Do comments INCREASE your YouTube video views?

Can replying to YouTube comments actually increase your video views? I ran a test by answering 65 comments in one hour and track what happens next. The results are surprising! 

I show how I handle comments on my channel, explore YouTube’s comment filters, and reveal whether engaging with your audience might boost your views. If you’re wondering whether replying to comments is worth the effort, this might help you decide!

Do comments INCREASE your YouTube video views?



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Can you increase the views on your YouTube videos just by replying to your comments?

The idea is this: if you reply to all of your comments, you will double the number of comments on your videos, and maybe, just maybe, that is a good sign for the YouTube algorithm.

I made this video one year ago, and it’s just me answering 65 comments in a very short space of time. It was just over an hour, and I didn’t put the video out. I thought it would be a good idea to share how I deal with comments on my channel, but I... I was just worried it was going to look boring to just have me typing and replying to comments.

But I looked at the stats from when I shot the video and when I made the 65 comments in a short space of time, and the results, I think, are quite shocking.

I’ll go through those results at the end of this video, but here’s how I deal with all of my comments.

I’ve not replied to my comments for about two weeks now, and in that time, I think the views on both my channels have dropped from their giddy highs. The last 28 days, I’m seeing lows in the low 5000s. If I show you my last 90 days, I’ve been bouncing around the 10,000, 9,000 mark, but these troughs are starting to get deeper over the last two weeks.

And I’m not sure that it’s... it’s a coincidence that I haven’t been replying to any of my comments in the last fortnight. Usually, I reply to comments every day. I just tap away here and there as and when I can log in.

I have a backlog, not only of two weeks but also messages that I’ve missed before those two weeks.

So I am replying to all of my comments in one go.

To do that, we’re going to go into my YouTube dashboard.

Hello, YouTube dashboard!

You can go to this on studio.youtube.com. You can, of course, reply to comments on your YouTube app. I’m doing it on the desktop so that you can see the replies more clearly.

All we need to do is click on the Comments tab on the left-hand side, and that opens up our comments and mentions dashboard.

I wish we had, on YouTube, a dashboard for... for as a viewer so that I could see my comments, because I find it really difficult with the small window.

You can see there are these buttons at the top. There are two tabs: Comments and Mentions.

Oh! We’ve got a mention! Oh my goodness!

Uh, it’s from seven months ago. And one from 11 months ago. Well, I... I’ll deal with that later.

Sorry, Solomon and Welsh Tony! I’m so sorry.

We have some filters under the comments, though.

Can you see this triangle of lines here—this sort of upside-down pyramid?

And it shows you all the filters that we can apply to our comments.

I can hit this cross here. I’ll come back to the ones I haven’t responded to.

But if I hit, uh, this filter, you can see lots of different ways to filter our comments.

We can do a search, so I could just look for the word "Tony." Apply that, and it gives me anything that mentions the word "Tony."

The next filter is for comments that contain questions. So here are all of the comments asking me a question. I guess they use AI or just search for a question mark, but that’s quite handy.

If I go back into the filter, we can also filter by Public Subscribers.

This lists comments from people who have subscribed to my channel publicly, and you can see that with this little red, uh, kind of stack icon.

So if I just wanted to concentrate on the people who subscribe to me, it means I can prioritize those comments, which is good.

We can also filter by Subscriber Count, so let’s filter by... I don’t know... 10,000 subscribers.

And it just shows... oh, there’s a few here, but it also shows my comments in there, which isn’t that helpful.

We can filter by Super Thanks, so I can see all the comments where I have been given Super Thanks, which is really nice.

Thank you, those guys!

The Response Status—this is one that I am going to use.

We can choose the comments I haven’t replied to, the ones I have replied to, or—this is really useful—the comments where I’ve replied, and they’ve replied to my reply.

So it’s really easy to miss those messages, and it looks like there are some there already waiting for me.

But I’m going to use the default that YouTube gives me anyway, which is Response Status: I Haven’t Responded.

Should we do this?

I feel like we need some different music.

Let’s... let’s get some energy music.

And first up, here is a very, uh, easy—easy comment:

"Hi."

I think I’ll just give that a thumbs up, because in that video, I say, Why not say hi in the comments? I don’t think I need to go into, uh, replies for that.

The next one... I... I need to show you the video for context with some of these comments.

Uh, but you’ll see on the right-hand side that this was a tutorial about how to set up right-click on a MacBook.

"Thank you! First time using a Mac, and your video helped a lot."

So I’ll put something like:

"Thanks for the kind comments," and I’ll put her handle in because I’ve got this superstition that if I just say Thanks for the kind comments on every comment, it probably doesn’t work this way, but I’m worried that the YouTube algorithm would think that I’m a spam commenter because I keep posting the same—the exact same—comment.

So I... I do put the commenter’s handle into the reply. It takes up more time that I should probably spend on making videos, but I just... I just feel superstitious about not spamming, even though it’s on my own channel.

So I’ll hit reply, and I’ll give a thumbs up to my own comments.

I read somewhere—and I don’t know how accurate this is—but I think with comments, it is okay for you to thumbs up your own comments.

It’s not treated as gaming the system at all.

