Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - A Summer Walkabout Walk and Talk in Tomorrowland [ep 025]

Episode Date: August 15, 2021

Hello Travelers! This week our walkabout takes us back to the Magic Kingdom and Tomorrowland, for what we do best - wander aimlessly and enjoy park atmosphere. We start out at Tomorrowland Terrace and work our way through Tomorrowland, taking time to check attraction lines, poke into the Space Mountain store, and take a ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. We escape the heat for a few with a cold beverage and short part of the set from Sonny Eclipse in Cosmic Rays Starlight Cafe, and then we wind the episode up by tracking down some Guest Experience cast members to leave a cast compliment for a wonderful cast member that went above and beyond.    Production notes: you'll note the episode outro audio seems a little off, and that's because your humble podcast host jostled the mic gain at the end of the day and screwed up the audio. Hey, we keep it real here folks.    Look us up at @WalkaboutWDW on Instagram and drop us a note to say hi! Find our producer Josh on Instagram at @TheSteele.

Well hello travelers welcome back to Walk About The World your weekly audio expedition through one of the parks or resorts of Walt Disney World here in Orlando Florida and today we are back in the Magic Kingdom and more specifically in Tomorrowland. You just can't beat the Tomorrow Land ambience. And I thought today we would just do a Tomorrow Land walkthrough together. I'm not exactly sure what we will find, what we will do. But we'll just take a stroll, because that's what we do. It's a walk about the world. It's not park planning hour. So let's take a stroll through Tomorrowland. We are currently at the Tomorrowland Terrace.

No longer the noodle station. They are serving the food from Columbia Harbor House, which is still closed. Boo. But you can get it over here. And so I figured we'd start at this entrance, work our way out towards the other entrance that leads over towards Cosmic Rays, Starlight Cafe. And, yeah. See what's new, what's not new, what's different, what isn't.

Maybe, if the line isn't too long, we can jump on the PeopleMover. Because, honestly, I think if you come to Tomorrowland, you don't do the People Mover. Did you even show up? I have coffee in hand, and we are currently looking at the Purple Wall. If you want, as we walk by, you can do a pose at the Purple Wall. I'll tell you when. I'm not going to. It wouldn't be good. Tomorrowland Terrace used to be, by the way,

the relaxation station. No longer necessary. All the entrances are open. You don't have to wait. You don't have to ask a cast member. You don't even have to have food. You can just walk in and have a seat, which is really cool because it's shaded and with a great view of the castle.

Okay, let's take a trip. There's one thing I'm going to point out soonish. Here's an open question. What color do you call the rocks that are over here at the entrance of the Tomorrowland area is it like iridescent blue it's kind of a shimmering blue silver so we're passing the purple wall. If you want to do a pose, now's the time.

Now's the time to do it. So here's one of the things I want to look at. They have a couple of really cool posters over here. If you just walk right by, they're right past the purple wall. But it says, while in Tomorrowland, stay at the Tomorrowland Towers. Hover Hotel. We're far above the rest. Yeah, see, because, you know, yeah, you get it. Three miles directly above Tomorrowland on the Atmosphere 3 Skyway exit. While you're here, look us up. The puns, I just love them.

Some of the things you can find, luxurious gravity and anti-gravity suites, easy access landing pads, helpful robot valets in every room, I'll take two, Jupiter water mineral baths, Venus rock grotto, award winning automat, and free on-Earth picture phone calls. And right next to it, you have the Leonard Bernstarr conducts the Martian Pops Orchestra. He's conducting in a spacesuit.

That confuses me, because wouldn't he be inside? But still, it says, performing the opus outer space concerto in ursa minor yep and it says with mars vocalist caruso universo and maria phobos demos because phobos and demos are moons of mars

that's called science knowledge so we're at the very entrance of tomorrowland that's called science knowledge. So we're at the very entrance of Tomorrowland. I'm going to wander across to the other side. There's some other posters over here. Are you serious, that music right now? So good. You can't really get to where I'm trying to get to.

