If you’ve stuck around Theme Park Tourist long enough, you know that for years, we’ve been adding to a library of Lost Legends – in-depth Imagineering features where we dig deep to tell the complete stories behind beloved-and-lost classics like Journey Into Imagination, Horizons, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Maelstrom, Alien Encounter, and dozens more.
And while those lost masterpieces have a special place in our hearts, they really only tell half the story. Now it’s time to face the facts: not all attractions go on to be legends. That brings us here, to our Declassified Disaster series, where we dissect the before, during, and after of some truly unfortunate missteps. While it may be the legends that are remembered, how can we forget the waterlogged Journey to Atlantis, Cedar Point’s aptly-named Disaster Transport, Disney’s embarassing Superstar Limo, and the abysmal misfire of Rocket Rods – failures, flops, and outright disasters.
But if you ask many Imagineering insiders, one attraction stands among the pantheon of tone-deaf “upgrades.” An attraction with crude jokes, regrettable humor, and dated 90s style already spells disaster.
Now imagine that these unfortunate ingredients were forced into a beloved classic dating back to Walt himself – one of the few Walt Disney World attractions to bear his direct influence. It may sound unlikely, but just ask those who experienced The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management, the too-long-lived overlay of a timeless classic. Why did this happen? How? Today, we’ll find out. But of course, there’s just one place to start.
The beginning
The story of Imagineering’s bird-brained disaster begins a continent away from the tropical paradise of Orlando in somewhere that’s… well… more semi-arid.
There’s a reason that this story begins in Disneyland in 1955 – because the existence of the Tiki Room relies entirely upon a very important aspect of Walt Disney’s “original Magic Kingdom”: its connection to pop culture.
Sure, today Disneyland is considered a shaper of pop culture, but what’s easy to forget is that the park was actually shaped by pop culture, too. Its five themed lands weren’t chosen at random; they were the prevailing pop culture genres of the time! Those lands of futurism, fantasy, frontier, adventure, and nostalgia were designed to align with the collective consciousness of mid-century Americana.
Take Frontierland. At the time of Disneyland’s opening, Americans were practically obsessed with the Old West. Kids spent summer days playing “Cowboys and Indians” outside, returning home to watch The Lone Ranger, Howdy Doody, and Davy Crockett on living room televisions. The “wild frontier” was a prevailing image in the minds of Americans, and the “Westward Ho!” movement had been crystalized as an idealized and proud time of American history… One passed through a lens of romanticism to build Frontierland!
(As perfect evidence of Disneyland’s reliance on pop culture, just consider what happened to Frontierland soon after… by the ’70s, the “Old West” had largely exited from pop culture in favor of the country’s new collective obsession – the Space Age – necessitating Frontierland’s evolution to keep current by way of Big Thunder Mountain and the never-built Possibilityland: Discovery Bay once planned for the site.)
So take a look at Disneyland’s Adventureland through the same lens. In the 1950s, audiences were enamored with the “mysterious” wonders that might’ve been hiding in the misty, “undiscovered” jungles of Africa. Films like The African Queen, Congo Crossing, Disney’s own True-Life Adventure series, and the never-ending Tarzan series had shaped America’s fascination with “the dark continent.” To Disneyland’s earliest visitors, those jungles represented adventure incarnate.
And like Frontierland, Adventureland needed to keep up. In 1959, Hawaii was admitted as the country’s 50th state. Suddenly, the “exotic” wonders of the South Pacific became all the rage as entertainment, architecture, art, and food on the mainland went Polynesian.
The ensuing “Tiki Craze” spread across the country in the ’60s as Polynesian gods, floral leis, tropical patterns, rattan furniture, rum cocktails, surfing, tiki torches, and hula skirts took center stage. People wanted a piece of paradise, and exotic Hawaii (accessible via increasingly affordable domestic airlines) made it feel attainable!
Just like that, the definition of “adventure” changed, and Adventureland needed to change with it. Disneyland’s Polynesian coup would be one of Walt’s proudest accomplishments…
Tiki takeover
When the concept of incorporating a Polynesian pavilion into Disneyland’s Adventureland was first brought to the table, it was as a restaurant. Walt objected to the idea of filling Disneyland with caged birds – or worse, dead and stuffed ones – but the team at WED Enterprises had something else in mind… something that would change Disney Parks forever.
