Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Epcot Walkabout To Communicore West and Living With The Land With Host Jeremy

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Hello Travelers! Join host Jeremy this week for a walkabout in Epcot, particularly the area formerly known as Future World. We take a stroll through World Celebration Gardens, and then do a full tour and breakdown of the newly reopened Communicore West area. After that, we wander over near ImageWorks, and finally take in a ride on the one and only Living With The Land.   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.

Hey, welcome back to Walk About The World. Hello, travelers. And good morning from Epcot Center. Our fellow travelers are streaming in. And as soon as I came through the tap styles, I was blown away by the sea of Agapanthus to the right. There is a long planter bed that is lined on both sides with blooming pink crepe myrtles. Absolute full bloom. And as a matter of fact, so much bloom that the little petals off of the blooms are falling like snow. And everything under these things looks like a pink snowstorm.

And then all around these trees is just a sea of purple blooming agapanthus looking straight up to the grand and miraculous spaceship Earth. It is just a beautiful, glorious morning. Little scenes, little vignettes like this are one of the most magical pieces of Epcot, in my opinion. You can just come in and have a moment. Deep breath in. And out. Ah. and out. I'm going to wander up by the fountain here.

Go underneath Spaceship Earth. I want to check out the new Interventions West area, which just opened. Spend a little time up there near Dreamers Point and World celebration gardens just wander around have a good time if you're here I'm assuming you're cool with that so let's go let's go take in a little bit of the fountain ambience, shall we? Breathe in the chlorine. Can you smell it? I love it okay

come with me we're going under the spaceship earth we're going to head towards the right. Creations Connections would be to your left. We're going to head over towards the right, towards World Celebration Gardens, and check out what's going on up there. Let's go. I'm going to show you the main entrance. Spaceship Earth line is packed, which is what you can expect first thing in the morning. walk in and just get in line. All right, we've reached the top of the hill near the end of the Spaceship Earth building, and you know what we have to do. If you're an Epcot traveler you turn around and look at the beautiful spaceship earth behind you I'm standing in the shade this is going to be

one of those uh go from shade spot to shade spot days it was feels like 103 yesterday and gonna be about that today too. In the 90s, feels like hundreds. Here we go. Sign here on the side of the Spaceship Earth building at the end, Project Tomorrow, Inventing the Wonders of the Future. I just love this stuff. I just love all of the crazy futurism and enthusiasm and bubbling positivity of old Epcot.

The little pieces that remain make me happy. Okay, here we are at World Celebration. And guys... Okay. I'm not going to make this a super blabby episode, but let's, let's, let's have a little chat. Ooh, chartreuse and maroon bed of coleus here to my left, in a, what looks like a rusty metal garden bed. It looks incredible. I know, I know. It's plants. I dig them. So, we're here at the very top of World Celebration Gardens, Dreamers Point, just about 10 yards away, where you can take a picture with the Walt statue. And off to the right is the new, well, what was old and now is new again, CommuniCorps West.

And so, I just wanted to say that for the first time in a great many years, since I have been here personally, there are no walls. Guys, like, I don't even care what they built. I don't even care what they built. I don't even care what's here. I mean, I do. We'll talk some about it. But the fact that there are no walls just makes me all sorts of happy. It felt like it would never be anything other than Walcott forever.

There's a show going on down there, which is why I'm hiding up here in the periphery a little bit, because I don't think we'll be able to hear each other. But let's wander down through World Celebration Gardens, and then we'll head over to the right towards Communicore West and see what's going on down there. Let's go. Being a plant guy, I have to say that I love the fact that World Celebration Gardens is now a thing. What used to be just a lot of concrete,

now has a lot of beautiful trees and plantings, and it just makes the area seem more calm. It makes you want to pause, where before it kind of encouraged you to march on. The only thing I miss is my beautiful Fountain of Nations RIP. Okay, here we go.

We are down here next to what used to be the Fountain of Nations, which is now a planter bed that desperately needs some kinetic water energy. Dude, whatever is going on over here is loud okay off we go here we go cover your ears That's right, it's an Encanto Halloween. Mírame a Pluto! Pluto! Colombia, I love you so much.

Your name has a charm. From other countries, you are the best people. Colombia, you are so beautiful. Mother nature gave you a way of being. Colombia, I play, play, play! With what I love so much. ¡Vamos a ver! ¡Vamos a ver! ¡Vamos a ver! ¡Tú me amé!

¡Tá baila Camilo, you know! ¡Best one ever! Muito bem! Oh, you know what? I didn't have an idea. Why don't we do a conga line behind me? Come on, guys. Come on, guys. Come on, guys. Epcot, let me hear you clap your hands. Clap, clap, clap. Okay. So, I'm a fan.

