Wish I Would Have Known
Wish I Would Have Known
Disney's Animal Kingdom: An Unforgettable Expedition with Owen Hudson
Prepare to be transported into the heart of Disney's Animal Kingdom with our special guest, Owen Hudson. Owen brings you up close and personal with this magical kingdom, unveiling the beauty of Pandora, the thrills of the rides, and secrets like hidden Mickey's and the most expensive animatronic, the Shaman. Animal Kingdom isn't just a zoo - it's a world teeming with wonder and adventure, and Owen's vivid storytelling promises to make you feel like you're right there, basking in the bioluminescent nighttime beauty.
Embrace the wild as we traverse Animal Kingdom's riveting safaris and thrilling River Rapids. Owen shares stories about the resident herpetologists, a wildebeest with allergies, and an inside scoop on grabbing Starbucks and unwinding in Harambe Market. We also dive headfirst into the compelling narrative of Cali River Rapids. It's a journey through conservation and deforestation, a hidden gem that's not just a water ride, but a testament to Animal Kingdom's commitment to preservation.
And of course, no visit to Animal Kingdom would be complete without a trip to Dinoland USA. Join us as we explore the whimsical carnival with Owen, discussing the storytelling behind the Boneyard playground, and the beloved Dinosaur ride. And for a dash of humor, hear about a stolen quote that's become an ongoing joke. Then, get ready to whet your appetite as Owen takes us on a culinary tour through the park. From Satouli Canteen's burger pods to Dino Land USA's giant ice cream bowl, we've got the lowdown on the best food spots in Animal Kingdom. So, join us and prepare to embark on an audio adventure through one of the most enchanting places on Earth!
Check out @wish.podcast on Instagram!
Welcome to the Wish I Would've Known podcast.
Amber:I'm Clint And I'm Amber, and we've been married for almost 20 years.
Clint:And in this 20 years we've gained a lot of wisdom and found ourselves in the middle of some pretty crazy stories.
Amber:And now we want to share those things with you.
Clint:So here's some stuff that we wish we would've known.
Owen:Jumbo friends.
Amber:Oh, you're busting out the different dialect here.
Clint:It wasn't dialect, it's a language. Jumbo Jumbo Comes from Kilimanjaro Safari, which is at Animal Kingdom, which is what we're talking about today.
Amber:We love Animal Kingdom.
Clint:Man I'm so excited that you guys are here. We're still continuing our Disney series where we're talking about Walt Disney World and all the great things about Walt Disney World. Today, we're going to be focusing on Animal Kingdom, which is I think it's one of the things that a lot of people will include on their trip, But we want to help you figure out how to maximize it and tell you some of our favorite stories about Animal Kingdom Great, great park. Joining us on the pod today we have a really special guest. He's an expert in all things Animal Kingdom. Within the Hudson family. This is his favorite Walt Disney park. You guys give it up for Owen Hudson, Owen, what's?
Owen:up. What's up you all, owen Hudson, here, just here to spice it up.
Clint:Hey, spice things up. That's Owen's catchphrase. A little harken back to.
Amber:Harken.
Clint:Yeah, our season two bonus episode.
Amber:Bo-bo-bo bonus. Bo-bo-bo bonus. You're right, that's true.
Clint:Owen. Welcome to the pod.
Amber:Thank you Love it here. You said you love it here, i love it here, you love it here. Yeah At the podcast.
Clint:At the podcast. He just loves it. He just hangs out at the podcast in the fictional universe. That is this audio podcast, correct? That's where he hangs out all the time. Owen, why is Animal Kingdom your favorite park?
Owen:As a kid I was always loving animals and still to this day loving animals, so Animal Kingdom was kind of a little safe space for me.
Clint:Yeah, a lot of people think that Animal Kingdom is just a zoo.
Amber:Yeah.
Clint:Now listen. If it was a zoo, it would be the best zoo you've ever gone to.
Amber:It would be the most epic zoo ever.
Clint:But there is so much to do at.
Amber:Animal Kingdom.
Clint:I think it's gotten this rap in the Disney world that it's a half day park. Now I think part of the reason why people think it's like a half day park is because Animal Kingdom has never quite figured out the nighttime spectacular thing, and the reason is do you know what? do you know the reason why they can't do it? Because the animals They can't do freaking fireworks guys Wild animals.
Amber:They can't do fireworks around wild animals.
Clint:You want to make a rhino poop himself Shoot a firework out, Like I mean seriously, like I'd scare the heck out of them, So yeah, But they can't do fireworks. They've tried to kind of figure out. They've done water shows and all these different things. They haven't quite like been able to figure out what the nighttime spectacular deal is. But I will tell you this it's not a half day park.
