Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - 2024 Walkabout Holiday Season Kickoff At Animal Kingdom With Host Jeremy

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

Join host Jeremy again this week for the annual Walkabout The World holiday season kickoff, this year from Disney's Animal Kingdom. Take a tour of the park, listen to the holiday goodness, and see what you can see with your ears. Also this week, special shout out to listener Barry!   If you like what we do, consider joining our crew on Patreon. These wonderful people help us keep the microphones crisp and the servers warm at night. The best zero cost option for supporting us to give us a five star review on apple podcasts or wherever you listen.   Visit us at walkabouttheworld.com - find links to all the things - attraction episodes, Insta accounts of all the hosts, and even how to buy your own Walkabout shirt!   Look us up at @WalkaboutWDW on Instagram and drop us a note to say hi.   You can now also drop us at line at [e-mail]. Say hi, tell us how you found us, and give us some suggestions on things you'd love to hear.   Walkabout The World is a weekly Disney podcast, always recorded on property at Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort with the simple goal of making you feel like you are in the middle of the magic.

Hello my dear theme park travelers, welcome back to Walk About the World and welcome back to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Thank you for joining us this week on our weekly in-park family reunion. And this week, we are celebrating our annual holiday season kickoff here at Walk About the World. And there isn't a better place to do it than Disney's Animal Kingdom. All decked out in holiday finery. We just saw the Merry Menagerie walk out. We're going to go take in some of that. We're going to talk about decor,

generally wallow in the holiday ambience. So if you're ready, come on. Let's grab some fun. We do need a little Christmas now. At least I do. Before we go too much further this week, though, I want to give a shout out to a friend of the show, Barry. Barry C. He sent us a very meaningful note this week, shared it with the entire crew. All of us were moved and humbled by it. I asked him if he would mind if I shared some of it, and he said sure. So here is a bit of a note from Barry.

He says, I want to tell you how much I am enjoying this podcast. I'm blind, but once had limited sight in the past. I love the walkabouts and can actually picture in my mind what you, the hosts, are describing. The best part of this podcast, above others that I've experienced, is that you describe the buildings, the signs, the products, and the ride experiences. I'm not sure whether any of you have blind or low vision or friends or family that have, but you make it a pleasure for me to listen and experience all portions of Disney through your eyes. I cannot tell you what that meant to our team this week, Barry. Seriously, just humbled.

And when we are here in the parks, I can't find any better thing to say than what Barry just described is exactly why we do what we do. We just want to take you along with us, put you here in the fun. And so, Barry, hope you have a great week. This one's for you, pal. We are in a very crowded Discovery Island, which has some of the best holiday ambience of anywhere in any of the Disney parks.

And we're going to take a little while and enjoy it, and then talk a little bit about some of the decorations that they have in this area and the merry menagerie come on I'm going to do it again. I love you, I love you, I love you so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so I'm so excited. Oh my gosh. I was, I had applied to, uh, I was, I had applied to, uh, I was, I had applied to, uh, I was, I had applied to, uh, I was, I had applied to, uh, I was, I had applied to, uh, I was, I had applied to, uh,

I was, I had applied to, uh, I was, I had applied to, uh, they act on me pretty hard. They sound like they're going to give me the job, and they're like, uh, they're licensed. They're licensed. What do you mean? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

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I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. to the next one. Oh, my God. Thank you. I don't know. I absolutely love what they do with Discovery Island this time of year. If you don't know the lore of this area of the park, Discovery Island is supposed to be a community of artists who settle here.

And all their shops and wares are out on display and for sale. And in holiday times, this becomes like an Animal Kingdom Christmas village. So wonderful. We are standing right next to Island Mercantile across from Riverside Depot. The Merry Menagerie is out. And if you don't know what the Merry Menagerie is out, and if you don't know what the Merry Menagerie is,

it is a group of puppeteers that puppet holiday animals all around Discovery Island. We have some birds flying around. We have a seal pup, reindeer. All of them expertly puppeted to look very lifelike and friendly and playful. You can go up to them. You can say hi.

You can have your picture taken. And we have a gentleman playing a violin and a steel drum. All decked out in white and light blue holiday outfits. They look great. Oh, that's awesome. Woo! If that doesn't put a little bit of a smile or at least a smirk on your face, I don't know what would I just love it Right? Are you kidding me? How awesome is that? Let's talk a little bit about the decor here.