Because, sure, Disney’s designers could create simple mechanical figures like those featured in the Jungle Cruise – able to perform repetitive motions by way of internal cogs, gears, and simple machines. But a major innovation at WED created something new.
Image: Disney
The Enchanted Tiki Room opened in 1963 – at the height of America’s “Tiki Craze.” If you’re an Imagineering fan or a Disney Parks enthusiast, this is your moment to break off from the story and fly over to the standalone feature – Modern Marvels: The Enchanted Tiki Room – where you can dig deep into the innovations that brought the attraction’s feathered cast to life. But here’s the short version just to get you caught up…
As their name implies, these new figures didn’t just look alive, they sounded it. More than just repetitive mechanical motions, each bird, plant, and Tiki totem inside the pavilion independently breathes, flaps, clips, shuffles, and dances in programmed tandem with audio. Controlled by a massive computer room buried under the attraction, each bird was powered by a “brain” of magnetic tape, triggering sounds and opening and closing pneumatic pistons that powered wings, beaks, eyes, and chests.
So advanced and unthinkable was this Audio-Animatronic technology to audiences of the 1960s that a single “barker bird” positioned outside the Tiki Room stopped guests in their tracks. Indeed, so many guests crowded around the seemingly “brilliant” bird, massive groups blocked Adventureland’s entrance day and night, entranced by the impossible figure. It wasn’t long before the barker bird was removed simply to unclog the path at Adventureland’s entrance!
Image: Disney
More than fifty years later, the groundbreaking choir of creatures in Disneyland’s Enchanted Tiki Room is spectacular enough to make our must-read countdown of the Best Animatronics on Earth. To this day, Disneyland’s feathered figures perform in perfect harmony, leaving young-at-heart guests with the distinct and unshakable impression that they’ve seen truly magical (or at least very well-trained) living birds. And that made it a shoe-in for inclusion in the new Magic Kingdom…
Flying south
Image: Disney
The Enchanted Tiki Room was a bona fide hit and, like so many of the original ideas imagined by Walt and his cast in the early years, it was evergreen. Like Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, or Carousel of Progress, the Enchanted Tiki Room would stand the test of time and remain an invaluable piece of Disneyland; the kind of storied, unshakable, good-hearted family aside that sets Disney Parks apart.
While its sing-along-friendly songs (like “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing”) were a blast, there’s no forgetting the show’s headlining hit: “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room.” Written by the venerated Sherman Brothers (the duo responsible for… well… just about every Disney Parks hit you can imagine from “it’s a small world” and “World of Color” to “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” and the “One Little Spark” headliner that featured in another Lost Legend: Journey into Imagination. The two even wrote Mary Poppins’ “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”!), the infectious and joyful “Tiki Room” is easily one of the strongest in the Disney Parks songbook and a sing-along masterpiece.
Attraction posters for the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland (left) and Tropical Serenade at Magic Kingdom (right). Images: Disney
Of course, when Imagineers set to work designing Disneyland’s younger sister to be built in Florida, it was obvious that the enchanted chorus of the Tiki Room would have a place of honor in a ready-made, grand theatre. Opening alongside Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971, the transplanted copy of the attraction was called Tropical Serenade – a fitting way to describe the leisurely, relaxing, and magical show that awaited within.
Like most attractions duplicated from Disneyland to the larger, grander, master-planned Magic Kingdom, the transplanted Tiki Birds in their new Tropical Serenade would take on a larger-than-life presence. The towering Sunshine Pavilion would rise above the jungles of this larger Adventureland as the land’s “weenie” – the visual landmark to draw guests in from Magic Kingdom’s hub.
Disneyland’s version had guests queue in an enchanted volcanic grotto where magical tiki totems of Polynesian gods told their tales. Magic Kingdom’s was a bit different, featuring two comical birds revealed from behind a waterfall, explaining how they’d found the Sunshine Pavilion while escaping from some hungry Jungle Cruise predators. Then, guests would be ushered inward where an exact copy of the Disneyland original would delight young and old in simple, sing-along wonder.
A beautiful work of Imagineering and a living testament to Walt Disney’s imagination, both Disneyland’s Enchanted Tiki Room and Magic Kingdom’s identical Tropical Serenade stood among Disney’s best ever attractions. So how and why would Disney do something to turn a revered Walt original into a disaster? What happens next may be too painful for Disney Parks fans to relive… Read on…
Image: Disney
Tropical Serenade was a Magic Kingdom opening day original, premiering with the park in 1971. Of course, it was also a copy of the Enchanted Tiki Room that Walt had been so proud of since its Disneyland opening in 1963. For decades, the two unforgettable shows played on.
