Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Disney's Animal Kingdom Holiday Goodness With Host Jeremy

Episode Date: December 3, 2023

Hello Holiday Travelers! Sit back, relax, and join host Jeremy this week for a meandering tour of the holiday goodness at Disney's Animal Kingdom. From Discovery Island, through Anandapur and Harambe, and even a brief stop in Pandora the World of Avatar, we search out some festive goodness.   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!   If you like what we do, consider joining our crew on Patreon. They help us keep our podcast train on the tracks!   Visit us a 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. Please consider giving us a rating and review wherever you listen - it really helps.   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.

Well hey there! And welcome back to Walk About the World, my fellow theme park travelers, a weekly auditory journey through the parks and resorts of Walt Disney World here in Orlando, Florida, and Disneyland in Anaheim, California. And welcome back to Disney's Animulian Kingdom, where the Animules live. The hairiest place on Earth. And it's Christmas time. We just passed the oasis, and we're walking down into Discovery Island. And as I hoped we would find, the Merry Menagerie is out.

And we are here today to soak in some Animal Kingdom holiday goodness. Let's hang out here in Discovery Island for a few. holiday goodness. Let's hang out here in Discovery Island for a few. I'm going to meet some cool Merry Menagerie characters, take some photos, and generally just wallow in the ambience. Let's go! Thank you. Terima kasih telah menonton! Music that you are now hearing is being played by a live musician. Where's my hand? I truly think that the Merry Menagerie is one of the best things that Disney has done for the holiday seasons in any of the parks in many years. Music So today we have the wandering music player. I think he's playing a ukulele.

We have a reindeer, a large and small, perhaps an adult and a juvenile reindeer. We have the little penguins wandering around. In Discovery Island, at holiday time, with the Christmas ambience and the merry menagerie, it doesn't get any better than this to me. Riverside Depot across from us and Discovery Trading Company behind us is Island Mercantile the garland is all up decorated decorated with natural elements, fibers, pine cones, you name it. And on the roof ledges of all the buildings, the beautifully painted animal-shaped lanterns are up. In years past they sold a ornament set of these that I just put on our Christmas tree.

Because of course it's up already. I know this place. I'm going to go to the next one. A tree of life looming large right ahead of us. That's right. Oh my God. One of my fellow travelers was dancing to the music, and I had to just point out how amazing they were. You might be able to pick up the waterfall at the bottom of the Tree of Life in the distance, but we are standing still in Discovery Island looking straight up at the Tree of Life.

To our right, off towards Dinoland. To our left, off towards Pandora and or Harambe. Which to choose? I think today I'm going to go to the right, which is kind of unusual. Normally head to Harambe, which we will get to, by the way. There's some decorations over there I want to look at. And perhaps fail to describe adequately. But let's head off to the right.

I'm going to go over to Anandapur. Because I'm missing it. And here we are in Anandapur. Drinkwala to your right. I absolutely love it. Every detail of it. Every sign. Drinkwala cold beverage refreshment.

Anandapur. And we made a fantastic choice coming this way because I'm walking straight ahead. By the way, the Yak and Yeti directly in front of us. We're going to turn left here past the Feathered Friends and Flight Theater. Say that real fast three times. But down here in the area

between the theater and the stage here in Anandapur where Chakranadi would perform, and we miss you dearly, there are loads of hanging decorations. Cloth, lanterns, strings of flowers. Gorgeous. I'll take some photos for you. I don't know what's going on in the bird theater. as always complaints about elephants to be made at the anandapur association for animal welfare phone number 42485

too darn big as i always say that's my complaint over here at the signboard stopping in as we always do check the announcements there is a local night bus service that runs by here if you're stuck here late. Trips to Kathmandu, Siliguri. Departures Tuesday through Thursday. Friday, I guess you're out of luck. Also, here's a bicycle on hire. All person, all sizes.

