Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Walkabout the Seven Seas Lagoon with Host Ivonne

Episode Date: March 8, 2026

Hello Travelers! This week join host Ivonne for a walk around the Seven Seas Lagoon. You'll start your trip by monorail heading from Epcot to the TTC where you'll then walk to the Polynesian Resort and Island Tower to enjoy a tropical beverage. Then you'll walk to the Grand Floridian and Contemporary Resorts before returning to Epcot as the fireworks conclude.   Walkabout the World is now on TikTok! Come follow our visual companion to the audio podcast at Walkabout.the.world.pod on TikTok   Visit us 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!   Look us up at @WalkaboutWDW on Instagram and drop us a note to say hi.

Hello, travelers, and welcome to another episode of Walk About Walt Disney World. And if you think you heard me leaving Epcot, you're correct. Actually, I'm leaving Epcot. And I'm sure this is a surprise to those of you who think I never leave Epcot. I wish I never could. But we're going to do something a little bit different, something I like to do every once in a while, especially on a beautiful day like this. It's a chilly, about 60 degrees right now.

And it's perfect weather to just take a lap around the Seven Seas Lagoon. So that's what I'm going to do. But since I'm parked at Epcot, I'm going to hop on the monorail first. And luckily, as I was walking out, I saw the monorail coming in. So by the time I reached the platform, it should be there. So you might have heard it as I was leaving the park. You might have heard that very familiar sort of electric hum of it gliding by. so, but I'm trying to see if I can get to the top quickly enough that I can make it.

I think I'll be fine. I also love the Epcot Monorale platform because he gets some beautiful views of spaceship from up here. So if you've ever done it, it's good just to take a picture. Right, and I'm on the platform, and the monorail has just arrived, so perfect timing. For anyone wondering, it is Monorail, by the way. It's not my favorite color monorail, but she's up there. All right, we're on the monorail.

Good after you and everyone will have to gore of a barrel of black. We'll be the transportation in ticket center. If you're standing, we're slowly looking around since you're not leaving it down. Okay, so we are now at the electric belong. Take your walker on the end.

As you exit, we go to your house. We're going to go to your house. We're going to work. Okay, so we are now at the TTC and I'm just going to start my walk around the resort. So I think from here I'm just going to start walking to the pollination. Also, for those of you that are unaware, but in the evenings now, they have started running the

monorails, the resort, and the express monorail. They've started running them in the same direction in the evenings. And so I have quite unsuccessfully tried to be on a monorail while they're racing each other. And I've seen videos of it online. I know it's a thing that can happen. It just hasn't happened for me. Like I haven't even seen them racing as I'm just walking around. So that might be something I try tonight.

We'll see. But yeah, that's one of the things I'm trying to like check off my list, like of the little things that I want to do in my head at Disney World. And it seems so insignificant and kind of dumb. But it's something I want to happen. So I'm just going to keep trying. But every time I do, it's like right as we're leaving, the one's pulling in the station,

or if we're leaving the station, the other one's leaving too, but they just don't get enough speed to catch up. It's a whole thing. It's going to happen when I least expect it. But, you know, I've tried a few times where I've just been on the monorail and I'll just go around like five times, and they never line up. So, anyways, that's my rant about that.

So I'm exiting from the TTC, and like I said, I'm just going to walk to the Polynesian. The weather's so pretty. And it's not that far of a walk, honestly. It's a lot easier to do this than to actually take the monorail. So I've made it to the Polynesian, and it is terrifically quiet here. I know that, you know, when it comes to podcasting or sort of an audio medium, the silence, maybe it's not that great.