As the new millennium approached, it’s fair to imagine that (grown-up) audiences lost a bit of their astonishment at the sight of the singing birds, as the technologies that powered them became far less mysterious. However, the shows remained every bit as classic and beloved by fans as a reminder of a simpler time, an innovative technology, and a Walt Disney original. Of course, we’ve learned that that isn’t always enough to keep an attraction untouched…
Enchanting edits?
Image: Disney
In the mid-1990s, Disneyland’s original version of the attraction went under the knife for a touch-up that refurbished its sound and lighting, while also cutting out one song to shorten the show’s length from 18 minutes to 14 – much more palatable for the hurried guests and harried children of the 21st century. (That tightened-up version still plays today, inseparable from the historic fantasy park. While some fans might object to the “edited” version, the show is truthfully stronger for it.)
About the same time, Magic Kingdom’s version announced an upcoming closure, as well. After 26 years of serenades, the tikis, flowers, and birds in Magic Kingdom’s Tropical Serenade sang their swan songs on September 1, 1997 as construction walls went up around the Sunshine Pavilion.
In an era before social media, fans speculated on what fate might befall the storied attraction. Would it simply be edited for time like Disneyland’s? Alright, so in retrospect, hoping for a mere tune-up sounds downright naive… But in 1997, it was still possible that the sudden and unapologetic closure of Magic Kingdom’s Lost Legend: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was merely an unfortunate anomoly…
At that time, Disney World had barely begun the “cartoon invasion” we know well today, flattening the Lost Legends: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Alien Encounter, If You Had Wings, and The Timekeeper in favor of Winnie the Pooh, Lilo & Stitch, Toy Story 2, and Monsters Inc., respectively.
Image: Disney
Looking back now, it really wouldn’t have been surprising if Tropical Serenade had simply stayed closed for years or forever. If that had been the case, we’d be looking back now, acknowledging it as just another victim of the veritable tidal wave of cop-outs, closures, and cancellations that would crash down on Disney Parks by the early 2000s thanks to Disneyland Paris’ dismal opening.
But executives didn’t intend to close Tropical Serenade. In fact, it would be an early adopter of the character invasion to come… In an era defined by a mandate from on high that Disney Parks feature marketable and merchandise-friendly characters, it was time for the old, tired Tiki Room to change.
And luckily, Disney had a few birds in their portfolio from a pair of wildly successful films that had defined Disney’s 90s Renaissance and were ripe for inclusion in the parks. Just eight months after Tropical Serenade’s closure, the Sunshine Pavilion emerged sporting a new marquee.
Image: Disney
The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management opened April 5, 1998. Fans expecting to see an updated or cleaned up show were aghast at what awaited inside.
Under New Management
Settling into the Sunshine Pavilion at the debut of the Tiki Room: Under New Management, you might initially be nervous about the change. The good news is, right from the start you’d likely lose yourself in the classic show once again. After all, it sincerely seems that nothing’s changed! A Cast Member begins the show by waking up Jose, who stretches and yawns that his siestas are getting “chorter and chorter.” As before, he rouses his three co-hosts – Michael, Pierre, and Fritz – who in turn “wake up the glee club!”
At once, the enchanted chamber is filled with twittering, twirling, and flapping as a host of animatronic birds suddenly come to life all around. Indeed, this Tiki Room “Under New Management” is so far identical to its predecessor in every way! This is a good sign…!
Image: Disney
“Olé, olé! It’s showtime! In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, in the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, all the birds sing words and the flowers croon in the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room! Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people, you! If we weren’t in the show starting right away, we’d be in the audience, too! All together! In the Tiki Tiki–”
As the birds sing the wonderful and timeless tune, you might begin to hear a grating honking sound, like a clown’s horn rasping in the distance. Less than thirty seconds into the attraction’s signature song, something new is happening. As the odd sound grows louder and louder, its origin emerges as Iago – the villainous sidekick from Aladdin – lowers on a central perch. “Stop the music, STOP THE MUSIC!” he shouts, voiced here as in the film by the skilled (but deliberately grating) Gilbert Gottfried. “What is that?! I’m gonna toss my crackers!” he cries as the Tiki birds gasp. “And these people below me? They ain’t gonna like that. Trust me!”
