New Tikis Coming To Disneyland

Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room will have some tiki company soon at The Happiest Place on Earth...Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The new (or "plussed") Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage attraction set to open next year, will feature some underwater tikis based on the aquarium scenes in the Disney/Pixar motion picture "Finding Nemo."

Instead of the legendary Lost Continent of Atlantis ruins, there will be Tiki-heads, like those in the fish tank in the movie.

More at:

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1396602.php

:)

Very good news for tiki fans visiting Disney.
Did TikiCutie have anything to do with this?

Good post, PremEx.

Very cool indeed. :tiki:

Just adding this photo of one of the tikis that's been installed:

They're still shooting for mid-June of this year to open. The subs have a fairly low capacity...so expect killer long lines. Unless you got an "in" that will allow you to bypass the queue, or you just get lucky and manage to somehow avoid the expected long waits.

OOOO-HA-HA!

Great news, Brother PremEx...!

Cheers (and another Oooo-Ha-Ha! for good measure),
Brother SOK

(ps: See "Nemo's Challenge", featured on TIKI-TUBE, here:
http://www.cosmicassociates.com/yoyoisland-tikitube.htm
Scroll down to find the title, and take the "initiation"!)

"Don't let it be forgot,
That once there was a Spot,
Where Blowfish all wore sunglasses,
and Tiki-times were hot..."

[ Edited by: Son-of-Kelbo 2007-04-04 19:53 ]

....and another gasp from the crowd....OOOOH AAAHHH :)

I think that we are all missing a very important piece to the puzzle though. Look at Disneyland 25 years ago or so. Disneyland was a land of "themes" but in a very good,well thought out generic layout(no main celebrity star focus)to be AND become timeless. Now, all the rides 1 by 1 are being "updated" to add DATED material and rides. Indiana Jones ride is awesome,but most kids nowadays don't even know who he is or what he is/was about. Pirates of the Caribbean now DATED thanks to the upgrade of Johnny Depp(replacing the cool Blackbeard Captain), Roger Rabbit, Poohs ride in the Bear Country, and now Nemo are all dated thanks to the wonderful talent(less) Imagineers who obviously don't live up to their namesake. The way it looks, I wouldn't be suprised if the Enchanted Tiki Room was updated to Aladdin, and The parrot "Lago" would lead a song "In The Genie Genie Genie,Genie Room"... OR worse, be updated like the "New & Improved" tiki Room in Floriduh. Disneyland has dated themselves on alot of rides one by one, and it looks like it will continue happening. Be sure to see the new attraction "Cars" replacing Mr. Toad's Wild Ride coming soon! Or maybe Disney should stick an animitronic Eddie Murphy in the Haunted Mansion...That would be cool...(-insert throwup here-)
Yea....this topic disturbs me...The brains behind all of this definately removed the "magic" from Disneyland. Now it should be renamed "CopyOurMoviesLand"!
Walt is rolling over in his grave...

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2007-04-05 09:32 ]

Tom Slick, you are right! Let's add to that list of movie dated rides:
Peter Pan ride
Snow White's Scary Adventures
Alice in Wonderland ride
Tom Sawyer's Island (dated book)
Dumbo's flying elephants,
etc.

Disneyland was using dated elements right from the get go. Don't forget, they were a movie company before the amusement park stuff and they still are.

Right Hak, those are the "true" classics that helped to launch Disneyland, But now Disney is basing the rides on the movies. In some Disney-purist cases, the rides actually made the movie, not the other way around. I see your point, but do not agree with the decisions being made at Disneyland as of current. Search "YouTube.com" for the tiki room remodel in Florida if you haven't already seen it...Don't think that that can't happen in Anaheim...

Here's a photo of another of the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage tikis:

FYI...the scuba diver shown is not real, but is part of the attraction.

They're still shooting for a June 11th Grand Opening to the public.

Now, I gotta say something...I am still a little concerned about the Submarine Voyage being "changed," even though the original thing was so antiquated that the change is necessary now...but...

That image of the diver with the tiki? That looks GREAT! It looks wonderful!

This ride was one of the best things in the park visually thanks to the uncompromising approach of doing it FOR REAL, in a big sculptured water tank. I have a feeling this is going to be just as pretty and satisfying, in a different way. And it will feature carved heads too--I like what I see here.

It looks tikifabulous. I remember the first time I rode the submarine...I so thought we were deep in the sea and my Dad sat next to me and my sister and played along "oh yeah...we are deep under the sea now...look at that giant octopus....yada yada yada"....that was so much fun. Then I remember years later looking down on the ride from the monorail....gheeeez we were only inches from the surface...kinda like finding out about Santa Claus (slightly dissapointing but all part of growing up).

