Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - The Walkabout Meta Episode In Magic Kingdom

Episode Date: June 27, 2022

Hello Travelers! This week host Jeremy takes you to Disney's Magic Kingdom for a chatter-filled episode that dives into his personal Disney story, some podcast behind the scenes, and even a chance for you to participate in an upcoming listener feedback episode! We start at Center Street, and talk our way through Adventureland, Fonteirland, Liberty Square, Fantasyland, and end up in Tomorrowland.    This episode is more podcasting with the parks as a backdrop than a typical Walkabout The World ep. This won't be the norm, but we wanted to get a little personal this week and give you some behind the scenes insights into why we love the parks, why we do what we do here, and how much we appreciate you being a part of it all.   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!    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 correspondents Pete at @neverlandlocal and Chaney at @ChaneyHunt.   You can now also drop us at line at [e-mail]. Say hi, give us some suggestions on things you'd love to hear, or even record your own 'Hello Traveler' show open when you are out and about, and we'll work it into a future show!

Well, hello travelers. Welcome back to Walk About the World, a weekly auditory journey in the parks and resorts of Walt Disney World here in Orlando, Florida and in Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Pretty sure you know where we are. But in case you didn't, we're back in Disney's Magic Kingdom, currently standing on Center Street. They have the back area of Center Street closed off. Looks like some construction going on back there,

but we are standing next to Uptown Jewelers and the Crystal Arts across from the Emporium on a busy June day here on Main Street, USA. This is a rare morning episode of Walk About the World. And man, it looks like morning in June. Main Street, USA is jam-packed. Passing Starbucks on the right Main Street

Bakery the Main Street Starbucks Casey's Corner to your left across the way. And Plaza Ice Cream here to the right. Plaza Ice Cream opens at 11 a.m. and it is not yet 11 a.m. And actually that's one of my goals for today. Because fun fact, I just had dental surgery. Yay. And this is day five of not being able to chew anything. So that's amazing. But you know what I can do? I can have ice cream. And I'm planning on doing that today. Haven't done that in a while here. By the way, did you know that Magic Kingdom has a Braille map? It is right across from Plaza Ice Cream before you enter the hub.

That's really cool. We are going to cross the street and head over towards Adventureland. Pass by Casey's. See if we can see a few of our fine feathered friends over here gobbling some french fries makes my heart happy it doesn't make their heart happy but it makes mine ah yes the happy screams of small ones. No ducks in view.

Where did they go? Oh! Looks like the Main Street Band might be about to emerge. Actually going to pause right here in the shade next to Crystal Palace. Actually, they may be retreating. We'll see. We'll give it a moment. While we're here, next to the Crystal Palace, I thought I would actually honor a commitment that I made

a couple of months ago to do a Magic Kingdom episode that's a little meta today. So you're going to have to indulge me or just turn the podcast off, either one. But today is going to be a little meta. I'm going to dive into a little bit of my Disney story and kind of give you a reason for me, at least, why the parks are so special. But before we do that, I have a request for you. So listen up. I have a listener feedback show that I want to do in the very near future. Oh, look, it's a cavalcade. Yeah, it's got who we have here.

Rabbit and Pooh and tigger and that whole crew but I have a listener feedback show that I want to do and here it is here's the premise I want to know in the midst of running to and fro to attractions where you stop in the parks when you want us when you want to relax and watch the world go by for a few. So not like a whole day. I'm not talking about like taking a day at the hotel. I'm saying when you're in the parks, maybe you've got 20 minutes between attractions or you've got an hour lunch break and you want to eat lunch and then just go soak in some of the ambience of the

parks. Where do you go? And let me give you a couple of my examples to kick it off, one of which we did recently. So one of my favorite places to go and just relax and watch the guests angrily stagger by in the heat is the stone bench next to Drinkwalla, where you can procure a ice-cold frozen Coca-Cola and just chill. Another is across from the Carousel of Progress in Tomorrowland. There's a little bunch of trees there directly across from the entrance with a little seating area there, and it's almost never packed, and I love to just hang out there and chill for a while.