Image: Disney
“Iago!” Our attention is drawn opposite where Zazu, the refined hornbill from The Lion King scolds, lowering on his own perch.
“Well, if it isn’t Zero!”
(First, you might be struck by the odd juxtaposition of Iago and Zazu. While, admittedly, they’re both birds, their similarities end there. Aladdin and The Lion King, their respective films, exist a world apart and in different continuities. But in the direct-to-video spirit of 1990s Disney Channel cartoons, these two appear to be old friends… er, enemies?)
“Be forewarned, Iago, you cannot toy with the Enchanted Tiki Room.”
Zazu’s prohetic warning of the sancticity of the Tiki Room falls on deaf ears. No feathers off Iago’s back, he promptly calls the Tiki birds “bird brains,” announces that he and Zazu have purchased the Tiki Room, and tells the choir that they’d better not get too attached; if they want to keep their jobs, they’ve got to get hip. (This does not bode well…)
Image: Disney
He kicks off a new rendition to the tune of Aladdin’s “Friend Like Me:”
You are boring Tiki birds,
I’m a big cele-birdy.
That’s why I’m gonna go and change your show,
Ain’t it great to have a friend like me?
Can your tails do this?
Can your wings do that?
Can you bad birds sing
In punk or rap?
Can you rock and roll?
Well, listen here!
It’s a whole new world, so you better get hip
Or your audience will disappear!
As the number closes, the birds tweet and whistle in alarm, and Zazu reminds Iago that the Tiki gods are always listening. Of course, that won’t slow Iago who tells “those Tiki-tacky, Polynesian, pineapple-pickin’, wood-for-brains, moron Tiki gods” off. The lights flash out as thunder rumbles.
Tiki totems around the room come alive, chanting together: “Uh-Oa, Uh-Oa, Uh-Oa-Oa-Oa!” At the center of the room, an ornate planter begins to steam and smoke. The ceremonial bowl is in fact an elaborate headdress on a concealed Tiki goddess: Uh-Oa, goddess of disaster. The seething goddess’ eyes pierce the darkness as she glows in ethereal hues.
Image: Disney
As you might imagine, Uh-Oa has overheard Iago’s crushing words and is not pleased. The menacing goddess awakens the angry wooden totems around the room who chant darkly as she sings: “It won’t help to yell, you’re under my spell. Look out, parrot, you’re a dead duck!” With a wave her wand and a sinister, snarling “Aloha!” she sends Iago flying as he disappears in a burst of fog.
The wooden Tikis take over, rapping. Iago reappears burnt to a crisp and on crutches. He proclaims the new Tiki Room under his management a rousing success and decrees, “This place is gonna be a gold mine!” The birds finish off with a high energy conga straight out of The Merrymen’s “Feeling Hot Hot Hot” as guests exit, with Iago famously noting, “Boy I’m tired! I think I’ll head over to the Hall of Presidents and take a nap.”
“Right, off you go!” Zazu encourages, sending Iago away. And you’re likely to feel the same way.
New management, new mess
So, what did you think? It’s the Tiki Room minus the songs you loved (aside from a brief opening cameo, interrupted by the headache-inducing Iago), and with the added benefit of some self-deprecating put-downs, a pretty scary animatronic goddess with a bad temper, and some jokes that likely make this show feel more like a bad leftover of Disney’s soggy direct-to-video sequels than a tribute to a timeless and beloved attraction.
The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management might’ve been a serious misstep, but it didn’t last. Would you believe that it came to a fiery end? On the last page, we’ll dissect what happened and what we’ve learned. Read on…
Let’s be clear: Was The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management the worst attraction Disney ever produced? Not at all. Was it a terrible attraction? In a vacuum, maybe not. It was a humorous (if a little too self-referential and instantly-dated) overlay that could’ve added life, energy, and renewed interest to a very old attraction, introducing fresh and well-liked characters from recent animated films and some impressive animatronics along the way.
In other words, we realize that for a generation of ’90s kids, Under New Management was the Tiki Room. It’s the show they knew and loved; the one they remember from their first Disney World trips.
Image: Disney
The trouble is, The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management did not exist in a vacuum. It was a replacement of a dearly beloved and historic attraction. The Enchanted Tiki Room was one of few Magic Kingdom attractions Walt actually designed, and in that regard, a tasteless and irrevent overlay was perhaps even more offensive than closing it altogether.
