Post #153064 by BarkerBird on Fri, Apr 15, 2005 11:47 AM

I finally got to see the new improved Tiki Room on Sunday. First off, Tikicutie, I'm sure glad you use your awesome tiki powers for good instead of evil!

MAN what a beautiful job you and the rest of the team did.

About the order of the tikis. I really don't mind the order change. Rongo is kind of the lamest tiki, one that doesn't do anything, So I don't mind putting him a little earlier to help the build up.

I LOVE the new sound effects in the Lanai. The new music helps build the excitement. The sound effects replace the old lame-o buzzy sounds with punchy new effects. It always was kind of lame when Pele would erupt, accompanied by a 40-year old "powww" sound that more resembled white noise than an explosion. And the volume was so low on her "pow" that you could hear the much louder zap of the electric igniter lighting her fire. Now when she erupts, look out! "KABOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!"

I LOOOOOOOOVE the conch shell and drumming before every tiki, though I wouldn't have minded some variation on the sound (like a different variation for each). This sound REALLY helps rid the lanai of some of the cheeze factor of a bit of cornyness that doesn't date well. Instead of them just talking, now we're eased into the fantasy with a bit of drumming and conch shell, and it REALLY works to cut the harshness, and transistion us into the world of fantasy.

The SHOW is GREAT. Fantastic new lighting and sound. People actually laughed at Jose's jokes, mostly because for the first time the whole room could actually hear them! The shows were PACKED, with maybe 8 or so empty seats in the whole place, and NOBODY walked out (take THAT, Offenbach!).

I really can't get over the lighting. Wonderful specials everwhere. I love the highlighting of each type of bird as they are mentioned in the song.

Complaints (because there always are!):

Hostess who sucked. Here we had someone who didn't make the Jungle Cruise cut, and desperately wants to be funny. Laughs at own lame jokes, and embarrasingly keeps talking when she should just start the show.

on a related note:

CAN WE PLEASE lose "Hi everyone and welcome to the Tiki Room. Can every say ALOHA with me? One... Two... Three.." "Aloha""Aww, Come on, you can do better than that, ALOHA!!!!"

I want to say "No, YOU can do better than that old spiel." We had to play that same "Good morning teacher" game TWICE per visit, once before entering the tiki Room, and then again with the hostess. LET THIS DIE, everyone's sick of being goaded into it.

Another complaint. GET TWO or 3 people in the dole whip bar NOW! The line stretched WAY far down the lane, and the person did her best to serve those in the Lanai before the show started, but it felt like I was cutting in line.

MMMM, the dole whip float was great!

According to Al Lutz, the tiki room is BOOMING, and it's not just the fans who are coming out to support it. It's genuinely popular with the tourists, and it looks to continue its popularity for many years to come. Heck, little old tiny Tiki Room pulls in more people than Innoventions!

I brought my almost 2-year-old girl this time, and she LOVED IT! She wanted to go again and again (we did it twice). She loves the songs, and she loved her dole whip!

I was concerned that the lightning would be scary, but we cheered when it happened, and she loved it!

What a great show! We had a great time.