They have three other posters. One of them says, The League of Planets Astro Orbiter, located in the heart of Tomorrowland at Rocketeer Plaza. And you indeed can see that. That's for real. Other one says, Antique Rocket Show and Swoop Meat. Not Swap Meat, Swoop Meat.

See these world's popular models on display. They have a few popular displays of rockets that you can find. And the far poster that I can barely read says, Space Home and Garden Show. And I can't read the small writing and if you couldn't tell the people mover is directly overhead Monsters Incorporated laugh floor over to the right. I haven't done that in a really long time. I'll be honest with you, I don't even remember it. I mean, you know what I

mean. I don't remember the contents of it. So over here to the left, Stitch's great escape, aka alien encounter. Both gone. A lunching pad directly ahead. Astro orbiter above. I do get a kick out of the fact that everyone looks at us. They look at the little tribble that I'm... I call it the tribble because my microphone has the little fuzzy

wind piece on the top of it Astro Orbiter coming down but they look at us and they can't decide is this a vlogger? because it does kind of look like a vlog going on one of the best pieces of ambience over here by the way because it does kind of look like a vlog going on.

One of the best pieces of ambience over here, by the way, if you're over near Rocket Tower Plaza, if you're over near the luncheon pad, if you look up towards the Astro Orbiter, you can actually see very large black speakers up there, and they're pumping out the Tomorrowland goodness. We're going to head off to our right over towards Carousel. And while we do that, I'm going to check on the time for the people mover, because if we can do that, I'm going to do it. Line for Carousel very very small

and also as i've mentioned off to the right in the little corner area next to carousel and between carousel and buzz lightyear there's a little space with some trees and some shades a good place to stop and relax yeah the people over line is huge I'm sorry little fellow I'm sorry It's part of the walkabout experience. You know this already. People Mover Line is actually astoundingly large. I'm not going to say we're not going to do it, but we're not going to do it right now

because I think it would be... I'll take a look at the times here in a minute, but I have a feeling it's going to say we're not going to do it, but we're not going to do it right now because I think it would be... I'll take a look at the times here in a minute, but I have a feeling it's going to be quite a few. We're right across from the Galactic Gateway now. Stitch has been out here. Nobody out here at the moment. Setting now on the other side of the Astro Orbiter from the entrance of Tomorrowland. Ahead of us is the Merchant of Venus. I just love how the PeopleMover circles this entire area.

The vibe is great. The ambient music is great. There's a little bit of overcast to break the heat today. Because it's summer in Florida. Whenever you happen to listen to this, have pity on me. We're having fun. We're used to it. You can probably hear the Tomorrowland Speedway in the distance

off to the right we're going to make our way over towards Space Mountain not because I'm going to ride because I'm not going to we should do that together sometime soon but that ride is rough man

I may drop you, the precious listener we can't have that We should do that together sometime soon, but that ride is rough, man. I may drop you, the precious listener. We can't have that. Although I have a way we may accomplish it, but we'll have to see what we can see. But I want to make my way over there because I think I'm going to duck into the store. And see if I can check out any cool items. Space Mountain merch is rare. I'm specifically going to see if they have any Space Mountain merch.

There's one thing of note here in Tomorrowland, and that is the Kugel Ball is back in action. What is the Kugelball? Well, that is the big stone sphere that is setting directly in front of the Merchant of Venus and directly next to the Astro Orbiter. And it is floating

in just a little bit of a pool of water. And you can turn it with your hands and you can turn it with your hands, and you can also have tons of other people's DNA all over your hands as you turn the big Kugelball. I know, that's gross. But it's a big, wet sphere that you can push around.

Okay, so we're going to go to the right, over towards Space Mountain. This is TMI, by the way, but I totally stepped in some bubble gum. And, yeah, now my traction is better, but the experience is less good than if I didn't have the bubble gum. You know that when I'm out here with you, this is all extreme of consciousness. Sometimes later I listen and I think, that should have been an inside the mind sentence. What are you going to do?

