Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Disney's Port Orleans Resort Walkabout On A Thundery Day With Host Jeremy

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

Hello Travelers! Join host Jeremy this week for a meandering tour of Disney's Port Orleans Riverside resort on a blustery and thundery day!   If you like what we do, consider joining our crew on Patreon. These wonderful people help us keep the microphones crisp and the servers warm at night.   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, welcome back. To walk about the world, you can hear my squeaky shoes. Ha ha ha ha. about the world, you can hear my squeaky shoes. Welcome back to Disney's Port Orleans Resort. Trying not to be too loud here because other guests are around, but we are here at Port Orleans Riverside

for a meandering stroll on a rainy, thundery, blustery, topsy-turvy day. Can you hear the thunder? Not sure what we'll get into. Whatever we get into will probably involve an umbrella. But come with me, dear travelers, and let's have a walk around. Squeak, squeak, squeak.

Is that going to get annoying? Starting to rain again. Can you hear it? Deep breath in and out ah standing next to the arcade looking across the way towards the riverside levee where the

boats come and go. They're currently docked because of thunder. Water tower directly in front of me, and across the Sasagula are the big mansions, as it were. It's just darn peaceful here right now. I find myself coming here more and more often because this resort, more than many of the others, allows me to personally escape. Sometimes you go to a resort and it's just, you know, even though it may be beautiful, it's packed and busy and active and sometimes that's what you want. but Port Orleans just, man, from the deep south atmosphere and design and the use of water and being surrounded by water

and the plantings and the long tree-lined walkways, just everything about this place kind of sets my soul at ease. And so I often come down here just for a brief little break like we're doing today. Thunder. Okay, let's go. Standing next to the Sasassagula river now the dark wooden bridge that leads from this side over to where the the mansion looking portion of the resort is is directly ahead

light rain falling and some distant thunder and it's kind of perfect. It is 82 glorious degrees right now. And it's August in Central Florida and it feels like 102 this morning at 10 a.m. sassagulla is dark and glassy no boats only thing interrupting the surface is the slight droplets of rain. I hope the mic picks up this distant thunder because it's great. So I've been thinking, do I walk down towards French Quarter, which is my usual thing to do, or do we go the other way over by the pool and pick up some riverside vibes, and I think that's what we're going to do. So to my right is French Quarter, to my left leads back towards the levee and the lobby and all of that.

And then in the far distance is Alligator Bayou, all that good stuff back there. So I think that's where we're going to head. Let's go. A lot of crows for some reason. Here we are back at the lobby area. Boatwrights Dining Hall straight ahead. River Roost to the left and the Riverside Mill to the right. Not many folks around because the rain has chased them away. We've got this place to ourselves.

The water taxis, the Sasagula Steamboat Company boats, currently still. And we're going to take a left around the dining hall here. Go visit the water wheel. Come on. So So This is what you get with some of the older resorts. They just have so much character. Lovely water wheel and a sluice feeding into it. Sounds good. It looks good. Love it back here.

Thunder's still thundering. We've crossed the bridge from where we were at the water wheel over to Old Man Island. Do you know the backstory of Old Man Island? It was settled in 1835 by a young man. The island became his home in solitude of the bayou country. Years later, as Riverside was settled and prospered,

Old Man Island was discovered by the children of the town, and they would steal away to play there. Pool over here is shut down also because of the storming, but we are going to head over towards the Muddy Rivers Bar and the Alligator Bayou area. Magnolia Bend, that's what I was thinking about.

The area across the river is Magnolia Bend. I think we'll venture over there eventually, but for just a few, let's dodge the storms and head over to Muddy Rivers. Come on. All the years I've been down here, I didn't ever visit Muddy Rivers until like a month ago. I came over here with Pete, an Everland local. And wow, what an amazing spot

uh-huh Muddy River is kind of full makes sense people are seeking out a place to be now when Pete and I were over here recently, it was literally us and like two other people. But there is a crowd in there right now and I don't want to interrupt them, so I'm not going to just stroll through the middle. Can you hear the rain? Can you hear the rain? Wind's picking up a little bit. Umbrella may need to come out soon. But we are here at the fishing hole, which is right past the Muddy Rivers Bar, and it's a lovely building, first off. It looks like an old Deep South fish camp if you're aware of what such a thing is and you can actually

pay and do some fishing over here but right now it's closed down but it says you can catch bass and brim tell the folks back home about the one that got away at the fishing hole it's $6.39 per half hour. That is a very strangely specific number. And $15.98... Wait, hang on. Oh, I see, I see. $6.39 per half hour per pole and $15.98 per family.

Sweet! $15.98 per family. Sweet. Here we are back at the Riverside Mill. Directly behind us is Alligator Bayou building number 14, which incidentally is the closest building you can get to the lobby and the food court if you're staying in the Alligator Bayou area, for those of you that plan. We're passing the water wheel once again. So we've done a long looping left turn. Okay. Mmm, okay. Let's take a little spin over towards Magnolia Bend. I'm going to get out my umbrella. Surely that's no problem in a thunderstorm, right? Yeah.