Sounds like a challenge. Wave me, red cap, blue bike. So if you see him, take a bike ride. So let's walk over underneath all of these hanging lanterns and strung flowers the colors are pinks greens yellows the flowers the strung flowers are mostly yellow and orange and red lanterns yellow, purple and here we are right in front of the Anandapur stage

next to the big banyan tree missing my buddy Chakranadi, but very grateful for the memories. Standing here for a moment at the Discovery River. Sign says, please do not feed animals in area. You can see some of the cargo boats down below. Bringing in their wares from the Discovery River into the town of Anandapur. Tree of Life directly across. The backside of Tree of Life, as it were. It is a balmy, slightly cloudy, slightly breezy, 75ish, Central Florida day, just about perfect.

Alright, we are going to continue on through signs here in Anandapur because of course you should mind your feet, don't trip on street Anandapur, city of don't fall down, basically. Thirsty River Bar and Snacks. Signed for this. Along with the Anandapur Theater.

Signed for the Cool Link Service, Communications, Call Back, Postcards, Email and Fax. And the Hand Loom House, Silk, Old and New, Handmade with Care. There's your walkabout meditation moment. Allow me a brief pontification, or bloviation, as it were. I know that when you come here as a guest, a tourist, it's very expensive and you want to make the most of your ticket. Totally understandable. But this park, above all, I would caution you and encourage you, I guess, to realize that a large portion of the ticket price that you are putting down with your hard-earned money doesn't involve rides or attractions this park is an imagineering masterpiece thoroughly detailed carefully crafted artistic wonder and on top of that it is a world-class botanical garden species of trees carefully curated maintained beautifully species from all over the world and so i dare say if you

came here and you just did the rides got a bite to eat and left you you will leave a lot of your ticket value on the table i would encourage you not to do that. Make these small stops around this particular park a part of your park plan. Just like you would plan to ride Everest. Stop and spend 15 minutes in Anandapur and search out the details and soak in the ambience. Or Harambe. This is stuff you'll carry with you.

Alright, let's go. Passing Mr. Kamal's Fries to the left, which is open, and Caravan Road to the right, which is also open. Well, let's go. And we're going to do what we do and take our secret path to the right. As soon as you pass Caravan Road. We've done this many times, but if you take the path into the woods, as it were, as you pass Caravan Road, there is a path that leads over here away from the main trek that you will have almost to yourself there's a small seating area to the right currently only a couple of people there

literally no one on the path but me and it crosses this lovely stream You can hear in the background the Eastern Star Railway passing by. Ah. When we started this humble little pod, it still is one. Moments like this are why I wanted to do it. Long before immersion was a thing, this park in particular did it. Did it right. It's a place I can come

in the heart of a U.S. major city and feel like I am completely somewhere else crossing another stream. The place setting, the care, the attention to detail the stream looks perfectly natural as it's as if it were here forever which of course it isn't it was created for us but beautiful white bird of paradise plants above us philodendron below by the uh by the water palmettos gorgeous back here all right as we leave here you will hear our

ambience change because we are headed into the port and village of Harambee. as we pass. Mombasa Marketplace building directly across gorgeous white painted sculpted building and right now has garland of various different types of vegetation and fruit

I love this Christmas decor here garland of various different types of vegetation and fruit. I love this Christmas decor here. Directly across from the Harambee Port Authority, this building, where you can hear the noises upstairs, is some of my favorite decorations that you can find here in Harambee that I wanted to track down. They are wreaths made of bottle caps. They have, it's

a circle made out of cubes of bottle caps and in the middle is an elephant created out of bottle caps. I just think they're super unique. I'm going to take a picture for you. Post it on the internet at walkaboutwdw. You're now in the very center of Harambee proper Thank you. I'm a poor woman Get me a hard-on, get me a hard-on Get me a hard-on, get me a hard-on Hanging from the trees are perforated metal cylinders in holiday colors with lights inside.

To the right, growing along the walls of the Harambee Port Authority is pink and yellow bougainvillea in full bloom. Here in Florida it blooms right towards the Christmas holiday here's tamu tamu good eats and cold drinks Should we take a brief foray into the Harambee Theater District? Answer is yes. Here we are in a very sleepy and not busy at all Harambee Theater District. Where the ambience is also very muted. Here's some of the distance, though. The port of Harambee,

here directly behind us, and the customs house just past. All right, I'm going to head out of Harambee, and I'm going to rejoin you off-planet on the world of Pandora for a little Pandoran Christmas excursion. See you over there. Welcome to the outskirts of Pandora. Here on Pandora, you have to obey the rules.

