“Aawwahhhh! My siestas are getting ‘chorter and ‘chorter!”
…But if we are Theme Park Tourist are going to keep up with our LEGEND LIBRARY to tell the in-depth and complete histories behind the best (and worst) attractions on the planet, there’s no time to waste. And today, our Modern Marvels series gains a new tropical tale: the story of a genuine Walt Disney original and fan-favorite for more than five decades, the venerated and beloved Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.
Sure, it may seem odd that we’d elevate this avian Audio-Animatronics show to stand among the in-depth stories of Mystic Manor, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Expedition Everest, DINOSAUR, Radiator Springs Racers, TRON Lightcycle Power Run, or any number of the spectacular Modern Marvels in our Legend Library…
But for nearly 60 years, the magic of the Enchanted Tiki Room has been passed from generation to generation, inspiring children of all ages to “sing like the birdies sing.” And for many Disney Parks fans, they never feel closer to Walt himself than while reclining in this Polynesian luau.
So today, we’ll soar into the untold history of this spectacular attraction from its first concepts to today, “warble like nightingales,” and see how the Enchanted Tiki Room has changed as it’s jumped decades… and states! Ready for today’s tale? “Olé! Olé! It’s showtime!”
Simple machines
The story of the Enchanted Tiki Room begins a couple thousand years ago (but don’t worry… we’ll fly through this). It was in the 200s BC that Greek philosopher Archimedes classified three mechanical devices capable of doing tremendous work with relatively little effort as simple machines: the lever, screw, and pulley.
Add in the wedge, inclined plane, and the wheel and axel and you’ll arrive at the Middle Ages, where medieval scientists and artists created “automaton” figures powered by these six simple machines, able to engage in unexpectedly complex and repetitive mechanical motion using gears, drums and cams, levers, and springs.
When a Greek ambassador visited the emperor Theophilos of Constantinople in 949 AD, he reported that the throne room was inhabited by “lions, made either of bronze or wood covered with gold, which struck the ground with their tails and roared with open mouth and quivering tongue” and “a tree of gilded bronze, its branches filled with birds, likewise made of bronze gilded over, and these emitted cries appropriate to their species”…
And exactly a thousand years later (no, really) in 1949, Walt Disney encountered the joy of such simple machines put to work in wind-up bird toys he purchased on a family vacation in France. His daughters Sharon and Diane later recalled admiring both the wind-up toys themselves and their father’s fascination with them. “It’s amazing you can get such interesting movement from a simple mechanism,” they recall him stating aloud.
Image: Disney
And believe it or not, the original inhabitants of the park’s 1955 Jungle Cruise weren’t so different from those simple wind-up toys. Though powered by electronics and pneumatics rather than spring-loaded potential energy, the Jungle Cruise creatures were really one of three types: static mannequins, figures with limited motion (like wagging tails, nodding heads, or flicking ears), or “performing” figures looping through mechanical motion cycles powered by hydraulic-action gears, levers, and springs.
While these (relatively) simple “electro-mechanical” figures could really be broken down into centuries-old simple machines, they were astounding to audiences of the 1950s (and still are today)!
Imagined adventures
Image: Disney
Speaking of the Jungle Cruise, when Disneyland opened, the excursion through the exotic mysteries of the Nile and beyond was perhaps the park’s most natural anchor. Stunning to audiences of the era not just for its technological prowess, the ride was designed specifically to appease the adventure-seeking hearts of 1950s audiences. In fact, Jungle Cruise – and all of Adventureland – was evidence of 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. Walt and his designers had designed Disneyland’s 1955 lineup to reflect pop culture of their time. 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.
And in an era where The African Queen, King Solomon’s Mines, The Naked Jungle, Congo Crossing, an endless stream of Tarzan films, and Disney’s own True-Life Adventure documentary series ruled the silver screen, the prevailing image of “adventure” in pop culture was of the “undiscovered” wilderness awaiting within the dark and mysterious jungles of Africa. That’s what the people of Walt’s time pictured when they thought of “adventure,” so that’s where Adventureland was set.
To Disneyland’s earliest visitors, those jungles represented adventure incarnate! But if Disneyland has taught us one thing, it’s that pop culture never stays the same for long.
