Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - A Walkabout In Disney's Epcot To Creations and Xandar With Host Jeremy

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

Hello Travelers and greetings this week from Disney's Epcot Center! Join host Jeremy and his wife Heather for a brief walk about through Epcot. We start at the entrance and the fountain in view of Spaceship Earth, and make our meandering way through the Creations Shop and then over to browse the wares at Treasures of Xandar.    As always, use good listening devices as we always record in 4 channel surround sound. We hope you enjoy the episode and thanks so much for following along!    Visit us a walkabouttheworld.com - find links to all the things!   Look us up at @WalkaboutWDW on Instagram and drop us a note to say hi! Find our producer Josh also on Instagram at @TheSteele. Say hi to our west coast correspondent Ric at @opticaljedi. Lastly give a shout to our Orlando correspondent Pete at @neverlandlocal.   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. Please consider giving us a rating and review wherever you listen - it really helps.   If you like what we do, consider joining our crew on Patreon.   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. 

Welcome back to Walk About the World and Hello Travelers from... You know, Epcot Center. Heather's with me. Hi, Heather. Hi, everybody. And we are standing looking at the beautiful spaceship Earth. There is a very slight, and I wish there was more of a breeze this morning because it's already hot as heck. It's heckin' hot.

We're looking at the flags. They're blowing. And looking at the fountain to the left that we're going to go investigate here in a second but we just came in for a quick hit of epcot wanted to take you with us if you're ready and i think you are let's go so I have to admit, I like this better at night. What do you think, Heather? Yeah, I think I like it better at night, too, because everything's lit up, and it just... Yeah, I like it better. It's still peaceful.

I like the fountain, and it's beautiful during the day, but at night, all of this, the prisons are lit up, there's lights down around the bottom of the fountain where it drains and it just pretty darn magical if I if I can say that all right we are going to make our way up towards always forget what is the store creations connections where you eat stuff okay we're gonna go to creation but make our way there headed underneath spaceship earth in just a second can you feel the breeze of the natural wind tunnel of spaceship earth as we walk

poor little one. Check that box, guys. Gateway gifts to your left. And entrance to the spaceship to your right. And entrance to Spaceship Earth to your right. 25 minutes standby. It is quite peoply this morning. We have all the beers. Coming up on... Actually, we're passing Connections now, is that right? Yes.

Exit Spaceship Earth, you're right. And what will be the journey of water with Moana straight ahead. Mr. Iger, tear down this wall, sir. I can't wait. How long has it been? I hate to even ask. It actually kind of stuns me. Were these walls up during 2020? I can't remember but guys. It's been it's been years. Come on. I feel like we're almost there. Tear the walls down. Okay, here's the entrance to Connections Cafe ahead. It's gonna get peopley noisy. Here we go. I mean, I wouldn't mind going over there and checking it out at some point. I just want to see if it's all over.

Okay, so we're going to go in Creations and do the shopping thing. Find something that we can't do without. And we will rejoin you after we're done maybe purchasing things. Oh my gosh. Can you hear this this is the most echoey thing in the world right here in between creations and connections and of course that's where they stage the um my mind just went blank the jammeters where they're beating their trash cans.

It was echoey. Over stimulation? No, not at all. Okay, here we go. Into the store. I have to break in here in the store because they have and I know, those of you that are merch fans, you know this. You're like, Jeremy, this is old news.

But seeing it is different, I'm just telling you. They have a collection called Eras, Disney Eras. And they have like a little gold statue of Mickey, they have golden shoes. But the big tamale here is that they have a recreation of the Hollywood Studios water tower and I've taken pictures of it so I can post it on the grams for you people but it is man I would say it's like 18 inches tall it looks like it's weathered and beautiful and the weirdest thing is and I know this this means you're a Disney person, it's 99 bucks, which I think is freaking cheap, you know why I think it's cheap,

because the Starbucks cups are 50, so no, it's not cheap, it's $100, but it is gorgeous, and it's a lamp, did I mention that part, yeah, it looks like the Hollywood Studios water tower, but it's a lamp, and I want it really badly. I'm not buying it, but I want to. Okay. On we go. Heather says, I like too much stuff in here right now.