Joffrey's Revive off to the right. Space Mountain Standby 40. Setting right next to the entrance of the store for Space Mountain. We're just going to check times real quick. I'm curious. Speedway directly to the right as you can hear. Let's see. Let's see if Disney is being honest about the wait times. Okay, so posted wait times are 40. The Touring Plans Lines app says expected wait time 29 minutes.

The line seems huge. It's taking up a huge part of the area. It's all the way back to where the PeopleMover curves around, but yeah, these lines go fast today. And so, I'm not sure if you're a fan of FastPass or not. I'm not.

And so, I'm all for Fastpass going away for good these lines are great in my opinion alright so I don't know about you guys but I am in need of some air conditioning let's duck into the store remember our goal do they have any space mountain

specific merchandise let's see it's cool if nothing else have any space mountain specific merchandise. Let's see. It's cool if nothing else. I will whisper since it's quieter in here. Lots of Star Wars and Baby Yoda merch. It's a space thing. I get that

there's a Space Mountain mug does that count it does and actually there is one sure give me my my space, it says. Space Mountain Tomorrowland. There's a People Mover hat. Which I like, but it doesn't count. Okay. That's the same shirt. And the same shirt so far. And so that is a, well, that is a partially successful mission. But pretty weak, Disney, in my opinion.

Space Mountain is one of the classic attractions of this park, and it's very difficult to find Space Mountain merchandise. How weird is that? Here's your super appropriately themed Tomorrowland... Speedway. What does a Speedway have to do with Tomorrowland? Absolutely nothing. But there it is anyway.

It's not that I don't like it. I do wonder about it, though. So we're going to wander out back to the heart of Tomorrowland here directly in front of us our palm trees that collect the energy

throughout the day and store it in the little coconuts. Do they really do that? No. But I'd like to think that they do, and they're really cool and I love them. And I'm back in horticulture mode here for a moment. Forgive me. But you know that I love crepe myrtles, and they have some here.

I would love to know if this is a specific type, but they look twisted. It looks like you took the tree, and like it were Play-Doh, it looks like you pulled it and twisted it. It looks like a really cool... Almost like a manufactured tree. But it's totally real. And they're blooming and they're gorgeous. We'll need to find out about that.

We're next to the cool ship. Which is still closed. Boo. And directly ahead of us, the Merchant of Venus. Amazing name. Astro Orbiter taken off. Merchant of Venus ice cream and smoothies. Cool little retro kiosk off to the right that is just DVC now. Totally don't remember what it used to be.

Let's take a quick poke into the Merchant of Venus. What am I looking... Wait a minute. No. I'm not going to do that because that's ice cream and smoothies. And I can't do that right now. But what we are going to do

is go just past it and take a quick peek into Star Traders. What are we looking for in Star Traders? Not a clue. Let's take a look anyway. Really cool sign over here too the Sun Care Center featuring Coppertone I don't even know if that's still a thing but the sign's awesome okay so here you have your

your park plush of every different sizes and sorts and what else ice cold cooler of Coca-Cola products and water that sounds really good right now. And ears and t-shirts. And hats. Lots of hats, actually.

A little bit of pins in the middle. Some basic Disney store type stuff. And a kiosk in the middle. And that's about it and some masks which we totally don't need anymore I'm guessing those aren't hot sellers right now let's step back out The Speedway Standby Entrance is 5. And so I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to head back to the People Mover and see if we can snag a place in line and

ride that and get some cool breeze and some scenery and some people watching. I'll catch up with you when we get back there. You can go right this way. About how long do you think the line is here? 30. Yeah, like 30 minutes. We can double up there. Hey, it's here. So what do you think of it? What does Sierra think of it?