On August 21, 1959 – just eight months after the induction of Alaska – Hawaii was admitted to the United States as the 50th (and to date, newest) state. The only U.S. state located outside of the North American continent, Hawaii’s statehood nonetheless transformed American culture back on the mainland.
Famously, the ’60s were defined by a veritable wave of tropical culture washing over the U.S. Thatch-roofed Tiki bars spread from coast to coast; vivid, vibrant, floral beach shirts and leis became the must-have accessories as families barbecued with rum drinks in hand, dining on rattan patio furniture at backyard parties lit by flaming torches… Polynesian gods, surfing culture, and hula skirts became symbols of paradise.
And better yet, made accessible by its statehood and the emergence of affordable domestic air travel, Hawaii was heaven within reach! Just like that, “adventure” had changed. And never one to fall behind, Walt determined that his Adventureland should pivot along with it. Luckily, a major change was on the horizon for Imagineering, too, and an almost-unbelievable technological innovation would change Disney Parks forever.
Something different
Image: Disney
In the 1950s, simple electro-mechanical figures powered by hydraulics and pneumatics had given life to the dimensional figures along the Jungle Cruise and throughout the Living Desert in Frontierland. But just as Walt and his studio cartoonists had been fascinated with innovating upon the field of animation, so too were they dedicated to diving deeper into animation off the page, and in three dimensions: figure animation.
In fact, he envisioned an unthinkable leap forward in a place you might not expect: a Chinese restaurant planned for Main Street, U.S.A. “Out in the lobby will be an old Chinese fellow like Confucius—not an actor, but a figure made out of plastic. Now the customers will ask him questions, and he’ll reply with words of wisdom.” He had his team mock up a head that could be controlled through real-time programming to blink and open its eyes and mouth, challenging his team, “Now, let’s make him talk.”
Image: Disney
Before they could, Walt refocused the humanoid robotics figure to a new and long-gestating project: a “Hall of Presidents” wherein he hoped to have realistic figures of each of the country’s commanders-in-chief stand and address the crowd. Naturally, such an ambitious advance in technology applied at such a massive scale was lofty, and eventually the project was reduced in scope to become Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln at the 1964 – 65 New York World’s Fair.
But the designers at WED Enterprises wouldn’t wait for Lincoln to prototype Disney’s groundbreaking look into programmable figure animation. On the next page, we’ll head into the technological breakthrough that made one of Walt’s most classically beloved attractions ever take flight…
The Enchanted Tiki Restaurant
In the essential book Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show, author, Disney Legend, and original Imagineer John Hench recalled that food giant Stouffer’s was looking to sponsor a second restaurant at the still-young Disneyland.
Image: Disney
To Hench’s thinking, this presented the perfect opportunity for the park’s Adventureland to segue to the new Tiki Craze sweeping the country, and that a Tiki restaurant populated by singing tropical birds could be a coup. When he presented Walt with a few sketches he’d composed of the birds perched over tables, Walt reportedly said, “I’m not too sure about this idea, John. The birds will be pooping on the food.”
Of course, Hench quickly explained that the birds he planned to roost in “The Enchanted Tiki and Bird Room” wouldn’t be real birds – or, worse to Walt’s thinking, “dead birds” – but animated ones that would utilize that technology Disney was exploring…
That’s why construction got underway on the new Polynesian-inspired section of Adventureland at the realm’s entrance, cleverly creating a Tiki Room built off the back of Stouffer’s Plaza Pavilion restaurant on Main Street (so that the new Hawaiian diner could share its kitchen). In a bit of well-loved Disney Parks trivia, the central fountain constructed in the Tiki Room was even outfitted with the storage needed to use it as a coffee bar (which it apparently retains today), and – if you ask Cast Members – you may have even be permitted to use the public bathrooms built inside for diners.
While ultimately Disney squashed the attraction’s restaurant format (fearing diners would linger too long in awe of the birds), Stouffer’s did get their second sponsorship by way of the adjacent Tahitian Terrace, which offered tastes of Polynesian cuisine and real live luaus, further tipping Adventureland toward Oceania, creating a mini Polynesian plaza in Adventureland.