But you can kind of hear just the leaves rustling. It's like a gentle breeze. the sun's out. But what you can't see is that since in Florida we've had some pretty, pretty chilly days, including the what we had a couple of weeks ago, that if you are on social media, you may have seen pictures of the fountains frozen over in some of the resorts and in the parks. But where you can still see sort of the effect of it is in the landscaping. So here at the Polynesian right now, I'm looking at it and there are just huge swaths of the landscaping that it's brown and dead from the freeze. So, you know, kind of sad looking, but it's mother nature, what can you do? And I will say that I remember seeing the weather forecast, and they said that that was the coldest day we've had since 2010. So I guess we were overdue. And the grand scheme of themes, too, I have friends that live up north.

and they're dealing with inches and inches of snow and just being homebound. So I really can't complain too much that I'm here getting to walk around in chilly weather on a beautiful day in Disney World. So I'm going to make my way to the grand ceremonial house. Maybe get a drink. I don't know. I'm kind of playing it by ear today.

Good. How are you? Good. I'm great. So I actually haven't done like a full walk around the lagoon in a very long time because they were building the new DVC Polynesian Tower for a while and that in the walkway from here to the ground floor was locked off.

So now that it's open we can actually sort of do the full circle, not completely because you can't walk from the contemporaries TTC. But you can do a pretty good lap. So that's what I'm going to do today. Passing by the Tanger a terrorist on the left side here.

I absolutely love this building. I wish they would do more with it. I recently went to the Mai Chi, which is this historical Tiki bar slash restaurant that's in Fort Lauderdale. It's absolutely beautiful. If you

enjoy the level of theming here at the Polynesian and you love Tiki bars, things like that, definitely make your way to the Mai Chi. It's fantastic. But sitting in there, I was just like, they should have something like this in the Polynesian because I dare say that the theming in that restaurant was better than some of the stuff here at Disney World.

And I was thinking to myself, I wish they would put something like that in the tangoeroa terrace and really like use it and open up a nice little space here. But I digress. But the building is still beautiful at least. I love looking at it every time I pass by. And I live seeing like the goofy faces that are on the roofs. So I'm sort of walking around the Grand Ceremony House.

She's kind of like checking out, you know, the site scene. There's anything different. One big thing was they got rid of all of those tables that are right outside of Captain Cooks. And, yes, it's very, very jarring and interesting. There's a lot of space for activities now. So kind of passing by the pool area, you can see, you can probably hear the waterfalls in the park.

background and then the waterfall and sort of the outdoor Trader Sam's seating area. They got the heaters out. So I'm going to continue my walk from the Polynesian over to the Grand Floridian. So I'm kind of going out those doors ahead from Trader Sam's to the outdoor part down those steps. And here's a little sort of free priest of trivia for you. But the building that's directly to the left, the one that sits right by the water or that faces the water, I should say. The Tonga building, that is the building where John Lennon signed the papers that officially marked the breakup of the Beatles. So now whenever you're here with friends or family, you can annoy them with that fact, just the way that I have annoyed countless people with that fact,

and now I pass it on to you. And I came from my good friend, Brian Miles, who is just a retrodozen BDW podcast. And so now we are spreading the information far and wide, and we're educating each other about these historical sort of things that happened here on Disney World Property. Just the same way that Nixon delivered the I Am a Crook speech in the ballroom of the Americas at the contemporary. So another thing that you can annoy your friends and family with more

useless or useful facts depending on how you look at them. So we're making our way from the original Polynesian buildings, and I am passing up the new Polynesian tower, the DVC tower, that's on, just right on the Seven Seas Lagoon. So right in front of me, I'm seeing the Cove pool, and then I'm seeing the new tower to my left. So it's actually quite pretty inside, and I will say that the restaurant that's outdoors here, it's actually quite good. I've only been once, but the food was great, and the view is beautiful.

So I'm passing up, like I said, the co-pool, which is the pool with also a cute sort of kids play area that has Moana on her boat. And the restaurant that's out here that I was talking about is called Walulu Bar and Grill. And there is a little sort of bar area outside if you just want to do that. But like I said, there is a restaurant too, and they have indoor and outdoor seating. But for my money, the outdoor seating is the best. So if you're on a day with particularly nice weather, the outdoor seating is absolutely gorgeous. You get a beautiful view of the castle from the seating. and if you time it quite right, or just right, you'll probably get a really good view of, like,

the electrical water pageant or the fireworks in the evening, so highly recommend it. I decided to get a drink at the Walulu bar since I was here, since I haven't been here in a long time, so I'm trying the Passion Fruit Garibaldi, and she'd warn me that it's bitter, which I'm fine with. I like bitter and sour drinks, so we'll see. Thank you. Yep, and then I'll give it a mix, because then it's like a cloud. Okay. All right, thank you. Thank you.