Oh, it's a whole guy. I have my arm like this on it the whole time. This is great. oh um Okay. Through the miracle of editing, you guys didn't have to wait the 20 minutes in line. Let's do the PeopleMover together. Welcome aboard the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. Your quiet and free highway in Wisconsin. This is always a good experience. The exciting places you'll want to be sure to enjoy today while visiting. This is always a good experience.

Space Mountain to your right. The Neutron Coaster off to your right. I will mostly shut up. It's hot today, but man, this is a really good cool-off. Merchant of Venus directly below. Oh. rounding the corner back towards the entrance of Tomorrowland and a beautiful castle directly to your left. Look to your left, listeners. That's where the castle is. And now, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority proudly presents Progress City,

Walt Disney's dream for an experimental prototype community of tomorrow. Progress City was the inspiration for Epcot, and many of its forward-thinking ideas have been realized throughout Walt Disney World. Outbound departure, it says. Cross Galaxy Express. We did. We just visited it. I love the Progress City. in the fast lane without worrying about getting a speeding ticket. Wave of the car passing you.

Full-on view of the Tron coaster to your left. You can't see it, I know, because it's not a vlog. Why isn't it a vlog? I don't know. We do a podcast. From this end, you can definitely tell there's lots of work to go. Okay. Okay. You are there between all the real wonders of our world. Space Mountain. Black spot for a high speed outer space adventure that could lead to the cosmos. I now see exactly what you see.

Nothing. Starport 75. The sign says... You have to listen Mr. Tom Morrow, please contact Mr. Johnson in the control tower to confirm your flight to the moon. You have to listen to the Tom Morrow piece, right? Pitch dark now and I don't know if you can feel it, but the breeze is super cool. They have really, really turned down the AC in here. It feels great.

And off to our right is the coaster. Although, we can't see it. I see light ahead. Welcome back to Tomorrowland. Be sure to visit Space Mountain while you're here for an adventure that's out of this world. Thank you, Mike Purcell. They have removed the giant red crane of doom from the Tron area though. That's been a welcome change lately. Crossing the speedway. Astral orbiter to your left, space mountain. No, sorry, space mountain to your left, astral orbiter to your right. the Astro Orbiter. Pilot your own spacecraft as you take a spin around the planet and ascend

to otherworldly heights. Joffrey's Revive Kiosk. Passing now. Might be a couple water stop after. We're now approaching Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress. Inside this rotating theater, full families welcome you into their homes of yesterday and today, starting way back at the turn of the 20th century. First presented at the New York World's Fair, this legendary circular theater celebrates the progress that has made our lives better. It's a perfect reminder that there's always a great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day. There really is. I agree. what I would give to have one of these

Tomorrowland Transit Authority round signs that were passing here is the person getting their their hair did in a horrifying looking contraption. The laser get is saving the entire galaxy. Rounding the corner back into the main entrance of Tomorrowland. Mike Wazowski and all his pals at Monsters Incorporated laugh for him. Let's hear it for them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very good. Keep it moving. We're on a tight schedule here. As we approach the Toronto Land Transit Authority Station, our Grand Circle Tour is coming to an end. But not to a stop, because this transportation system never stopped. I mean, it did for about a year, but normally it doesn't.

Thank you for joining us on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority People Mover. It's been a pleasure to have you aboard. Enjoy the rest of your day, and have a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. Thanks, Mike. All right. We are going to disembark, and I will catch up with you guys here in a second once we get down out of the exit. Ah, okay.

People Mover was excellent, as always. Also, I don't know what this track is. It's one of my favorites. Kuga Ball directly in front of us, by the way. Not going to touch it. We'll ask somebody else. But I decided what we're going to do is, okay, so we need a frosty beverage. And where better to get one of those than Cosmic Rays?

So my goal, if we can accomplish it, is I'm going to get my beverage, and then I'm going to work my way down as close as I possibly can to Sunny Eclipse. We'll see how close we can get. They have tables like five feet away from them. So we'll see if we can work our way down there. If not, we'll do our best. Catch up with you when we are near our favorite crooner.