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Disney Legend Marc Davis (co-creator of fellow Modern Marvels: Country Bear Jamboree and Carousel of Progress) was tasked with creating artwork for the new Tiki Room characters, while Imagineers Harriet Burns and Blaine Gibson created mock-ups that would eventually come to life. But how would they come to life? Well, the Tiki Room’s avian stars would more than make up for the absent appetizers.
Audio-Animatronics
Merging sound, animation, and electronics, Audio-Animatronics (trademarked in 1964 and registered in 1967) were born. And like the mechanical automatons that adorned the throne room of Constantinople a millennium earlier, this almost-unthinkable technology took the unassuming shape of a bird.
“Electronically animated by sound,” the birds created for the Tiki Room attraction were still relatively simple, using pneumatic (air-powered) pressure enough to move the small figures’ lightweight limbs and beaks, but still far too insignificant to animate a larger, human-sized figure. What’s more, the tone system that controlled the avian figures was digital, meaning that each pneumatic joint was either “on” or “off;” eyes open or closed, head left or right, wings at rest or lifted, chest flat or puffed with no gradients between.
In fact, the simple motions of the Tiki Birds were controlled by way of massive (and, of course, rudimentary by today’s standards) computer mainframes, magnetic tapes, and pneumatic tubing housed in a sleek and temperature-controlled chamber more in line with a Space Age NASA control room than the cleverly-dressed Polynesian pavilion directly over it. As you can see in the rare behind-the-scenes video above, the systems that powered Walt’s first Audio-Animatronics were practically jaw dropping. And in fact, the need to keep those systems cool made the Enchanted Tiki Room the first spot in Disneyland to feature air conditioning.
As for the figures themselves, over 150 Audio-Animatronics figures would populate the Polynesian serenade, including 8 macaws, 12 toucans, 9 forktails, 6 cockatoos, 4 living totem poles, 12 tiki drummers, 24 singing masks, 54 musical orchids, and 74 birds of paradise (some feathered, some floral). This feathered choir remains one of the largest Audio-Animatronic casts ever, and earned a place in our must-read Countdown: 25 Best Audio-Animatronics on Earth.
Image: Disney
Disney Imagineer Harriet Burns (known for her masterful work on Pirates of the Caribbean) personally oversaw the birds’ feathered design, solving the long-fraught mystery of how to make them appear to “breathe” naturally. (The answer? She saw how Walt’s cashmere sweater moved on his elbows the way she wanted the bird’s body to move when they “breathed,” and thus wrapped them with custom-woven cashmere.)
The birds appeared ready for showtime. Now, they just needed a show.
“The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room”
Image: Disney
There are perhaps no songwriters as legendary in the history of Disney Parks as Robert and Richard Sherman. The brother songwriting duo is perhaps immediately recognized for writing the songs for 1964’s Mary Poppins (including “Jolly Holiday,” “Feed the Birds,” “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” “Step in Time,” and of course “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” to name just a few).
Throughout their careers, they’d also write earworm Disney Parks standards like “Miracles from Molecules” (the theme of Disneyland’s Lost Legend: Adventure Thru Inner Space), the unforgettable “it’s a small world,” “One Little Spark” from EPCOT Center’s Lost Legend: Journey into Imagination, the infectious “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” from Walt Disney’s Modern Marvel: Carousel of Progress, and so many more.
But before them all, the brothers were called in to view a mockup of the in-production Tiki Room. Richard later recalled, “Walt said ‘Okay, start it,’ and the next thing we know, the birds were coming down singing “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing,” the orchids were singing… and then the Tiki torches were chanting. When it was all over, nobody knew what it was…”
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Naturally, they asked what it was they’d just witnessed, and Walt replied, “That’s what you’re gonna tell us. You’re gonna write a song that explains it and Larry [Clemmons], you’re gonna write some gags to go with the song, ‘cause I wanna have fun with this thing.”
The result was one of the Brothers’ most legendary and beloved songs of all time: “The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room.”