We go to the op-ed. It is so pretty. Oh no! Oh no, I'm making these. That's beautiful. It's so pretty though. It's like swirly orange and red. She told me to give it a mix, which I will, for sure.

I'm going to take a picture at first. It is nice. I love a bitter sour drink, so this is right up my alley. Like you feel like an ass. Napal sprits. You'll probably like this, so. Do you want sauce to those fries on the Seventh-up? But I will see you after I'm done drinking this and we'll make our way to the Grand Floridian.

All right, I have finished my drink at Wailulu and I'm going to continue my journey around the Seventh Sea's Lagoon. So I'm on the walkway, on the way to the Grand Floridian. The sunset is just going down right now. It's a beautiful sunset. There's orange glow reflecting off of the contemporary and the Magic Kingdom across the lagoon. And on the left is the new DVC tower. There's like some cute sort of sitting areas out here. There's also a couple of hammocks out here, which in probably warmer weather, would be more enjoyable.

But it's quite cold right now. So, yeah, the temperature's going down, and I'm definitely glad that I brought a hoodie with me because I already have a jacket on, but I wasn't sure if I wouldn't eat the hoodie, but I feel like at some point I'm probably going to have to actually put it on and not just wear it around my waist anymore. So that was a lovely little break. That's a nice bar, and like I said, they serve food at the bar, and the food at the actual restaurant is really good, too.

So definitely worth it if you want a nice, nice meal with the beautiful view and some good drinks. So glad this little walkway is open again because it's one of my favorite things to do is just take this little walk from the Polynesian all the way to the Grand Floridian. And I mean, you can't take it all the way to the Magic Kingdom, which is what I will probably end up doing, trying to decide if I actually want to go in the Magic Kingdom real quick and maybe take a ride on the People Mover since I have not been on the People Mover in a very long time, but I'll decide later. Monorail Green going by.

Still no sign of racing monorails, unfortunately. I will keep you posted about that if I happen to see any today. So I am coming up now on the wedding pavilion. So since we are actually on Grand Floridian, the property, music is now appropriate to the resort. now monorail pink is going by not racing it's by itself so as I keep walking there's an absolutely beautiful view of space mountain you can see the astroorbiter the train station beautiful gradient sunsets that you can only really get at this time of the year when there's absolutely no clouds in

the sky and it's just perfectly not humid The boat going by now too. One of the little resort launches is going by. Now we're going to keep going. That's the resort launch. Somebody left some nice chairs here. If you want to take a seat, you can certainly do that and just enjoy the view. I'm going to keep going.

So coming up on the Grand Floridian pool area on the left. And the lifeguard is a quite bored. because there's probably nobody in the water, and I don't blame them. When I do see people in the water at this time of the year, like when it's, because it's probably like around 50 degrees right now, all I think to myself is they must be from, you know, Wisconsin or something. I think this is positively balmy weather, but I get the feeling that there is nobody in there right now. I'm going to take a quick look, and I'll tell you.

Monorail, yellow and peach pass by, but they were. were not racing. They were kind of close, but they were not next to each other. That's not racing. Yep, there is no one in the water. There are, however, people making smores. There's a fire pit at the resorts. Usually, I think all of them have, like, a fire pit.

People are sitting out here, just making smores, which is a perfect cold day activity. And the smell of the fire is, like, so nice. I love the smell of the fire. Almost to the grand Floridian, lobby. So I think I'm going to take a quick peek inside just to kind of warm up a little bit. So I am in the lobby of the Grand Floridian. There is a live pianist playing Disney songs. And if you haven't been in the Grand Floridian since the remodel, the carpets have been completely

redone. And now there is a tiny little bar area in the lobby as well. So they also added some plants, which I appreciate. I like indoor plants, so that's a nice thing too. But, oh, no, it's a nice redo. I wasn't as emotionally involved with the Grand Floridian lobby as I was with the Polynesian one.

