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

Episode Date: September 27, 2026

Hello Travlers! This week host Jeremy takes you on a trip about Disney's Animal Kingdom park - starting at The Oasis, and then journeying through the park to discover some flowing water, music, animal squawks, and more.   We are listener supported - contribute to the Dole Whip Fund via Google or Apple Pay. Thanks!   Walkabout the World is now on TikTok! Come follow our visual companion to the audio podcast at Walkabout.the.world.pod on TikTok   And of course, visit us on Instagram and 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!   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, hello, travelers. Welcome back to Walk About the World and welcome back to Disney's Animal Kingdom, the scariest place on Earth. We haven't even made it to Discovery Island yet. We're still in the oasis. Decided to pull over here to the left where there's this amazing waterfall,

some white ibis down below playing around in the water. Looks like you're surrounded by jungle over here. I just love this area. And today, I need, I don't know about you. I need some Disney's Animal Kingdom relaxing chill vibes. That's what I'm after. Life has been lifing, you know? So, sorry, I just watched a duck fly all the way up and land exactly on the top of the waterfall.

Like, he is right where the water is coming down off of the cliff. Go for it, buddy. Anyhow, we're going to take a stroll. we're going to go down through Discovery Island together see what we can see work ourselves over towards the tree of life and the tree of life gardens but I've been having that on my mind so come with me walk this way

let's go I'm looking at the signs over here that I you know we all do this we visit the parks and we don't pay attention to the little signs in this little area this grotto with the waterfall we have dabbling ducks

and diving ducks and apparently the dabbling ducks just kind of nibble along the water's edge and then the diving ducks you feel you get it I can see them there's one just disappeared beneath the surface as we speak lots of bamboo and palm over here you have to remember I know I've said this before but you have to remember this park is a botanical garden oh the rhinoceros iguana is out very very dark black and green he's chilling on a rock over here warming himself other people just saw him too but yeah let's let's head up to the top here of the

oasis and Discovery Island obviously you can hear the ambience change we have now reached the top of the hill where we leave the oasis behind and head into Discovery Island and some of this music is as old as the park makes me very happy All right, I'm going to head down the bridge towards the distant tree of life in the shops on either side. Let's go. By the way, it's one of these common Florida days where I think we're going to have to dodge some thunder and rain showers. That's okay. We're used to that here.

All right, Discovery Island Proper. You have a Riverside Depot off to your right, which is where we are. then to our left, Island Mercantile. Island Mercantile. Riverside Depot has lots of little tile work, which is beautiful. Dark greens, dark brown woods, yellow wash over some of the wood in a blue, like a bright, bright azure blue roof. Okay, setting the place for you here.

The shops are behind me. about three quarters of the way down towards the tree of life, which is now very clearly in the foreground. We have Timoon Pumba over here, the little, uh, a magic band activated golden statues of these guys off to our left. And ahead of us, who do we see? There's a crowd. I'm trying to see what's happening up over here. You know what? It's a mystery. I don't know. What we're going to do first, I'm kind of, Seeking out some relaxing water features here, kind of like we did in Epcot. And off to the right of the Tree of Life, there's a stream that you don't normally encounter unless you try to get to it. I'm going to work my way over there because it's lovely, and then we'll work our way around the other side to the Tree of Life Garden where there's some larger waterfalls.

Come out. Oh, I just heard the squawk of, here's our cart. Oh, Viva Gaia is out. Let's go take in a little bit of the Viva Gaia set. I mean, we're here, right? Right next to Discovery Trading Company and across the way from Flame Tree Barbecue. You can actually smell the barbecue while you're listening to Viva Gaia. Such a fun group. All the performers in bright clothes, purples and yellows and greens.

Little Viva Gaia here on this. walk them out the world. Hard to be in a bad move when you're in the vicinity of Yvigaya. The feeding ground kiosk to your left is open. We're heading towards the bridge that goes over to Anandipur. The smiling crocodile looks like it's open as well. Tacos and nachos and whatnot. Could it be that this kiosk is open as well? Gonna hit a trifecta today? Yes, the eight spoon cafe is open. It is rare that I see all of these open, almost always closed. Passing the Adventures Outpost, by the way, where you can meet Minnie and Mickey in Safari attire.

Here's the gate to Asia. We're going to take a left here. This is the exit to the Zootopia Better Together show, formerly the Bugs Life terrifying show where the spiders would descend upon you. Now it's Zootopia. We have a large group of travelers exiting the attraction now. I'm just going to chill here and wait a second because there are some lovely water features down this way that you can just choose to go. Also a great shady spot to rest right here because we're surrounded by palms.