Image: Disney
Script writers Wally Boag and Fulton Burley also lent their voices to two of the four macaws who would act as the show’s emcees – the Irish Michael and Spanish José, respectively – while the other two lead macaws Pierre (a French “rascal,” voiced by Ernie Newton) and Fritz (German, voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft of the Haunted Mansion’s singing busts) finished out the attraction’s stars.
On the next page, we’ll step into the Enchanted Tiki Room to see how Disney’s designers blended culture, characters, and some very catchy songs to create this Modern Marvel. Ready to take flight?
Enchantment comes alive
Image: Disney
The Enchanted Tiki Room opened June 23, 1963 in a prominent position alongside Adventureland’s main entry. It was United Airlines who would end up sponsoring the Enchanted Tiki Room for its first dozen years, capitalizing on and advertising their new flight paths to Hawaii.
A single Audio-Animatronics figure – known as a “barker bird” – was placed outside of the attraction’s entry and programmed to spiel like a carnival barker to usher guests in. So unthinkable and unimaginable was the technology that guests gathered around to stare in wonder and awe at the inexplicably intelligent bird.
Image: Disney
In fact, “Juan” (cousin of the attraction’s M.C., José) became an attraction in his own right, drawing gawking crowds who clogged Adventureland’s entrance, necessitating his removal. (A replica exists today at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, programmable by guests.)
Even for his short time on display, Juan did his job: giving some point of reference for the unthinkable promise of “singing birds and flowers” inside the attraction. So when guests did step over its threshold, what did they find? Well that’s the fun part.
The Enchanted Tiki Room
Nestled into a volcanic grotto alongside Adventureland’s entry, the Enchanted Tiki Room is indeed a sight to behold, with its thatch-roofed South Seas architecture, burning Tiki torches, and expansive lanai courtyard. At least since 1976 when Dole took over sponsorship from United Airlines, this relaxing tropical grotto is also the place to secure your Dole Whip – the pineapple soft serve treat that’s become an icon of the Tiki Room… and maybe, for all of Disneyland.
As you wait for the doors of the Tiki Room to open, a most wonderful and storied “pre-show” of sorts awaits in the Enchanted Tiki Garden. Here, Māori and Hawaiian gods scattered around the courtyard come to life one-by-one to explain their gifts to the people of Hawaii. Do yourself a favor: slow down, take a break from reading, and enjoy this spectacularly simple and classic introduction in real time with this video:
The pounding of drums reverberating from each draws guests’ eyes as the god speaks its story and animates with simple special effects. It’s easy to see why audiences back in the attraction’s opening era would’ve found this exploration into pan-Pacific mythology so fascinating, and it remains so today. In fact, one might argue that this tropical tempo-setting display is among the most wonderful “hidden gems” in Disney Parks – an attraction in its own right.
Once the doors open, we’re ushered into a dimly-lit interior of the ornate hut. Even in the darkness, it’s easy to see a few birds roosting in and around the tropical plants that surround the room, with ornately-carved totem poles on each corner, tikis lofted high around the room’s outskirts, and a central pedestal.
What comes next must be seen to be believed… We invite you to sit back, relax, and take in the South Seas simplicity and ease of the Enchanted Tiki Room:
The Enchanted Tiki Room stars José, Fritz, Michael, and Pierre – four macaw “emcees” – who lead their feathered glee club in a tropical singalong. Filled with island ease, superb songs, and technology that remains surprising and mostly-invisible even to modern audiences, the attraction is classic through-and-through; an icon of Disneyland’s early years, and a true marvel.
Naturally, that meant that the story of the Tiki Room wouldn’t end in California…
MAGIC KINGDOM: Tropical Serenade (1971 – 1997)
When work began in earnest on the new “Disney World” to be built in Central Florida, the mission was clear: this new “Disneyland East” would need to feature all of the best parts of Disneyland, scaled up and ready for the “Vacation Kingdom of the World” and the international draw it would provide.
That’s why Disneyland’s Submarine Voyage was reformatted to become the Lost Legend: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; why Disneyland’s Adventure Thru Inner Space evolved eastward to become its spiritual sequel and Magic Kingdom Lost Legend: If You Had Wings; why Disneyland’s spectacular Pirates of the Caribbean was meant to be swapped for the Florida-exclusive Possibilityland: Western River Expedition.