Some people even heart their own replies. That feels a bit... a bit much for me.

Next comment:
"Cheers, Neil, I’ll give this a go."

So you’re going to see this reply a lot, I think:
"Thanks for the kind message, I appreciate it. Good luck with your Google storage."

Reply.

"Thanks, man, really useful vid."

Oh yeah, that’s for fast-forwarding and rewinding while watching YouTube videos.

I’ve got a nice message that I can put here:
"Hi, thanks for taking the time to leave a kind comment. If you forget any, you can always press the question mark while watching YouTube videos, and it brings up the whole list. Thanks again."

And this comment looks interesting:
"Hi, Neil, I’ve just been invited onto the YouTube Shorts Creator Program, and I’m meeting up with my partner manager tomorrow evening, so hopefully, I’ll get some insights into what their plans are."

Wow!
"Thanks, Julie. Congratulations! That’s fantastic. Good luck with the meeting, and that’s wonderful work."

And I hit reply.

Onto the next comment:
"Thanks!"

Oh, that’s great! So I can give that a thumbs-up and a heart.

Right, Higana Sudek now—oh, from time to time, I get a comment that’s in a completely foreign language, and I always find this exciting because I think, Oh, could this be a bad comment in another language?

So, cover your eyes just in case this is rudeness. I’m sure it’s not, but I go to Google Translate.

It’s really easy to visit, just type in translate.google.com, and it brings up this translation page.

Oh, here we go:
"Daylight."

Oh, it’s Japanese! No... it really doesn’t want to translate this.

I’m trying different ways.

I think what I’ll do with this one, I’ll just give it a heart and a thumbs-up.

Who cares if it’s a horrible comment? I... I don’t care.

But maybe it’s a nice comment.

Next comment:
"I’m taking mine in. I got this a month ago, and this has been the issue since day one."

So the problem with answering lots of comments in one go is you’ve got to constantly flick through to try and remember the video that they are referring to.

This was a tutorial on how to fix a flashing red light on your MacBook charger.

So I’ll just say something like:
"Sorry to hear this! Good luck with your repair, and fingers crossed for you and your Mac."

Right, back to the Google—right, so this Google Photos video, it shows you how to fix your Google storage if you go over the free storage.

This video has received... received 1 million views.

It’s far and away my most popular video on my channel.

"Thanks for the kind updates, Kelly! Really pleased this might be working for you. Good luck with your Google storage."

But she actually left a message before that:
"Hi, how can I get all my photos in one place?"

Well, I actually have another video for this, so I need to look that up now.

So if I go to Content and then Google Photos Download—this is the video here.

So I’ll just get, uh, get shareable link:
"Hi Kelly, thanks for the great question! Here’s one way to download everything to one place in one go, in case it helps."

And there’s the link:
"Good luck with the download!"

And then I’ll heart and like those comments.

Next comment:
"Thank you very much! A good video, straight to the point."

Oh, that’s nice! A thumbs-up and a heart.

"Thanks for the kind message, I really appreciate it."

And I really do.

Because when I get horrible messages—and I tend to get one horrible message for every 20 to 30 nice messages—it really reminds me of how much I appreciate it when someone has taken the time and gone out of their way to leave a comment that isn’t... that doesn’t wreck my confidence.

So I do appreciate it.

"Thank you!"

Oh, that’s nice!
"Thanks," and I’ll put his handle in.

"I appreciate it! Good luck with your Google Photos."

And I hit reply.

This is a feature that isn't very helpful at the moment, but, uh, YouTube has given everyone a handle, and it's put numbers after their name just to deal with people having unique handles and URLs. But it makes it really difficult to reply, because I know his name isn't 4397.

I feel I should put the proper handle in just so that it looks, you know, like a mention rather than me trying to guess their name.

This is for a video about what to do if your phone is full with Google Photos.

"I did as you told. I made another account and shared all my photos with the new account. But after one day, Google disabled my new account. Why? So, can you explain?"

I can't.

That's... that's a shame, because the system that I explain in the video—I'm still using two years on now, and it's working a dream for me. So it's difficult to know how to reply to this, because I... I can't think of a solution.

So I just tend to be honest about that and encourage them to find another YouTube video for this new problem.

Everyone's circumstances are different. I don't know what's going on with their computer. Thousands of other people have watched this video without a problem, so, um... it... it's good of them to ask me in case I can think of something. But when I can't, I just have to hold my hands up and say, "I hope... hope they manage to fix it."

"How to delete your YouTube Shorts videos."

And it's from Mr. Bill Hicks—from beyond the grave! How amazing.

"That's all very well, but I'm watching YouTube on a laptop, and when I go to my history to delete some of the things I've watched, there doesn't seem to be a way of deleting—not disabling—the Shorts I may have previously watched."

Now, this happens a lot with my channel. He's actually referring to another video that he's watched, which is how to clear your watch history.

And I think what he's saying is that he's having problems clearing his Shorts watch history.

"Hi, thanks for the kind question, and sorry to hear about this! But this is very interesting—that you can't delete or clear Shorts viewing history.

There seem to be three dots for the Shorts shelf on History, but the three dots next to every video seem to have the 'Remove from Watch History' option.