Live music, always a fan. Brings life into the park spaces. Give you a minute or two more. Here we go. ¶¶ Thank you. Hola, everyone. At this time, our fiesta has come to an end, and Abuela needs Isabel and Bruno back at the casino. We hope you had a wonderful time with us at Celebración Encanto, and that you enjoy the rest of your day here at Epcot.

Adios! Hola a todos! Nuestra fiesta ha terminado, y abuela necesita que Mirabel y Bruno regresen a su casita. Esperamos que hayan disfrutado de un rato maravilloso con nosotros en Celebración Encanto, y que disfruten el resto de su día en Epcot. Yeah, I love it. So,

Communicore West. Not going to be that Epcot guy that disparages everything new definitely I would say I wish there was a bit more to it but I'm going to be happy with no walls and what we have and it does look really nice over here the flow is really nice

I love the fact that there is so much seating and honestly quite a lot of shade. And all of that was absent from the old future world on Epcot. It was a lot of concrete and a lot of places for which you could baste. In which you could baste. So, I'm currently sitting over here in the shade of one of the new big magnolia trees. And even though it's quite hot,

it's not bad over here. Let's take a little walk, see what we can see over here in Communicore West. Alright, first off, let's take a right and go over towards Mickey and Friends. First thing to notice about the design of these buildings is that the exterior walls all have the same exact triangular structure as Spaceship Earth. Some you can see through, some are colored, some are opaque, some are opaque, some are white. And I believe at night there's a lot of lighting and color to be had on these exteriors. Here we are at the Mickey and Friends building.

Colorful painting of our favorite dino figment or filament over here on the wall the acrobats are performing across the way in World Celebration Garden over at the other little stage so if you go to the right of the Mickey and Friends building it leads you over at the other little stage. So if you go to the right of the Mickey and Friends building it leads you over towards the land. I'm going to turn back around.

As a fellow lover of ambience I have to say there are speakers everywhere over here now we are at the rear of the new stage area which is definitely a permanent fixture here raised circular concrete stage with sorry dodging some traveler with a roof overhead so it's shaded under here Lots of tables out here also shaded. You have some restrooms over here. And you have a central pavilion, plaza, etc. With lots of little white umbrellas. You can take some shade underneath. And some tall spires that have lighting for the stage and I'm guessing for the area at night. The fact that the music continues even after the show is nice.

It just adds some liveliness to the area. After this show leaves, I'm not sure what will happen next, but I'm betting this will always be a thing. Oh, what's over here? Festival Favorites. What is that? Oh, it's a walk-up. I don't know if this is like a festival food booth now, or if it's just for this little area,

but you can get cheese stuffed arepas, coconut tresleches, all kinds of goodies. Monorail Peach going by again in the distance distance and i have to tell you from over here okay i'm really happy about this because from where i stand the festivals are not the festival stage but the community course stage is behind me along with that little walk-up eatery the plaza area it's big open concrete and astroturf plaza area it's's big open concrete and AstroTurf plaza area. It's very much like a castle hub type experience. It's over to your left where you can just hang out. You can chill. Whenever they have big shows, I'm guessing this place will be packed. There's people just hanging out,

sitting down, watching the show. And then ahead of me here, you can see straight through to Imageworks and the upside down water fountains. And then over to the right, directly to my right, is what is now called Communicore Hall. Again, same exterior design. The triangular surfaces, these are in bright blue and green and white. And it just opens the whole area up. Big planter beds with palms, with some beautiful bird of paradise.

Let's duck into Communicore Hall. Weirdly also, this is very Disney Springs reminiscent. This is this area that we're in right now. Feels very Disney Springs right here. Communicar Hall. There's not much here, not much going on here, but it is beautifully air conditioned. It's beautiful inside, very reminiscent of the creation shop. All the Epcot flags are in here. Wooden ceiling.

Very clean look. And loads of tables to chill. And say what you want, but Epcot really needed that. Especially in this area. Not a lot of areas to sit down in the cool and this is going to be really nice again yes i do wish there was more to be had but i'm going to be happy about that you come in here on a steamy day and you can just go in there and hang out for a little bit cool off get ready to hard charge again

all right because I'm a good boy I'm gonna take a drink of water I'm gonna put you down gently right back ah got a hydrate got a new trait you know it okay so Jeremy's takeaway is I have no complaints I understand if uh if you are a person who has been a traveler to Epcot for many years, I certainly could, if I wanted to, complain about what could have been done maybe, or what's a hit, what's a miss. But honestly, this is a very beautiful, relaxing area that I think is going to find