Amber:No.
Clint:It's a park that you can spend all day in, and one of my favorite things to do at Animal Kingdom at night is actually the newest section of Animal Kingdom And that is Pandora. So Animal Kingdom, the way that it was built from the beginning, the pitch that came from the genius Imagineer Joe Roddy. He had this idea that it's going to be animals and about animals and about conservation, but also about, like, fictional animals as well. It's really, it's really cool that one of the areas is specifically about this fictional world of Pandora.
Clint:And it's based off of the movie Avatar.
Amber:Correct. So there are two rides within Pandora. There is a water ride, so you go through the world of Pandora on a boat and there's like one of the most expensive animatronics that Disney has ever done or created.
Owen:Correct. I mean, actually I think it won an award of being like the most life-like, But wasn't it also one of the most expensive ones?
Clint:What's that?
Amber:The on the Pandora water ride the River, not the.
Clint:River Journey, Oh the Shaman.
Amber:Yes.
Clint:The Shaman animatronic is the most expensive animatronics that ever been made And it's actually really incredible to see in person. It's amazing to see in person.
Amber:So there's that ride, and then there's a ride called Flight of Passage.
Clint:Yeah, and Flight of Passage, which kind of pays tribute to the idea of right of passage, is incredible. Oh, and Flight of Passage tell us about it.
Owen:All right. So this is kind of like an immersive journey of you are flying on the back of a banshee which is like an Avatar dragon kind of thingy.
Clint:Wiggling, thingy Wiggling.
Owen:Wiggling Yup. So the whole queue is based off like the flying mountains, like in the movie. you're like climbing up like the flying mountains just to like try and tame one of these banshees.
Clint:And guys like when you go into Pandora, the world of Avatar in Animal Kingdom, there are like floating mountains.
Amber:It's spectacular.
Clint:It's like nothing I've ever seen. There's waterfalls and floating mountains and all kinds of foliage. But to go back to what I was talking about at the very beginning of this section, at night everything is bioluminescent, yes, and it all glows. The sidewalk glows, the plants glow, the mountains glow. It's so crazy. I have a friend of mine who says that it's like the closest thing that they could imagine of what heaven would be like Being so out of the ordinary and different and unique. That that's just what it's like. It's like a completely different world, which is just the coolest thing ever. But Flight of Passage takes you, like Owen said, on the back of an Ikron or a banshee And you Um.
Owen:Fly.
Amber:Fly.
Owen:That is actually one of the lines in the queue. But the main premise is you have like a mind link to an avatar and it chooses said avatar to fly on a banshee, so you don't have to like tame it yourself.
Amber:Which is funny, because Owen is always what.
Clint:I'm always a girl. Yeah, it picks, like it picks, like it shows you, like your little avatar, like your little person. This is who you are.
Owen:I always get a girl.
Clint:You're just really pretty. I guess I don't know, but you are always a girl Like, yeah, it's great, it's like an out of body experience. It's hard to describe, it's one of the coolest things ever. Now, listen, i'll give you just a quick. This is a hot tip. Okay, hot tip, hot tip Coming at you Animal Kingdom, one of the coolest parks to go to first thing in the morning. If you want to ride this ride in your sensitive to weight times, go and do it first thing in the morning. Now, granted, i'm telling you, when you go over there, the line is going to stretch all the way back to the bridge in Africa and you're going to be like nope, nope, nope, i'm not going to do it. But what you don't realize? they haven't opened the inside queue yet And so it'll probably be about an hour wait, but it's going to be 90 plus minutes the whole rest of the day.
Amber:Yeah, almost always That. One always has a long wait. We've waited, i think, max two hours for that one.
Clint:Which is actually, I think, probably the longest we've ever waited for a Disney attraction.
Amber:But I will say that is the one that I would say is worth the wait.
Clint:Really.
Amber:Like, yeah, if you're going to go to Animal Kingdom and do one ride there, that's the ride to do.
Clint:If you would wait two hours for any ride, that would be the ride.
Amber:Did you wait two hours for Yes?
Clint:I would wait two hours for the American adventure.
Amber:You would not.
Owen:At Epcot, you would not, yeah, living with a land.
Amber:You would not Just kidding. Pandora is so worth it. It's incredible.
Clint:It's incredible. Both of the rides are great. If you only have time to do one of the rides, wait in line and do Flight of Passage. Flight of Passage is one of those where it is a uniquely Disney experience and it's something that you will remember for the rest of your life.
