Ask The Duchess – Vol. 81

Welcome to Ask The Duchess – Vol. 81, a monthly Q&A post covering a variety of resort-related topics. Ask The Duchess answers questions submitted by readers. If you have a question you’d like answered, send me a message here.

1. What are your favorite topics to blog about, and least favorite? (submitted by Jonathan)

My favorites are hidden gems – they’re my favorite things to discover about Disneyland, and I honestly think they’re a big part of why I still love going after so many years. It gives you a sense of newness and the feeling of going on a treasure hunt each time. Least favorite? Probably posts about long closed Disneyland shops – especially short-lived ones in the 50s and 60s. It’s virtually impossible to find much detail about many of them, and there are a number I just haven’t written about yet because there’s barely anything to share.

2. Do you think you’ll expand this blog to cover Disney World too? (submitted by Terese)

No, I don’t think so. I live in California and have only been to Disney World a handful of times – and the two resorts are different enough that most “pro tips” or hidden details don’t translate. But my friend Adrianne is a Disney World pro and has her own following at WDW Bound, so I always send Disney World questions her way!

3. Do you consider yourself a Disney “influencer”? (submitted by Kathleen)

Absolutely not. My following is way too small for that, and I highly doubt my social media posts influence anyone to do much of anything. 🙂

4. I tried to create a Disney World Instagram about 5 years ago, but I quit after getting tired of rude comments. Do you ever get that stuff and how do you deal with it? (submitted by Jennifer)

Unfortunately yeah, I think that’s something virtually everyone with an internet presence deals with, even one as simple as mine on a topic that’s pretty innocuous. To deal with it, I have a few strategies, though none are foolproof:

• • Put all comments from a new user through moderation, with filters for certain particularly nasty words sending those comments directly to the trash before I ever see them
  • Blocking IP addresses of particularly rude or aggressive commenters
  • Deleting emails as soon as I realize they’re negative and not reading the rest of the BS or responding
  • Spending the least time/effort on Facebook posting & replies out of all my social channels, as I’ve found Facebook to consistently have some of the rudest comments/DMs

The disappointing reality of life online is there’s no way to completely get rid of this crap, but I do my best to reduce it as much as possible. And I try to focus on the vast majority of my interactions, which are positive, engaging, and just fun. I’ve made friends in real life from conversations that started with this blog – so the good always outweighs the bad.

5. How long do you plan to keep this blog running for? (submitted by Rachelle)

I genuinely don’t know. This December, I’ll have been writing for 10 years, which is WAY longer than I ever thought it would go. I guess my simplest answer is – when it feels more like work than something I do for fun, I’ll stop doing it.