The original is classic, nostalgic, timeless, and sentimental. It doesn’t have the mile-a-minute, modern humor stylings of Under New Management, and that’s precisely the point. Compared to the authentic original from Walt’s time, Iago’s version was crass, pandering, soulless, and (put simply) just not much fun. While it might earn some “yucks” from the kids, it would never be a classic, and anyone who had seen the original would likely leave feeling a little disheartened.
Image: Disney
Let’s put it this way: visit the movie theater to see Disney or Pixar’s latest and you’ll be inundated with trailers for upcoming children’s movies. Most can be separated into two categories.
- First, you’ve got movies for now. These animated films often include pop references that’ll be totally unintelligible in five years, “fart jokes,” and feature modern soundtracks from top 40 artists. They’re fly-by-night films that get a laugh from kids, leave parents bored, and quickly burn out. Think of The Angry Birds Movie, Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, The Emoji Movie, Ralph Breaks the Internet, or Home. Will anyone really be talking about these films in five years? Ten? Fifty? Probably not. And don’t misunderstand: Disney is responsible for its fair share of films in this category.
- Separately, you’ve got movies for ever. These films are timeless. No pop culture jabs, dated humor, or top 40 soundtracks required. Think about it: these are the kinds of films that families see together; that 20-somethings run to the theaters for. They’re gripping and emotional. We’ll pass Inside Out, The Little Mermaid, Frozen, Coco, and Finding Nemo to our kids and grandkids just as we were handed Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, The Fox and the Hound, and The Jungle Book from our parents and grandparents.
The Enchanted Tiki Room could play forever. The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management could not. As a temporary overlay that appeared every summer (like the Country Bear Jamboree Christmas does every winter), it might’ve been a forgivable aside. As a permanent replacement for Tropical Serenade, it instantly dated itself, retaining very little of the classic attraction and instead opting for modern jokes and tasteless allusions that, frankly, gave it a death sentence. It wasn’t made to last forever. Good news is, it didn’t!
Schadenfreude
Image: Disney
A German word well known for succinctly capturing a feeling that no English word can alone, Schadenfreude is defined as “pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune.” Imagine the driver who blew past you on the freeway later seen pulled over by highway patrol… Maybe you think of it as a sense of justice; that things have been righted in another’s suffering. This dark glee must’ve been what many classic Disney fans felt in early 2011.
On January 12, 2011, a fire broke out in the attic of the Sunshine Pavilion at Magic Kingdom. It’s no telling exactly the extent of the damage, though the “interrupting Iago” figure was reportedly scorched in the blaze. By time firefighters arrived, the building’s fire protection had already doused the flames (and reportedly the animatronics, too, ending in some pretty crippling water damage). The area was evacuated. Adventureland re-opened quickly that evening. The Tiki Room did not.
Image: Disney
Fans recoiled at the notion that the birds might be gone forever, even if a total absence might’ve been preferable to the Under New Management edition. The good news was that with Walt Disney World’s 40th Anniversary fast approaching, executives must’ve felt nostalgic. The fire was an unlikely impetus to try something new in the Tiki Room. Or should we say, something old.
In May – after four months of silence – Imagineers were on hand at D23 (the semiannual Disney convention in Anaheim) to announce that the attraction would re-open late that summer. But that wasn’t all. Better than anyone could’ve hoped, the tone deaf and already-dated 90s overlay would disappear for good, and the attraction would revert to an earlier time. In fact, it would become identical to Disneyland’s version, which never added Iago or Zazu but did go through that brief tidying up years earlier, shaving out a song and improving the infrastructure.
Image: Disney
Tropical Serenade would return better than ever, now adopting the name used at Disneyland: Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. Like Disneyland’s refreshed version, it would include re-mastered audio, new lighting, and a classic cast (without any cartoon characters) with brighter plumage than ever before.
On August 15, 2011, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room opened at Magic Kingdom, celebrating the steady and easygoing simplicity of the islands and featuring the full and beloved version of “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room,” no interruptions. We’re happy to say that the attraction still operates that way today, and if we have any say in it, it will for as long as Magic Kingdom stays open.
