First post. Started watching Disney vloggers beginning of lockdown when our florida holiday got postponed. Have watched nearly everyone mentioned including the Saturday Night Discussions shows most weeks, in fact in deep lockdown it was something to look forward too but I can understand a couple of the comments here. One week they had a quiz on themselves and their friend vloggers and I felt alienated as I'd only watched TUKDC and some of Nathan but not others. I didn't pick up on arguments so have found the posts here very interesting.
Started off with Becky and Lloyd. Very good content, just wish they'd cut the "outfit of the day" 5 min slow pan segments. Quick 5 second mention is enough. Moved on to The Despicable Three. Love them and gained a few useful tips. Then Sarah and Adam (her platonic flatmate) from That Sounds Fun. I see the comments not liking her moaning. I prefer it if some vloggers are bit more honest about feeling tired or not well as I find it more relatable and then interesting to see what they do with limited energy as that's bound to be me when we get out there. Also their friendship is refreshing. Watched a few ClaireyTale, she seems genuinely lovely, and as she used to work at WDW so her trips aren't the norm as she might do something her old CM mate has organised, she also gives the odd behind the scenes fact. Then we found TUKDC. At first we found Paul a bit odd but liked the quality they produced and gained some useful tips. His rants were a bit annoying but overall their videos were quite helpful although a bit less relatable as we're not personally Disney superfans. Having read some of the comments on him fat shaming Cheryl and calling her Madam looking back I agree. Have watched Soph and Nath, they were ok. We tried watching some of Nathan Staker's but found him boring, however I will say that I'm enjoying his more recent UK theme park videos. I think he's grown in confidence hugely over the past year from doing the Saturday shows.
I prefer vloggers who are more relatable for me i.e that aren't super disney obsessed and will do other stuff and a mixture of excited and chilled. I also don't particularly like those that go to about 3 places in 1 day and have 16+ hour days as it seems unachievable for a whole fortnight but again that's because I personally couldn't do it and tbh I'm just jealous at their energy levels! We also watch AllEars and DFB for latest Covid rules.
TUKDC Break up musings: When they officially announced it I was shocked because they had a trip to Berlin in October then did Vlogmas. So either it happened very quickly or they're great actors, or potentially a bit of both. Looking back there were several things I noticed from the Saturday night shows.
1. The New Year's Eve show. At midnight while all other couples kissed, they didn't. In fact if you watch closely they each wipe at their eyes. At the time I thought this was tiredness but the break down of their relationship must have already happened by this point. They also sit each end of the sofa and go on their phones while everyone else is celebrating. Paul starts to bounce his arms for Auld Lang's syne and only after a couple of minutes does Cheryl reluctantly join in. I also have a theory it was Cheryl that instigated it for the below reasons and that in this show Paul did a drunk emotional rant about how he'd learned how much he appreciated the people closest to him, even though Cheryl was sitting next to him, which now with the context seems a bit harsh on her, if she had instigated it.
2. The following show a week later Cheryl isn't there. Paul tells us she's not feeling well. Cheryl's mum is commenting as normal so is seemingly unaware of the break up. There's a new intro for the new year which includes a clip of TUKDC looking lovingly at each other. If you had just dumped someone out of all the footage you wouldn't choose that would you? DisneyFreak also comments that the intro is "sad but it's his decision," which must be related to this. The following week (16th Jan) Cheryl is back on.
3. The following week (ep 48) Cheryl isn't there and we are told she's having an early night and is already in her pjs. Paul shouts to her and claims she can't hear him. It's Jan 23rd so surely by this point they have broken up. Cheryl's mum isn't in the shout outs so presumably she's stopped watching by now. Also the live comments have now been removed from this video which seems odd. We know from their later post the split happened in January. Show on Jan 30th both of them aren't there at all with Nathan saying they are taking a week off. Then finally the following week on ep 50 Feb 6th Paul is back Cheryl isn't, and people actually ask in the comments where is she? Paul says Cheryl is "taking a break for a few weeks from the show, which nothing to worry about, she's taking a break from the show which she's entitled to do." But that previous week must have been her moving out.
At first I wondered if 1 of them had decided they wanted kids. We have been told in past videos Cheryl is 36 and Paul is 34, I wondered if she suddenly wanted them and to get on with it and he didn't so that was that? Then I thought are they just one of the couples that haven't survived lockdown? Paul has said many times he travels/flies often for work and Cheryl has a busy NHS job and maybe seeing each other 24/7 for a year got to them? We'll probably never know. It would be nice if they'd just said something vague like "we have realised we are now different people." People are entitled to privacy but if you have a dedicated community you need to tell them a reason even if it's vague and doesn't specify the actual reason.