On 2007-05-20 17:13, procinema29 wrote:
Now, I gotta say something...I am still a little concerned about the Submarine Voyage being "changed," even though the original thing was so antiquated that the change is necessary now...but...

I hear you. But it does sound like they've done a first-rate job "plussing" up the old attraction while keeping the true aquarium aspect intact...to make it interesting again. The biggest change is that the "Finding Nemo" aspect is really going to be even more popular with the kiddies than the old Submarine Voyage ever was. And that's going to make for uber long lines (perhaps even many hours in length) filled with kids with little patience. Could get ugly.

But as far as the attraction itself goes...I think there's enough old mixed with new technologies (like underwater Audio Animatronics, underwater projection systems, CGI, and even some physical effects that will rock the subs...to make it really fun again. Here's some more details on what you will see. Be forewarned it contains SPOILERS:

Dive Into Disneyland's Newest Attraction

Behind a wall of secrecy at Disneyland Park, tantalizing sounds have emerged for months now to tease Disney fans. There's something big going on in the old lagoon where the Submarine Voyage once embarked for undersea adventure. Something amazing. Something ... wet.

Avid fans will be nodding their heads right about now -- yes, we're talking about the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage attraction, which has long been in the works. Now, with opening day only weeks away, we've coaxed our friends at Walt Disney Imagineering to give us a peek at what lies ahead under the waves. Kevin Rafferty told us exactly what we'll see -- plus how they created some of those amazing effects!
Kevin explains that as we board the subs, "We're visiting this undersea exploration company -- the Nautical Exploration and Marine Observation institute. Put those letters together and it spells Nemo! Guests go along for the ride as this institute explores an underwater volcano."

And a trip to Mount Wannahockaloogie is indeed in the cards -- but on the way Guests will encounter Marlin and Dory, ride the East Australian Current, meet a couple of sharks face to face, survive a mine explosion that plunges them to the depths of the sea, traverse a hazardous school of jellyfish, and even be ejected from the spout of a whale before they return safely to shore.

It sounds like quite a thrill ride, but Kevin stresses that the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage is not a rough or scary experience -- you'll feel the sub rock a bit when the mine detonates, but that's about as wild as things will get. The focus is on fun and exploring the wonder of Nemo's underwater world, and even the youngest Guests should feel right at home.

"We were very careful that nobody would really be scared -- the characters are having a good time, and Nemo is being happy-go-lucky, and everything's OK," Kevin explains. He feels the attraction's greatest achievement is not thrills and chills, but "The integration between the characters you know and love from the film with the world we've created underwater. It's very magical," he continues. It wasn't easy to create a story Guests could experience onboard their submarines that would be true to Disney/Pixar's film "Finding Nemo," and also a rich storytelling experience in its own right. "I was a little bit worried about that," he confesses, "but it came together and it's really beautiful."

Another challenge the Imagineers faced was making the experience compelling for Guests in every part of the slow-moving subs. "If you consider each of the submarines as a moving theater, Guests are traveling through each of the scenes," he explains. "We had a story we wanted to immerse them in, but the front of the submarine will be in and out of the scene before the tail end goes through it. So it was a challenge to create each scene so that every Guest on board has equal show value. Our solution is that if you are sitting in the front end of the sub and you enter a scene with Marlin and Dory looking for Nemo, by the time the tail end of the sub comes up you have received all kinds of cues about what's happening. When you're in the tail end, you'll see the scene differently than you would if you were sitting in the front. If you sit in a different part of the sub next time, you might see a little gag or a little moment that you didn't get to see before. You're going to get a little different show depending on where you sit in the sub." For that reason, he strongly recommends planning at least two voyages, to make sure you catch the show from every perspective.

The Imagineers had a powerful new tool at their disposal to help them meet these challenges -- a computer program that let them create a virtual version of the attraction that they could "ride" on their computer screens. They were able to see exactly what the experience would look like from each seat on board the sub, from start to finish, before they'd built a thing in the real world. Tinkering was easy.

Another innovation developed for this attraction is a much more concrete one. Kevin explains the dilemma the Imagineers faced: "We wanted beautiful, brilliant colors for our undersea world. The sun has an adverse effect on paint -- it tends to fade it through the water. Also, paint colors never seem brilliant enough underwater. So Imagineering developed a new technology, basically painting with glass. There were several tons of recycled glass applied to the undersea environment. The results maintain the colors we wanted to portray, and because it's colored glass it will never fade in the sun."

