The Enchanted Tiki Room, Orlando, FL (other)

Name:The Enchanted Tiki Room
Type:other
Street:Disney World
City:Orlando
State:FL
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:operational

Description:
Last week I visited Disney World in Orlando and stopped by The Enchanted Tiki Room. Here is what I thought of it and a brief description. Hopefully I’m remembering things correctly as I didn’t have a pen and paper to write everything down at the time. The whole show was about 15 minutes long and my description below is very brief and general. I’m sure there’s plenty I’m leaving out…I just wanted to make that clear because there are a few Enchanted Tiki Room aficionados at TC who I’m sure can write a much better description.

My visit to the Enchanted Tiki Room definitely had a positive start. You enter the area just outside facing a small waterfall, lots of greenery, a couple of tiki’s and Martin Denny coming through the speakers. Very nice mood…this was probably my favorite part of the whole thing.

Suddenly the waterfall stops and out come these two birds. They turn out to be agents for a couple of movie stars and begin to argue over whose client is the new owner of TET. The voices sound remarkably like Phil Hartman and Don Rickles (that would take some doing).

Before they finish their silly debate, everyone is directed into the Tiki Room which is still dark. Then we see Zazu (from the Lion King) and Iago (from Aladdin) introduced to us and we immediately see them begin arguing over who exactly is running the Tiki Room. Iago wants to make lots of changes and Zazu is warning him not to anger the tiki gods by making big changes. Eventually, Iago begins demeaning the tikis by calling them “wood for brains” and some other not-so-nice things just before we hear thunder and see lots of smoke. Suddenly all the tikis come alive singing “In The Still Of The Night”, complete with all the “shooby-doo-wops” very out of character for any tiki. Then the BIG tiki god shows up and orders Iago done away with. He disappears into the ceiling but later comes back (after a serious ass beating by the tiki’s) and proclaims the tiki room is fine just the way it is. This is the end of the show.

All of the tikis were painted in different colors in true Disney fashion. Still, the grounds and architecture were pretty cool. What wasn’t cool was the complete lack of Enchanted Tiki Room memorabilia in any of the gift shops throughout Disney. I was disappointed I couldn’t even find shirt or a pin that said Enchanted Tiki Room. There were plenty of grass skirts and lei’s all over the place though, but they didn’t have my size.

Definitely check out The Enchanted Tiki Room when in Disney World (located in Adventureland) and DO complain to the gift shops about the lack of Tiki Room stuff.

Here's a few more pics:

[ Edited by: Kenike 2009-01-12 13:23 ]

Very nice description and pics. The "fat Tikis" are log drums or slit drums, very cool indeed. Next time be sure to check the tonality, bet they're really deep.

:)
em

You can play them here.

http://www.missouri.edu/~ccaaron/tiki.html

Visted Disney last week and have a few new pics to share.

It made me sick what Disney did to the Enchanted Tiki Room in The Magic Kingdom. Yet, somehow I still go, and will go every time I'm there.
Hopefully, they won't change the one in at Disneyland.

On 2008-04-17 10:38, blindy the pirate wrote:
It made me sick what Disney did to the Enchanted Tiki Room in The Magic Kingdom. Yet, somehow I still go, and will go every time I'm there.
Hopefully, they won't change the one in at Disneyland.

I've heard this same thing from many people...Disney has free run with everything decent since there aren't any real Disney's looking over anymore. I think Eisner drove Roy away. Hasn't been the same since...

Some recent photos (November 2008) courtesy of Violetgirl ...

Headed back there in February and will look for different elements to photograph. Also plan to check out Disney's Polynesian Resort.

Hurricane:

We're Orlando Locals, and if you're in the mood for Company at the Tambu Lounge (at the Polynesian Resort) give a shout (or a PM). While the WDW Tiki room still looks great on the outside, and plays Martin Denny in the preshow area, sadly the show SUCKS. there's rumor, however, that perhaps the original show may come back for the 40th Anniversary in 2011. We can only hope.

Scott

On 2009-01-11 18:23, new2tiki wrote:
Hurricane:

We're Orlando Locals, and if you're in the mood for Company at the Tambu Lounge (at the Polynesian Resort) give a shout (or a PM). While the WDW Tiki room still looks great on the outside, and plays Martin Denny in the preshow area, sadly the show SUCKS. there's rumor, however, that perhaps the original show may come back for the 40th Anniversary in 2011. We can only hope.

Scott

When I saw that under new management show I was ripped out of my brain and it still sucked on ice.

I wish I understood why they did that to that show. They've been systematically dismantling my childhood at Disneyland for a long long time but at least the Tiki Room is more or less intact. Meanwhile, many of the old classics I remember from way back still live at the Florida Magic Kingdom. The people movers, the carousel of progress, country bears, that city of the future model that used to be at the exit of the Inner Space ride. On the west coast, they keep updating stuff to the new movies and characters (Nemo, Toy Story, etc.) so pretty soon all of Disneyland will look like the Disney channel. And California Adventure? In California? Come on. Only good thing about that place is you can get a beer.

Ah well, time marches on. My six year old grandkid is not interested the original enchanted tiki room or the carousel of progress. He did like Pirates and the Haunted Mansion, though, so I guess there's hope for the new generation.

Here are the best shots from our February visit. As stated above, the show itself is not worth mentioning. But I tried to post some interesting images or angles that I hadn't seen before. Photos by Hurricane Hayward and Violetgirl ...

As seen from the Riverboat, the Tiki Room looms behind Frontierland:

Inside while in queue:

The water-spitting Tikis:

And some nice shots at dusk:

Has anyone heard any more about the rumor that the original show may be restored in Orlando during The Magic Kingdom’s 40th Anniversary celebration in 2011? I ran across this recently:
http://tikitalk.astropad.com/archives/enchanted-tiki-room-may-be-returning-to-wdw-in-2011/

[ Edited by: Hurricane Hayward 2009-05-28 02:39 ]

Whatever (or whoever) started a fire in Walt Disney World’s Enchanted Tiki Room back in January 2011 may have inadvertently set off a chain of events that has corrected one of the biggest blunders in the history of theme park attraction renovations.

Closed for the past seven months, the iconic attraction is scheduled to reopen Aug. 15 with a new animatronic show that pays tribute to the original attraction, which was a pet project of Walt himself. To the delight of many hardcore fans, the oft-reviled "Under New Management" theme has been ditched (for good, hopefully). Iago from Aladdin and Zazu from The Lion King have been replaced by José, Fritz, Michael and Pierre – the four crooning parrot hosts who have been entertaining guests at California’s Disneyland since 1963.

See the full report on our blog:
http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2011/08/07/disney-worlds-enchanted-tiki-room-will-reopen-aug-15-with-vintage-show/

Here's an update with the latest news, photos and video on the opening of the updated Tiki Room ...

http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2011/08/20/back-to-the-future-disney-worlds-updated-enchanted-tiki-room-has-retro-feel/

Introducing ...

The Atomic Grog

[ Edited by: Hurricane Hayward 2011-08-21 22:56 ]

Check out our new "Modern Retro Disney World" guide on The Atomic Grog for our first review: Walt Disney World’s Enchanted Tiki Room.

http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2012/01/25/modern-retro-disney-world-walt-disney-worlds-enchanted-tiki-room/

It features lots of new photos of the re-imagined attraction, the history and back story, trivia and details plus insider info - like where is the best place to sit.

We'll have a new review every month in 2012.

Picture from trip last week

For more check out my blog on them
http://pineapplemantiki.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-coolest-tikis-in-magic-kingdom.html