Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - A walkabout down Sunset Blvd and Echo Lake [ep 006]

Episode Date: March 28, 2021

Hello Travelers! This week we take a trip through the Hollywood that never was - and always will be! Join us as we take a relaxing stroll around Sunset Blvd and Echo Lake in Disney's Hollywood Studios on a perfectly balmy and breezy evening. Hear the iconic music, the buzz of the crowd, and conversation about Star Wars Weekends. This week marks the first segment featuring our Producer Josh, where he answers some questions from past episodes!  Find us on Instagram @walkaboutWDW, and Josh at @TheSteele.

Well hello traveler! Hey by the way welcome back to another walk about the world your weekly audio adventure through one of the parks or resorts of Walt Disney World here in Orlando Florida and tonight can you guess where we are yeah you guessed it I really didn't want to talk over that vibe. Hollywood Studios this evening. On a totally cloudless, breezy, gorgeous evening. It is evening. As is our usual.

I thought we would get a little taste of the center of Hollywood Studios this evening. Before we go any further, we have a new segment to debut with our producer Josh, who is going to answer questions that you hear me walking around the parks randomly asking, things that I should probably already know, when I wander around and say, what is this? What is this other thing that I should already know? Josh knows these things, and he's going to answer them for us. And so take it away, Josh. Well, hello, travelers. It is I, producer Josh, making my Walkabout debut in what should be a fairly regular segment that we're calling Earchaeology, the segment where I dig up answers to some of the questions that our host Jeremy or you listeners may have had while on Walkabout.

I'm going to start with some questions from a few episodes back in episode 4 where we walked about the Magic Kingdom and through Adventureland. One question that came up down, uh, traveling down Main Street was, what's the name of that street that kind of juts off of

Main Street there in the middle? Well, it's in the middle of Main Street. That there is Center Street. More specifically, it's East Center Street. It used to be a West Center Street. It used to be directly, uh, directly across from, from, uh, East Center Street across Main Street, but was remodeled in the early 2000s to add another entrance to the Emporium. Boo. And formerly located there in that West Center Street area was a greenhouse flower shop storefront where guests could take photos with a backdrop with a turn-of-the-century-style flower cart arrangements. And there was also a card shop and New England clock shop.

I think those were just more storefront theming than actual shops had your typical fair inside but unlike disneyland walt disney world's main street took some of its inspiration from new england architecture in addition to the midwest small town architecture from Walt's childhood. Speaking of architecture, another question that came up at the OLMK was, what do you call the architecture that's featured throughout Adventureland? And if you look around in Adventureland, you'll notice there's no single architectural style, but rather it's very much a romanticized mixture of African, Polynesian, Asian, Caribbean styles. Caribbean? Caribbean? I guess it depends.

I say Pirates of the Caribbean, but I say Caribbean styles. I don't know. That's neither here nor there. But they all have changed over the years, most recently expanding with the Skipper Canteen building and also where Club 33 is located now, which once upon a time in the 90s, or until the 90s, was the Adventureland Veranda restaurant.

Another later addition was built to be a Marketplace Bazaar from Agrabah, from Aladdin, to coincide with that magic carpet attraction there in Adventureland. And the last answer has to do with the age-old battle of Dole Whip vs. Citrus Swirl.

The Aloha Isle vs. the Sunshine Tree Terrace. So, Sunshine Tree Terrace and Aloha Isle actually switched locations in 2015. Partially to accommodate the popularity and crowds created by

that beloved Dole Whip snack. Myself, I'm Team Citrus Swirl, but now the Orange Bird and his Citrus Swirl are served at the smaller quick service location that's at the front of Adventureland, just over the bridge, and then the Dole Whips are now located at the

larger location next to the Enchanted Tiki Room. So there we go. Jeremy and listeners, I hope that cleared up some of those burning questions. And that's it for Archaeology. Now let's get back with today's Walkabout. Where are you setting the scene? You are right in front of Mickey's Runaway with kind of an enormous line.

