Burudika Band at Africa in Disney's Animal Kingdom - March 7, 2014

Burudika Band at Africa in Disney's Animal Kingdom

A stage is set up in the square outside of the Tusker House restaurant featuring the Burudika Band.  “Burudika” is Swahili for “to be refreshed”. This band consists of African drummers playing traditional African songs.  The band members will involve some of the audience in their act.  Below is a video that I took on March 7, 2014 of some their music and interaction with the audience.

Gi-Tar Dan outside of Conservation Station at Rafiki's Planet Watch - March 3, 2014

On March 3, 2014, I decided to start my day at Disney's Animal Kingdom,  It's been a while since I've visited Rafiki's Planet Watch so I wanted to see what has changed in that area.  I took the Wilderness Express train from Africa to get to Rafiki's Planet Watch.  I got off the Wilderness Express train and headed to the Conservation Station.  Once I got to the Conservation Station, I noticed a man playing a guitar and singing a song to a family.  As I got closer to the man, I recognized that this was the same man that used to entertain guests at Camp Minnie-Mickey.  The man calls himself Gi-Tar Dan and has entertained visitors inside the Animal Kingdom for many years.

Gi-Tar Dan

I wondered what Animal Kingdom would do with him when Camp Minnie-Mickey was being converted as part of the Avatarland expansion.  Now we can continue to enjoy his guitar playing and singing outside of the Conservation Station.  Here's a small clip of Gi-Tar Dan entertaining a family.

Restaurant Marrakesh - Food Review and Video of Music and Bellydancing - December 2009

Restaurant Marrakesh is one of the table service restaurants at Epcot located at the Morocco Pavilion in the World Showcase.  It is open for lunch and dinner, serving traditional dishes from Morocco.  It's not too difficult to get reservations at restaurant.  Not too many people are familiar with Moroccan food and tend to shy away from it because of their uncertainty of the food or their hesitation to eat food that they consider strange.  Along with the food, Restaurant Marrakesh offers musical entertainment and bellydancing.  When I went with my family on December 2009, I had the Marrakesh feast, which consists of Harira soup (traditional hearty soup flavored with tomatoes, lentils and lamb); Beef Brewat Rolls (baked layers of thin pastry filled with seasoned minced beef, eggs, fried and sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar); Marrakesh Mixed Grill (Tenderloin of Beef Shish Kebab, Lamb Merzuez Sausage, Marinated Chicken Kebab) served with roasted potatoes; and Assorted Moroccan pastries.  This is a lot of food!  Make sure that you get the mint tea!  It is one of the most refreshing drinks at Epcot.  Overall, I enjoyed the meal.  I thought the meats were tasty and well complemented.  The appetizer and dessert was delicious.  The highlight for me at Restaurant Marrakesh was the music and bellydancing.  It's live music with a musician playing tradition Moroccan music and bellydancing.  The bellydancer was awesome!  I took pictures and video of my meal and the entertainment.

My Experience at the 2011 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party,,,captured in video! - Part 1 - The Dance Parties and Musical Entertainment

I'm starting this series of posts sharing my experiences through videos that I made from the 2011 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom.  This post features the dance parties and the musical entertainment that is offered at the party.

There was a dance party held at Cosmic Ray's.  A DJ was setup to interact with the guests and to play all the popular dance hits from 2011.  Cast members brought several characters to the dance party to dance with the guests.  Yes, I also got on the dance floor and danced! In my opinion, this was the best dance party offered at the party that year.



This video featured Goofy and Pluto dancing with a cheerleader group to KeSha's Blow.


This video featured Goofy and Chip and Dale doing the Cupid Shuffle with a lot of kids and adults.

This video features Goofy and Pluto doing the shuffle to LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem.

I also attended the dance party at the Diamond Horseshoe building.  To me, this was the least fun to attend because the DJ was not that good at getting the guests into the music.  It seemed that most of the people were just standing the around and looking at the characters.



I went outside of the Diamond Horseshoe and spotted the Frontierland Band playing lighted up banjos.  This was really cool because they were all decked out with lights while playing all their music.