Amber:Yeah, Animal Kingdom. Just it has great vibes as a park. It has these great nature trails you can walk on to see the animals, which makes it zoo-like in that aspect. But then it also has these great rides and great shows.
Clint:The shows are world-class Broadway level shows. There's two of them in the park that you cannot miss. So here's the thing. Animal Kingdom is a different park than most Disney parks, and I'll describe it like this When you're going to a Disney park, most of the time, depending on what age group you fall into, you're planning your day either around big rides, or around meeting characters.
Clint:That's kind of how people plan it. Now I would say you need to plan your day around the shows at Animal Kingdom. Here's why The shows only fall on the hour or the half hour for the most part. The two shows are the Lion King Festival of the Lion King show in Africa, in Harambe Market, and then the other one is the Nemo show, which is called what's it called, i don't know, i don't know The Nemo's. Finding Nemo, the Musical. Finding Nemo, the Musical, that's it, and they're both incredible.
Amber:Yeah.
Clint:Absolutely incredible, can't miss. Got to see both of them.
Amber:Absolutely.
Clint:Okay So let's actually do this. Let's talk about our favorite memory at Animal Kingdom. Okay, so I'm going to go first in the name of the known. Okay So, my favorite memory at Animal Kingdom was actually when our family went to go see the Festival of the Lion King show. We had a friend of ours that worked in production for the show And we got the opportunity to hang out with the cast backstage after the show. And these are world-class performers. The vocalists are like guys.
Amber:It's unreal.
Clint:It's like the most incredible thing. And then there's these two birds essentially like these people, that are dressed in birds costumes and they fly around the room and it's this beautiful dance that they're doing to a. Can you feel the love?
Owen:Yeah, like the duet between, like the. It's beautiful, yeah, it's beautiful And it's live.
Clint:performers are singing it and they're flying They're actually so. there's a couple of different cast members that do this, but the main bird are a married couple.
Owen:It's a married couple, their husband and wife, and they've been performing it while Disney for years.
Clint:Anyway, we got the opportunity to go hang out with the cast. We got pictures with the cast backstage. It was just incredible to hang out with them and they were so kind and they took like took time to really spend time with the kids and take pictures and talk to them. That was awesome, one of my favorite animal kingdom memories, for sure.
Amber:Awesome.
Clint:All right, amber, what's yours?
Amber:My favorite animal kingdom memory is probably the first time that Merritt rode Expedition Everest. Oh my gosh. So Expedition Everest is is one of my favorite roller coasters. I think Guardians probably is the top, but Expedition Everest is a close second for me.
Clint:And this is a massive roller coaster, it's a huge roller coaster.
Amber:You're riding a train going up up the mountain to see the Yeti. It's so fun And yeah so we Merritt was finally tall enough to ride. We do have a Hudson's Do Disney video about this. Finally 44., finally 44. So she's on Expedition Everest, just losing her mind, yep.
Clint:Just squealing, crying yelling.
Owen:But I thought she was going to have like so much fun on this and I just hear her bawling her eyes out.
Amber:She did end up loving it, but anyway it was. I love that roller coaster.
Clint:That broke the seal for her and ended up being like becoming one of her favorite rides. She loves it.
Amber:And that, speaking of the park at night, that's a really fun one to ride at night.
Clint:Super fun You go so so fast. Super fun. There's a little bit of lore around that one. A couple of things to mention. There is a giant. The biggest animatronic that's ever been built was was built there in the Forbidden Mountain as a part of this ride. So you go up and around the mountain and down into it. So it's a Yeti, a monster, giant Yeti.
Amber:It's real, guys, it's real.
Clint:Now the deal is. The deal is the Yeti used to move and like, swipe at your cart as you're going around, and so the Yeti, so big it was built into the foundation of this ride. And the Yeti has not moved. It is an animatronic that does not move And so didn't they. So so, in order to make it Look like it moved what they do they put blinking lights all around it.
Owen:So it's a strobe light Yeah exactly, but what it actually created was The name for it, like the legendary name disco yeti disco yeti, because it's literally like a strobe light and the yeti's just frozen there and it's like I remember riding that one time with the boys and they're one of them was like I touched it.
Amber:Yeah, I think it was.
Clint:Owen Oh, it's like I touched it. I was like you didn't touch it. He's like, yes, i did, i touched it. Yeah, i totally remember that exhibition ever is brilliant ride. Love that ride. Amazing big roller coaster. That's probably the the one roller coaster Walt Disney World. This guy like big roller coaster vibes.
Owen:Yeah you know like big thrill rides, super fun.
Clint:All right. Oh, and what's your favorite memory All?