It's like a lush little jungly area back here next to the backside of the tree of life. Nandapur across the way to your right, across the Discovery River. And there we go. Our crowd has passed. Let's cruise on down here to the Oh, they have some wilderness explorer activities down here now. I didn't know that. But if you come down here towards the exit of this attraction, you will come across a stone bridge with bamboo railing,

and there's a beautiful waterfall to your left. Let's just soak this at a minute. Keep breath in, hold it. and out have an absolutely stunning view of this side of the tree of life from over here it is breezy and dare I say it comfortable here in central Florida today looking right up at the tree of life now just to see what some of the creatures I can see lying on this side will the beast a mere cat sloth and then if you Turn your head over to the right, a beautiful calm view of the Discovery River and upcountry landing, which, okay, right now it's a seating area.

You can take some food and drink over there from wherever you pick it up, from Drink Walla or whatnot. But upcountry landing used to be one of the areas where you could board the Discovery. river boats way way back in the day do you hear that I don't know if you heard that but I just heard the Eastern Star Railway going by absolutely beautiful framing tropical plants all around discovery river ahead I can see the top of the feathered friends in flight building across the river but we're going to turn around go back from once we came and go around the other side of the tree of light for the gardens let's go come on

Here comes your waterfall again. Water bottle yesterday. I love some of the stuff that you can hear from your fellow travelers. Disney vacations aren't easy, folks. Right headed back into Discovery Island, the barbecue smells are kind of overwhelming me right now. We have a guy closing out, sounds like. Sing it. Take it from me. Here you say, explore it.

Right here we are. Right, here we are, down at the base of the tree of life on the other side. Now completely circled around. Careful not to get in front of some of our fellow travelers taking photos. Photos that last a lifetime. There's a tree of life in all its glory. Looking absolutely lovely, dark, dark billowing clouds around, folks. I hope not, but we'll see.

All right, we're continuing on Island, mercantile to your left, the Otter Grotto coming up on our right and if you want to head off world, which we're not going to. Pandora is off to your left. There's Pizza Farre to your left

right across in the Otter Grotto, or the Atter Grotto. Never ceases to amaze me the amount of blooming things here at Disney's Animal Kingdom. As a plant-loving person, it is just heaven for me. I don't know if you can hear, but it's quite breezy, and I can hear the bamboo moving around above us.

We'll probably hear it even better, because we have made it to the entrance of the Tree of Life Gardens. Haven't done this in a while. Let's go. The first thing you do is cross a little waterway, and there's a big old fish that swims around down here. No ambience back here for a little bit. It's very quiet, peaceful, surrounded by plants in all directions. Oh, there's a peaceful helicopter in the distance. Now right here I'm pausing in a corner because you're next to a grove of tall bamboo

that you would be able to hear creaking if not for the helicopter. I love this area of this garden because it feels like you're in another place. Yeah, just take that in. I hope you can hear it. Creaking bamboo, blowing leaves. Hey, you know what? There's no spiders. So we're good.

Alright, let's continue up the trail. Path narrows, bamboo, poles, create the railings on either side of you. And here we are to the very backside of the Tree of Life. Side of Water, just love that. If you haven't done the Tree of Life Garden, trail, you are missing out.

It's not only do you go directly, I mean, as close as you can get, to the base of the Tree of Life, see all the awesome carvings but the water feature is astounding. We're headed back down towards the entrance of the garden here. We're lost into Africa. Creature comforts off to your left as we know that is the Disney's Animal Kingdom Starbucks location. I could also go for a good chocolate cream cold brew right now. That is the favorite of your humble host. All right we're going to duck down

This other side of the tree of life, there's one more trail that you can come through down here. Also featuring lush jungle-like surroundings and a big old grove of bamboo. And a distant waterfall. I'll see if you can hear it. Once again, looking across the Discovery River over towards Asia, and shall we take our voyage into Africa? Dumb question. Of course we shall. Let's go. All right, you just passed the giant wooden gates, leading us into Africa. Africa and Harambe absolutely gorgeous rock work stonework over here by the Imagineers again feels like you're in another place looking towards the right

you can go you can see yourself all the way down through the Discovery River all the way over to the peaks of Expedition Everest sign right in front of us welcome to Harambe Port of East Africa signs on the well signs on the sign. Little advertisements on the main sign of Harambe shows the different things that you can encounter in this village, including Harambe Wildlife Reserve, the Harambe Theater, Tusker House, Tamu Tamu Tamu Refreshments, and more. Tusker House to your left along with the Dawa Bar.

Tamu Tamu is right in front of us off to the right. All of the walls are made of earthen materials block. Dobie. Passing the Harambe Fort to your right. And coming up on Harambe Marketplace, sorry, Mombasa Marketplace. Getting rusty, folks. I told Heather that I really wanted to buy a doohickey today.