Image: Disney
In the decade since its debut at Disneyland, the Enchanted Tiki Room had certainly earned a place in the new Magic Kingdom in Florida, and it was naturally reproduced for the park. Sponsored by the Florida Citrus Growers, the renamed Tropical Serenade opened with the park on October 1, 1971.
Unlike Disneyland’s (which had been wedged into a small plot of land in Adventureland’s entry – according to its attraction poster below, “at the gateway of Adventureland”), Magic Kingdom’s Adventureland had the Enchanted Tiki Room built in as one of its core attractions. In Florida, the iconic “Sunshine Pavilion” and its multi-tiered tower was deliberately placed as Adventureland’s visual “weenie,” drawing guests in from the hub. Despite the name change, a new pre-show, the more elaborate and iconic Sunshine Pavilion housing it, and the auxiliary inclusion of the Florida Citrus Growers’ custom-made Orange Bird mascot, the actual show itself was a carbon copy of Disneyland’s 1963 original.
Images: Disney
Now, Disneyland fans will be quick to tell you that Walt himself never stepped foot in Magic Kingdom, nor any other square foot of the Orlando resort that shares his name… At least, not since it was nothing more than undeveloped land. Whether that’s relevant to the resort’s culture and nostalgic reverence or not is an argument for another time, but the presence of a genuine, unaltered, Walt Disney original in Magic Kingdom is something that many celebrated. And of course, such a timeless, reverent, and storied celebration of mid-century pop culture stamped by Walt’s own fingerprints would remain a beloved fan-favorite forever…
… Right? Read on…
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The Enchanted Tiki Room opened in 1963 at Disneyland. When Magic Kingdom followed in 1971, the attraction was included there as well, renamed Tropical Serenade but otherwise mostly indistinguishable from the original, Walt-approved show from a decade earlier. But now, the two would diverge.
MAGIC KINGDOM: “Under New Management” (1998 – 2011)
Tropical Serenade closed on September 1, 1997 at Magic Kingdom in Florida. In an era before social media, fans speculated on what fate might befall the storied attraction. Alright, so in retrospect, hoping for a mere tune-up sounds downright naive; looking back today, it’s obvious what happened…
Image: Disney
The closure of Magic Kingdom’s Enchanted Tiki Room was one of the first dominoes to fall in a very new way of doing business at Disney Parks. Spurned by the financial collapse of his would-be legacy-leaving addition – Disneyland Paris – then-CEO Michael Eisner had famously sworn off of large-scale investments, causing a 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.
Chief among the new mandates from the once-ambitious-and-groundbreaking CEO? Disney Parks needed a massive influx of popular, marketable, and merchandise-friendly characters, even if it meant the closure of time-honored classics. The Tiki Room wouldn’t be the last… The mid-90s to the mid-2000s are today remembered as the era of the “cartoon invasion”, 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…
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So it’s no surprise that Magic Kingdom’s Tropical Serenade was “purchased outright” by two birds much more familiar to ‘90s kids (and providing an invaluable crossover with ongoing Disney franchies): Iago from Aladdin and Zazu from The Lion King. The two new managers had big plans for updating the Tiki Room, and their much more “hip and edgy” attraction opened April 5, 1998.
The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management was a slapstick show more fit for a ‘90s family entertainment center than a Disney Park, more or less silencing the Tiki Birds in favor of Iago’s grating commentary on how old-fashioned, out-of-date, and unwanted they were. Lambasting the Walt Disney original and born of Disney’s “straight-to-DVD” era, the ill-conceived attraction (to our thinking, unfortunately) became the attraction for a generation.
We dove into exactly what this instantly outdated overlay had in store in its own in-depth feature – Declassified Disasters: The Enchanted Tiki Room – Under New Management – but suffice it to say that most Disney Parks fans felt a great deal of schadenfreude when it literally caught on fire, ending its thirteen year run on January 11, 2011. That could’ve spelled the end for the Tiki Room entirely…
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While many fans suspected Disney would cut their losses and close the classic, imagine their surprise when the least likely of all options was announced: the attraction would re-open at Magic Kingdom… as Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room! Just as the Disney World opener had been a duplicate of Disneyland’s, the restored classic that opened August 15, 2011 simply cloned Disneyland’s most recent revision of the original, reflecting the fine-tuning it had recieved in the decades since.