Owen:right. My favorite memory was on actually kill him in Jarvis Safari. The first time that I ever wrote it. I fell in love with one of the animals which is the old copy, and if you have never seen this, search up a picture of it. It is actually real.
Clint:It is Actually the closest living relative to the giraffe right, and this is something where this animal was not discovered in the wild until like 2008 actually, or the first photograph was taken in 2008 wait, really I thought it was in the 90s.
Owen:It was. It was discovered in the 90s. But the final, like the first picture was taken.
Clint:Listen, you've written the book reports about it. I'm a newly discovered animal.
Owen:It's really cool, yeah, and it has like a horse body and zebra legs and The giraffe tongue and a giraffe tongue and it looks nothing like the giraffe, but it is still related to it somehow.
Clint:Yeah, it's cool. So kill him. A jar of safaris is it can't miss.
Owen:This is an absolute cannot so fun fact about it The space that it occupies is actually bigger than Magic Kingdom itself.
Clint:Yeah, so that's a great way to describe it. It's massive, huge. The attraction itself takes you through multiple different What do you call them like environments I guess is a good way to say it biomes.
Clint:There you go, there are resident herpetologists over here so different biomes that Hope you get up close and personal to these animals. Now check it out. This is not a zoo where you're you're on a safari truck and You get to drive around and look at animals essentially like in their natural habitat in the wild. So you never know what's gonna happen. Sometimes you may not see a whole bunch of animals, sometimes you may see a real up close.
Amber:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah sometimes the giraffes will will think about coming over to the truck, or they'll walk in front of the truck.
Owen:They'll just like stand in the road and like the, like the truck driver doesn't want to like honk and like scare him, so he just like has to wait.
Clint:Yeah and it's, it's really like it never. They're never the same. No, no, two safaris are ever the same.
Amber:We've seen some. We've seen baby hippo, we've seen all kinds of different animals. It's so neat. We have a friend who worked at animal kingdom for a while And she had all these inside tips and knowledge about the animals and she was telling us at one point that there's, they have a ton of wildebeest out on, you know, on the safari on the plains, and she was telling us about one of the wildebeest Who has really bad allergies. Yeah and they figured out that this wildebeest needs like a whole handful of.
Clint:Specific. It's like 26 Zyrtex a day, like they. They literally give this wildebeest 26 Zyrtex a day and like Like I like that's so funny to me like every day He like pops in, eats his breakfast, gets his 26 Zyrtex, goes to work clocking in herb. Here We go. Gotta go show the people what being a wildebeest is all about.
Amber:Larry's. They figured out, i guess, probably based on the way how much Zyrtex.
Owen:But like Trying to find out that like a mountain is like does he need like one or two? and it's like tastes like a day to do it.
Amber:Like One day to like one day like no, upping the dosage and figured out it was.
Clint:Whatever the number is, yeah now one thing that you need to know about animal kingdom. It is 10 degrees hotter than every other part. It just I don't know why it's. it's like it's it's not even 10 degrees hotter, it's 10 Like degrees sweatier. Yeah like it's just I don't know, there's just so many plants and like it's like a bowl.
Amber:Yeah, it's like moist, it's tropical.
Owen:Yeah, but like guys just like, so open to where, like, yeah, it's just hot.
Clint:It's hot, it's hot, you're gonna be hot. Don't just deal with it like get extra ice, I want it Yeah stop one, stop one. You know what? There's a, there's a water ride.
Clint:There is there's a water ride And there's, so some people love it, some people don't. All right, so the water ride is in the Asia area of Animal Kingdom because animal King was broken up like if you go, so love, follow me on the journey here. We're gonna go around to the right. So you walk in an animal kingdom, you go to the giant tree of life which is right there in the middle, which there's some cool things to see there the carvings on the tree of life. There's hundreds of different animals carved into this giant tree. Beautiful, so cool. Take some time to like, take some pictures and look at it.
Amber:Lots of stuff to just look at detail around animal Yeah, animal kingdom, you really should approach with this like we're gonna take the day and we're gonna just walk around. Yeah, see what there is to see. Just enjoy being lower page, yeah so let's go to the left.
Clint:If you go to the left, your first you're gonna see Pandora. That's over there. If you kind of continue around, you're gonna go to Africa. Just a hot tip real quick. All right, go grab you some Starbucks on the way over to Africa and go chill in Harambe market. One of my favorite things to do early in the morning Is it chill in Harambe market and listen to the sounds and see the sights and like drink my Starbucks.
