Event Recap: D23 Celebrates The Bucket List Family’s Newest Book with a Nat Geo Book Release at Disney Springs

This morning, D23 and National Geographic held a celebration of The Bucket List Family at Disney Springs. The popular family YouTubers are about to release a new book through National Geographic, and a special panel presentation with the family was held at the Walt Disney World entertainment district’s AMC Theatres.

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For those unaware, The Bucket List Family (otherwise known as the Gee family) has been around since 2015, when mom and dad Garrett and Jessica decided to sell everything and leave home to begin journeying around the world together. Since then, their family has expanded with three kids, who they also bring along with them on many of their travels. The Gees entered into a partnership with National Geographic in 2020 which produced their book, Bucket List Family Travel.

Now, in celebration of their second book, the family-focused picture book, The Bucket List Family and The Big Adventure, a panel celebration was held at Disney Springs featuring all five members of the family – Garrett, Jessica, Dorothy, Manilla and Calihan.

The festivities kicked off with a fun animation transporting the family into the iconic animated styles of Dr. Seuss, Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, and more, before settling on their new book cover.

Surprises were a big part of the panel, as the family first surprised their Nat Geo partner Alison, who helped them get their deal with the company with a special gift. They then surprised two teachers in the audience with packaged clips from their loved ones, some gifts and a helpful donation to their classrooms.

One of the highlights of the event was a peek into a new animated project featuring The Bucket List Family. We got to see rough animatics of an episode of this in-development series, which translates some of the family’s real-life adventures into animated form – specifically here, their recent adventure swimming with orcas. That was actually dad Garrett’s biggest bucket list item yet, something he has always wanted to do and finally achieved earlier this year. In addition to seeing the animatics, we also got to see an early clip of their yet-to-be-released vlog from those adventures.

Interestingly, the family won’t be voicing themselves in this animated series, instead opening up to their fans. One of those fans contacted them on Instagram and was cast as the voice of daughter Dorothy. She came up to the stage from the audience and showcased her impressively youthful voice for a 23-year-old. Garrett used the enthusiasm of the audience to try and pipe up excitement for the project to perhaps come to Disney+ one day…

The event concluded with a Q&A session from the audience, where we got to learn a bit more about the family’s adventure swimming with orcas, some of their favorite foods and animals, and even their favorite Disney rides. Both Garrett and Jessica said Splash Mountain, before quickly remembering that attraction doesn’t quite exist anymore (at least in the U.S.).

The Bucket List Family and The Big Adventure is available to pre-order on Amazon now for a release on October 28th, 2025.