And I want to know from you where you go in the parks when you just need a break to relax, hang out, maybe grab a beverage or a treat and just be for a while. And this time, I'm only going to take entries from our email address, so not via social media. And you may ask, why are you doing this? Well, I just want to see. I want to see if you're going to step up to the plate for me here. So contact at walkabouttheworld.com is the email address. Contact at walkabouttheworld.com. Remember, there's two Ts. Walkabouttheworld. So it's contact at walkabouttheworld.com. And to make it easy, if you're listening right now, chances are you're listening on a smartphone device. So in the show notes, by the way, we're headed into Adventureland but in the show notes in the very episode that you're listening to right now

our email address is listed there as a link all you have to do is click it it should open up an email client on your phone and send us an email tell us where you relax in the parks when you do so

and if you're thinking to yourself because I know this is what you're thinking you're thinking I'll let I'll leave that to somebody else no talking to you you click the link send us an email and if you're okay with it we'll read your name and your comment we'll gather all these up and feature them in a listener feedback show very soon Do that for me. Okay. Administrative business aside,

we're going to head into Adventureland and just have a chat. Talk a little bit about my Disney history. I'll keep it brief, and we'll do some cool park ambience along the way. Love this area. We're right underneath the sign right now to Adventureland, right next to Club 33. That tries really hard not to look like Club 33. We see you. We see you, Club 33.

Passing by Buona Bob's. Merchandise location. Was closed for a while. Sunshine Tree Terrace with the orange bird directly ahead. Which I never can remember now. Is it the Dole Whip location or not? I think it's not now, but I never can remember Let's bask for a minute or wallow wallow in the ambience for a minute Isn't it great?

It's already about 88 this morning. Humidity is high, so it feels like about 95. it's that time of year in florida where it feels like you're walking around underwater okay what do we have here at sunshine tree terrace now fried pork and vegetable pot stickers i lava you float i've heard that's really good don't whip an orange Santa and we have a cup of orange cream vanilla chocolate twist dole whip straw okay all kinds of good stuff here Are we going to the rescue level? Are you good? Here's the Jungle Navigation Company Limited Skipper Canteen.

Have you been? We've been a couple of times. We loved it, then we didn't. And we need to go back and give it another try, I think. So we all have a Disney story. And I'll keep mine brief. But I kind of wanted to let you know, for me, why the parks mean so much to me. If you would ask me, are you a Disney fan?

I would have to say, uh, uh, uh. And some of you would ask me, are you a Disney fan? I would have to say, and some of you would be like, what? Are you kidding me? You do a Disney podcast? Well, I'm not Mr. Cynicism and we do not do the Disney cynicism podcast here. There's tons of places where you can get that. Um, but a Disney company fan, I honestly don't know. Generally not a fan of giant global corpse in general. And the Disney Company definitely has some traits and some things about it that I'm not a fan of. By the way, passing Zanzibar Trading Company. Love this little corner. There's some tables tucked back in here in the shade

next to the spitting camel and the magic carpets of Aladdin where you can chill with a frosty dole whip and relax a little bit and the Agrabah Bazaar is directly ahead of us. But I am a Disney Park fan. Unabashed, unapologetic, Disney Parks are my happy place. And I want to tell you a little bit about why that is.

But for me, here it is. My awesome, amazing wife, Heather, and I are high school sweethearts. And we started our life together very much below the poverty line. And by the way, you heard me say a little bit of this when we did the show with Mark Valentine of Diz Life, but there's nothing wrong with being below the poverty line. There's nothing wrong with being below the poverty line. There's no shame. I don't say any of that to be like, hey, that was bad and now is good.

All I'm trying to say is that though there's no shame, being below the poverty line is tough. It's difficult. You still work hard because we did. You work hard, but you struggle. And for those of you in that scenario that listen, dude, I've been there. I love you. You work hard. There's no shame.

And you're amazing. And keep going. But at the time, we could not have even considered coming to a place like this. And that's why I mentioned the fact that we were quite poor. We were not unhappy. We've been happy at all points of our lives. But we could not have thought about visiting a place like Walt Disney World. Because as you know, it's expensive. And so my parents gifted us a trip uh they said hey we're coming down we're

staying at a timeshare and would you guys like to come with us and yes uh yes absolutely the answer is yes so we came down i think in 2000 and if i'm wrong heather will scream at the phone as she listens to this episode but we came down in 2000 with my parents. We stayed in a timeshare, which for us, you know, we've, like, day's in was, you know, where we would stay, and a timeshare, this resort, it was, we just felt incredibly wealthy.