Clint:Literally, that's like probably nothing to describe it, though It's yeah the most calming experience ever really feel like you're there in Africa and it's, it's incredible, sipping on your Starbucks. Okay, don't judge Good, judge somebody else. Well, all right. So. So from Africa you continue around the circle roundtree of life, over to Asia, and then Asia. It gives way over to an area called Dinoland, usa. So in Asia, there are two rides, one we've already talked about, which is expedition, expedition ever.
Clint:The other one is a water ride called Cali River Rapids. Cali River Rapids now Cali River Rapids kind of gets a bad rap because it's not a super long ride. There's some storytelling around it about conservation and deforestation and all of these types of things, and so you get on this raft. It's a circular raft and, um it, it goes over a couple different little rapids. It goes up this big hill type thing. The music's kind of cool in it. Then all of a sudden you hear like fire and like chainsaws. And then you come into this place where Deforestation has happened and it's ruined the river. That's the storyline behind it. Now What happens is you go up to the top of this thing and then your, your raft will spin at At like you don't. You don't know who is gonna be the person going backwards down the big drop. And the reason that matters is because if you're the one going backwards down the big drop, your day Has changed.
Clint:Be, Talking, a wave will come over you.
Owen:So, dad, you're talking about experience.
Clint:I'm talking from experience, because what happens is when you're like, you kind of get up there And once you know this now you've listened to this podcast and you know you're riding Cali River Rapids in a family, you're having a good day, it's hot, you don't mind getting a little bit wet and then you go to the very top thing and it turns and and you're like in the back You know the very back of the of the craft and so it's not a big deal You're like, okay, i'm gonna be face down going down this rapid and then, nope, very last minute, it spins you around, as I ever, always laughs. Because one time I'm on it And I'm like I didn't feel like it wet that day and it just spun me the right direction towards the end, and I look at it, i go, it's me, and then I go backwards and then the wave catches me and I'm just drenched and so, yeah, it's, it's like Disney roulette. You don't know if it's gonna be you.
Owen:I mean at the start it kind of stops for a second as you're going down, the spinning stops. You're like, oh well, it's him. but then it spins And it's like, oh.
Clint:It's me, it's me. It's me. Yeah, yeah, that's a good one, it's a fun ride. It's a fun ride. You will get wet. You potentially will get soaked.
Amber:Soaked, but it's so hot you dry off pretty quick.
Clint:That is true. I mean, look, you're already wet, Yeah that's fair.
Amber:We've already established that.
Clint:Yeah, you've already established that.
Owen:We've already established that. But talking back to Dinoland USA, there is a whole almost like amusement park there.
Clint:Yeah, okay, so I've told you, i've said this before the storytelling, the details at Animal Kingdom, i actually think, are the best of any part. Really, i really do. Okay. So Dinoland USA. Now I'm not sure if this is RIP, i'm not sure if Dinoland USA is gonna stay for forever, but here's the story behind it. The story behind it is there's a group of researchers in the 90s who discovered dinosaur bones and they started this thing called the Dino Institute, and they did this on like the side of the road, in like the wasteland type things, and so they popped up in order to make some money to fund their research. They popped up like a little carnival, so this area literally looks like a carnival in a parking lot. So there's like parking lines and old carnival rides and old carnival games that you can play And it's worth going over there. It's really cool. Did you know that? that's why they play like popular music from the 90s.
Amber:I didn't know that, that's part of the storytelling.
Clint:How about?
Amber:that Seriously, there's a whole play area over there. So if you're looking to just sort of take a break from waiting in lines or you have little kids, that are stormy, the Boneyard. There's a Boneyard playground and it's so fun to just let kids run around. They can dig for dinosaur bones. It's a blast.
Clint:And all of this revolves around one attraction called Dinosaur. And Dinosaur has a special place in our family's heart, and there's a couple reasons why. Okay, first of all I told you, it's hot. It's hot at Animal Kingdom And this is an indoor ride, which is great, the premise of this ride. So you hop on a time machine, you're going back into the Jurassic area or Cretaceous area or something like that, to go pick up an iguana. Don Bring him back.
Owen:And the whole premise is that is really close to the asteroid strike.
Clint:Correct. So the reason that we love this ride so much is because they're so, the rides at Disney. they're all about storytelling. So this one specifically has a monologue that happens in the pre-show and throughout the course of the ride. That's so distinct that you can quote it, Or we can quote it almost verbatim. So you walk into the pre-show and there's this little dinosaur puppet thing on the screen.
Amber:Hello there.
Clint:This is Dr Seeker. I'm going to be your guide on this little trends. What's it called Trans, something, joy ride? Essentially, he's figured out a way to unlock the time machine so that not only can he send you back in time, but he can get you to bring a dinosaur with him. And then Dr Marsh comes in and seems like I've come at the perfect time to correcta little misstatement.