I headed to Tomorrowland because another musical performance was playing there.  A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas Show was featured.  This was funny and entertaining.  The dancers were really into the performance.  I took two videos of this show:

Disney Channel Rocks! at Disney Hollywood Studios - December 2011

Disney Channel Rocks! was a daytime musical show that was performed in front of the big sorcerer's hat at Disney Hollywood Studios.  The performers sang and danced to covers of popular songs from the Disney Channel.  The show played its last show on April 6, 2013.  I was fortunate to see the show during the first week of December 2011.  I recorded a short clip of this show with my Motorola Droid Bionic smartphone.  I thought this show was fun and entertaining.  The kids that were performing the song and dance number had a lot of enthusiasm  and spirit, and got the children in the audience to dance with them.  Below is the clip of the show.

Mo Rockin' and Bellydancing at the Moroccan Pavilion at Epcot - December 2011

I spent the first week of December 2011 down at Walt Disney World.  I made time to visit Moroccan Pavilion at the World Showcase area in Epcot to enjoy the performances of Mo Rockin' and see some bellydancing.  Mo Rockin' is a musical group that plays traditional music from Morocco out at the Moroccan Pavilion several times a day.  Watching them requires no additional admission.  The bellydancer is the same bellydancer that performs at Morocco's sit-down dining restaurant, Restaurant Marrakesh.  The music is entertaining, and the bellydancing is amazing.  This is definitely something that you do not want to miss while you are visiting all the areas at the World Showcase.  Below is a video that I took of Mo Rockin' and the bellydancer.

Main Street Philharmonic - September 2012

On my solo trip to Walt Disney World in September 2012, I was in the Magic Kingdom when I ran into a performance from the Main Street Philharmonic.  This group is a mini marching band that entertains visitors to Main Street USA.  I luckily had my camera handy to take HD video of their performance.  The first video features the band performing solos for the audience.

The second video shows the band performing favorite Disney songs.

The last video shows the band marching off of Main Street USA.

Whenever you are at the Magic Kingdom, make sure to check the schedule and see when they are playing.  They are definitely worth watching and enjoying their music.

Night of Joy 2012

I was not a fan of Christian Rock music.  It was not because I disliked the music.  I was never exposed to the music or the artists while I grew up. While on the Disney World website back in 2012, I saw an event called the Night of Joy held at the Magic Kingdom which featured Christian Rock performers.  I decided to attend the event on September 7, 2012 to experience the music and to see why fans flock to the musicians.

The day of the event was met with a rain storm.  The rain delayed the start of the performers and threatened to cancel some of the acts.  Luckily, I had my poncho to protect me from the rain.  The rain did not stop the performers.

I really enjoyed the group Disciple.  They played at the Rockettower Plaza Stage at Tomorrowland.  Even though they played on a smaller stage, they had a fan base equivalent to the acts on the main stage.  Their heavy metal style really resonated well with the teenagers.  I really liked the songs that I made videos on.

Frontierland Band

I was playing the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game in Frontierland on one of the days during the first week of October 2013 when I ran into a performance of the Frontierland Band.  They are a three piece band consisting of two banjo players and a tuba player in western costumes.  Besides being great musicians, they are great comedians, making jokes and entertaining the kids and the parents that are around.  I took a video of them with my Samsung Galaxy S3.  Enjoy.

Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas at Epcot's Eat to the Beat - September 23, 2013

Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas at Epcot's Eat to the Beat at the 2013 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival

I had the opportunity to be at Epcot in time for 2013's Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.  While I always enjoy the food and drinks (and lots of those) at F&W, I really like the musical acts that Disney invites to perform during the festival.  This year, I watched Starship featuring Mickey Thomas on September 23, 2013 at the 8:00pm show.  I waited in line so that I can get great front row seats.  It was worth the wait because my seats were towards the front at stage left.  I knew that Starship's lineup has changed over the years since their glory days in the 1980s.  The question that I had in my mind was if they still had it to perform live on stage.  As soon as Mickey Thomas hit the stage, the audience was cheering and chanting for him to perform "We Built This City".  Mickey did not disappoint and performed "We Built This City".  This was one of my favorite 80s songs, and I frequently listen to this over the radio and XM.  The audience was singing along with Mickey to this song.  I have to admit, I did too!  Below is a video that I shot (using my Samsung Galaxy S3) of Starship performing "We Built This City".