Does clicking on this work for you? Thanks for the heads-up on this, and hope this might help!"

There you go! That's quite a long reply. But what's great about that reply is that I've actually learned something.

In the history, when you're trying to clear search history, there are two different places where the "Remove from Watch History" might actually appear. So I've learned something about YouTube there, which is helpful.

Um, Google.

Someone has just replied for "How to make a Google account," which is a short. They've just written the word "Google."

That's got to get a heart, surely, because I... I... I... I think the reason I haven't looked at my comments for two weeks is—I am scared.

I'm really scared that I'm going to hit something. And I have seen some pretty off-key messages. And they're so infrequent. And when they do arrive, they make no sense, either.

And they always say more about the commenter than they ever say about me.

And yet, it still... it still puts me off from living in the comments.

I'd rather be making videos than reading, uh, not-very-nice messages.

Obviously, everyone feels that way.

But, uh, so it's always really good when you get a nice message like that one.

"Download Google Photos.

Awesome work! Like a charm."

Comments that may be offensive have been hidden.

"Show hidden comments."

Should we look at the... the comments that even YouTube doesn’t want to show? On "Held for Review"?

Do I look at these?

Let’s do it. Let’s go in.

"Show hidden comments."

Here we go. Hold me. Hug me.

Oh, I now get another warning.

"They may contain language that’s considered offensive."

Oh. "Show." I’ll... I’ll have to blur it out.

Here we go.

Oh... oh, here we go:

"Useless idiot. Change your description."

I... I almost want to reply. Just say, "Thanks!"

What’s this one?

"Bad advice."

I’m... I’m going to—because I’ve done so many comments—I’m going to give that a heart.

"Are you that brittle?"

Right. This is my first horrible comment.

So this is on my video about how to block someone on YouTube.

"Are you that brittle?"

Now... now, the... the reply I want to give is:

"Are you that anonymous?!"

Let’s click on their channel.

Oh, look. They’re completely anonymous.

Oh, they’ve got an "About" here.

"The internet is dead. Everything is fake."

Okay. Well, this is a... a lovely... Should I just put "Yes"?

Should I...? I shouldn’t even give a response to this, should I? Because—and this might be the comment to end on—I think this will be the one to end on.

So, this is... this is the hardest part about replying to comments.

It’s like... I’m trying to provoke a response from you.

"Are you that brittle?"

Thing is, I’ve explained everything I need to explain in that video.

And that video is awesome. It’s brilliant. I love it. And I don’t care what anyone thinks about it.

I don’t know if I need to reply.

If I reply to it, then I’m kind of giving them the attention they want without them having made a video.

And also, it kind of negates the time that I spend on the people who’ve taken the time to be nice and to help me with my channel.

So I think I’ll just give that a thumbs down and ignore it.

Um... I could... I could remove it.

Um... which is funny, because that’s what the video is about.

This is actually a good comment to end on because that video that he’s commenting on is all about bad comments.

And my goodness, it really touched a nerve with some people.

Like this commenter here—I think they are looking up this video about how to block comments to see if creators are able to block messages or ban them from their channel.

And we are. We are able to block comments.

And some people who want to lurk and post anonymously—they do not like this.

I’ve had other comments like this saying things like:

"I’m going to sue you!"

Like... they’re going to sue me for explaining how comments work on YouTube.

Okay. That’s a really good use of your time.

And, uh, the other comment I keep getting on that one is:

"You can’t stop free speech!"

But to me, the term "free speech" comes from the time when you’d stand up publicly in a town square and you’d put your reputation on the line to offer your opinion. Because you’re in public. And the town can judge you.

Bad comments that come from anonymous avatars, like this comment, aren’t free speech.

They’re... they’re kind of like someone walking past the person who’s putting something out there, vulnerably, and then shouting at them before walking off.

This here is not free speech.

This is heckling.

Because they don’t have the same stakes or investments as the creator—you and I—and they’re not publicly identifiable.

That is being a heckler.

We don’t need to give time to hecklers.

Too true, one-year-ago me.

So, what happened next?

I shot that video one year ago, and I thought I would just have a look at my view counts—my statistics—from that day, just to see if answering all of those comments did have any impact on my views.

And, oh my goodness, it might be a complete coincidence, but this is my view count.

These are my views from one year ago.

I shot the video here on the 6th of March. It’s around the 5,000-something level. And then, within a few days, look at this—it’s up to 7,000, 8,000.

And then it just stayed up there.

And it just stayed, and stayed, and just slowly crept up.

It just seems like such a coincidence.

Your results might vary, but what a leap here!

Like, within a week, the views don’t just, like, go up ever so slightly and then down again.

I mean, they just chunk up from 5,000 to 8,000.

And then, if I show you how that fits in with the whole of last year...

So, I made the video here, and I answered all of those comments here.

And that’s why I was a bit worried, because these... these views were a bit low compared to what I had experienced.

But then, look at it.

I mean, it just shoots up all the way for the rest of the year.

It’s like it put things on a completely different trajectory.

Now, that might have happened anyway.

But I didn’t make any videos in this period where the views actually jumped up.

The only thing that I did was answer 65 comments in one hour.

