I can hear the confusion and the panic across the world, and surprisingly it's not just about where are we going to get toilet rolls from? It's the simple and profound question, how can all Walt Disney Parks across the world be closed? It's a bizarre question and one none of us would ever have thought we would have to ask?

It has now dawned on the world that this is happening and it's taking stock of the likely impact there is going to be on life as a whole in the coming few months and beyond. For me as it is for so many people it is keeping a business afloat that they need and love. So this is the start of Theme Park Tourist's fight back against the Coronavirus.

Our aims:

1) To survive it, that's the biggie! With Facebook swamped with other posts, there is just so much noise to get through. Advertising for Travel blogs has been slashed so making any money at all is going to be extremely difficult. I know you may get annoyed by the adverts on the site, I know people use Ad blockers but I can't stress enough, very few websites would exist without advertising. Our costs are huge each month from Hosting, Security, Maintenance, SEO, Editor, Writers. Everything costs money and without advertising there would be nothing for you to read.

2) To increase our Facebook followers by 100,000. I know this is a massive ask but I am an optimist and a believer in people and I know if we pull together as we need to do that we can do this. We currently have 496,979 followers so our target is 600,000. 

3) To have our biggest number of shares for a Facebook post that we have ever had. This currently sits at around 300. I am hoping for 1000.

I am hoping to turn a massive negative into a positive. Sitting and thinking about what I can actually do to help the site left me at a bit of a loss. I am not a writer and I will never claim to be one. I do like to talk, however, so how hard can it be? I can't sit back and do nothing because Theme Park Tourist won't survive and I can't let that happen. This is our 11th year and I have no plans in letting this Coronavirus bring us to our knees. My aim along with my Editor and amazing writers is to continue to do what we do. We want to be able to give you, our readers the best news updates and engaging articles on Walt Disney World, Universal and theme parks around the world whilst we are in this immensely difficult time and in the future as the Coronavirus hopefully becomes a thing of the past in the months and years to come.

Who am I?

This is my chance as owner of Theme Park Tourist to do something during this crisis to try to raise a smile to anyone who wants one, who is being affected either medically, mentally and/or financially at this time. 

As I said I am not a writer but I know how to talk and hopefully how to listen too, as you should find out. I have been told that I say 2000 words where only 20 were needed so I will keep this is mind as I start my short and hopefully sweet first part of my biography.

For all of us, our lives are full of ups and downs, smiles and frowns, triumphs and anxieties. I am no different, I grew up caring for my mum who was diagnosed with MS from the age of 40. I studied to be a music teacher which was always my ambition. I met the man of my dreams at 18 and we spent our 20s travelling every summer and then got married and had a massive party in 2009 at the age of 27. In 2012 when I was 8 months pregnant my husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer at the age of 30 and was given a year to live.

It was just at this point that we had saved up enough money for him to leave his job and work for a year to get this site, Theme Park Tourist properly off the ground and turned into a real business that could support our family. This had always been the dream. We had worked tirelessly for 2 years prior to this to get it started whilst both having full time jobs. So as you can guess seeing as Theme Park Tourist is here, that is what he did. It was no mean feat whilst my husband was undergoing intensive Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy as well as us having a newborn baby. That is just the start, I will continue with the next part of our story in my next post.