Pandora rules. You know, reference. Going to head to the right here towards the main outpost here on Pandora. You can just now start to see the floating mountains to your left and above. I mean, they're floating, so... According to the lore of this land, this is a former base of the RDA, the Resource Development Association, I believe is what it is. They were the human bad guys in the first movie.

That base has since been abandoned for a great many years after the RDA was chased off of Pandora in the story of the first movie. And now, all races, well, I guess so,

everyone is welcome here now. Both native Navi and human. And in honor of the human visitors here, even Pandora is decorated in Christmas decor. The Amp Suit, which is a large mechanical military vehicle that they have stationed here in front of Pongu Pongo, has Christmas lights and a little beard made of woven fibers. Oh lest I forget he also has a Santa hat. To your right is the Tule Canteen. Let's walk by the front of Pang decor here and there. Near the sign of Pongu Pongu over a piece of electrical equipment you can find a little menorah and a little nutcracker

guy I've said it before This area has won me over Because I am off planet Right now I mean, it has buggy. Yeah, we're not staying at the bottom. I've also said and still maintain that the use of water here makes this land come alive. You can hear it all around us. I can currently feel the spray off of the large waterfall here coming off of one of the floating mountains. Deep breath in. Out through the mouth. Yeah! What's this Adeline? fellow travelers indulging in a little drum practice. All right, I'm going to rejoin you back on world.

I love this ambience. But I'm going to rejoin you back on World Near Nomad Lounge. See you in a minute. All right, leaving the Valley of Mo'ara and headed back on planet, on world. Back where we started in Discovery Island, I took a quick detour into Nomad Lounge. I have not been in a great many months, and it was quite crowded, but they had one seat at the bar. And so I snagged it, and I had the sausage-stuffed medjool dates and a hibiscus henna and it was fabulous. And I don't know about you

but I do need a little Christmas now. I don't know. ah yes indeed let's say uh thank you to the patron shall we just want to say thank you to all of you guys who support us at the beautiful tomorrow level that's's Beck Castle, Bill and Aaron Zeese, Brian E. Grant, Debbie Jambala, Derek at Satisfactual Sign Company, Eric Steinhauer, John Hamilton, Meredith Izzo, Josh Nakano, Hannah Ginn, David Krause, Jessica Davis, and Lindsay O'Connell. Thank you guys so much. You didn't have to give us any of your hard-earned

money and you chose to anyway, and we really, really appreciate it. Helps to pay the server costs. And we just love you. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this brief holiday adventure on a beautiful central floor today through Disney's Animal Kingdom. That's it for me. That's it from Animal Kingdom. We're outside the tap styles now,

looking directly at the large and glorious Animal Kingdom Christmas tree, decorated with all kinds of animal shapes, stars, and various other baubles that I can't describe adequately. We really appreciate all of you. Thanks for listening week after week. When we come in here and record these episodes, honestly, we just kind of disappear into this little microphone that we carry and it kind of feels like we're hanging out with friends in the parks and hopefully we bring a little bit of the

joy to you as well look us up on instagram at walkaboutwdw if you haven't already give us a follow there send us a dm a message we read and respond to all of them. Or you can send us an email at contact at walkabouttheworld. You can find all of our hosts on Instagram. You can find me, Jeremy, at jeremy__fl. You can find our producer, Josh, at thesteel with an E. Pete at Neverlandalocal. Rick at Optical Jedi. And Michelle at Havoc Jedi.

If you like what you hear, please give us a rating and a review wherever you listen. It really helps people to find us, and it makes our day. And if you'd like to support us more, you can always do so at patreon.com

Well, that's patreon.com if you're Josh. Slash walkaboutwdw I'm just soaking this up. If you're Josh slash walkabout WDW. I'm just soaking this up. So the beginning of the holidays is here. Wherever you are, hope you're well. And as always, we end by saying there is 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 Thank you. A CIDADE NO BRASIL Thank you.