And who knows?

Maybe it was a signal to the algorithm.

Maybe having many of those 65 people come back to the video to see the comments—maybe that tripped something in the algorithm to, uh... to say that my videos were bringing people back.

I don’t know.

So, this might be a complete happenstance. Complete coincidence.

But for me? That was an incredible rest of the year.

And the spark for that happened when I answered all those comments in one go.

What do you think?

Guess what? You can leave a comment!

It’ll be lovely to hear from you.

How are you finding answering comments?

Is it a bit of a pain?

Do you not want to look?

I don’t want to look most of the time—for fear of what I’ll find there.

But mostly—overwhelmingly—I find good comments.

I got one slightly iffy comment in 65 comments.

So, one in 65 hit rate isn’t bad.

Maybe you have a different experience. I’d love to hear your experiences.

And I’d love to know—if you try this, do you see the same results?

If you don’t answer your comments, and then just plow in on the comments that you do have, does it have this kind of result?

Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button.

It really helps me to keep this channel going.

Really appreciate it.

And right here... are some more YouTube tips and tricks that you might enjoy.

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HOW TO SEARCH YOUTUBE COMMENTS and activity log history

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How to DELETE TikTok videos AND UNDELETE posts

Want to delete a TikTok video but not sure how? Whether it's a mistake or just not performing well, I'll show you exactly how to remove a video step by step before TikTok is banned. 

Plus, if you accidentally delete the wrong one, I'll show you how to recover it within 30 days! Follow along with me as I walk through the process on my phone.

How to DELETE TikTok videos AND UNDELETE posts



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

How do you delete a Tiktok video? Maybe you've spotted a mistake, or maybe it's just not getting the views you deserve. It's really easy. I'm shooting this on my phone so you can follow along with me. First, open the Tiktok app and click on your profile in the bottom right hand corner. That brings up your videos. Then obviously, click on the video you want to delete. I really like this video, but I want to put it over on my other channel. Can you see the three dots on the right hand side here, underneath comments and favourites? That brings up this big menu of all the places to share, but there's a row of other menu options along the very bottom, which you can scroll to the left with your finger. The very last menu option on this list is delete, but keep watching because I'll show you what to do if you make a mistake and how to recover. For the video, we're going to press delete, and it brings up this reminder, so let's see how this works. Congratulations, the video is deleted. If you accidentally delete your Tiktok video and you want to recover it or undelete it, go into your Tiktok profile and click on the three lines at the top right hand corner. Click on settings and privacy, then scroll down, down to Activity Centre. We can now scroll down again to, there it is, recently deleted, and if you click on that, it shows all your recently deleted videos. This has to be within 30 days since you deleted it; they're permanently deleted after this. Just click on the Tiktok post that you want to restore, and at the bottom of the video, you can see this button, restore, and it brings up this window; people will be able to view and interact with it again. Click restore, and boom, it's back again, restored. If this video is helping, thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button; it really helps me out, and all my videos about earning money on Tiktok are in this playlist right here.

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How to find and delete TIKTOK watch history videos

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How to find and delete TIKTOK watch history videos

Want to find a TikTok video you watched but forgot to save? This quick guide will show you how to access your TikTok watch history, recover videos, and even remove them from your activity log. Follow along step by step and never lose track of a video again! Don't forget to save this video by hitting the thumbs up so you can refer back to it later.

In this video, you'll learn:

✔️ How to find your TikTok watch history or Search history

✔️ How to delete a video from your TikTok watch history

✔️ How to recover a video you recently watched

How to find and delete TIKTOK watch history videos



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

How do you find your TikTok watch history? Sometimes we want to go back to a video we've seen in the past. Maybe you want to follow that TikTok creator, save the video, or even remove the video from your watch history.

It's really easy, but don't forget to save this video first so you can go back to the steps if you need them. Just click on the thumbs up button, and it will appear in your liked videos playlist here on YouTube.

Here's how to find your activity log and watch history on TikTok:

First, go into your profile—that's in the bottom right-hand corner here. Then, click on the three lines (hamburger icon) in the top right-hand corner.

Now we can click on Settings and Privacy at the bottom here. Scroll down to Activity Center, and when you click on that, you can see your account history, mentions, search history, comment history, and at the top here—Watch History.

Here are all the videos that I have watched. If you want to remove one of these videos from your watch history, just long press on the video and choose the Delete option at the bottom.

Selected watch history deleted. Boom! It's gone. Congratulations!

If this video is helping, thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. It really helps me out.

And right here are all the TikTok tips you might need if the TikTok app is banned or shut down.

[Music]

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How to have cheap London Day Out! Epic E-BIKE rental trip!

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How to have cheap London Day Out! Epic E-BIKE rental trip!

How to have Epic E-bike Rental Trip to London! This is a great thing to do with older kids on a day out to London: rent a bike from the Santander Cycle Hire. This is my first day back on a Boris E-Bike, after a major collision that put me in A&E with no memory. 13 years later, I'm back on the rental bikes and this time the new E-bikes released for hire in London. We rent the electric bikes from a docking station in Tower Hill, using the Santander Cycles app, then cycle down Victoria Embankment to Big Ben and the Houses Of Parliament, down past St. James Park to Buckingham Palace. This is a real time electric bike ride, with all the sights and sounds from our bike ride POV...