Yeah, I know. We're not of the drop a couple of thousand bucks on a trip to the creation store set, so we have to be careful. And again, I'm going to show my ignorance, but those of you that are merch fiends, the designs by Joey, and I'm going to say, is it Zhao? Zhao? Zhao? Zhu? i have no idea man i forgive me joey but i will say that this artist his stuff is gorgeous they have a collection of stuff over here i was looking in particular at a t-shirt that's got mickey the jungle group jungle cruise skipper and it's got

the little elephants and the hippos and the tiki birds and it's beautiful. I took a picture for you. And also there's a brand new Mickey backpack. Well, it's a lounge flag backpack. Heather should be doing this. But it's got Mickey standing in front of the castle with fireworks on it. And it looks awesome. We've only purchased two. Well, we haven't purchased anything yet. We have two things in hand.

So we're exercising restraint. Okay. I think we're heading off to the Halloween section. A really cool collection of Star Wars Return of the Jedi 40th Anniversary merch here. Which I was surprised by and pleased by. Leia's cloak from Endor. The camouflage cloak from Endor. Some really good Obi-Wan. I would say figurines, but these are really like for dioramas.

Diamond Select Toys, it says. A hideous, kind of like mustard yellow shirt with Jabba on it, which is terrible. I'm sorry. The artist, it's a beautiful picture, but the shirt is nasty. No way. And I've completely lost Heather. I literally don't know where she is now. I'm going to go find her.

Right in the middle of the store is the Halloween section. And it's the same type of merch that I saw in World of Disney, which makes sense. But I do have to say, I really like this year's collection. I like the neon colors of the Mickey pumpkin. Just really dig that. If you haven't seen it, I'll take pictures of it for you. Tell you one thing I don't like, though, is that the pumpkin this year has pumpkins for ears. In years past, the pumpkin had Mickey ears.

And this year, the ears of the pumpkin are little pumpkins. And I just think it looks weird. I'm not digging it. Tell me if you agree. Or if you don't. If you don't. If you don't, that's okay. Then obviously you have piles of international

Food and Wine 2022 No, 2023 Germany merch. As we all know, time has no meaning anymore. Hey, Heather. What is this? This thing. Giant tablecloth, picnic blanket, something or other.

A picnic blanket or a beach blanket? Say again? I believe it's either a picnic blanket or a beach blanket. With Mickey and forks and spoons and Mickey's in a chef's hat. And we have exited this store. Even though it's 10,000 degrees, would you like to go over to the Guardians area a second? Alright, let's roll. Oh, travelers. Can you feel the bake? This is the time of year when

the locals say I'll pass. So we don't pop in too often when it's a Feels like a hundred and whatever Okay, I'm complaining. Let's head towards darkness Here are the test track cars going by in the distance. And theme changing. Welcome to Zandar. Zandarius. I gotta say it every time.

Always in a hurry to get from something stupid to nothing at all. I think I got that quote right. I'm not sure. Anyway, here we have the Zandarian ship in the foreground. Let's hit the shop. I just want to poke in. Do you mind? It's a mess. As a plant nerd, I'm just looking at all the planting around the Zandarian ship, and we have agave and croton and tea plant, and what do we got over here? Crenum lily. Basically all kinds of stuff that just doesn't care how hot it gets.

Yes, ma'am? I noticed around the ship there's a lot of room in there, and that would totally be a great place for, like, Guardians of the Galaxy dance-off, dance party, or maybe characters over there. It just looks like it's made for that. It really does look like a stage in front of the ship. Like, right under the ship, you can actually walk up on this small little platform and

stand right in front of it. Sorry, say it again. At the base of the ship it also looks like a little platform where a person or two could stand. I don't know if they envision a show here, but they definitely should have one. I mean, tell me, have we missed one? I don't think they've had one. They've only had them at DCA. I know they have them

there. And if I know my law, which I definitely do not know, I think you can do the characters here, the Guardians characters here too, right? Because you've got the characters in the ride. I think so. Anyway, so anyway, Disney, we need a Guardians show here under the ship.

All right, off to the shop before we melt. Let's go. If you have any concerns, please don't hesitate to communicate with me on the sand. Given the distance between our worlds, response times may be longer than usual. Treasures of Xandar shop. Oh, that's very new. I am the Broker, and I am delighted to offer my wares to you Terrans, treasures from Xandar, and the far reaches of the universe, including the exclusive rights to merchandise related to the heroes of Zandar, the Guardians of the Galaxy. Even in-universe, there is merchandising rights. Oh, and here I am standing.

What do I see? I see the helmet for Loki. I see tons of baby fruit. Broker. Take it easy. I see you, Broker. See what you're trying to do buddy there are all kinds of stuff related to Thanos's gauntlet where you can buy all of the little infinity stones to go with it I'm gonna wander over here towards the magnet area.