Speaking of which…
DISNEYLAND: Like the birdies sing (1963 – Today)
Image: Disney
Throughout its 55 year life at Disneyland, the Enchanted Tiki Room has indeed weathered its ups and downs. The “ups” taking place via incremental upgrades that kept the show’s audio systems up-to-date, replacements and re-coloration of birds’ feathers, celebrations of the show’s anniversaries, etc.; the “downs” mostly occuring during that low-budget late ’90s era, during which dusty feathers were known to fall from the Audio-Animatronics and rain down on the crowd below.)
Luckily, even in its lowest moments, the Disneyland version of the attraction was never put “under new management…” Not that Disneyland’s largely local and intensely vocal guests would’ve allowed it anyway… (Disneyland is largely much more allegiant to Walt’s legacy than Disney World partly because of the generations-long visitors who call Disneyland home.)
Image: Disney
Once Eisner and his team vacated Disney, another round of new management (this time, via Disneyland President Matt Ouimet) set out to reverse the cost-cutting of his Pressler predecessor.
To prepare for the park’s 50th Anniversary celebration in 2005, the attraction underwent a seven month intensive refurbishment including all-new Audio-Animatronics, entirely new sound systems, and a fine-tuning that cut five minutes from the show’s runtime (from 17 minutes to 12, ostensibly to make the show more palatable to modern audiences and increasingly short attention spans). Today, the attraction – formally named Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room – continues to play with no signs of stopping.
TOKYO: Tikis (1983), nightclubs (1999), and aliens (2008 – Today)
Aside from Disneyland and Magic Kingdom, a third Enchanted Tiki Room opened alongside Tokyo Disneyland on April 15, 1983. In 1999, it was converted to The Enchanted Tiki Room: Now Playing “Get the Fever!” essentially recasting the birds as stars in a madcap Las Vegas style nightclub revue show in the middle of a jungle. In this version, the four hosts were reprogrammed and renamed, becoming lounge birds Danno, Scats, Buddy, and Lava culminating in singing the 1956 Little Willie John hit song, “Fever.”
After less than a decade, the unusual attraction closed and became The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents Aloha e Komo Mai! It would be difficult to overstate the popularity in Japan of the alien character from 2002’s Lilo and Stitch. The mischievious blue dog-like Experiment 626 features widely across the Tokyo Disney Resort, and is present in the Tiki Room in much the same advanced Audio-Animatronic theater-in-the-round form as in another of Magic Kingdom’s ill-fated “character invasion” attractions – the Declassified Disaster: Stitch’s Great Escape.
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So the Japanese Tiki Room now trades José, Fritz, Michael, and Pierre for the four “Birds of Paradise:” Hanoli, Manu, Mahina, and Waha Nui and features sing-along style performances of “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride,” “Hawaiian War Chant” (from the original attraction) and “Aloha e Komo Mai.” While it may sound downright awful to describe Tokyo’s version of the Tiki Room as a mix of the Disneyland original, Magic Kingdom’s “Under New Management,” and Stitch’s Great Escape, the results are spectactacularly beloved at Tokyo Disneyland… and isn’t that what counts?
Cockatoos and cocktails
Perhaps one of the most spectacular things about the Enchanted Tiki Room for fans of Disney Imagineering isn’t its history, but the world that’s been built around it. And no, we’re not just talking about the Dole Whip that’s been an attraction staple since Dole took over sponsorship from United Airlines in 1976.
Image: Disney
In 2011, Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar opened at the Disneyland Hotel, instantly becoming a fan favorite and reviving the “Tiki Craze” in Disney Parks. Part dive bar, part living theater, the out-of-the-way establishment is renowned for its tropical-inspired drinks which –upon being ordered – literally bring the bar to life with spectacular special effects.