The subs will be leaving dry dock June 11 -- and getting them this far has taken about three years. That might seem like a long time to throw your heart into one project, but Kevin claims "You get so involved in design and development that those three years just flew by. This is the only place in the world where you'll be able to see this attraction. There was a lot to learn, and the next thing you know, three years have gone by and it's almost opening day!"

And here's some video that includes some Imagineer interviews about the new attraction, along with some cool footage of the old sub attraction and the real-live lagoon mermaids that were around for a few summers! :)

http://adisneyland.disney.go.com/media/dlr_v0200/en_US/podcast/subscription/DisneylandResortVideoPodcast008.mp4

(It's a REALLY large file that takes some time to download even with a broadband connection...so be patient...it may not start playing until it's completely downloaded)

The submarine attraction was closed "permanently" 9 years ago, and Disney even actioned off most of the old props on eBay some time ago. It was thought that we'd never see it again. So while it's not the same 1959 Submarine Voyage that many of us grew up with...personally I'm just glad to see the subs back even if the storyline has changed a bit. And glad that someone at Disneyland managed to hang on to the submarines themselves...until a new management team came along and agreed the ride was worth a second look.

:)

Didn't read this thread first time through, but I'd like to add something about Hakalugi's answer to Tom Slick's lament.

"Tom Slick, you are right! Let's add to that list of movie dated rides:
Peter Pan ride
Snow White's Scary Adventures
Alice in Wonderland ride
Tom Sawyer's Island (dated book)
Dumbo's flying elephants,
etc."

Normally I take the cynical side of a disagreement, but this time I have to side with Tom Slick here. It struck me upon reading it that the entire list mentioned to demonstrates Disney's prior commercialism were all movies based upon popular books. Though not as popular as Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland," Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer," "Snow White" (The Brothers Grimm) or "Peter Pan" (now 100 years old), even "Dumbo" the children's book was already around. (And there's "Swiss Family Robinson," 1812, or "The Wind in the Willows" that spawned Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.) In that sense, I think those rides already were timeless classics, based upon timeless literary classics. AND, one couldn't go out and buy the cassette or DVD in those days. You just had to wait for another, what, 5 year cycle for them to re-release the movie to theaters? The Disney Merchandising Machine had not yet been perfected.

Therefore, I have to agree that Disney has upped the ante on its commercialism well beyond the old days.

Oh, wait - that's also a cynical side.

Never mind.

Looking forward to the submarine ride anyway, especially as I've never been to Disneyland or Disneyworld so it'll all be new to me,
Formikahini

P.S. I haven't even seen half of those Disney movies! I only grew up with the books. They are in no way connected to Disney in my mind. Unfortunately, though, Snow White in my mind now does look like Disney's Snow White, rather than anything from my imagination. My lament is that so many parents park their kids in front of the video instead of reading to their children. It robs them of their imagination and creativity. At least read them/let them read the book first before you let them watch the movie.

Jeez...I remember when they closed the original version of the ride, and I went on that thing just a few days before they did that. And for all this time, I have been sort of bummed out. When visiting the park, there was the lagoon, just sort of sitting there, with the plastic lobsters and turtles somewhat visible under the surface. They kept saying there were gonna do something with it, but can you imagine, they just left the lagoon sitting there in plain view for nearly TEN YEARS, this has been weird and I'm glad they're opening this new version.

OOO-HA-HA!

SOK

Wow, looks very awesome! I can't wait to ride on it.

It's been way too long since the original closed...

Submarine Voyage now sailing and accepting passengers!

http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-trw-nemo11jun11

I went on it last week. The show is more kid oriented now, but it was still great to ride the subs again! Try to ride during the daytime...the lagoon portion looks better with sunlight rather than the artifical lighting at night.

Be prepared for tight quarters though. People were a lot thinner in 1959 than they tend to be today.

I just went on it...honestly, I liked the original version better for various reasons. But the tiki stuff was good and there were some pretty moments.

I just visited Disneyland - for the first time since grad night - and loved the Tikis in the Hawaiian themed room of "Its a Small World" and was dazzled by the Tiki torches illuminating the thatched A-frame and tikis at the Dole bar.

On 2010-03-25 07:35, christiki295 wrote:
I just visited Disneyland - for the first time since grad night - ...

So is that three years or thirty years?... Give us some perspective. Hopefully you ventured further than the Dole bar and actually went in to the Enchanted Tiki Room. Yes?

How could I?
I was soaking up the mana of the Tikis, illuminated by the (faux) Tiki torches; and enjoying my Dole (straight from the north shore?) pineapple whip at the Tiki bar.