How to have cheap London Day Out! Epic E-BIKE rental trip!






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When these three 3-wheel bikes get together in Camden Lock...

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When these three 3-wheel bikes get together in Camden Lock...

This is a quick preview from an upcoming video where we take out the Santander Cycle Hire E-bikes for another a cheap day out in London.  We hit Camden Lock where I grew up, looking for the ultimate toilet... and get distracted by these trike motorbikes. 3 of the 3-wheel motorcycles. And a snake.

Enjoy!

When these three 3-wheel bikes get together in Camden Lock...




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Walking into a load of influencers in a shop on a video shoot in Rome...

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Walking into a load of influencers in a shop on a video shoot in Rome...

Clip from an upcoming video... We were shooting in Rome, and I wanted to show you inside an anime clothing store called Friking. Except a group of influencers came in and knocked it out of the park instead. I went over and said Hi like a complete Dad. Negative Aura, according to my kids.

Walking into a load of influencers in a shop on a video shoot in Rome...





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How to Trevi Fountain with a family in Rome... and where to eat!

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How to Trevi Fountain with a family in Rome... and where to eat!

We went out to see the Trevi Fountain in our evening in Rome. This is what it's like, plus a suggestion for where to eat out afterwards: We really enjoyed the Comodo Restaurant which is really close to the Trevi Fountain. 

How to Trevi Fountain with a family in Rome... and where to eat!



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

hello welcome back to the channel where we try new things to make your family happy and tonight we're sharing this with you it's a night out at the Trevi fountain in Rome Italy uh we just thought we'd share some sights and sounds and maybe some food as well afterwards but this is how the evening goes down [Music]

[Music]

I feel like I should explain I'm dressed like this because we did plan to have a a day out at the beach and it went wrong we missed the bus so we took the bus in the opposite direction came sorry we came we came to the here uh the Trevi fountain we we walked past the president's Palace that was very Grand and it's beautiful sunset so this just out I was just about to shoot a piece to camera but you're right his thighs are quite impressive so this is the um presidential Palace with for the president of Italy but I just what's going on with those um statues above the entrance there it looks like they got some kind of satellite dish on their heads I don't think it's a Halo is it oh well uh we're going to get to the Trevi Fountain now Trevor which I think is this way the Trevor Fountain we you think is this way oh man what a great View

so the advice from all the YouTubers is go go in the evening go when it's quieter go you see the fountains in the evening and and uh well thank you YouTube I think everyone's taken your advice but this is the Trevi fountain [Music] [Applause]

[Music] we got a prime pitch um but unfortunately it's one of those fountains that we've not seen anywhere finally we found one and it's up up up mommy's skirt looks like

it's why is it okay the shoes have come off and this is a this is a pretty original experience isn't it paddling near the Trevi Fountain not meant to you're not meant to stay

you that is the one of the most beautiful things in the world and here's one of the other most peaceful things in the world

[Music]

[Music]

yeah oh just here

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

so we're in kodo which is like really close to the Trevi Fountain and uh they have a pasta station Sushi Station you see the bar behind me and obviously Pizza the the the greatest thing of all though is that just over my shoulder are Mario and Luigi so this must be a good place they say you know if a restaurant is full of Italians it must be a good Italian restaurant for this this this Mario and Luigi he gave you a thumbs [Music] up oh recognize these you want to see the dishes okay here are the dishes we've got uh chicken ramen from the Sushi Station we have another chicken ramen and then what did you go for Salad and Coke okay salmon salmon salad yeah in salate cucumber avocado salmon teriyaki marinade aami Mar I'm not sure Pi cabbage oh really and I went for the um suaki salmon which looks absolutely delicious ious nice bit of rice there oh can't wait and some ginger oh should I break into it here we go oh yeah look at that oh yes oh my

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] let's tuck in here we go salmon B of rice okay better I'm calling this a dad delivers success a bit of an impromptu video thank you for hitting the thumbs up I'm giving a Chef's kiss 

I should be thank you for giving me a chef's kiss all hitting this the subscribe button it really helps me to keep this channel going and right here is what YouTube knows you want to be watching next where's Mario

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How first flight on budget airline works with our family... Our WIZZ AIR first impressions review!

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How first flight on budget airline works with our family... Our WIZZ AIR first impressions review!

We have never travelled as a family on a budget airline flight... so come join us fly with Wizz Air from London Gatwick to Rome Fiumicino Airport, Italy. I'm nervous that we'll get stopped for our tickets, or passports, or boarding passes, or baggage allowance, or carry-on hand luggage... or get charged more at the checkin desk or departure gate. We review our experiences on this Italian journey with the kids!

How first flight on budget airline works with our family... Our WIZZ AIR first impressions review!



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Hello, I'm Neil and... does traveling with your family on a budget airline fill you with dread? 

Me too!

Uh, you suddenly become responsible for... even more responsible for everyone's lives and thousands of pounds worth of tickets and hotel accommodation.

And I'm an ADHD dad, so having to get my head around exact things for the tickets, weights of baggage, dates on your passport, boarding passes, being in the right place at the right time is...