Because we're going to visit a couple of select areas of the park today. There's more to explore. But just a couple. And talk about the unique decor of these areas. Here in Discovery Island, one of the things that they've done. And they've actually increased the number of these areas. Here in Discovery Island, one of the things that they've done, and they've actually increased the number of these little guys, is all along the rooftops, the ridge lines of the buildings of Discovery Island, are these decorations that are reminiscent of paper

lanterns. They're not paper. They're metal and glass, kind of a stained glass look to them, but they're animals. So like a squirrel, an owl, a dove, a fox, a reindeer, and they have lanterns inside of them that glow out through the exterior of these things. They're square, and the front of them are animal shapes and they're beautiful. And they even shared a couple of sets of Christmas tree decorations over the years. And we bought one already hanging on our tree this year. And then the other thing to notice here is that there is loads of garland and the garland here in Discovery Island as all of it is throughout this park is very nature inspired and so the garland here you have your traditional green but mixed in is like fibers of grass dried flower petals

I see some eucalyptus some dried berries like very very natural looking garland as opposed to what you would see at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Let's wander over towards the Tree of Life and then our next stop is Dinoland USA because they got a lot going on over there. I just kind of hate to leave this area. Come on, let's wander down towards the tree and the waterfalls. Okay, I'm passing the polar bear puppets right now. They're huge. They're puppeted by two people.

They're white with decor on them and blue and green. Very lifelike and playful and friendly and the puppeteers just slowly walk the polar bear around and say hi Tree of life now directly in your foreground. Now it's mid December, no not yet, it's November here, mid November, but Florida is still vibrant because it's Florida. And so I don't know if you know what a bougainvillea plant is, but if you don't, look it up. They are glorious this time of year. It is a branching, vining plant that can get huge. But right at this time of year and leading up to Christmas, they have these incredibly vibrant pink and purple and peach flowers that just, it just looks like a sea of flowers. And there's a bunch of them framing the Tree of Life off to the right.

I have one of these growing next to my driveway and it is starting to explode with flowers and I just love it. Little waterfall action there in the distance. looking up towards the tree of life it's framed by palms on either sides waterfall in front wispy clouds this morning feels incredibly comfortable finally here in florida you've had a long summer season, guys. Okay, taking a right over here past

Discovery Trading Company and heading on over past Flame Tree Barbecue and on towards Dinoland USA. Come on. Thank you. Thank you. overwhelming smell of popcorn just washed over me Discovery Trading Company here

right in front of us with all kinds of goodies inside the garland here is similar to what we had around the corner in Discovery Island but also has white and silver decor woven throughout let's head over to Dinoland I'm going to meet you over there because as we all know the bridge has zero

ambience alright see you in a minute welcome to Dinoland USA we are just entering in the huge fossil skeleton right in front of us here covered completely in Christmas lights

also with a Santa hat over its head Skeleton right in front of us here, covered completely in Christmas lights. Also with a Santa hat over its head. Let's wander in. Come on. I'm going to go ahead and get my phone. obviously a very different ambient vibe over here and as you know according to the lore of this area this is a research area inhabited largely by college students and the college students have their own little pirate radio station and at at Christmas time, of course, what would they do? Broadcast some Christmas tunes. my mission over here is to see what they have done with christmas decor so far it's still pretty early the parks are pretty much set up but i feel like there's probably still some stuff coming here and there but as you round the corner over towards Dino Bite Snacks and Restaurant Asaurus which has the old Airstream trailer oh sorry little one there's a water tower there

wooden water tower and it is completely encased, if you know your Christmas lights, like I do, it's completely encased in the old C7s. Gotta find a way to take a picture of this where the sun is bright. Bear with me. Talk amongst yourselves. I'm here in the daytime.

Unfortunately. At night, this is going to be fantastic. I love C7s. They're the oblong glass. They're not made out of glass anymore. They're all plastic. Glass-looking lights from, depending on your age, your parents' or your grandparents' homes.

Love them. Okay. Okay, I'm looking off to the right towards Dinosaur, and the dino that's directly at the front, the entrance area of the ride, has C7s wrapped around him too, which is fun. Let's walk on up towards the Triceratops spin. How many of you in the United States are on vacation? Let me hear you. Jingle bells, birds, and waltzes. Here's a holiday giant tune from you enjoying a Christmas vacation. It's that time. Christmas time is here.