So when they redid that one, that one really hurt me. But this one, I'm like, it's fine. So, and now I'm going to continue my walk. Now I'm going to take the walkway from the Grand Floridian to the Magic Kingdom. And for the longest time, there was no walkway that actually went from here to the Magic Kingdom.

There was a walkway that kind of went a little bit of ways, and then it just stopped. And they finally completed this walkway maybe five years ago now, I want to say. So now you can do the whole walk from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom. And you can walk from the Magic Kingdom to Contemporary, like I said, but you can't walk from the contemporary to the TTC. So if you want to do that, you have to hop on a motor rail. If I had it my way, I would walk the whole way around. So this is a pretty good walkway. Like if you're staying here at the Grand Floridian and you're trying to get the Magic Kingdom in the morning and you don't want to have to worry about taking like the boat launch or a motor rail because sometimes they can get

backed up, the walkway is a good way to do it. And it's maybe like a 10 minute walk, at least for me. I walk pretty quick. So if you're here with family or friends or, you know, if you're a slower walk or might take a little bit longer, but it's also very scenic. You get a really pretty view of the castle. You can see the contemporary. And like I said, the monorails are passing overhead, which is really nice as well. And I will watch out again to see if I spy any racing monorails. So we're going to keep our eyes open for that.

We're going to keep our eyes open. We're going to keep our hearts open for racing monorail. So the sun's gone down a little more. The sky gradient has changed from like a light blue to a pink to a dark blue. And I can see Space Mountain and sort of the castle peeking up from behind the trees. And there is a sign here that says, Magic Kingdom Walkways open from one hour before park opening until one hour after park closing. So if that's something you were curious about, there you go.

So now I'm making my way across. a metal bridge that extends over the water, connects the Grand Floridian to the rest of the walkway. Am I making my way over it right now? I need to see if I see any monorails pop up, but unfortunately I have not. I'm slowing down to see if a monorail comes by. Take it our time.

Oh, there's one. That's like, can you hear it? She's coming. No racing monorail, unfortunately. though. Okay, so we're coming up on our second bridge of our little trek here. And it's the bridge that extends from the Grand Florian walkway over the water to the Magic Kingdom. And this bridge, this little sort of waterway, is also important because this is where the electrical water pageant sleeps for the night. So if you actually look to the left as you're coming over

this bridge. Like if you're coming from the Grand Floridian, it'll be on your left, you will see the barges of the electrical water patent. And this is where it comes out from. The bridge that extends here actually swings out, and then so it comes out every night through there. So you can go wave high to it. One of these nights, when I plan it accordingly, I am going to come and stand on this bridge when the electrical water pageant comes out. Because I've never said it before. I've always meant to. It's just, you know, again, another one of those little stupid things that I want to check off of my list of sort of local things to do here in Disney World when you've basically done everything that you can think of to do. So, but yes, I love the Oktowater Pagent.

It's one of my favorite things. If I'm here with people from out of town, if they haven't seen it, I always make them watch it. Um, and Prink. Sometimes I feel like it's a miracle. It's still running when I think of all the things that we've lost over the years. The fact that the electrical water pageant is still trucking after all these years, it makes me happy, and it's just so wonderfully 70s. So if you've never done it before, I highly recommend that you go ahead and check it out. I think one of the barges is on. I see lights on on one of them. Hmm. Wonder if they're testing them. So anyways, if you want to see the showtimes for Electric Water Paget, you can actually go in the Disney app and it'll tell you because it goes from resort to resort and does its little show and then it returns here at night. So depending where you are or what works best for you, you can do that.

