2022: A Year in Review
And - in nothing more than the blink of an eye - here we are again at the end of another whirlwind year! After successfully dodging COVID-19 and most other respiratory ailments during the worst years of the ongoing pandemic, we were excited to finally start traveling further, getting on newer and better roller coasters and racking up more mileage in 2022! Of course, not everything went wholly according to plan; but when all was said and done, it’s pretty accurate to say that our third year of vlogging was our best yet!
In July, we were joined by Chad and Venessa of Two Tickets to Adventure and Cris the Girl as we dine on summer sweets at the Hersheypark Chocolatier!
From January’s unfathomable temperatures of 13° F to July’s heat wave of 104° F, we never stopped and rarely slowed down. In January, we saw our friends Jay and Sam (The Theme Park Foodies) off as we joined forces to take on a frigid Times Square before they took the plunge and relocated to central Florida. Then, as the weather became more tolerable, we were excited to reunite with our favorite Southern Belle, Kaylee from Fantasmic Fandoms, for an extended adventure to one of our favorite destinations - Disneyland! While on this whirlwind trip, we made sure to pop in to Knott’s Berry Farm and Universal Studios Hollywood for our first-ever visits to each, and (unfortunately) also managed to pick up a bit of a viral bug. Fortunately, the aforementioned virus only put us down for about a week, and then we were right back at it with a whole new lease on life!
We returned home to a busy summer at Hersheypark, as the staff endeavored to open two completely re-themed attractions in Mix’d flavored by Jolly Rancher and Jolly Rancher Remix! Admittedly, neither the flat ride nor the Vekoma Boomerang is our favorite make or model of theme park attraction, but we are theme parkers through and through and could not let this amazingly immersive update go unridden - especially as King Size passholders who were invited to preview the rides at a private event! And then, on the other hand, one passholder privilege that we were not able to utilize was that of first-to-ride access at Busch Garden’s new roller coaster Pantheon. Luckily, we were finally able to board the beast when we visited for a midsummer tour of all the water attractions in the park, along with our good friend Zoe from Wishing Mouse! Then, because apparently we didn’t get wet enough during our park day, we dedicated the next day to a first visit for next door’s Water Country USA - a novel experience unto itself!
As we turned the page on summer and moved into the fall, our 2022 spooky season quickly became one for the books. Not only did we receive our first-ever media invitation on behalf of our favorite local haunt, Field of Screams, but we were also invited back a second time as private guests to witness some behind-the-scenes (which we dubbed ‘Behind the Screams’) areas, actors and processes to get a better sense of how the team is able to make the event bigger, louder and scarier with each passing year. This is to say nothing of our bearing witness to Hersheypark’s first-ever in-park haunt event, which will henceforth be forever known as Hersheypark Dark Nights, and our glorious return to Halloween Horror Nights, and to both Seaworld and Busch Gardens’ respective Howl-O-Scream events! You may have seen some crazy things, but can you ever say that you’ve eaten raw insects at a haunt event?
Finally, as the temperatures began to drop once more, we sought out some festive fun at the Baltimore Christmas Market nearby before dashing off to the Sweetest Place on Earth for a fun-filled weekend of treats, lights, elves and reindeer. Santa was gracious enough to join us for a breakfast buffet at the Hersheypark Chocolatier restaurant before hopping on his sleigh to pose for photos at the park’s Christmas Candylane event, leaving the newly-minted Grinch to tend to visitors at Hershey’s Chocolate World just across the way. As an added, first-time bonus for our personal Hershey holiday, we ventured just around the corner to see what the Sweet Lights drive-through experience offered - though it was both windy and cold, we simply had a ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ taking a leisurely drive through 600 Animated Drive-Thru Light Displays. And all of this was before we darted off to a brand-new locale for the last two weeks of the year to begin crafting our content for 2023!
In the year 2022, we….
Accumulated 3,374 minutes of footage
Travelled 23,991.8 Miles
Engaged in 26 Collaborations
Stayed at 12 Resorts
Got spooked at 8 Haunts
Claimed credits in 16 Theme Parks
Introduced POV Videos to the Channel
Introduced Livestreams to the Channel
This was just a snapshot of everything that we were able to accomplish this past year - and we didn’t even mention how we ran 13.1 miles straight through the castle at the Magic Kingdom, or how our minds were blown by our first ride on Busch Gardens’ new Iron Gwazi attraction down in Tampa! We invite you to check out our 2022 Highlight Reel via the link above to get a quick recap of everything that we saw and did before year’s end. 2023 may yet bring us additional challenges, roadblocks and obstacles to be overcome. But with the help of our newfound friends and our community, we are not only confident that we will overcome them, but excited about the opportunity to improve and grow as content creators. We are Tim and Katie, of the branded channel timandkt, and we believe that every day can be a new adventure - we can’t wait to see what adventure comes next!