Clint:Those coordinates have been specifically locked on your location Anyway. So it's like this cool little pre-show thing And then when you get on the ride, dr Seeker is talking to you throughout the entire ride.
Amber:At the end of this whole video, dr Seeker goes I mean it's going to be fine, what could go wrong? And then it gets quiet and Merit.
Clint:Every time goes everything, and then everybody laughs.
Owen:Little backstory on this. I have like two rides where she has stolen that quote from me.
Clint:Wait, wait, you were the first one that said everything. I was the first one to say it.
Owen:And then she said it after me about the louder.
Amber:And she said it louder. And she said everyone laughed And I have carved a grudge on her this whole time.
Owen:Like that is my quote, that's your line, yes, like, okay, she said it. Like in Hot and Mansion too.
Amber:Oh yeah, she did. She stole it from you.
Owen:There's like a little quote that I created but she said louder Yeah.
Clint:So I mean, what did you learn? To say things louder Yeah, it's not about the one who writes the joke, it's about the one who delivers the joke And her cute little voice, everything. It wouldn't be the cool girl, like everything with your little man voice. But anyway, so the ride. the ride's a blast, it's um.
Amber:You're like in a Jeep and you're bouncing around in the dark everywhere.
Clint:Yeah, Amber swears Goll. Amber swears Goll. Listen, this is a fixed ride, Oh and back me up on this. The ride. The ride goes the same speed every single time. It never changes. And Amber swears on her life that on her birthday one year it was faster.
Amber:It was so much faster.
Clint:It wasn't.
Amber:Yes, it was. It cannot be.
Owen:I'm sorry It was actually. It can't be. It can How? Because they like the person who actually like controls, like the carts. We didn't have as many people as we did in our carts, no, we only had, like, our little family.
Clint:I've ridden it by myself and it's been just as slow, I'm telling you, it was so much faster Anyway it's a super fun ride anyway, but that one particular time it was like we were flying through It was like a family of babies.
Amber:It was a little birthday gift to me, you know what? Let me have that. Why? Let me, just let me have it.
Clint:You think that was Disney's gift to you.
Amber:Let me have it.
Clint:For your birthday.
Amber:Yes.
Clint:Okay, you can have it.
Amber:I remember it being faster and fun.
Clint:I'm glad you remember that.
Amber:Thank you All right.
Owen:So there's like a little section, there's like three sections, in between this ride where your cart kind of like stops in front of this. What was it? Carnotaurus, right.
Clint:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, the giant dinosaur. The animatronics on this ride are legit.
Owen:The animatronics are amazing, but sometimes they break down. And the one time that it broke down, the carnotaurus is like right next to you and its head is just hanging down.
Clint:It's just like kinda looking at you like yeah, like this derpy little look and all of a sudden it's like yeah.
Owen:But they have like a backup head where they just like poke it out of like a tree and it's like, oh goodness, that's there.
Amber:The pictures taken on that ride are really funny because they take the picture at the moment that you see the giant dinosaur next to your car, and so if you don't know that, everybody in your car looks super scared. That's always a fun one to go back and look at.
Owen:Like. One of the sections is like your car stops but the carnotaurus is like right next to you And it's an animatronic where it looks like it's running towards you as your car starts going. So like you turn a corner and it's like right there running at you like It's super thrilling, it's thrilling and it's like scary every single time, but it's so fun.
Amber:It can be scary for little ones, but It can. It's also really fun.
Clint:It can. Now I'm gonna talk about something that normally I wouldn't hit, because we love Disney, all right. Love Walt Disney World. Yeah, now this part has a skipper A skipper, it's got a skipper.
Amber:Oh, i gotcha.
Clint:It's got a like. Don't waste your time.
Amber:Yes.
Clint:Don't do it.
Amber:Yes.
Clint:Okay, it's got a skipper. I'm shocked that it's still open. It's the worst, it's just the worst, and that's called. It's tough to be a bug. So now the only benefit, the only benefit is that this ride is in the root system of the Tree of Life.
Clint:So you get to go a little closer to the Tree of Life and see some of the cool things that are there. Now, what this is? it's a show. It's one of those 3D shows You put on your bug glasses. It's got this like I don't know You go sit.
Amber:It's based off the movie A Bug's Life.
Clint:Yeah, yeah, based off the movie A Bug's Life. You put on your bug glasses, you go and you watch this 3D show. It's about putting a circus together, or something like that, or bugs.
Owen:But then Hopper comes and like sabotage the whole thing, but like he releases like a bunch of like bugs into the house.