If everybody's all better, it's not a better time of year. Here that's right. They have like a 10 or 12 foot tall giant Christmas bird. I don't know how else to describe it. It looks like it's made out of garland, but it's a giant bird. I don't know what to say. Interestingly enough, there isn't any decor on Chester and Hester's store. The merchandise of extinction over here. I really thought there would be. Maybe it's coming?

Okay, let's walk the midway. Come on. Cementosaurus off in the distance. The big green dino. Passing Triceratops. Spin to your left, by the way. Here's a popcorn cart called Cornivores. Get it?

I love these stupid puns. Alright, my friends. Here we have the midway games. In front of us we have the fossilossil Fueler, which is a Target game. Over here to our right is Mammoth Marathon, which is like mini-ski ball. Love ski ball. Marathon which is like mini skee-ball love skee-ball lastly we have the comet crasher this is a ball tossing game passing right Passing right underneath Cementosaurus as we speak. The nether regions of Cementosaurus. Is that weird? Okay, what we're going to do now is we're going to take a right over here and go past the theater in the wild. I will meet you when we get next to Everest.

Let's see if there's anything going on in the Asia area. Here we are in asia you know where we are now right next to expedition everest this is just one of my favorite areas of the park prayer flags draping the walkway as you go past Expedition Everest and into this area. And as they should be, they are faded and worn and torn and all the buildings doused in faded paints of different colors. The Circazong Bazaar is off to our right, which is the gift shop for expedition everest there's no specific holiday decor over here probably

for good reason american christmas doesn't fit here but i love wandering through here's the thirsty river bar and trek snacks off to your left what was the theater for Rivers of Light and the lagoon for Ex... Wait. Do we hear the drummers? Bro. Bro. Luckily for me, they're just leaving. I have a love-hate relationship with the Discovery Island drummers.

They drowned out everything. Anyway, the Discovery River Lagoon is directly in front of us, and it looks beautiful today. Let's keep going. Here we have a sign for Himalayan Escapes Tours and Expeditions. There and back with the flying yak, and it's a yak with wings. And producer Josh lovingly recreated this sign. He may or may not still have it for sale, but I have one displayed proudly in my office

along with a bunch of other Disney Animal Kingdom Asia-themed things. One of the icons of this area The ice cream truck off to the right Absolutely covered From front to back with artwork that just puts you right in place. Leopards and lions and scenes of like ancient India. Mom, are you moving? I just said, I said from my location. ancient India. Okay, got to pause here for a second. We're at Gupta's Gear. As long as you have the ticket.

For the longest time, this was one of the best places to capture the ambience of this area of the parks. And then for some time, for whatever reason, it became very muted. But now they have it turned back up and I love it. We'll pause a second. Thank you. Isn't it great? Come on. I'm here. I did see him. All right. We have now wound our way around to Anandapur.

So we've left the area of Disney's Animal Kingdom Asia that is reminiscent more of the Himalayas. And now we are in central or southern India here in Anandapur. We're next to the Anandapur Theater. Lots of things going on here in the town of Anandapur. We have some signs here. On a billboard for all kinds of things. Shangri-La, Trekkers Inn. Various things going on.

The Handalume House, where you can get silk old and new. Drink Wallet, where you can get some tasty drinks. A salute to all drinks, but mostly Coca-Cola. And of course, our favorite sign on the corner up above that says Complaints about elephants to be made at the Anandapur Association for Animal Welfare. And the complaint, as always, is too darn big. I was trying to say colorful. It didn't come out right. But colorful things are above us, and circular, tubular, kite-like things.

I'm failing you here, travelers. But I think this is for Diwali. If I am incorrect, please don't hate me. But I think that is what's going on here, and these are strung all across the walkway, kind of like the prayer flags were in the previous area beautiful though i'm just i'm staring at them trees are sacred the sign says respect natural glory we are going to move hastily on towards the africa area where i know we can find some more holiday goodness. And we will wrap up there, probably revisit there before the holiday season is over.

But join you there here in a moment. Come on. Welcome to the village of Harambee. You are now entering a Swahili English speaking zone, the sign says. Favorite song Yolele was just playing. Right, here we go. There's some beautiful signs here on the Malamwingu Guesthouse. I'm going to take a picture for you. But things here in Harambee, the holiday decor, are made from everyday items upcycled, repurposed into some really fantastic Christmas decorations. I'm looking at a bike tire that has Christmas ornaments attached all around the outside and lights woven all around the spokes of the bike tire.