It's not fun! 

The new thing we are trying to make your family happy is traveling with my family on a budget airline without getting kicked off, turned back, or charged extra money. 

We're going to Rome for 5 days.

It was booked literally last minute on lastminute.com and overcame so many hurdles.

We had the wrong names on the tickets. 

We had a passport that was expired and had to do a last-minute dash to the passport office in London. 

But we got through all of that, and now we're at the airport, and oh, my heart is just sinking because I think I've followed all the baggage rules. 

We’re all carrying rucksacks which are well over the size that is stated quite clearly on the Wizz Air website, but I knew in my heart that they would cram under the seats, and I didn't know if that counted.

At the last minute—I think on the night before—I paid for priority baggage, which means that you could carry a big bag, and I just had that as an insurance policy just in case one of our bags was over, or we couldn't do the hand luggage thing. 

I'm glad I did it, but I don't think we needed to do it. 

Everyone has a pretty much a rucksack on their back, and the night before we stood on the scales holding our cases to try and work out how much the cases weighed. 

They were just under the magic 10 kg; I think one of them was 9.9. But at every stage of this journey, something could go wrong—at the check-in desk, or the gate, or the security to the gate—so come with us in real time and we'll take you along on our little journey for the first time traveling as a family on a budget airline.

Wizz Air! 

I... I don't know why I'm nervous because we've done everything that we thought we should do. Got the passport. I still feel like they can say, “No, you've done a thing wrong, and that's it—you can't go!”

So we... so we checked in our baggage, and we literally have no idea what we're supposed to do now. 

I think we’ve just got to find signs for departures. 

Uh, managed to get this on priority because I paid for priority for one person, and my... and my bag is small enough, um... I get to hand-carry it and also got my CPAP machine. 

I can just hand-carry that. It’s... it's really low fuss. 

Uh, I think we’re up here, guys!

I’ll tell you what we have got to do: we’ve got to empty our water bottles.

I don't know if we can do that here. 

Okay, this bottle is emptied.

Time to go through. 

There’s a water bottle.

“Oh no, it’s back again.” 

Can you put that inside of my bag, Stella?

So now we’ve got to bag everything up. 

Okay, so I got busted, uh, because I took the case... I thought the case was going to go in the hold of the plane, and uh, it wasn't, so it's hand-carry. Completely forgot I've got a can of deodorant in there.

Got busted... taken aside, and the deodorant's destroyed. So, uh, these guys have got to smell me for the next 5 days now. 

But that was good; we got off lightly.

I think, uh, we managed... we managed to get airside!

Didn't think it would happen. 

Hey, this Duty-Free aisle goes on forever.

It doesn’t stop. 

I couldn't afford and didn't bother buying tickets for a first-class lounge, so this is our first-class lounge.

“They’re carrying all your stuff for you.” 

Okay, this is the upstairs, and uh, there's lots of expensive food places. Ooh, JD Sports. 

I just want somewhere we can sit down.

“There.” 

Where?

Okay, so it's 0920. 

We’ve got about 40 minutes, so we've decided to, uh, have breakfast in the Wetherspoons. 

This is a small vegetarian breakfast. Oh, sorry, that's a large breakfast. 

And that's the small... that's the small veggie breakfast... that's the large veggie breakfast. 

I'm not a vegetarian, but I just thought—Ooh, there’s more! 

We’ve got, uh, muffins and hash browns as well.

Wow, that looks amazing. 

That looks really good.

“Wait, I’ll get some ketchup.” 

We just wanted somewhere to sit for 40 minutes... and the other great thing about here is they've got a water tap, so there's a hydration station to fill the water bottles back up again if you've, uh, complied with the security instructions.

But here's a little tip—near the coffee station, there's a water tap over there, and you can fill your water bottles up. 

The hydration station, which is next to the toilets—um, there's a queue for it to fill water bottles, so it's quite handy to fill it here.

[Music] 

So it's still recording when it goes black?

Yeah, yeah. 

Okay, I've got to learn some Duolingo.

I've got an hour. 

So our gate number has come up on the screen, so it’s gate number two, so let's try and find gate number two!

We didn't realize how crucial the boarding passes would be, and luckily, just by chance, I’ve WhatsApp’ed them to everyone. 

“It’s estimated to be on stand in the next 10 to 15 minutes. We are going to continue pre-boarding into the area behind us, so once the cabin crew have arrived on the aircraft, the doors will be released for boarding. Thank you.”

Okay, here's a tip: wish we had done. 

Had to download—add the boarding passes on WhatsApp—but to open it, you’ve got to... you need a signal.

So screen grab your boarding pass. 

It seems really obvious now, but we didn't know that, so you screenshot it, then it's in your camera roll, and you don't have to download it every time it's checked. 

I had a bit of an almost near miss at the gate.

They said I had too much baggage. 

It’s because they were looking at the wrong boarding pass. 

This is the toilet on Wizz Air.

So I'm going to take a Wizz in a Wizz Air toilet. 

360° view.

I don’t think I can get it all in on the camera, but you get the idea.

I think apart from this... just the general stress of traveling on a budget airline:

We really liked traveling with Wizz Air. 