Not sure my refrigerator could fit another one, but still, I love them. I like it. else please feel free diecast guardians vehicle diecast Zandarian vehicle Guardians magnet that I've been eyeing forever, but I still just don't like it enough to buy it. Weird. Tons of Nova Corps gear. Ravager jackets for adults and kiddos. A Star-Lord mask that I've also looked at forever because it looks good, but you could take it home, paint and weather that thing, and it would look beautiful. That's something that I enjoy.

Might do that as a project. All right, we'll meet you guys back outside. Can you take it in front? Yeah, like this one? Yeah, like this one? Okay. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to worry about it.

I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to worry about it. Sorry, Heather said something. And she refuses to re-say it. I don't know why. Is it embarrassing? Yeah. Yeah.

We're going to take a shortcut through the Connections Eatery on the way out. You know why? Because there's air conditioning in there. Are you ever walking along in the theme park, and you just get this overpowering scent of where someone has hosed themselves down with Hawaiian Tropic, and it takes you right back to being a tiny kid. You probably have to be old like me to have that happen, but that just happened. It's better than the alternative smells when it's over 100 degrees.

Yeah, Heather making it real. Yep. The scents of the parks are not always wonderful. Okay, here we go the eatery here we go Here you go. And you can stay beside me? Well, yes, but I still thought I could do whatever I wanted. Water? Oh, where are you? Absolutely love the mural that they have in here on this long wall. When you come down the ramp, or go up the ramp, as it were, like we're doing.

Very reminiscent of living with the land. Which I adore. Okay. Okay, heading back out into the bake. Here we go. Sunglasses on. Oh, they have a wonderful... They have a wonderful pride wall here. Right outside the entrance to to the uh cafe that i haven't seen i'm going to take a picture of it for you

and i'm going to meet you guys back down by uh the fountain I'm gonna get a coffee. He's searching all the time. Guys? Oh, what's going on? He's starting to go all high. Guys? Whoa! Whoa! Heading right under Sp earth breeze has increased a little bit which is nice it's still a million degrees but breeze is nice Yeah. Yeah. Passing gateway Gifts.

Pin Traders far off to your left. Yeah, the Epcot flags are really blowing now. Travelers, thanks for following along with us today. It's a brief little hit. This is kind of what we do, being here and not wanting to endure hours in the surface of the sun weather that we're having. But here by the fountain, we're going to leave you where we started it was brief but heather what do you think fun time yeah that was a great time just enough to get a good disney hit and then we're on our way out found some cool merch yep by the way what'd you buy yourself um a sweatshirt that says disney world on it that you will not be

wearing for a long time yes probably not for a few more months, but at least I will have it, and it'll be ready when I need it. Because the thing about Disney merch, if you like it, you better buy it now. Because next week, you never know. Anyway, we're rambling. Appreciate every one of you.

That's it from me. That's it from Epcot. And I hope you have a wonderful week Kampung Kampung Thank you. As always, we want to give a special shout-out to the patrons who support us at the Beautiful Tomorrow level. We have Bette Castle, Bill and Erin Zeese, Brian E. Grant, Debbie Jambala. By the way, Debbie, we're just pronouncing your name slightly differently every week because we don't know exactly how to pronounce it. Feel free to hit us up and correct us. But thank you. Derek at Satisfactual Sign Company. Eric Steinhauer.

John Hamilton. Meredith Izzo. Josh Nakano. Hannah Ginn. David Krause. And Jessica Davis. Thank you so much for your support

it means the world to us remember if you want to join us at this or any other level check us out at patreon.com slash walkaboutwdw

thanks for hanging out with us today on this episode of Walk About the World. We really appreciate the fact that you listen every week. As always, look us up on Instagram at walkaboutwdw. We would love for you to send us a direct message there. Tell us what you like, what you would like. If there's an area of the park or a particular bit of ambience you would like us to hunt down for you, we'll be glad to do that. You can also contact us at contact at walkabouttheworld.com via email. And I appreciate

all of you that have emailed us with suggestions and good wishes. You can find each of our hosts on Instagram. You can find me, Jeremy, at Jeremy underscore Hunt underscore FL. You can find our producer and co-host Josh at The Steel with an E. You can find Pete at Neverland Local. And our West Coast co-host Rick at Optical Jedi. And we want to ask you a favor. If you like what you hear weekly,

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just really thank all of you for listening. Hope you have a great week. And as we always say, there's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow out there. We will see you in one of those tomorrows on another episode of Walk About the World. Bye, everybody. © BF-WATCH TV 2021