? While menus and prices are available on many Web sites, including MousePlanet, it may help others to know what a typical dinner for four will cost at Nine Dragons.
Photographs
Like me, you probably take tons of photographs on your Disney World trips, but should they be included in your trip report? My vote is that you only embed them into your report if you’re publishing it to your own web site. If you’re sharing your report with a news group (like rec.arts.disney.parks or alt.disney.disneyworld) or a forum like MousePlanet’s (link), you probably shouldn’t embed photos due to the extra space they require. Instead, upload your photos to a hosting service (many are free) like Picassa or Shutterfly and link to them. Your readers and hosting site will thank you.
Publishing Your Trip Report
You’ve taken the time to write it up, so now it’s time to share it with the world—and I do mean “the world.” I’ve read reports or been in contact with trip report writers and readers from Europe, Australia, South America and the U. S. Virgin Islands—to name a few.
As previously mentioned, you can publish to a newsgroup or any number of Disney-related Web sites that have forums devoted to trip reports. They’re typically organized by resort so you can read or post about Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disney, etc.
[Editor’s note: In our biased opinion, we recommend reading and posting trip reports on our own MousePad discussion board’s trip report forums: Trip reports from California, Trip reports from Florida, and Trip Reports from Abroad.]
The real question here is how you should publish your report, and, at the risk of offending many, I’ll give you my strong opinion here (and, yes, this will probably be a rant). When you post your trip report to a forum you’re essentially starting a new discussion thread. Your trip report is the first post in that thread, and will inspire others to post comments or questions. You, in turn, will probably respond to those and the thread will live on for weeks—maybe months—allowing you to relive your vacation for some time.
I urge you, in the strongest way possible, to complete the writing before you post the report. I, and I believe I speak for the vast majority of trip report readers, have a huge preference to read your report in its entirety—not in a serialized fashion. By posting it all at once, you allow me, your reader, to decide when and how I’ll read it. I may read it all today in one sitting. I may read a bit each day for a week. I may copy-and-paste it into a Word document that I’ll print… or I’ll put on my laptop… or PDA… or other personal device… that will let me read it on a work break, at lunch, in a doctor’s waiting room, etc. Get the picture?
Too many times, I’ve seen trip report writers post one day of their trip and then wait days or weeks before publishing the next day. In the worst case, I’ve seen someone post one or two paragraphs and end with “That’s it for now. I’ll add more when I have time.” Why bother?
What this type of publishing does is significantly extend the discussion thread. There are many, many posts and replies between the actual trip report posts. While someone may feel good that their report generated 200 responses, someone like me who is looking to find the actual report, is forced to wade through dozens, scores, or even hundreds of posts to find “Day Two.” Guess what? I won’t spend the time, and I’m guessing many others won’t either. What you’ll end up with is a thread filled with dozens of posts from the same four or five people. I saw one trip report (and I won’t name the forum) that had over 2,000 posts. It had begun in May 2007 and was still active. If I wanted to read that report, tell me how I’d even begin?
OK, rant-off now. Let me just summarize by saying that I urge you all to write your own trip report. I truly believe that once you’ve finished the first one, you’ll see the value and will do it again for your next trip… and the one after that. If it’s your intent to share your trip report so others may enjoy it or learn from it, please publish it in its entirety. If, like me, you’re very prolific (as my friends will tell you, in my case, it’s pronounced “long-winded”), you might consider posting each day as its own separate post: “day one of seven, day two of seven,” etc. Breaking the days into individual posts will not matter, as long you post them all at once.
That’s my opinion. What’s yours?
