I’m amazed at how the Disney Cast Members create an immersive sensory experience at the parks and resorts. The sights, smells, and sounds at the parks and resorts imprint the experience in our minds forever. Later on, we can recall those sights, smells, and sounds, and it’s as if we’re transported back to that exact place and time. Disney fans recreate those experiences through photography, scrapbooking, trying Disney recipes – you name it. Besides photography, my way of bringing back the magic includes listening to park and resort audio.
To be sure, we have other experiences in our lives where exact details of the moment remain with us forever. Besides Disney parks and resorts, I can’t think of any other place I’ve visited where the designers so successfully created a place that made such lasting impressions.
So it’s natural to recall different, subtle details of your visit to Disney parks and resorts and look back with a feeling of nostalgia.
During our trip in 2011, I really took notice of the Walt Disney World ambient soundtrack. The people who seem to be in the know call them “resort loops” or “area loops”. That’s the music you hear outside rides and shows in the parks, or that play over the speakers at your resort. Anyway, it’s almost as if I started to take notice during that trip, when I know I’d heard much of it before.
So when we got home, I started to look into park and resort audio, including area loops and ride audio. As you might expect, I’m not alone in my enjoyment of park and resort audio, and the Internet is full of sites with park/resort audio from Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and other worldwide Disney Parks and Resorts. Think of any park, resort, parade, or show, and the audio (and probably good amateur video) is out there.
In the coming months, I’ll share some tracks I like, along with sources I’ve discovered where you can find Walt Disney World park and resort audio. It’s certainly not difficult – step 1 is to Google your particular subject, then filter through the bazillion sites listed.
If you don’t want to wait for the next series installment, I’d start here: http://yeahdisneyaudios.tumblr.com. To the right you’ll see a link that says “Updated Download Links”. You’ll see an amazing list of audio tracks for download. In the next post I’ll include tips on using iTunes and putting tracks on your iOS device (my apologies to non-iOS device owners!). Importing/loading files is not too tough either – just keep in mind the files are pretty big, like ripping a whole CD as one song or track.
Since it’s so close to Christmas, I thought I’d share that this site alone has 28 Christmas related audio tracks – some even rather obscure. A particular favorite is the 2006 Epcot Christmas Entrance loop. That track, along with this photo, instantly takes me back in time almost six years. I hope you can check these out, and they help make your Christmas and New Year holidays a little more magical.
Christmas Topiary!
Since going to Walt Disney World and Disneyland at a young age, Chris has always enjoyed Disney music, TV shows, movies, and trips to Walt Disney World. But his appreciation of the overall Disney experience has greatly increased over the last few years. While waiting for the next chance to work on his Disney photography skills, Chris passes the time listening to Park/Resort audio, WDW podcasts, and checking out the work of other Disney photographers. To Chris, there are no bad Disney trip photographs or photographers.
Non-Disney pursuits include spending time with his wife and children, watching and listening to baseball broadcasts, and cheering for the Chicago Cubs and LSU. Chris is a third generation professional engineer in Louisiana, working mainly on asbestos, lead, mold and demolition projects. Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWhitePE and you can check out his Flickr photo stream: chris_white2323.