The... the plane was new... uh, the seats were clean. 

The check-in was light touch—you know, you hear these horror stories about people being turned away from gates and... and getting interrogated...

We didn't have any of that, so it was a really pleasant experience traveling with Wizz Air.

The plane was super delayed, but I think that was more to do with the weather over Europe rather than much to do with Wizz Air, and look, we're... we're on holiday, so we don't really care that much about running to a timetable. 

Just getting past security and being on a plane felt like a golden opportunity to feel blessed. 

We did it! We're here!

So now we got to wait for the bus. 

We’re a bit late.

I think there was a storm over Europe, so we're about an hour late, but I don't care because that was brilliant. 

Airbus. It was an Airbus A321 Neo.

Okay, so, um, we're kind of standing here for a bit.

Hey, this looks good. 

This looks like it might be an airport bus.

[Music] 

[Music]

Joe! It’s like Speed! 

Speed?

That is the most Italian thing I’ve seen. A Fiat waiting for an Italian airline. 

Okay, so we're in baggage reclaim, and uh, I think we might be here for a while. 

Oh yeah, so we join the official taxi queue and it’s... it goes all the way over there. 

So this is the start of the queue—or the end of the queue—and it looks like there are dudes here who regulate it, which is comforting. 

[Music]

[Music] 

I am calling this a Dad Delivers success!

Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. It really helps us to keep this channel going, so thank you. 

Grazie Mille! And YouTube knows you want to be watching this next. Can you please help my daddy get 10,000 subscribers? Just click on his face. Thanks, bye!

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Behind the scenes: our Rome Colosseum video intro FAILS...

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Behind the scenes: our Rome Colosseum video intro FAILS...

Behind the scenes from an upcoming video... I'm trying to create an epic intro shot for the channel, using my family as location crew in the Rome Colosseum (is there any other?) It doesn't quite go to plan until... 

Behind the scenes: our Rome Colosseum video intro FAILS...



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Okay a little behind the scenes shot

I'm just getting into position for the craziest opening shot I've ever done on the channel, here we go. 

Uh, I'm going to go over here and then I'm on the phone to my daughter who's cueing my son, who's going to film this so let's...

how about this? 

how... how does this look Joe?

Or do you want me to be a bit more Central? 

How's that?

so... so my son he's... he's got the camera there and I'm on the phone to them and we're just going to do this mad intro 

Joe do you think I should take uh sunglasses off?

I'm going to put the phone down a bit. 

tell me... tell me when to go yeah yeah? you tell now yeah okay here we go 

you recording?

okay okay here we go, ready? 

I'm recording on this one so I'll get the sound here. 

Sorry I just got some loud people going past 

okay ready you go about 10 seconds

okay ready? here we go 

where are you? Wave! there you go

go! 

hello I'm Neil welcome back to the channel where we try new things to make your family happy. 

And today we are here!

In the Colosseum - in Rome Italy! 

You got someone... okay you got someone in shot?

should I move over? I'll move over. hang on ready? 

How about here?

yeah don't need to move? okay here we go 

here we go.

Hello I'm Neil - oh Jesus - here we go 

ready?

Hello I'm Neil welcome back to the channel where we try new things to make your family happy and today we are here in the Colosseum in Rome! 

Italy!

You got it? 

This is like when I worked in Telly - with talkback 

you good?

Or should I do a safety one? 

yeah yeah

we good? 

yeah - well done thank you see you later

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Why I'm laying LEGO train tracks in my Garden Office...

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Why I'm laying LEGO train tracks in my Garden Office...

This is a weird little video: I've snapped. And starting to build LEGO CITY train tracks all round my Happy Hut Garden Office. I lay down and assemble the first railroad tracks for the first run of our Lego City Cargo Train. Casper the Cockerspaniel isn't too impressed but will I manage to get the Powered Up hub to pair and controller to work...

BUY A LEGO TRAIN HERE! (I earn commissions from qualifying purchases)

(Amazon UK) https://amzn.to/3XHgv8h

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Why I'm laying LEGO train tracks in my Garden Office...



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Hello, welcome back to the Happy Hut, and uh... I... I don't know if I should even be sharing this. I don't think I'm even going to upload this video, so we'll see how this goes.

But, uh, coming to the hut, and I'll show you—I'll show you the mess that I've made on the floor. Let me just turn the extra light on so you can see it properly. I've got so much work on at the moment, and instead, I've decided to devote my attention to this.

Um, I don't know what's happened, but I've... I've... I've gone a bit Lego trains around the floor of the hut. And I could pretend that I'm doing this for the kids, even doing it with the kids. I think my son's going to help me with this, but this... this... this is all me to start with.

So we've got so much Lego, and we've got a bit of Lego City train track. I don't know, I think I was just sitting at the desk, and I just thought, "I'll just give it a go." I think I've been thinking about it for years.

So I've got it running by the front door, which I thought would have been a problem, but the great thing, obviously, with Lego track is you can stand on it, and it might break, but it's a bit more rugged than any other railway system.

And, uh, it's just a demonstration that it—that it works. And, um, I thought, "What if... what if I just run it around the floor? Just have a little loop?" I don't have enough track for that yet.