Clint:Yeah, like at one point spiders come falling out of everywhere and all the little baby kids that are doing it are screaming and crying. Okay, but the worst thing, is, and then you like lean back up against your seat Like this. They said something about is it bees? or something like that.
Owen:No, there was like something crawling like behind your back, like a little like mole or something. It pokes out of the seat. It like pokes back out of the seat but like they also like release bees, but they have like little like air conditioning things that shoot out, like behind you, like in front of you.
Clint:Well, the thing that pokes out of your seat, like I'm pretty sure it, gave Amore spinal damage, like what is this?
Amber:I think it is supposed to be a stinger. It's the. When Hopper comes in, he's the grasshopper that's like evil.
Owen:Honestly, it's terrifying.
Amber:He's terrible Like it's huge.
Clint:And he's mean So all that to say don't do it.
Amber:If you would like to be traumatized, or your children to be traumatized, don't miss. It's tough to be a bug.
Clint:Now I will tell you I have a funny memory outside of tough to be a bug. So when we were taking the kids and they were little, we had strollers. We had to take our strollers and there's always like stroller parking places And most of the time what'll happen is you park it at one place and then there's designated cast members that'll move your stroller over to where the exit is. And that's the case when it comes to it's tough to be a bug. When we walked out of tough to be it's tough to be a bug The funniest thing ever all of the animal kingdom squirrels these are not a part of the attraction anywhere, they're just squirrels that happen to live in Florida are just rifling through everybody's strollers. They're just inside people's strollers looking for goldfish, looking for cheez-its.
Owen:It's honestly layers, just like watch them.
Clint:It's like oh, we got a goldfish. It was super funny. So seeing the squirrels like rifling through people's stuff.
Amber:They were having a heyday while we were on the horrible ride.
Clint:Yeah, yeah, that was a trip.
Amber:That was a trip.
Clint:That's the only listen. I think that's the only skipper. Now I will say there's a lot of people don't know about Rafiki's Planet Watch.
Amber:Oh my gosh Yeah.
Clint:In the very back of the park, through Africa, there's a train that you can take to another section of the park. It's the only way you can get there, because it actually goes like across the street and like it's back behind Safari. But it's this place called Rafiki's Planet Watch.
Owen:And the whole premise of it is it's like a whole petting zoo, but themed after like Rafiki and the Lion King.
Clint:Yep, so it's all about conservation. It's a petting zoo And it's a petting. I mean you're petting goats. I mean you want to go pet some goats, this is where you do it. But they do have some really cool labs and things there.
Amber:They started to do like a drawing class an animation class.
Clint:Oh, that's cool. So that was a super fun experience as a family to go up To sit down with an actual Disney animator and they teach you how to draw step by step, and even if you are a terrible artist, like I am, you end up drawing something that looks like the animal, like I used to draw stickmen, yeah, but now like do you remember I just drew Pumba? Do you recall any of the ones that we drew that were really cool?
Amber:Pumba was super cool.
Clint:Yeah, that was a really cool one.
Amber:I'm trying to think of another one we did.
Clint:But it's Disney characters and you're drawing them with a Disney animator, which is really cool, But that's it. Rafiki explained it. Watch, just keep in mind. it takes you 10 minutes to get there on the train, 10 minutes to get back. There's not a whole bunch of stuff to do there.
Owen:But the train right there is actually really relaxing.
Clint:It's nice, it's wonderful, it's a really cool experience. But you got to know what you're signing up for, because it's not a ride, it's an experience.
Amber:Yeah, you may get up there and kids are like I'm bored, I'm bored.
Clint:I don't want to do this. So before we sign off, we have to talk about Owens. This is Owens' favorite park. We have to talk about Owens' favorite subject, and that's food.
Owen:Boom Got it. Ok, i already got a hold on, ok, ok, ok.
Clint:So we got to talk about food. Owen, give us your top, let's say top two, let's go your top two favorite foods in Animal Kingdom.
Owen:It would be my pleasure. So in like Pandora, the whole land, there is a Whole like cafe, kind of like lunch It's called Satouli canteen called. So it's totally canteen and there is it's like kind of overlooked, honestly, but there's like a little like bow bun Where it's like a cheeseburger bun inside of a bow bun exactly, and it is the one of the best.
Clint:Things. I think they call them cheeseburger pods, Yeah right, yeah, they do and so to the canteens, good vibes anyway.
Owen:It's got some.