Brown Derby right across the way. I'll do a little less of my normal blabbing this evening, but not because of any issue with the blabbing. You know, I have no problem with the blabbing. Kind of want to soak in Hollywood Studios this evening, but I'll tell you what we're going to do. So we've taken a seat right in the central area here. Right behind me is the Brown Derby. right to the right of me is Mickey's Runaway across the way all the Indiana Jones stuff and Echo Lake and the Dockside Diner to the left of us is the entrance to Sunset Boulevard which we

are going to walk down in a few I haven't actually been over there for a while, and so I was going to go over, just walk down Sunset Boulevard all the way down to Rockin' Roller Coaster and see what we can see with our ears. Surprisingly low crowd here this evening. The line for Mickey and Minnie's is quite large, but it often looks large even when it isn't, just because they socially distant the line. Is socially distant a verb? They socially distant something? They make people stand socially distant, let's put it that way. And so it may not actually be that long of a wait.

But the crowds here, right out in the middle of everything, quite small. Surprising. Our buddy Donald is drawing a crowd, though. So they have Donald behind a little fence, and the crowds can just gather and watch him interact. Donald is very active this evening. He's always kind of active. I think he drinks a lot of coffee.

If I had to guess, I would guess Donald is a coffee drinker, just saying. I was also going to take a stroll over to Star Wars Launch Bay until I realized that no longer exists, travelers. History! All your Star Wars goodness is now in Black Spire. We, however, will not be going to Black Spire this evening. So what do you think? Want to do a walk down Sunset Boulevard? We'll take it slow, don't worry. Here we go. Coming up on the entrance to the other side. So here we are, Sunset Boulevard.

The legends of Hollywood to your right. We'll probably walk through there. We have the Sunset Theater on our left. Oh, that's cool. And some vintage luggage set up on the street for a photo op. Anaheim Produce on your left now. How do, how do you do? How do, how do you do? I think I got that right, not sure. Sunset Ranch Market up ahead. We have Beauty and the Beast across the way. Theater of the Stars.

And we are now at Highland Avenue in Sunset Boulevard. What is Highland Avenue, you say? Well, it's the cross street where Beauty and the Beast is. Did you know that? I didn't know it, actually. Oh, I didn't know that. By the way, I totally found the crowds. That's okay.

It also smells amazing down here because the burgers are being cooked. That works. Fairfax Fair to the left. All the windows are closed for it, though. What's not closed, though, is Hollywood Scoops. I think it's a heck of a good day for an ice cream cone. There are a lot of folks there, folks. For what? For what? We tried to make it across the street where

Rock and Roller Coaster is down here and guys the queue line for this bad boy going all the way across the street they even had it roped off for a minute we're under the track now. Probably.

If you don't, you're right in front of the big guitar. And there are people everywhere. The standby wait for Rockin' Roller Coaster says 45 minutes, but there is an incredibly large crowd here. I'm actually surprised at how large the crowd is. We're going to walk back up the way. This song always seemed a little codependent to me. Don't hear anything out of the Tower of Terror this evening.

No screams. Now we are right in the middle of Sunset Boulevard, heading back away from Rockin' Roller Coaster. Carthay Circle Store in front of us. it's showtime the majestic theater admission price is adults 15 cents that's not bad. One of the nicest little seating areas in here to our left by the Starbucks. Right around the corner from the Starbucks little courtyard red umbrellas

trees also are you a fountain fan? You heard it. Make sure that nose is fully covered. You may have a beautiful nose. Still don't need to see it back in front of Mickey and Minnie's let's take a left let's take a tour of Echo Lake music Frozen singong to your right. And here we are. Here we are at Echo Lake.