Living on…
As you might imagine, official or even “Easter egg” references to Under New Management are few and far between, and the divisive overlay was able to smoothly exit without leaving much of a footprint. But at least one damning piece of evidence remains. In 2015, as part of a grand overhaul of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, the hotel gained an impressive bar. Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto is a sort of spin-off of Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel in California.
These two sister bars are, put simply, amazing. Besides the show stopping drinks, they’re packed with intricate details that tie them to the continuity of Adventureland and maybe – just maybe – to the incredible cross-continental story of S.E.A.: The Society of Explorers and Adventurers that unites Disney rides, lands, and parks across the globe.
Image: Disney
Best of all, when you order a drink, the bar comes alive in response as lights, sounds, and special effects sweep through the room. One of the signature drinks at the Grog Grotto in Florida is the Uh-Oa. Hoisted high above the bar is (you guessed it) the disastrous goddess looming overhead, frozen like a marionette.
If you dare order the flaming Uh-Oa, a storm begins to brew outside as gusting winds and heavy rains fall. As the bartenders lead guests in a chant (“Uh-Oa, Uh-Oa, Uh-Oa-Oa-Oa!”) the Krakatoa volcano seen through the window shades erupts! Lightning flashes to illuminate the goddess above, who begins to glow. Her eyes open in familiar searing red as she cackles…! So even if Uh-Oa no longer haunts the Tiki Room, she can still be found just across the Seven Seas Lagoon in Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto.
A sly reference also existed in the beloved and lost Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular that played for more than a decade at Disney California Adventure. During the finale, the Genie teases a “repentant” Iago (“Phew, I’m so glad we got rid of that Jafar character! I’m one of the good guys now!”) by asking Aladdin what should become of “the Tiki room reject.” Even a thousand miles away, the joke landed every time.
Elsewhere
Image: Disney
For the ’90s kids who grew up with the Under New Management version and still yearn for a more contemporary take on the storied show, you still do have a chance to see another rewritten version of the ’63 classic. A third Tiki Room opened alongside Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 – 20 years after its debut at Disneyland. In 1999, it underwent a complete facelift to become The Enchanted Tiki Room: Now Playing “Get The Fever!,” a madcap Las Vegas style revue show in a jungle nightclub.
Less than a decade later, the cabaret show changed again, becoming The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents Aloha e Komo Mai! U.S. Disney fans are quick to dismiss the use of Stitch (from Disney’s Hawaiian-set Lilo and Stitch) who appears in animatronic form not unlike his appearance in one of Disney’s worst ever attractions and the subject of another in-depth entry, Declassified Disaster: Stitch’s Great Escape. From afar, bloggers demand the return of the original show in Tokyo, too. What they overlook, though, is just how much the Japanese love Stitch and how wild they go for the show.
Image: Disney
Any hatred one might have toward the idea of Stitch taking over the untouchable Tiki Room evaporates as Japanese guests flock in, sing along, smile, cheer, and gaze in wonder at the impressive Stitch animatronic, and just like that, you, too, would fall in love with Aloha e Komo Mai… As long as it stays in Tokyo.
Lesson learned?
Image: Disney
Will Disney ever try to change the Tiki Room again? Undoubtedly, yes. As tastes change and attractions age, there’s always incentive to try new things, make new room, and keep even beloved rides fresh for a new generation. (Who would’ve ever guessed, for example, that Pirates of the Caribbean and “it’s a small world” would both bend to the whims of time? And yet…)
But for now, we can only be thankful that Imagineers rediscovered the spirit of the Tiki Room. Charming, timeless asides like the Tiki Room, Country Bear Jamboree, and the Carousel of Progress can be so easy for guests and even fans to overlook. Remember, though, that these storied attractions are part of the larger picture of what makes Walt Disney World different… Attractions like the Enchanted Tiki Room are hallowed ground for Disney Parks fans, and even as times change and generations shift, they ought to stay that.
Put another way, Zazu hit the nail on the head: “Be forewarned, Iago, you cannot toy with the Enchanted Tiki Room.” Lesson learned.
As bird-brained as the Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management may have been, it’s just one of the many Disaster Files that are part of our LEGEND LIBRARY… so make the jump there to pick up with another feature.
Did you experience the Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management? What did you think the first time you saw it? Was this ’90s overlay truly a disaster, or was it a much-needed refresh of an aging attraction? What other Disney missteps would you like to read more about in our new Disaster Files series? We can’t wait to hear your stories in the comments below!