Here we go. You guys watch out for me. Here we are Magnolia Terrace There's a column lined entrance To the building up to Up to the far left. Oh, hello. Far left distance.

River to our right. And there is a... Sorry, soaking it in. Big old lightning. There's a gazebo here. Not sure if you guys have ever stopped for a moment here, but it is... Oh, there it goes. That's what we're talking about. Yes, Mom, I'm trying to be safe.

Love myself some thunder, though. I love this gazebo because you can sit here. There are two white benches and you can be out of the weather out of the sun out of the rain and you can look right across to the levee where the boats come and go you're on the other side of the river from where all of that is where we just were and it's very peaceful large magnolias lining the river here moss growing on the sides of them just peaceful as can be the river here. Moss growing on the sides of them. Just peaceful as can be.

Let's take a little stroll further on down. Squeaking our way along here in the thunder sign that says watch out for surrey bike traffic beautiful sprawling crape myrtle trees here another entrance to magnolia terrace we're going to keep going now Beautiful sprawling crape myrtle trees here. Another entrance to Magnolia Terrace. We're going to keep going now.

That bolt was a little intense. Here it comes. now we are under a live oak canopy stretches all the way across the walkway and we're going to take a left onto a red brick pathway leading back into this horseshoe area. And towards a water feature. Because, raining or not, we've got to do it. The upper left part of this U-shaped area is a lovely little water feature. Let's take some of that in, along with the thunder. A live oak canopy all the way over top

of this entire courtyard area. Ah. Ah. So I said courtyard, but really this is a large grassy lawn surrounded on three sides by large mansion type buildings. And reaching towards the middle from either side large live oak trees they're common here they're evergreen incredibly sturdy

they used to make the keels of wooden ships out of them because they are tough as steel. I am going to take a left here and head back towards the bridge, the most familiar wooden bridge that leads back over towards the lobby area. Because the lightning is getting a bit intense, and your stalwart host is brave but not foolish. So let's head back across the river towards the arcade building. storm or no storm that bird is like I'm singing my heart out.

Alright, we are currently passing the Oak Manor section and the bridge is to our right. If you pass the bridge, you enter Parterre Place. So let's take a right and go across the bridge. A few other travelers out here. Wow. That is the most impressive lightning bolt I've seen yet.

We're going to have to pause to hear this one. See how far it is. Not far enough. That's why we're retreating. The lobby is straight ahead and around the bend here, as it were. But we're going to duck into the arcade. And the arcade here is my favorite arcade myself josh neverland local pete heather we've all been down here many times a lot of fun i love skeeball i adore skeeball and they have skeeball here they have it french quarter too

um some great pinball. Okay, okay. I get it. I'm going inside. Okay. Finally. Finally. Back to relative safety and civilization. Terima kasih telah menonton! Miss Pac-Man, Galaga, Space Invaders, pinball, skee-ball, all kinds of racing games, whatever you're after.

It's a pretty large arcade. Love it in here. so And we are in the Riverside Mill food court where I just devoured an unhealthy but delicious chicken nugget meal. My favorite. My cardiovascular system is angry at me but my tummy is happy we're going to wind it up here but before we do let's give a shout out to our wonderful patrons at the beautiful tomorrow level we have bett castle bill and aaron zeese brianie grant derrick

at satisfactual sign company john hamilton meredith iso hannah gen david kraus jessica davis At the Living Laboratory level, we have Debbie Gimbala, Eric Steinhauer, Josh Nakano, and James Beacham. We so appreciate every single one of you. We are completely and only supported by our patrons. We don't have ads. We don't have sponsors. We don't intend to. And the fact that you guys take some of your hard-earned money and send it our way each month means a lot.

We always appreciate it. We're always grateful. Thank you so much. And that is it for me today. That's it from Port Orleans today and from Walkabout the World. If you haven't already, look us up on Instagram at walkaboutwdw. Give us a follow there. Send us a message, if you will. Introduce yourself. Say hi. Our entire group reads every single one of them we always respond you can also drop us a line at contact at walkabouttheworld.com via email if you so desire and look us up on

the internets at walkabouttheworld.com You can find links there to all kinds of stuff, including some of our most popular episodes, attraction ride-throughs, and links where you can buy yourself a Walk About the World t-shirt or Walk About the World cap. It's bustling in here today. We're in view of the water wheel from inside this time.

It's raining outside. It's kind of dark. It's cozy in here. Perfect place to wind up the day. Thanks for going along with me on this little stroll through Port Orleans Riverside. In a thunderstorm, of all things. Appreciate you. And as always, there is a great, big, beautiful tomorrow out there.

Hope you believe it. I believe it. See you in one of those tomorrows on another episode of Walk About the World. Bye, everybody. Thank you. so Thank you. © transcript Emily Beynon Thank you.