It was amazing. We felt blessed. Hey, there's a traveler that's happy. But we came down, we stayed with them in a timeshare, and we went to Disney. And we went to Magic Kingdom, Epcot. I did not do Hollywood Studios at the time. Yeah, we definitely did Animal Kingdom at the time because it was only two years old. Open in 98. And it was a situation where I hesitate to say life-changing

because it sounds like I'm being over the top, but truly it was a life-changing trip for me because I had not been to a place that was beautiful and curated and manicured and fun and where you could just escape into another reality for a little while. We all talk about immersiveness, and we talk about it in relation to things like Galaxy's Edge, but for me, in in 2000 when I visited the parks I was immersed I didn't need a special land for that I escaped like I was escaping a fairly fairly I don't want to be over the top again like anyway my my normal average everyday existence was was not amazing again we weren't unhappy but work was difficult and a bit discouraging at the

time and we actually lived in a very small and very old single wide mobile home on dirt road and by the way we were glad to have it but you know things weren't incredibly encouraging and you come to this beautiful park and I admit it just it won me over I was just obsessed with it I loved the atmosphere I loved the music I loved I've always loved beautiful plants and plantings I think because somewhere inside me my mind needed it it needed the green and growing things it needed some aesthetic beauty I think my mind just kind of knew I needed these things and I stepped into these parks and felt utterly immersed in happiness and I'm not kidding when I say to you that I felt

a level of joy when we walked around the parks, Animal Kingdom in particular I'll be honest with you, that I hadn't really felt like since I was a kid and that brings me to the main point. In my mid-20s I definitely felt like childhood was far behind and I really never felt that childlike joy ever. Happy? Sure. Like happy on occasion? Sure. But when I stepped into the parks I felt like a kid I felt like just the wonder and the childlike joy and I it was addictive like I wanted that I wanted more of that and when we left that trip went back home I I would place photos that we took from the trip on my work computer as a background some Some of my coworkers would change them to make me angry. But I would just keep that trip in the forefront of my mind

and Heather and I would talk about, we have to find a way to be able to go back again. And understand that when we said that, we had no earthly idea how that would happen. Because again, very little cash and we did end up making some other trips they weren't nearly as frequent as I would have wished but we did end up going back and later on down our journey we became DVC members and our home resort was Saratoga Springs shout out we've since sold that we moved we moved to Florida, we sold it.

By the way, you're standing next to Splash Mountain, if that wasn't incredibly obvious. Watching the guests come down. The ones in the front soaked. But yeah, we were DVC members for a while. And I remember, like many of you probably just I would get the DVC member book that had all the resorts listed in the points and describing the different resorts and experiences and I would set on a cold and nasty January day in West Virginia oh man that dude just got so so holy crap uh good luck pal like there's gonna be some chafing involved

but we we would set on a on a cold and nasty day and look at these DVC materials and plan our next trip and along down the way we had the I would say fortune but it wasn't fortune we just made it happen we moved to Florida we thought hey you know what we could we could retire to Florida or we could just go now and keep working and it was a rough transition I'll be honest with you, but it was so worth it. And we took the chance, we moved to Florida, relocated, got a job down here. And then recently we had the chance to move down to Orlando proper, where we are now. And we can pop in just on an afternoon or an evening if the reservation system will allow us.

I'm not bitter but these parks to me are special they are a place where i can escape they are a place of beauty history i know sounds like a salesman but i'm being honest with you i i'm not a shill for disney company but buddy i will i will be a salesman for the parks all day, every day, with no apology whatsoever. By the way, we are here in Frontierland, Frontier Trading Post across the way, the shooting arcade, and the Diamond Horseshoe coming up. My wife and I want this reimagined here to... Hello, riverboat.

My wife and I want this reimagined when they do the Splash redo for Tiana. We want this to become New Orleans Square. I know, I know. Some of you are like, what? Dude, I get it. Country Bears, that is a historic attraction I would hate to lose. The rest of this though, I mean, come on. Tear some stuff down, make Tiana's Place, put some amazing jazz music in here. Like, really? Come on, let's do this.

But that's kind of it for the meta from my story. I just wanted to let you guys know kind of why when I step into the parks... Oh, one other thing I wanted to mention is that over the years, we, since moving down here when our kids were very... I can't compete with that. Since we moved down here when our kids were very young, we were in the parks with them a lot. And they grew up together with us here, going to the parks. And my kids are now basically 18 and 21. By the way, Chaney is joining our merry band of correspondents.