Meanwhile, the walls are lined with adventurous letters, newspaper clippings, and momentos of far-flung adventures seemingly uniting the Tiki Bar (and thus, the Tiki Room) to the nautical exploits of S.E.A.: The Society of Explorers and Adventurers. A swirling vortex of adventurous mythologies, guests exploring the bar will find allusions to the 1930s discovery of the Modern Marvel: Temple of the Forbidden Eye and the establishment of the Jungle Cruise, kickstarting a spectacular “scavenger hunt” insinuating interconnected stories across Disney Parks.
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In 2015, Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto opened at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort at Walt Disney World as well, featuring a cocktail named after (and reawakening when ordered) the goddess Uh-Oa from “Under New Management.”
Perhaps most spectacularly, in 2018, Disneyland underwent “Project Stardust,” an infrastructure rearrangement meant to prep the tiny, cramped, 1950s park for the crowds certain to descend on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. In addition to trimming planters and widening walkways, Project Stardust was meant to reactivate wasted corners of the park to create “sponges” to grab and hold crowds.
And there, adjacent to the Tiki Room was the perfect spot. The Tahitian Terrace restaurant (wedged between the Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise; the one Stouffer’s swapped to when food was cut from the Tiki Room) had closed in 1993 to be made over into Aladdin’s Oasis, carving away a bit of the park’s Polynesian flair in favor of an out-of-place Agrabah-themed dinner show. By the early 2000s, Aladdin’s Oasis was a mostly-vacant, underutilized character meet-and-greet wasting the once-treasured real estate in the Tiki Room’s shadow.
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But in 2018, Disney made a surprise announcement: that the often-empty Oasis would beome closer to its origins, re-opening as the Tropical Hideaway (as in, “Welcome to our tropical hidaway, you lucky people, you!”) – an exotic trader’s market and restaurant almost certainly meant to evoke the original Tahitian Terrace atmosphere… and offering its own Barker Bird – the much-talked-about but never-seen Rosita, who “flew the coop!”
Most exciting for many Imagineering fans, the Tropical Hideaway is really an intersection, bringing together the three “eras” and crossroads of Adventureland: the African origins, the Polynesian Tiki wave, and the 1940s Indiana Jones overlay. Mix it all with S.E.A.: The Society of Explorers and Adventurers, a new home for the Dole Whip, and a place to watch Jungle Cruise boats return to civilization and you’ve got a winning combination that extends the Tiki Room’s reach and story even further.
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In fact, the Tropical Hideaway just may be the perfect expansion of the Tiki Room mythos… it’s a modern throwback to the leisure of mid-century Polynesian patios, offering tropical treats and – per Imagineerings’ hope – a place to chill out and soak in the ambiance. In fact, the Tropical Hideaway might be understood as a balance to Galaxy’s Edge, leveraging Disneyland’s own intellectual property in a low-key, no-pressure oasis free from thrills, return times, or waits… just like the Tiki Room itself.
A Walt Disney Classic
For a generation of Walt Disney World guests who grew up with Iago and Zazu leading the show, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room may be a tropical bore; a naive, slow-paced and yawn-inducing exercise in half-baked ‘nostalgia’ for a time that the Florida park wasn’t even alive for.
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But for most Disney Parks fans, that’s exactly the point! The Enchanted Tiki Room is a reminder of another time; an era when the Tiki Craze swept across the United States and inspired Americans to seek adventure in the newly-accessible world of Oceania.
It’s a carefree and casual moment in the fast-paced world of FastPass+ and dining reservations; a reminder of what Imagineering can do; an icon of technology and innovation; a masterpiece of artists, musicians, songwriters, engineers, and storytellers; a fusion of the best work of Disney Legends; a living memorial to Walt Disney.
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That’s why, even 55 years after its opening, we all “sing like the birdies sing” when we step into Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room; why children go years simply assuming that in this magical place, the birds sing words and the flowers croon, and that’s just how it is; and why we argue that it stands proud among our library of Modern Marvels as one of the greatest attractions on Earth.
If you enjoyed this look at the Enchanted Tiki Room, be sure to make the jump to our LEGEND LIBRARY to set course for another in-depth feature. Dig deep into Modern Marvels, relive closed, classic Lost Legends, or explore Disney’s Declassified Disasters inside out. Then, use the comments below to share your moments about The Enchanted Tiki Room and its role at Disney Parks.
