AntSol Travel

This is a work-in-progress post and will be updated with more ideas I get over time. 

Featured Image: View from the second floor of Ballast Point Brewing Company looking down towards Catal in Downtown Disney. A review coming soon.

AntSol Travel blog started as a way to occupy my time by exploring places around where I reside back at home in Concord, about 30 miles from San Francisco Bay Area in 2019. For guests, they would go to work, sports events, and attractions in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, as hotel room rates would be more reasonable outside of the three cities. Many of them would ask about destinations, the most optimal way to get to their destination, places to eat and do in the immediate area of the hotel, and more. I would immediately have information off the top of my head or can easily research it online. However, if my coworkers were asked about those things, they would usually draw a blank, and forward the guest to me since I am much more versed about the area than they were. I tried to blog about the area in 2019, however, I could not find time to do so since I was doing so many things with family and friends. 

Fast forward four years later, working in a full-service hotel that is down the street from Disneyland that killed the concierge desk, my coworkers keeps forwarding me guests about things or they draw a blank about, such as restaurants to eat, stores to run errands, and other fun things in Orange County that are not Disneyland, especially when reservations are full for the parks. That is what AntSol Travel is all about in my mission statement, information for my coworkers & our guests about Orange County & greater Southern California, so I restarted my blog in November 2022. 

When I posted content to my YouTube Channel that supplements my posts such as train rides and Disney attractions, and even recently, footage from the last Anaheim Ducks game where I got free sets upgrades to the glass. My blog reached a new audience (and probably got to YouTube algorithm confused since the content varied too much), such as rail fans (train enthusiasts, who like to capture video of trains), Disneyland Parks fans who long to go to the parks but are not able to, and hockey fans respectively. Just the last month from Thanksgiving to Christmas, with 53 subscribers and 603 watch hours, helped me with the motivation boost I needed to make videos. However, it is a long way to be able to get ad revenue with 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours. 

This is unprecedented to have this much momentum in a month for a small channel, thanks to the longing Disneyland fans that were stuck in the snow, high park ticket prices to keep them home, and the guests who wanted to go to Disneyland but not in time for the holiday’s attraction overlay. The Haunted Mansion Holiday video has over 7,100 views & over 3,800 for It’s a Small World Holiday as of December 28, 2022, along with the Metrolink Arrow Service video with over 1,000 views. I tried to continue the momentum with my Anaheim to Dana Point via Metrolink and OC Bus & and my December 20th trip which was the last day for Magic Key annual pass holders before the holiday dates are blacked out. Those videos are not as popular immediately, but are evergreen content as it pops up in viewers’ feeds overtime throughout the year. 

What is not as popular and or evergreen in content is me, talking about places as all those videos barely crested over a hundred views. I want to create videos that guests planning for their trip to Orange County and Southern California would want to watch and be informed about the area, which happens to be the demographic aimed for my blog that my hotel front desk coworkers give information about the area to those guests we serve. However, YouTube either does not recommend it enough, or viewers of that type of content just do not care to click it, even though, I pull out all the stops to make the video the most successful it could be…

I spend at least a whole weekend: planning, scripting, filming, editing, posting, and anticipating the results of the video, of me talking in the videos with videos shot on location. The videos are good for my coworkers to know about things, but posting full YouTube videos yields low viewership and I just tell my coworkers about things anyways on my blog. My coworkers can just give them my blog website as a reference guide for the guests that are not authorized by the hotel, which some have already done about public transit from my Car Free OC series. 

In Sean Cannel’s Think Media videos about starting a YouTube Channel, that to create a profitable channel, you need to create searchable, proven & profitable topics, with an avid fan base. How will AntSol Travel work with that, for me to showcase different elements of planning and traveling that the guest I work with would go through while in Orange County & Southern California, whether it is Disneyland, conferences, fan conventions, sports, or events? Then show what they do to plan for the trip, for getting there, where to stay, where to eat, and things to do elsewhere around the county. I would post about insight into the industry as well to help my coworkers and guests understand the process of the hospitality, travel, and tourism industry.

How can it be profitable down the road? To be a travel advisor (formerly called travel agent) with one on one planning advice for guests, paid video production for businesses with in-depth content to appeal to the planning OC guest, merchandise, and create paid tours and/or itineraries.

Planned Content For 2023 

• Disneyland Resort
  • Update the blog about once a month on the festivals at California Adventure and any updates.
  • Attraction Point of View (POV) Videos.
  • Food Guides?
• Online guide to shops, restaurants, and attractions in Orange County.
  • Shops: Shopping Centers, shops to go to in certain situations, etc.
  • Restaurants: in-depth review if I went and ate recently.
  • Attractions: places to have fun that is not related to Disneyland, such as parks at all government levels, beaches, destinations, hotels, and more.
  • Transportation: Get to places via foot, bike, car, bus, light rail, and commuter train from the Anaheim Resort area. I’ll try to the most footage of trains that I can.
• A couple of Orange County Soccer Club matches.
• Tons of Los Angeles Angels and Anaheim Ducks games.
  • Highlight videos that are assembled via the GoPro Quik app. 
  • Videos would be posted on Instagram unless is a video about going to the game not confusing the YouTube algorithm of showing sports videos with travel videos about Orange County. 
• Overnight Exercsions
  • Since many destinations I cover are within Orange County, which is the scope of the blog, overnight trips are limited but are planned.
  • Marriott Vacation Club Newport Coast: a timeshare resort set in the high-end neighborhood of Newport Coast in the city of Newport Beach, just 18 miles from Disneyland, just across the Pacific Coast Highway to the beach of Crystal Cove State Park. It feels like you are away from the Orange County hustle and bustle, but are really close to many destinations via car.
    • My family and I have been going every year since my parents bought into the Marriott Vacation Club timeshare program in 2012.
    • Insights about the timeshares & the hotel operations work, Marriott Vacation Club, property, amenities, and the surrounding attractions. 
  • Travel & Adventure Show: I covered it on my Instagram last year, but I am going to do one of the few fully edited videos planned for this year. The show is a traveling destination marketing and tour operator show that has shows early in the year to give guests ideas for their next vacation. Their Southern California show will be at the Los Angeles Convention Center on February 18 to 19th, and I’ll be going on the 18th.
    • This will be a fully edited video with Amtrak service from Anaheim to Los Angeles Union Station via Pacific Surfliner, LA Metro subway to downtown, a review of one of the hotels I will stay in, and a look at the show with interviews with the various destinations and tour operators. 
• Insights for us and our guests to help them understand the hospitality, travel, and tourism industry, the Southern California area, and more.
  • About the 100+ hotels in the Anaheim Resort hotel market area.
  • Hotel Fees and guests are lucky we don’t charge them mandatory fees. 
  • History of the SoCal and why is so sprawled. 
• More to be added when it comes to mind, get ideas from my coworkers, and viewers like you. 
• AntSol Travel Gaming
  • I have always wanted to post video game plays on YouTube, and now I have the video capture and camera equipment to do so.

Thank you for reading my content, it means so much to me for viewers to read my content and help you to be informed about Orange County and Southern California!