She's going to be doing some recording. Actually, you will have already heard one of her episodes by the time you hear this. But I grew up with the kids in the parks. And so when I walk around here, even right now, I'm standing in Liberty Square. And I can remember. I can see my little kids walking around with me. I can remember eating at Columbia Harbor House on boiling hot summer days as a retreat. Sorry, I'm just taking a moment. Watching the riverboat come in for the dock. And there's a breeze now let's go over here and watch the boat come in

take a moment that's what we're here for. Standing under a giant magnolia tree for some shade and watching the boat come in. She's a beaut, Clark. When I come here, I've never lost that original sense of wonder that I felt when I walked into these parks in the year 2000. And if we do anything on this podcast, I hope that we can bring a little bit of that to you, wherever you are. I wanted to do this episode in particular because

it kind of feel like for all of us. Sigh. One of my co-workers recently, and you know what? This gentleman just may be listening to this because they've demanded recently that I share the link to the podcast with them. I didn't want to. And if you guys are listening, I'm sorry. I told you.

I told you. But if you are listening, he said in one of our meetings, I think everybody here just needs a hug today. And he's not wrong. And I kind of think that all of us, all of us, are at the point where, man, we just kind of all need a hug. And I would love for this little podcast to be an auditory weekly hug for you guys. We come into the parks, and we just sit back and soak and wallow in the ambience, the atmosphere. Forget being an adult for just a few minutes.

Become a little kid again. Eat some greasy park food. Walk around in 95 degrees after you've ingested a greasy corn dog. Embrace the familiar panicked stomach churn and just relive those wonderful memories. We are next to Small World right now. Anyway, that's enough from me. That is enough from me on the Meta. Thank you for indulging me. Sometimes I think it's just helpful to know where somebody comes from and why they do what they do.

I would love, by the way, to hear your Disney story. And if you wouldn't mind, I would even read it on a future episode. You can send it the exact same way as I mentioned earlier. Email address, contact at walkabouttheworld.com. Tell me your Disney story, a little bit about your history and why you love the parks, why you keep coming back. And if you give us permission, I'd love to read it. Passing by Small World and Pinocchio Village House. I would love to ride Small World today, but I am not going to do that because, man, this park is packed.

And I don't think you want a 40-minute line I know through the magic of editing I could remove that but I don't want a 40-minute line today let's take a little walk we're passing Prince Charming and Regal Carousel and I'm going to head over towards Tomorrowland for no other reason than that's one of my goals today is to hang out over there and just soak in some Tomorrowland sometimes you just need it so moving on from me to actual podcast meta,

there is another thing I wanted to just briefly run by you guys. Because I feel like we joke around about it a lot. We say we're the least ambitious Disney podcast. I want to talk about that very briefly. All of you have tuned out by now, I'm sure. But we say that because we don't promote. We're not out to drive huge listenership or big crowds. We're not trying to make this a career. I would not want this to be a career not trying to be a Disney influencer dude I have a career it's fine this is a passion project for all of us we're a five-person crew now me and Josh and Pete and Rick and Chaney and Heather so

that's six people actually but we we say we're the least ambitious because we don't promote we don't have a patreon we don't promote. We don't have a Patreon. We don't do subscriberships or any of that stuff. But we really do try to bring you quality. And so I wanted to talk about that just so you know when we say what we say what we mean. We have various microphones. Some total cost of which is in the $800 to $900 range, just to be totally transparent because I don't care.

We buy good equipment. And each month, hosting the podcast and processing the audio costs us $40-ish a month. Not a lot, but we're not making money. Every single month we pay money to do this, and we do it because we love it and we love you listening. And so when we say we're the least ambitious podcast, it's because we're not out there trying to make a name. We're just trying to be us. But we do care about the quality of the audio,

about the quality of the content. These episodes, though they may not seem like it sometimes, are edited. Josh has actually started doing editing for us alongside me, and he has some professional experience at that. I do not, so I'm very happy to have him on board. But yeah, guys, your support is you listening to us, and we really appreciate it. And we value your feedback. We value your listenership.

And that's all we're ever going to ask of you. Go on, walk about with us, and relax, and have a good time. And let us know if there's something you think that we could do better or do differently or something that you think you would enjoy and you haven't heard let us know all right enough we are entering tomorrowland we are right next to the teacups raceway straight ahead as I'm sure you can hear. And once again, we are not the Disney cynicism podcast here. But I have to tell you, I have no idea why this attraction exists

in 2022. They could bulldoze this bad boy tomorrow. I would not miss it. It's noisy. It's smelly. It has zero to do with Tomorrowland. I totally don't understand it. And also, why are there 6.3 million people in line for it right now? Why is that?