its own way. Instead of just being a, um, a place that you would just stomp through on your, on your way to World Showcase, I think this is going to become a place where you get a drink. You, uh, maybe go over to, um, the Coke store and grab yourself a beverage or you go to, um, the little walk-up counter over here and get yourself a bite to eat, head over to Communicore Hall and calm down and chill down. And then if there's a show taking place, you can hang out here on this, for lack of a better term, like Communicore Hub.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm going to find out what they call this. Matter of fact, I'm going to go ask. One moment. Okay. Well, with the sound of the upside-down waterfalls in the distance, right in front of you, I found out a bunch of information from a lovely cast member here. And, okay, so first off, this area is called Communicore Plaza encompasses the whole area around the stage and all the way out here towards the walkway that goes around Imageworks and out towards the World Showcase and it's actually raised up over here there are seats

all the way to the back and then I found out some cool stuff from her about Communicore Hall she says I have some Communic Corps Hall information if you want it. And I'm like, of course I do. She says that right now, obviously, it's just a cool-down place with tables. But as you walk in, so you can tell that I'm looking here at the front of Communicore Hall, just facing it, when you walk in, it's obviously a long, slightly curved, like a slightly outward bent U-shape of a hall. But towards the right, there's a lot more building. You can just tell from the outside. And so she says very soon, not sure when, over towards the right, they will open these areas up. There will be two big glass walls with double doors. One of them will be a mixology kitchen, and the other will be what she calls a creative kitchen.

So I don't know exactly what the guests will do. I don't know if it'll just be a place where you can walk in and order things or you can participate. I'm not sure. But she says there's also a really cool statue that she can't tell me about, but she thinks is confirmed at this point that's coming in there. I have no earthly idea what that might be. The last thing she says is that there are going to be rotating art galleries. I'm not sure exactly how that will work, but inside the hall here, there's going to be art on a regular basis. So I'm sure that will please producer Josh. Oh, the last detail here, I guess not about Communicore Hall, but she says, um, the stage is definitely permanent here at Communicore Plaza. The shows will be rotating. She did say that

Encanto will be here for quite a while. Um, but the shows will rotate and also the food offerings over here at the little counter service walk-up will change with the show. So I'm kind of pleased with all that. Let's take a walk over towards Imageworks. Take a walk around some of the water. I'm just feeling some water energy today. And then I think I'm going to end up on the land because it's been a little minute since your humble host has experienced his favorite ride. And I think that's needed today. I think we'll just stay in Future World.

And yes, I'm going to call it Future World forever. So whatever. Beautiful new sign ahead showing that imagination, the land, the seas, journey of water is straight ahead. Hi. Can you help me in that? Image works to your left and the still quiet pools to your right and in the far right distance Spatial Perth. So much more pleasant and open. All of the sight lines are now clear. Oh man, I just after seeing walls for I don't remember how many years now it's just incredible not to have them here imagination building straight ahead and reds and oranges and yellows and glass

up top the dbc lounge been up there once via a friend super nice up there. Time for another deep breath. And out. out All right, up here at the top of the waterfall. The pool, man I just love it. Soak this in a minute. So The only thing that this is missing is some shade. It is so hot here right now. Okay, that's awesome and pleasant but I have to retreat. Hear that?

Hear that? One of the only places in the park where you can hear original ambience over here by the land. Don't get any more old school than that. Ba, ba, ba. You can just feel the early 80s. All right, one does not simply walk past the land sign with the flowing water, so let's come check it out. Let's go. I like the smoothie and the pretzel idea trash cans here have the land written on them entering the building and delicious AC in three two so nice smell all the food from sunshine seasons down below garden grill across the way

this whole building just makes me happy and the living with the landline looks pretty packed which hey you know what that makes me happy too Okay, let's work our way down. I'll meet you down at the ride. Welcome to a voyage of discovery and awareness, of the richness, the diversity, and the often surprising nature living with the land. Our journey begins as dramatic and sudden changes are sweeping over the land. The approaching storm may seem violent and destructive to us, but to nature it's a new beginning in the cycle of life. I needed this, guys. Underneath the surface of the land, roots trap water from the flowing mud, extracting precious nutrients and minerals. These elements, when combined with sunlight, create the diverse living systems is the rainforest, home to the most amazing concentration of

life on our planet. These dense and beautiful forests cover only a tiny portion of the Earth's surface, but they contain more than half of its prey or animals. Rainforests are also extremely rich in productive living systems providing us with oxygen, food, medicine and other elements essential to our lives. Today, we're learning to live with the land, discovering better ways to grow food that will assure both human and environmental well-being. In our region, we're learning to consume the leaves and other living materials into our soil, we can make farmland more fertile without the need for chemicals.

