Today, I’m happy to announce that a Disney Park staple has been returned to it’s former glory and is now open to guests: Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room has now reopened at the Magic Kingdom.  After a fire in January of this year, Disney has been refurbishing the attraction to restore it to it’s original show.

Many amusement park enthusiasts may not be familiar with the Enchanted Tiki Room and assume its just some other theme park show. However, the Enchanted Tiki Room historical significance expands to all theme parks, as it revolutionized technology of dark rides, shows, and most every other themed attraction. So “Come to the Tiki Room! Hurry to the Tiki Room!” as its time for a short history lesson on Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.

When it opened at Disneyland in 1963 (Behind the scenes video from YouTube user freedogshampoo), it was the world’s first introduction to Audio-Animatronics. What is an Audio-Animatronic?  The invention (and coined phrase) were developed by WED Enterprises (today known as Walt Disney Imagineering) and in a nutshell, Audio-Animatronics are robotic figures synced to music.  This allows the robots to achieve the effects of singing, dancing, and producing life-like sound effects.  Audio-Animatronics would later go on to be used in nearly all major Disney attractions including The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, it’s a small world, and many, many more.

The show itself stars four charismatic birds, each with their own distinct colored feathers and accent.  Jose, Pierre, Michael and Fitz host a magical musical journey including sweet-singing birds, serenading flowers, chanting tiki totems, and drumming tiki gods.  The show concludes with a thunderous storm spontaneously appearing outside the hut’s walls due to all the celebrating. Music for the show was composed by the Sherman Brothers whose other projects with Walt Disney include Mary Poppins, it’s a small world,  and The Jungle Book.

 When Walt Disney World opened in 1971, a version of Disneyland’s Enchanted Tiki Room opened under the name “Tropical Serenade“. While the show remained almost un-touched from the original, the new Floridian version included a new wrap-around queue that surrounded a preshow.  Instead of an assortment of Tiki Gods around a courtyard, the new preshow focused on two birds who hinted at the Floridian location with mentions of Florida’s famous orange groves.

The show became a success in the newly opened Magic Kingdom, complementing the lushly themed Adventureland.  Tropical Serenade would continue to make a strong run until the park “re-imagined” the Tiki Room with The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management opening in 1998 starring the shoe-horned in Iago from Disney’s Aladdin and Zazu from Disney’s The Lion King. Gilbert Gottfried’s blarring commentary did not mesh well with the sweet-singing birds of the Tiki Room creating a mostly-loathed show that diminished the charm and entertainment from the original

On January 12, the ill-guided “New Management” caught fire, and no guests were harmed, it did cause signifiicant damage to the attraction. The Enchanted Tiki Room would shut it’s doors for repairs for an unknown period of time.  4 months later, Disney announced it would be re-opening the attraction once again to become the Enchanted Tiki Room, inspired by both the Califorinia version and the original Tropical Serenade show.

Today marks the official re-opening of the Tiki Room at Walt Disney World.  The video above, captured yesterday during a preview by Inside the Magic, shows this latest incarnation of the attraction is a beautifully updated version of the original Tropical Serenade.  Removed is some of the unnecessary commentary from the California version, the enchanted fountain is replaced by a floral center piece, the windows now reveal the hut’s spectacular beach setting, as well as a number of fantastic lighting effects update the attraction while staying true to the original.

Enchanted Tiki Room is a refreshing break from the super-massive, movie based dark rides of today and goes back to the company’s roots in putting on an entertaining, original show that the whole family can enjoy.   If you’re in the parks be sure to stop by, and check out this refreshed, but still classic, attraction.

In March of 2007, SeaWorld Orlando officially announced that they would be building an adjacent water park called Aquatica. With a South-Pacific theme, the water park which would open one year later would feature  36 water slides, a wave pool, animal encounters, and instantly become a huge success. Let’s Time Warp through the construction process of SeaWorld’s first water park: Aquatica.

March 2006 – The land Aquatica now stands on was formerly a large expanse of open field.  By this point, rumors were already swirling that SeaWorld would use this plot for a water park.  Construction on the (at the time) unknown water park began later in the year.

October 2006 - By October of the same year, construction crews began prepping the land, installing foundation work and created a small lake to the side of the park.  Despite water slide pieces arriving on site (in the bottom right hand corner of the photo) SeaWorld did not announce plans for another 6 months.

November 2007 - With just a few short months until opening, in November of 2007, the water slides had all been constructed, all the pools had been built, and various facilities were nearing completition.  Despite the short time until opening the park still needed to install the walk ways, complete the parking lot, add the lavish landscaping, and of course bring in the animals that would truly make this a SeaWorld water park.

December 2008 - Within the first year of operation, Aquatica became a huge success drawing in enough attendance to make it the 4th most visited water park in the country.  The park surpassed it’s opening year expectations in just 6 months and was a major step in making SeaWorld Orlando a full fledged resort.

May 2010 – The most recent images of Aquatica potray a fully-grown and thriving water park that has become a destination in it’s own right.  In 2010 the park made it’s first expansion with Omaka Rocka, raft ride added an existing slide tower (seen in the bottom center).  Aquatica’s success inspired SeaWorld Texas to re-vamp their existing slide complex into a full fledged water park using the same name and theme with different slide offerings.

That wraps it up for this Time Warp. Check back for more visits to parks of the past and present on Park Thoughts.

Header image © SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment

The 2011 summer season is hitting it’s final stretch over these next few weeks, and while most parks are contiuing to coast on their 2012 additions, some parks are just finally opening their new rides. Two parks in particular, Knott’s Berry Farm and Busch Gardens Williamsburg, have had their fair share of problems.

Knott’s announced their Windseeker the same day as the other 3 Cedar Fair parks but immediately some set-backs arose.  First, the original planned location to replace the park’s Sky Cabin was abandoned and a new location by Silver Bullet was declared.  the park then had to drain the below lake and modify one of Silver Bullet’s supports to accomodate the ride.  In fairness of the park, they did make some very good decision in having it not replace Sky Cabin, giving it an awesome color scheme to match the rest of the park’s skyline, and some nice thematic touches to blend into the surrounding Fiesta Village area. The park also released great nighttime test footage to maintain anticipation. After yet another week of delay, the park has set Windseeker’s opening for next weekend.  Keep your eye out Windseekers!

Busch Gardens Williamsburg has had their hands full with their own tower ride, Mäch Tower. Created by Moser’s Rides, the 200+ foot drop tower is sure to provide spectacular views and a thrilling drop…when it finally opens.  The ride’s manufacturer made several stops by the park causing months and months of tiresome delay.  Rumors even seemed to indicate that the ride had major foundation damage.  Moser has finally signed over the ride to the park, allowing the park to begin employee training and their own set of testing.  BGWFans captured a full test of the ride (skip to 3:55) for the drop, and while it doesn’t appear to be any Intamin drop tower, it will have some nice views of the best landscaped park on the planet.  No opening has been announced but we do appear to be approaching that unknown date.  Shortly after, the park is also expected to announce their 2012 multi-launch coaster plans.

Despite their very very late arrivals, both seem like good additions to the park.  And for future seasons, it will be yet another attraction that guests can enjoy all season long (hopefully).  Plus, with each park having elaborate Halloween events, it will be marketable (and open) during the popular Fall season. So sure it’s late, but better late than never. Keep that in mind.

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