Enchanted Tiki Room/Moana rumor

Just stumbled across this. Love Moana, but...

RUMOR – Is the Enchanted Tiki Room going to be under Moana’s new management?

Well, I can't see how it could be much worse than being "under new management" with Gilbert Godfrey's voice. Ugh. I was so disappointed when we experienced that change.

[ Edited by: tikitube 2017-09-25 07:56 ]

Yes, we were underwhelmed by the Iago/Zazu show as well. It wouldn't have been so bad if they alternated the shows--one has the "new" shtick, and another has the classic show. Best of both worlds, so to speak.

There are a few things which come to mind here...

Disney constantly wants to change and update things, and a "legacy" attraction like this has possibly been judged to have again become "stale." But getting funding for changes and updates, no matter how badly they are needed, seems very difficult. Look at how much of Futureworld at Epcot is unused and in need of complete rebuilding. But now that some good intellectual property is available, voila, it could be time to update and fix that space.

Disney imagineers and show designers (and probably execs too) seem to have a major affinity for things Hawaiian and for things tiki. This helps us tikiphiles in many ways. Many here on Tiki Central came to tiki through experiences at Disney parks.

Disney loves to capitalize on their intellectual property by bringing it into the parks and using the hell out of it. Bringing in Moana is a move in that direction which allows them to refresh the Tiki Room and leverage Moana at the same time.

Disney has announced Moana 2 for 2018-2019, so there is quite a motivator to bring this intellectual property to the foreground in the parks.

Just some thoughts..... If they do change the Tiki Room to a Moana theme, let's hope they do it with a GOOD STORY and some good eye candy to make it last and become loved.

Honestly... and this feels weird to say... I could care less about Moana. It was an okay film, but didn't really leave a mark on me, which is weird to me considering that, y'know, here I am on a Tiki forum. I'm more mixed about the Enchanted Tiki Room.

On the one hand, the version in Florida is slightly sub-par of the version in California. They weirdly edited out the part inviting you to sing like the birdies sing, it lacks the Tiki god lanai, you can't eat your Dole whip or citrus swirl inside, and the building somehow feels wider but smaller because of its lower ceiling. I've heard the truism that WDW's "house show" is really the Country Bear Jamboree, whereas the Enchanted Tiki Room is Disneyland's "house show". So in those respects, I suppose WDW could bear losing the Tiki Room.

But on the other hand, it's still the Enchanted Tiki Room. One of the things that annoys me the most about how Disney is mutilating the Disneyland Resort is that there is still plenty of stuff I love at Disneyland that I can't get at WDW, like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's Scary Adventure, Alice in Wonderland, the Matterhorn Bobsleds, Primeval World and Grand Canyon Diorama, and the original Small World and Fantasmic (though they mutilated those too). Granted there's plenty at WDW that isn't at Disneyland either, but I don't want to have to be making a choice over the Tiki Room now too! I already felt the absence of the Tiki Room in Disneyland Paris.

If the rumours are true and they are intent on doing something, the only thing I could really see satisfying me is if they went with that dinner show idea (maybe at the Polynesian... replace/supplement Spirit of Aloha?) and it still had enough callbacks to the original show that I felt more like something was added rather than taken away. I'm getting tired of Disney taking away things I've loved.