I don't understand. Maybe you understand, you can tell me. I'm not a fan. I am a fan of Tomorrowland, however. Let's go catch some Tomorrowland ambiance. That's French. Sing it. Because I'm doing the best I can to carry on. I'm not Randy Newman. After that trip that I described to you, as I've mentioned before, I sought out Disney Park tracks, Disney Park tunes, wherever I could. And remember, guys, I am not a youth.

And so back in the day, there wasn't YouTube. I know, that's hard to believe It didn't always exist folks. There wasn't YouTube there. There wasn't lots of places to find these things even the Internet was Still in its infancy in many ways But I found some sources for these tracks. I would listen to them. I would have them on background for work for years So when I walk through the parks and sometimes I catch one of these old classic Tomorrowland tracks

Man, it just makes me happy. It's just endorphins. It's auditory endorphins This is one of them, actually. I mean, right? Right? Tron building in the distance coming right along. Tomorrowland People Mover going directly overhead because we are right next to Star Traders. Across the corner from Anti-Gravity is galactic goodies how can you not love this

right here in the middle of the tomorrowland walkway standing right next to one of the concrete planters. Under the shade of a beautiful live oak tree and they have purple flowering pentas. I said pentas. Stop it. P-A-N-T-A-S. Beautiful pink and purple flowers. Let's head on over to Astro Orbiter area. In the future, you'll be shocked. If you want to visit some traders, you'll find the case. Actually doesn't feel too bad right now. And I know for a fact that it feels like 95. Is this the heat stroke kicking in? Shouldn't joke about that.

Here we're passing the Merchant of Venus, which has to be one of the all-time best names for a merch location ever. I'm going to take a picture of this real quick. Here we are. Rocket Tower Plaza. Is that what this is called? Or is that only Disneyland? Whatever this is. We're here.

Astro Orbiter directly in front. The lunching pad down here, which I need to visit. Actually, I don't even know what they have. Yes, I know. I could just look at the app. But who does that? It's better to come over and look at a right Mickey pretzel wings I don't think I'm doing lunching pad wings Walt's chili and cheese all beef hot dogs once again nothing better on a 95 degree day you do the lunching pad one evening.

Come over here late evening and lunch it up at the lunching pad if it's still open. Guys the line. The line. Oh man. People Mover line is crazy long. Stitch is out over here at the Galactic Gateway across from Astro Orbiter doing whatever it is that Experiment 626 does. Meeting and greeting and dancing and shenanigans.

Now we are right next to the Carousel of Progress. And I have a sneeze coming on. Sorry there. Maybe we'll edit that out. Maybe we won't. I'm going to come over here and take a picture of one of the hangout and relax areas that I mentioned earlier since we're here. And while we're here, we're going to wrap up. Thanks for coming along on a quick morning

Magic Kingdom walk and talk about a little bit of my Disney story. Pausing for the picture here. Yeah. Really appreciate each and every one of you that listen every week.

Look us up, as always, on Instagram at walkaboutwdw. That's our one and only social media outlet where we interact with you guys. Please drop us a note. Also, I've mentioned it several times, but why not again? We now have an email address. You guys can drop us any type of feedback, even if it's just to say hi.

Where you're from, how you found us, when you listen, it's contact at walkabouttheworld.com. We've recently updated our bio link at walkaboutwdw on Instagram. If you click the link in the bio you will find all of our crew you will find links to Spotify and Apple podcast where you can listen you can find us on any of your podcatchers though but look up our producer Josh at the steel with an e look up our West Coast correspondent, Rick Peralta, at Optical Jedi. That's his public account.

Look up our two Walt Disney World correspondents, Pete and Chaney, at Neverland Local and Chaney Hunt, respectively. You can find me at Jeremy underscore Hunt underscore FL on Instagram. I love this track too. If you enjoy what you hear at all, please consider giving us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen. Don't ask that often, but we really do appreciate it. And I do have to say, if you leave us a negative review, make it funny.

If you're going to give us a one or two stars, that's cool. Maybe we earned it. But make it funny. Don't just leave a one star and walk away, because that's lazy. There is a great, big, beautiful tomorrow out there. We say that at the end of every podcast because it is a mantra I repeat to myself to remind me that even in some dark times, there's hope.

And we, we have a part in creating that hope, in creating that positive future. So be good this week. Be well. We love you. Have a great week everybody