And if you get really lucky, which has happened to me a few times, if you're taking one of the resort launches to the Magic Kingdom or Wilderness Lodge, wherever, sometimes you will drive by in your boat right by the electric water pageant as it's going. and it's truly a magical experience, one of the top 10 favorite things that will ever happen to you probably because it's definitely limited time magic. It's just you have to hope that, you know, when the boat is leaving that you're on, happens to be crossing paths with it. Like I said, you can try and coordinate it, but you just never know. Okay, so I sort of took an extended break in the middle there. I went to the Magic Kingdom for a little bit.

and I took four go-rounds on the people mover. There was absolutely no weight. It was fantastic. And then I decided to get out because the parade was going to start. And the fireworks were going to be soon after that. And it's just a mess getting out of there. So it made my way out. But also a very good night if you want to ride, you know, Space Mountain Space

was only a 20 minute away. I contemplated for one minute if I wanted to leave the comfort and safety. of the people mover and take a run and space on him, but I decided against it. So I have now left, and I'm walking over to the contemporary where I might get a brownie. I don't know. But from there, I have to grab the monorail so I can go back to TTC and then take a monorail from the TTC back to Epcot. So we got a little bit more to go. Nope.

Another monorail going by. but no racing monorail yet. So for those of you who don't know, because I've told a few friends how I walk from the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary, and some people don't even realize that there is a walkway from the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary,

and there is. So sometimes if I'm coming to the Magic Kingdom with friends and they want to come early in the morning, I will make a reservation for breakfast at Steakhouse 71 and get breakfast there, which is actually delicious, and is actually pretty regionally priced. So it's a great way to kind of just get a good meal, start with a really good breakfast,

and then you have a great parking space where you can literally just walk to the front of the Magic Kingdom, and then you don't have to deal with the TTC and the parking lots and getting over on the ferry or the monorail and all that stuff. So it's just a little tip. I'm walking by the bus loop right now. And on the left I can sort of see the spires. of Space Mountain kind of poking out from behind this hedge that's on the left. And then right above me are the monorail beams. Okay, so I came to the contemporary, it came to the back,

because usually they're playing the most amazing, like, smooth jazz from the 90s playlist. And I think when I showed up, that's what was playing. And then all of a sudden it switched to Natalie Merchant, which I don't have any problem with this song, but that's just not what I was expecting. You know what? We're going to wait and see if it's different. So let's just wait here a second.

No, it's a lot of Smore said. It's just not my night. So if you want to hear some nighties alternative, like Lilith Fair stuff, come to the contemporary pool area around 8 o'clockish. so that's your tip for the day so we are going to make our way into the contemporary lobby

on the bottom floor near where Steakhouse 71 is if you ever dreamed of having a steak in the first chamber from the Hanan Mansion come to Steakhouse 71 but the food is amazing and the chocolate cake is highly recommended it's like 15 layers it's delicious it's awesome

let's make our way up to the Grand Canyon Concourse. See if I can get a brownie or sweet treat. And if not, we will make our way on to the barrow. Let's look for that smooth jazz. Oh, there it is. See, I knew there were smooth jazz in here somewhere. I told you there was smooth the jazz.

All right, now that I have located the smooth jazz, let us continue. By the way, that smooth jazz was playing like on one speaker. next of the check-in desk for the California grill. So if you want to find it, that's where it is. I'm going to check in at the Contempo Cafe and see if there's a brownie I can eat. What we got here? They do have the cookie croissant,

which I will tell you, I tried once, and it's not as good as you want it to be. Let me just put it like that. Hmm. They do have a chocolate croissant. We're gonna have to go with a chocolate croissant. I will see you after I've eaten my delicious sweet treat. In the Epcot Monorail station, for our smoking guests,

there are designated smoking areas just outside the park. Please hold onto the handbook and stay clear of the doors until the monorail starts through people. And the doors open. On behalf of the cast of the Walt Disney World Resort, World Resort welcome to Epcot please remember collect your belongings and take them show you. I can see the fireworks the end of it going off right now it's almost servers I'm just gonna wait here and get a nice video there it is so we have made it back to Epcot I hope you enjoyed this sort of out of the ordinary walkabout

Disney World. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you again, and hopefully I'll be able to find my car because I'm really looking forward to turning on the heater because it is freezing full. So see y'all next time.