Here at Epcot, we're learning to reduce the need for chemical pesticides by breeding and It's like a lane box. While there are more than 50,000 edible plant species in the world, most of us are only familiar with the handful that make up our everyday diet. The common grains growing here, wheat, maize, sorghum, and millet, plus rice, account for nearly two-thirds of our global food consumption. Learning how to increase yields of these stables is an important goal of research around the world. These greenhouses represent just a fraction of the work being done worldwide to produce bountiful harvests for our growing population. Scientists, farmers, and even backyard gardeners are doing their part to improve the quantity

and quality of foods that we all rely upon. Together, we can continue to find more ways to increase food production and protect our precious natural environment. Only then will we truly be living with the land. On behalf of Walt Disney World, we hope you've enjoyed this unique journey through our living laboratories. If you'd like a closer look, then check out the Behind the Seeds walking tour. It's a chance for the whole family to get up close and personal with the plants and

growing techniques in our laboratory. Please keep your hands and feet inside the boat and remain seated until the boat comes to a complete stop. Always a good day when you can ride living with the land. And as a connoisseur and absolute freaking champion of the land, which is the best attraction in all of Walt Disney World, I will accept no arguments, I noticed some things.

Like, for instance, when you are at the area where you hear about the hooves of the Disney World, I will accept no arguments. I noticed some things. Like, for instance, when you are at the area where you hear about the hooves of the mighty buffalo, you turn to the right, and in the distance, you can see, like, what looks like to be fires in the fields, wildfires. That entire scene used to look kind of dirty and faded and dated, and it looks like it's had a refresh to me.

The lights are crisp and nice. The audio on the boat that we were just on, as you heard, was loud and clear. And a lot of those boats have had issues with speakers, so I'm hoping they're doing some slow refurbishments to this guy because he's the best. Don't you just love this? I'm sorry.

Seated here in a quiet area just around the corner from the land pavilion i can actually see the land sign right now that has the water water flow behind it it's at the confluence here between a couple of these large old concrete planter beds and it's just kind of nice and secluded over here i feel like you're in a little forest as we always, let's give a shout out to our patrons here. Really appreciate all of you. We're going to start out with those at the Beautiful Tomorrow level, and that is Beck Castle, Bill and Erin Zeese, Ryan E. Grant, Derek at Satisfactual Sign Company,

John Hamilton, Meredith Izzo, Hannah Ginn, David Krause, Jessica Davis, Lindsay O'Connell, Courtney Otter, Cara Louise Moody, Laurie B., and Randall Lynch. At the Living Laboratory level, we have Debbie Gambala, Eric Steinhauer, Josh Nakano, and James Beacham. If you would like to support us on Patreon, you can do so at patreon.com slash walkabout WDW.

Just a little tour of Future World today. I know. It's not called that anymore, but it's Future World. Back here at the fountain. Clear day. The prisms look beautiful. Thank you so much for following along today, hanging out with us. And if you are new to our happy little band, this is what we do.

We call ourselves the Least Ambitious Disney Podcast. We are the slow TV of the podcast world here. This is what we like. And I know if you come down here on a vacation, you have to make the most for your ticket price. I totally understand that. We have the blessing of being flea-bitten, privileged locals, and I completely understand that that isn't the case

for a great many of the people who listen. But what I do hope we offer you is a chance to pop into the park sometimes at work or on a run or on your way to the grocery or whatever you're doing and just get a little taste of these places that we love so much. I found that, you know, after vacationing here for many years, not living here, during that time, when, when I was away from the parks, the things that I missed were often not the attractions. Obviously I love them, but like living with the land, we did it today, but

I just missed the little mental vignettes, just the little pieces of time, the moments, the little pictures that on a rough day at work work I would cast my mind's eye back and just think man that was nice and that is basically the idea behind this podcast is capturing those moments seeing what we can see with our ears taking a nice relaxing walk in the park occasionally taking in an attraction but overall just enjoying these. Hopefully we bring that to you in a way that you can appreciate and makes your day a little bit happier. Look us up on Instagram, which is our one and only place on social media at walkaboutwdw. Please give us a message there.

We read every one of them. Anytime you guys send us a message, we share it with all of the hosts. You can also reach out to us via email at contact at walkabouttheworld. Drop us a line there. Same story. We share it with all the hosts. You can go to walkabouttheworld.com, which is kind of our drop everything, drop links to everything place on the internet.

So you can find links to places you can listen. You can find links to get a Walkabout t-shirt, if you like, featuring art by the incredible producer, Josh. Just soaking it in folks ah okay Jeremy wind it up buddy okay so that's it for me that's it from Epcot that's it from us here at Walk About the World this week as always we end by saying there's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow out there. I believe it.

I hope you believe it. We will see you in one of those tomorrows on another episode of Walk About the World. Bye, everybody. Thank you.