About Us

Andy and Jo

We’re a married couple from St. Helens in the United Kingdom, and we’re quickly approaching our 10th wedding anniversary and our 25th anniversary as a couple. Needless to say we understand what each other enjoys. For our honeymoon we decided to travel somewhere that had always been on the bucket list but never within reach: Japan. While Jo was a seasoned traveller, taking on South America and Egypt on previous trips, Andy had never travelled outside of Europe before.

Our month long trip to Japan was eye-opening for numerous reasons, but as part of the trip Jo organised a day in Tokyo Disneyland. Andy, again, had never visited a Disney park and Jo had been to Disneyland Paris as a child. While the day trip to Tokyo Disneyland wasn’t perfect, being marred by bad weather and some key rides being closed, it was enough for Andy to accept another trip at a later date to Disneyland Paris. During the weekend at Disneyland Paris Andy started enjoying the Disney magic more, to the point that when Jo mentioned she wanted to return at a later date, Andy suggested they buy annual passes.

Park Pioneer

Park Pioneer was born during that first trip with our annual passes. During our honeymoon in Japan we had took a Canon G7X with us to record our trip, mostly to share as videos to friends and family who were on the other side of the planet. We had the camera, we were used to filming our trips, so it felt natural to start recording out Disney trips as well. We decided early that we didn’t want our channel to be only about Disney, as we have done trips in the past to Alton Towers and Tivoli Gardens, so we picked the name “Park Pioneer” rather than something Disney related.

Seven years later, we’ve done multiple trips to Walt Disney World, practically lived in Disneyland Paris for 2018/2019, and are plotting a return to the park that started it all in Japan.

Park Pioneer now exists as a website, YouTube channel, and Instagram account posting our adventures at theme parks and related content. Our website focuses on more long form content with reviews, opinion pieces, and guides on making the best use of your time at the parks. Our YouTube channel will give video versions of our reviews, and also our travel vlogs. Our Instagram account is where you can follow along with the journey, and also see more short, off the cuff content.

All the links to our various social media accounts can be found at the bottom of the page.