If I show you underneath—I don't know if it might be too dark—this, by the way, I was going to film it, but it was too... too embarrassing. I just pulled out all the junk that I've been hoarding under this bench for about five years.

All my childhood stuff. Not—not the Lego, just everything else. So that's all gone into the garage, and this could be the start of a little top-secret layout that I can cover up when it's not being used and when I should be doing more work.

So I've only got this far, up to there, and now I'm going to have to clear all of this junk. And I did a big, big clear-out of the corner there—you can probably see it in the background of some of my videos. We've got Casper's dog bed in the foreground, but I've got some microphone stands and stationery and stuff there.

And now I've got to work out a way for it to somehow go behind, under, or around the Ikea armchair. I've got a nice clear run there.

And then, the bit I'm most concerned about—because this is when I should be doing work—but I don't know, it's just really nice to have some... something that takes your mind off the world.

Right, this is basically a midlife meltdown. A complete... you get it. But I thought I'd capture it on camera. If I didn't get the clear-out, at least I'd get driving the first stake.

So this is a bit like the, um, the railroad—the railroad barons of the 1800s—driving their first stake.

Um, I'm going to—I'm going to pin the track down, because the great thing with the Lego track is that it has these holes at frequent intervals. I don't need to nail the whole thing down, and I will be moving things around as well, but at least I can help stop it wobbling when it gets kicked by myself or Casper.

I think I'm going to have this switch here—we call them points in the UK. Well... see, that's the problem. As soon as you touch it, it just goes out of alignment.

Um, but you can—I can flip the switch there, and it was—it was underneath there, but I think I really want to maximize the space underneath there. So I've got the points a little bit early here.

Um, but let's—let's nail this in.

This—oh my goodness—am I going to upload this video? I've got so much that I should be doing right now. I don't know why my... my brain is kind of flipping out, but it is.

I just... there's something really pleasing about this, and I'll give you—at the end of the video, as a treat—I’ll give you a bit of a run, because I've managed to rig it up to my phone, and I'll... I'll show you how good this could be for—for the kids.

I'm going to do it for the family, obviously.

I've got a very, very small panel pin. I thought it'd be too small, but it looks like it's just the right size, and it's just—it's just to lightly hold it in place.

Anyway, there we go. Let the record show.

Now, it does wobble around a bit, that's okay. It's just to roughly hold it in place so it doesn't go flying across the room on the main door here for the—for the Happy Hut. And I could cover it up with tiles, could even cover it up with wood when it's not being used.

So I've got some wood here. I'm wondering... what if I made a bridge? And this is—this is where—this is where it all starts to fall apart—my life.

What if I put a bridge? And it—it could be really removable. Really removable? It's either removable or not removable. This will be removable, and I can just plonk it in place when I want to run a train on the top deck, and then I'll have two tiers of loops.

I've only got one train. The other train's in the garage, in bits. I'll show you that in the next video—if I make another video. We've got the world's largest tub of Lego. There's so much in there.

Uh, but that's for another time.

Let's put down the next pin, and I'm sharing this just so you can... can live vicariously through this. You'd have turned off by now if you weren't into Lego trains, so you're among friends.

Thank you! Say hi in the comments—be great to hear from you.

Right, so I'll put this one here. I'm going to use a bigger one, I think, for this one, just to experiment. But I didn’t want to make huge holes in the floor of the hut. Shall I pin it? I'll—I’ll use the pin. Don't want to hit the track, because it's really expensive.

Yeah, what I'm trying to do, I suppose, is like the equivalent of HS2 in the UK. I've got to somehow find a way through, and bizarrely, I think it will be easier to do the raised section first. I think that might be quicker than trying to clear the floor and find a path through.

It's time for the inaugural run!

I've got my remote control here—powered up remote control. I'm going to run the train around this. Let me just show you the geography, though.

There—that—that's the bench that I think I'm going to have the big station in, where all the trains will go. And then they're completely out of sight until I need to use them.

Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. It really helps me to keep this channel going.

And, uh... there's the—there's the train. We're going to try and pair it up with the—with the remote.

So, I'll hold down the button there, wait for it to go purple... There we go. Is that paired? That doesn't look like it's paired.

Look, it's going to be more sensible if I do this out in the open instead of crawling under the bench. So, um... and I need to put the camera down because I think for it to work, I need to press both the green button on top of the train and the green button on the controller hub.

No, that's the controller, isn't it? The hub's in the train.

Um, I hold them down at the same time.

So here goes. They've both gone purple.

So if I let go—yay! It's gone green! Fantastic!

So I'll do a little run-up. So I'll take the train backwards... oh my goodness, here it goes!

So, other than the test—oh, there's Casper. Come have a look!

He's not a big fan of the Lego train, because I did a test run the other day, you know, just a very short one—you didn't miss anything.

So this will be the very first proper run on camera. Here we go.

I'll just press the plus button...

Oh, I think it's hitting the plug back there. So I've got to—I've got to clear everything. Keep it away from skirting board level.

Let's go back. I'll just give you one more.

Something for the thumbnail!

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How FAKE Lego track for my SECRET train layout helps in my Garden Office...

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