Beautiful. Looks like it was carefully crafted many years ago. It's been around for a while. Rambe, mark it off to your right. Let's listen. And it's at the end of the night. Thank you. Kampung Kampung Hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı hı Harambee is a wonderful place to be in the holidays. Music you hear is as if the local bands of the area did their own takes on classic holiday music. Love it.

We are standing next to the entrance of the local bicycle repair shop called Bicycle Land. Right around the corner is Zuri's Sweet Shop. I just heard the Eastern Star... Oh, did you hear it? The Eastern Star Railway coming back from Rafiki's Planet Watch. While we're here, let's give a shout out to our wonderful patrons that support us week after week here at Walk About the World. First off, at the beautiful Tomorrow Level, we have Beck Castle, Bill and Aaron Zeese, Bryony Grant, Derek at Satisfactual Sign Company, John Hamilton, Meredith Izzo, Hannah Ginn, David Krause, Jessica Davis, Lindsay O'Connell, Courtney Otter, Cara Louise Moody, Laura B., Randall Lynch, Barbara Torino, and new to the pack Barry Campbell Living laboratory level we have

Debbie Gambala, Eric Steinhauer Josh Nakano, James Beecham, Rhiannon Chigaris at Adventures of a Traveling Teacher. Thank you all so much for giving up a little bit of your hard earned money week after week. You don't have to. We're

humbled and grateful. If you would like to support us on Patreon, you can do so at patreon.com slash walkaboutwdw. It smells incredible over here. Whatever they are cooking at the Harambee market, some type of smoked meat smells amazing. All right, let's turn the corner and go around into kind of like the town square here of Harambe.

Before I do, I'm going to point out another unique decoration here. This is a wreath that is made out of squares. Like, imagine like little boxes all arranged in a circle, and the boxes are covered with bottle caps of all different types of beverages. And in the middle is an animal. Looks like a tiger created again out of bottle caps glued together. Christmas lights wrapped around the whole thing. And again, it looks like it's like maybe created by someone 30, 40 years ago. Looks incredible.

Zawani Traders, the sign says. Sales of toys, games, clothing, collectibles, and carvings. Around the corner here arriving here at Zawani Traders where you can buy all of your Harambe Town Square merchandise the garland here, oh my goodness, the garland

here is rope intertwined with Christmas lights, beads, and it has old cans, like old soup cans that have holes punched in them and light shining through as the decor. Browns and blues, faded oranges, pinks, really cool garland. And off to our right, we have a Christmas tree made of just all kinds of different parts of things. Pipes, bicycle rims, and of course Christmas lights strewn all about it. Alright, Harambee Town Square. Here we come. All right. Harambee Town Square. Here we come.

Is that the safari right in front of us? The Harambee Port Authority to the left has two gorgeous bougainvillea plants that I mentioned earlier in stunning pink and yellow just blooming like crazy so Lots of handcrafted holiday decor, lights. The Kilimanjaro Safari's booking office sign, wooden sign directly above us here, attached to the Tamu Tamu Refreshments Building, was faded to the point where you couldn't even read it anymore. It's been redone, repainted in gray and yellow, and it looks great. Oh, there he is. Well fellow travelers I think we're going to wrap it up here Thanks for joining me today This is a brief intro

We're kicking off the holiday season There's lots more to come. Lots more parks. Some areas of this park yet to come. We're definitely going to come back here and listen to Buridika soon. Buridika is back. If you don't know who they are, what a treat.

I would listen to them today, but I don't have time because they're a couple hours out. But thank you as always for listening wherever you are. I hope you're well. Look us up on Instagram at walkaboutwdw. You can drop us a private message there. You can also email us at contact at walkabouttheworld.com. We always read and respond. We share it with the entire crew. At walkabouttheworld.com, you can also find all kinds of other stuff, links to where you can listen, some popular episodes,

all the Insta accounts of the hosts, and where you can buy a Walkabout t-shirt or other Walkabout logo-adorned doohickey of your choosing. Before I wrap up here, I want to say something to you. I'm going to keep this without any context whatsoever. But, I just wanted to say to you, to our Walkabout family, we're going to be okay, guys. Everything's going to be all right.

And if you ask why, it's because we get the chance to make our future, you and me, all of us. We're going to make it a good one. So on that note, I'll leave you how I always do, by saying there's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. Now more than ever, I believe that. We create that tomorrow. There is a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. Now more than ever, I believe that. We create that tomorrow. There is a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. And I'll see you on one of those tomorrows on a future episode of Walk About the World. From Harambe, bye.

Nathan. My name's Jeremy. Thank you.