Hey, I love being here at Cosmic Ray's Beautiful Starlight Lounge. In fact, I wrote a little song about the menu. So without further ado, here's some musical food you can take with your ears. Cosmic Ray's Starlight Lounge Thank you. I've got workers too And I dream of loving you I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too

I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too

I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too I've got workers too What a treat, what a treat And then I said to Captain Ray

Are you ready to spend the night? I can't get enough of the praise today What a steady game we're still been selling And the fun time is over So, so, so, so, so, so, so What's that I do? What's that I do? Thank you. I've got to jump sometime. I've got to get up and bring it right back. Good work, Florian.

Thank you, thank you. You're too kind. Hey, guys, I'm Ray. If you're out there, I was only kidding about the Ray's, man. Actually, folks, Ray pays me weekly. Very weekly. Travelers, this has been a good day. We weren't too ambitious. We did some fun stuff.

Dodged two rain showers while we were taking shelter inside of cosmic rays that we are now outside of, across from the waterfalls that are directly adjacent to cosmic rays, watching the Disney ducks swim along the little canal here, while we were inside, it rained like crazy. And I got to see the poor guests scramble like madness. Most of them made it to a dry place. But I'm glad that we were inside being entertained by sunny eclipse. And then afterwards, I took in a showing of Carousel of Progress because why not?

It's always something that I like to do if I have time for in Tomorrowland. And then afterwards, I have to share with you a cool thing that I saw. I stepped out of Carousel, and it was sprinkling. And I looked up and thought, okay, this must have just passed us. I was wrong. It had just arrived. And I took about four steps, and the heavens opened, and yours truly got kind of soaked but I ducked underneath the people mover track and dried off a little bit while I was there along with loads of other

guests there were some kids off to the side doing what kids do, completely enjoying the fact that it was rainy and there were big puddles everywhere and they were splashing happily. And there was a cast member, part of the custodial team, who joined them in their festivities and started dancing and splashing right along with them.

He was utterly soaked. His name is Leo. And it was amazing. It was just heartwarming to see. The kids loved it. The parents loved it. I'm guessing Leo loved it, frankly. And then afterwards, because this is what you do

when you're a good Disney citizen, I sought out a couple of members of the guest experience team. They have blue shirts and gave them a cast compliment for leo because they will open an app up on their ipad or device and you can if you know the cast member's name and where they work you can leave a cast member compliment to them and that will be noted on the record. It will be sent to them and the people that supervise them. And it's just a really good way to share that you had a good experience with the cast member. So definitely did that after.

Way to go, Leo. You are a champion, my friend. And so a very, very good day. Hot Florida. Classic rain, shower, summer day. But had a great time. Had a good time just hanging out in tomorrowland i always love it the retro tomorrow that never was never ceases to make me smile it's got some changes on the way but i hope it retains the the retro tomorrow vibe that

i really really love so thanks for hanging out, tagging along. Follow us on Instagram at walkaboutwdw. That is the one and only place where we interact with you guys. Give us a note. Tell us if there's an area of the park, if there's a land, there's an attraction you would like us to go record for you. We will make that happen. And honestly, just leave us a note.

We'd like to hear from you. Tell us when, where you listen. it's always fun for us to know look for our producer artist and good guy josh on instagram as well at the steel with an e and as i just literally heard john sing to me there is a great big beautiful tomorrow out there shining at the end of every day. And I believe it. We will see you in one of those on another episode of Walk About the World. Bye everybody. Shining at the end of every day There's a great big beautiful tomorrow And tomorrow is just a dream away

Man is a dream and that's his start He follows his dream with heart to heart And when it becomes a reality It's a dream come true For you and me So there's a great big beautiful tomorrow Shining at the end of every day There's a great big beautiful tomorrow

Just a dream away