Kadibu, welcome. We have Lion King Novelties and Such in Joy, says the Mombasa Marketplace. Kusfeer Bakery Bakery Say that quickly. Off to your left. And I've stopped here next to the area where they carve all of the animals, and they are for sale.

I'm always entranced by these things. Beautiful wooden carvings of warthogs and zebra and giraffe and monkeys and turtles, you name it. Absolutely beautiful. Sign that says Akuna Matata, of course. Another wooden sign that says Kadibu. Now we are around the side of Mombasa Marketplace with the entrance to the safari off to your left. Heading around the side here over past Zuri Sweet Shop,

which I can't have. Let's check out some of the signs on this building because you can't visit Harambe without doing that. We have, of course, the J-O-O-R-O-Rab. R-O-D-I. J-R-O-D-M-A-Masks and Beads, which, come on. You know that reference. The J-M-M-Moyo Recycle Beed Jewelry Company.

Necklaces, bracelets, earrings. A sign for the Kivalluni Terrace, waterside seating for diners. And of course, the Tweeda Travel Agency, which, as we all know, does balloon safari tours. Hot Air Balloon. Safari Tours. It'll be turning the corner over here towards Harambe Market in just a moment.

If you are interested, by the way, in a flat to rent here near the Harambe Market, I said that again. Mambasa Marketplace. There is a flat to that. One bedroom, two bedroom, and three. Call 50289. Oh, before I got so rudely interrupted by myself about reading signs, I said that I couldn't eat the stuff from Surrey Sweets

because your humble host is now celiac. So, Merry Christmas to me. So I'm now having to be careful about what I ingest. This isn't a show about my celiac. But I do tend to blab. So there you go.

Honestly, it doesn't bother me. It's kind of a relief to have a diagnosis, to be honest. Been battling quite a few things. Anyway, we are near Harambe Market. We're going to go in here. Over across the way is the Fikwa fellow. Hidden.

He's the hidden fellow. He's Mickey on the side of the building. Let's take a little journey over this way. Oh, poor baby. That's three poor babies in a row. Sign here for the Hotel Eburadika, which is around the way, and part of the building that is where you can, find the dollar bar gonna take a peek and see how crowded Harambe marketplace is back here because

I don't want to interrupt our fellow travelers that's rude let's take a peek back in here okay so here's here's a couple of blue trash cans here old school not the uh the updated fancy robotic-looking ones but they look rusty and beaten washed layers of bloom and brown. I don't know, man. I just love stuff like this. It's a bustling day in the market today. There's Juan Johi refreshments.

Behind us is the best skewered meats. Do you ever think that you may enjoy a sausage? I'm just going to let you think about that for a minute. But according to this sign, five stars, location Harambe Market, delicious curried style sausages.

It says, we think you will be enjoying them. Lovely. Who doesn't enjoy a good sausage? I'm just saying. All right. I head back around the corner past what I'm terming, the new seating area. It's not that new anymore, but new to me,

being a long-time traveler of the animal kingdom and heading back around the corner towards Tamu Tamu, which says Good Eats. They have these newer benches over here. They look ancient. They're carved wood benches with elaborate floral designs.

And again, they look ancient, but I've not seen them before. So they've got to be pretty new. pin station to your left ever present cart behind us here we are at tamu tamu tamu where you can get a dolewip pineapple orange soda float yum sangria dolewhip float

dolewip pineapple cup pineapple crisp sunday dang that sounds good and several beers that look great none of which I can have boo there isn't a better place to wind up our little expedition today than here in the town center of Harambe.

Appreciate you hanging out with me today. Taking some journeys through some gardens and some water features and overall, I think we achieved our goal, which was to relax, take in some Disney's Animal Kingdom ambience,

hang out with our fellow travelers a bit. As always, you can look us up on Instagram at Walkabout WDW. You can send us a DM there. or you can give us a email at contact at walkabout the world.com. We read every single one of them.

We share every single one of them with the crew. Really appreciate you guys getting in touch. But if you like what we do here, in the show notes of every show, there is a link to the Dolewip Fund where you can take 30 seconds or so and click an Apple Pay or a Google Pay button and send a little bit of thank you.

to the Walkabout hosts, and every single penny of it goes to them. Not hosting costs, not other shenanigans. Every single bit of it that month goes to the host that record other than me, because I recused myself from the group. But they would appreciate that, and I appreciate you. That is it from me. That's it from Walk About the World today here in Harambe. And as always, we want to end with the hope and the promise

that there is a great big, beautiful tomorrow. We will see you in one of those tomorrows in another episode of Walk About the World. Bye, guys. Okay, where is it?