Not only am I a fountain fan, I'm a lake fan. I'm a park lake fan. I'm a park fountain fan, too. So to set the scene, where I am, I am facing directly, if you know where the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular is, I'm looking right at it, but it's across the lake. Directly to my left is the Dockside Diner that appears to be currently closed. And directly in front of me, like literally directly in front of me, like literally directly in front of me

is what shall forever be known after this as the backside of Dinosaur. Or the backside of Gertie. Gertie the Dinosaur facing away from us. That's okay. Backside of Dinosaur is alright. that's okay backside of dinosaurs alright

Echo Lake one of my favorite places I have a lot of favorite places I know I say that and that is true but for me I tend to sort the parks into sections, not by attractions. And Echo Lake has special meaning to me and our family because I'm not sure if any of you used to attend Star Wars weekends here. But if you did, you know how fortunate you are that you did.

They are no longer, and it was one of the best things that Disney ever did. And they used to have all of the visiting actors from the movies or the TV shows here around the lake in little tents. And you could come early in the morning and get a ticket for an autograph like everywhere everywhere else you go now if you're not this type of person you're going to think what exactly are you talking about but if you go to conventions of any sort trying to get autographs is not easy and it's expensive but this this was great it didn't cost you anything you just lined up now you may have to line up early in the morning and we did in some occasions

but you just line up and get a ticket and you go get to meet Ray Park or James Arnold Taylor or even met Peter Mayhew one day here the actor of Chewbacca. Super sweet guy. Gentle giant.

Anyhow, I just remember those utterly wonderful and blisteringly hot days at Star Wars weekends here around Echo Lake. Pretty sure I'm still sweating. Indiana Jones across the way. I know, I know they didn't license Harrison's likeness, but man, it always gets me. Because I'm an indie fan. Big time indie fan. I'll try not to talk about it too much. Still like the stunt spectacular. I'm bummed that it's not operating. Here's to the day it will be again.

So let's take a stroll to our left. And we will just take a tour of Echo Lake. It's really pleasantly breezy this evening. And about 75 degrees. I actually don't want to move. Just chilling here because it's so nice. Can you hear the little fountain in the middle of the lake? Not sure if you can.

I never really know what this picks up for you until down the road a bit. Something wherever you are. I think that's how it goes. Okay. Enough, Jeremy. Let's walk. Little kids with a bubble machine. Little do they know they are just free ambiance generators for the park.

Here we have the dockside diner to our right. Drop anchor for a snack. Whoa. Sorry we are closed. Here's where you can get your hot dogs and your pulled corpses and your loaded nachos and your chili cheese loaded footlongs. And if you eat any of that on a hot day at the studios, God bless you. And condolences at the same time. Hollywood and Vine directly in front of us. Yeah, where is everybody?

Over here it is so pleasant I'm not sure what to do with myself. There's almost no one. There's office space for rent over here, by the way. 75 cents a day. No actors, it says. Which is kind of rude. I don't know what they're trying to There's the front side of Gertie. We've already done the back side of Gertie. That's the front. The front side of Gertie is a happy Gertie. Have you noticed the Jeep out in front of the Indy Stunt Spectacular? Really cool. Epic Eats is closed this evening. Where you get your funnel cake goodness.

But the Oasis Canteen is not closed. You can get your indie themed drink. Now look what I have found over here. Wait a minute, you can't look. I'm sorry. I'll tell you. there is a little courtyard over here right next to the Frozen Singalong which used to be American Idol

maybe used to be something else probably was something else see I should know these things Josh, what did it used to be but there is one two three four five six tables six tables over here and I am in the shade and right under a gorgeous palm tree. And there is only one other gentleman across the way. Just he and me. Travelers, I think that's going to bring this evening's little excursion to a close.

Hope you've had fun wandering with me down Sunset Boulevard and around Echo Lake. You definitely had a lovely evening to do it. Wherever you listen, I hope you are well. Please hit us up over on Instagram at walkaboutwdw. Drop us a note. Tell us what you like, what you don't, what you'd like us to seek

out for you. If there are areas of the parks that you particularly enjoy hanging out in, let us know. Happy to go take a stroll. Find our producer Josh on Instagram at thesteel with an E. Appreciate all he does. Behind the mask and behind the mic is me, Jeremy. And just want to remind you guys,

there really is a great, big, beautiful tomorrow out there. See you in one of those, guys. In another walk about the world.