Post #776474 by creativenative on Wed, May 31, 2017 5:15 AM

Hmmm. Thank you everyone for the posts and links. Looking at earlier renderings of the park I was amazed by the great looking volcano with some hint of nice tiki and Polynesian culture. I was looking forward to the park's opening. The final result, with the park had me feeling uncomfortable. The tiki, as mentioned were cartoony and disrespectful of it's origins. I cant believe Universal Park reps traveled throughout Polynesia for research. The results looks like they took advantage of their jobs and just sipped mai tais on various Pacific beaches. As in any good tiki, representation of Pacific Island culture are better displayed as a distant mystique with more authentic looking samples and, at times, real items from the Pacific. Here the tiki devolution is exhibited. More genuine looking tiki could of stood guard throughout the park with signs explaining their names, origins and meanings. Along with different roof designs found throughout the Pacific region and appropriate names to match the architecture. The theming of the water park would be more authentic and educational while most importantly extruding a Polynesian vibe that I'm sure was the park's intention. To put it more plainly, the giant artificial volcano surpassed the looks of earlier renderings (unusual), it is awe inspiring, realistic, and it definitely sets the mood for the park. The park certainly did their homework on the volcano and I can't wait to see it at night. Now if they put that same effort into their tiki, then we would have something. Samples from the Theme Park Adventure.com website below illustrates my point.