Clint:It's got some really unique food. I think that's probably one of the coolest things. Look, if you go to, if you go to Animal Kingdom, don't get like chicken fingers. No no there's too many good. There's a place called pizza fari. It's fine. It's just regular theme park pizza like go. So there's so many cool things to eat Which are really really good. So alright, so burger pods is your one. What's your two?
Owen:My second one is Actually and dino land, usa. There is like a little like kind of like off to the side stand Where it's not so much as food, it's ice cream.
Clint:Okay, what kind of ice cream.
Owen:It is like a huge bowl that you can get of, just like strawberry or like chocolate ice cream. But I Made the mistake of going with like some, like our brothers and everything, and getting it, but it was like a couple's ice cream.
Clint:Oh, you bought like the big giant, like a big ice cream.
Owen:I had like two spoons in there. I'm like you know, i'll make the most of this. I was like using both the space.
Clint:Ice cream to hand. Ice cream. Yep, i think my favorite Food is in Harambe market. Okay, there's a place so man, there's so many good things to eat, but there's place in Harambe market that has some dish That's like chicken and rice together and it's got all these like African spices and things. It is just magic, yeah, so so good. Yeah do you have anything that you remember like there was a favorite food for?
Amber:you Flametree barbecue.
Owen:Flametree, and it smells, oh my gosh like, yes, i Like, and it's a it's good vibes to go and sit down by the water.
Amber:Yeah, yeah, that's and look at exhibition Everest off in the distance. It's a super cool place to sit and relax.
Clint:That's good. That's that's a good call. That place is really good. I feel like there's something in Asia at. Do you recall the name of the restaurant?
Amber:The yak in yeti. The yak in yeti.
Clint:Oh my gosh, there's something that was a yak in yeti that you and I had. That was one of my favorite things that I ever had and now I can't recall what it was. So, yakin yeti, and if you have something good there like, let me know, maybe you can help me help jog my memory. I've had too many Disney Meals in my life. Yeah for sure, all right. Any closing words about animal kingdom.
Owen:Definitely a park that if you really want to like spice things up, you know, but like overall it's a really good part for like just Just relaxation and the rides there and like the immerse, like you're like immersed in, like everything around you. it is an amazing part for littles and a really good park for You, just like get away from everything, have some Starbucks and chillin, like literally Africa It's, it's amazing.
Clint:Yeah, it's a great park. the theming's probably one of my favorites. So many good memories in a little kingdom, so good call That was great Thanks for being on the pod.
Amber:Yeah.
Clint:Yeah, we're excited to have you. It's, it's, i mean, grand. You wrote here with us.
Amber:Yeah, that's fair.
Clint:Yeah.
Amber:We're excited to have you as one of our children.
Clint:Yes, we're glad that you're one of our children. You know, when Isaac said that he was my favorite on The Epcot episode and I agreed with him, i just said yes to what he said and I didn't realize what he said, but really you're my favorite.
Owen:Roll the tape. Roll the tape. I'm using his quote right here Roll the tape I'm there. We're using on every single thing, so yeah, yeah, i'm not gonna.
Clint:And like, don't, listen to the other episodes with your siblings and check to see if I also said it to them too. Guys, thank you so much for tuning in to wish I would have known for this special Disney series.
Amber:We love doing that.
Clint:It's so much fun And so walking through all of the four different parks, it's really really cool. Love animal kingdom glad we got to talk about that and And next time a we're not gonna be going through some kind of thing a little bit off the beaten path. Okay, so everybody kind of knows about Magic Kingdom and Epcot and Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, but what you may not know is there's two water parks at Walt Disney World. There is Disney Springs, which is this awesome area to go and hang out, and then there's some really, really cool resorts where you can go and hang out Even if you're not staying there.
Amber:Yeah, you can go eat at the restaurants that are there.
Clint:So we're gonna highlight some of those things, talk about some of our favorite memories that we've had with some of those and we're really excited. So that'll be next week, don't miss it. And just a quick teaser season three of wish I would have known coming up soon, coming up Coming at you. All right, less Disney content, but more me and Amber talk about the things content.
Amber:Yes, the things all the things.
Clint:I know you're excited now that we're gonna talk about the things well, everybody who like specifically is here for the genre of the things got super stoked.
Amber:They're like I've been waiting. I cannot wait for season three.
Clint:waiting for the things, hashtag the. Thing.
Owen:Clinton, amber spying things up Yeah.
Clint:Thanks for that. All right guys, thanks for listening. We will see you next week.
Amber:Bye, everybody Bye.
Clint:Wish I would have known is recorded in the beautiful Hill Country of Austin, texas, the live music capital of the world. Follow us on Instagram, at wishpodcast, and stop by to say hi. You like it when people say hi.
