10 Secrets of Walt Disney’s Attraction That Revolutionized Theme Parks

When Disney crowd levels are high, lines are long, and the weather is less than ideal, it's always nice to know Adventureland is home to a cool and comfortable escape with little to no wait time.

Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room is an immersive island oasis where birds, flowers, and Polynesian tiki god statues serenade guests as they soak up the convincing tropical setting. It may hide under the radar for some guests, but this feel-good attraction is a must-do for my family on every visit to Disneyland or Disney World.

Enjoying a frozen Dole Whip or Dole Whip float while “the birds sing words and the flowers croon” is a great way to relax and regroup in the middle of a hectic theme park day. For me, and for many, the Enchanted Tiki Room is a reminder to appreciate the abundant simple pleasures Disney has to offer.

10 Facts and Secrets Hiding in the History of This Tropical Hideaway

There's a wealth of fascinating Disney history nestled inside this replica of a South Pacific ceremonial house. Read on to uncover the significant contributions the Enchanted Tiki Room made to the Disney theme park experience and more!

First Show to Feature Audio-Animatronics

When Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room debuted in 1963 at Disneyland, it introduced an innovative new technology the world had never seen before. Until then, animatronics had only been able to perform simple movements. Walt conceived of a “new type of animation” that could be achieved by finding a way to make animatronic characters talk, just as he had done with cartoons in “Steamboat Willie” decades earlier. The synchronization of movement, sound, and visual effects used to create the Tiki Room characters coined a now-famous term in Disney Imagineering—audio-animatronics.

These now-ubiquitous mechanical characters are such an integral part of the Disney parks experience that it's hard to imagine a time before they were in use. This new technology was revolutionary. Many of the classic attractions we enjoy today, like Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and it's a small world, exist because of this technology, and it continues to evolve, with brand new, state-of-the-art audio-animatronics on coming attractions, like Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

Disney Details

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The level of detail Disney puts into every resort, park, land, and attraction has long been the theme park gold standard, and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room features some remarkably thoughtful minutiae. For example, the birds mimic breathing in and out, which was a difficult effect to produce artistically, according to Imagineer Harriet Burns. In a 2005 interview, Burns said the Tiki Room birds were one of her most challenging projects, due to the strange appearance of their feathers each time they “inhaled.”

Every bird was covered in real feathers, which Burns placed herself, and they looked completely natural when breathing out. However, Burns said the birds “scrunched” as if they “had mites” when they mimicked breathing in, because of the feathers. So, she decided to cover their chests with a custom-made cashmere, which made the breathing motion appear more natural.

It Was Almost a Restaurant

Originally, Walt envisioned the Tiki Room as a little “bird café” where guests would enjoy sandwiches, tea, and coffee, as part of an updated Adventureland experience at Disneyland. As the show progressed and began to take shape, Walt realized pairing a restaurant with a show would present problems he hadn't foreseen. He anticipated the musical performance would distract the guests from the meal, and then they would feel rushed to finish eating before the next show began. These reservations combined with his belief that the show would be a hit in its own right led Walt to make the decision to make the Tiki Room a bona fide attraction, without a dining component.

First Air-Conditioned Attraction at Disneyland

At the time of its opening, the Enchanted Tiki Room was the first and only attraction at Disneyland with an air-conditioned building. Despite the California heat, the air-conditioning wasn't provided to make guests more comfortable, but rather, to keep the computers and technology required to run the audio-animatronics from overheating.

It All Started With a Trip to New Orleans

Inspiration for the idea of developing audio-animatronics came from an antique mechanical singing bird in a cage Walt found in a shop while on vacation with his wife, Lillian, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was so enchanted with the small desk ornament that he became determined to discover how it worked and asked his studio technicians to take it apart and figure it out.

His reasoning was that people had been achieving interesting movements using simple mechanisms in Europe for hundreds of years, so why not improve upon it with modern technology? He and his team of Imagineers did exactly that, first with birds, flowers, and tiki gods, and later with more sophisticated audio-animatronics on Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, America Sings, Country Bear Jamboree, The Hall of Presidents, Spaceship Earth, and more!

The Four Hosts Represent Different Countries

The Enchanted Tiki Room is hosted by four macaws, who share the majority of the dialogue for the show, and they each represent different countries. Imagineers used colors from each nation's flag for their plumage, and they have accents intended to match their country's English dialect. Jose is from Mexico and has red, white, and green feathers. Michael is Irish, with green and white feathers. Fritz, the German bird, is red, yellow, and white. Finally, Pierre, who is pictured above, is a French parrot, with red, white, and blue plumage.

The Disneyland Version Begins in the Gardens

Hawaii had officially become America's 50th state not long before the conception of the Enchanted Tiki Room. Tropical island locales always held great appeal for Walt Disney, so there is little doubt that this historical event influenced his substantial creative input on the attraction. Carved tiki totems representing Hawaiian gods still welcome guests to the enchanted gardens outside Disneyland's Tiki Room. Surrounded by lush vegetation, they awaken to tell the Hawaiian history of water, sun, moon, plants, and stars. Moana fans in particular might be interested to hear the legend of Maui included among others, such as Koro, Pele, and Tangaroa.

Special Effects

There are a couple of impressive effects that enhance the Enchanted Tiki Room experience, and guests are often curious about how Disney Imagineers perform these illusions. The first is the tall stream of water that shoots from the center fountain before the “glee club” descends on a spinning chandelier. A thin transparent tube hidden by the falling water helps the fountain to appear as if it's defying gravity.

Even more captivating is the show's climactic finale. Beds of tropical flowers perform a musical luau, crescendoing into a tiki-led version of the “Hawaiian War Chant.” All the birds and flowers join in, until thunder booms and lightning flashes. Through the “windows,” volcanoes erupt, and rain falls. I admit I've often wondered how to recreate this very realistic tropical thunderstorm inside a “tiki room” of my own. The secret is more simple than you might imagine—water trickles between two panes of glass to make it look like it's raining outside.

Barker Bird

When the Enchanted Tiki Room opened, Disneyland still charged by the attraction, so the park often used Boardwalk-style carnival “barkers” to encourage guests to visit. Think, Mr. Potato Head at Disneyland's Toy Story Midway Mania, saying, “Step right up and take a ride!”

In 1963, there was an extra charge for the Enchanted Tiki Room, so Disney placed a “barker bird” at the entrance to Adventureland to entice guests to buy tickets to the new attraction. The bird's name was Juan—cousin to Tiki Room host, Jose. Wally Boag, who starred in the long-popular Golden Horseshoe Review at Disneyland, voiced both audio-animatronic characters. Disney eventually removed Juan, because he proved to be problematic to the flow of traffic in Adventureland. Since audio-animatronics were completely novel at the time, guests were amazed when they saw Juan, and nearly everyone stopped to watch his antics.

Fire at Magic Kingdom Tiki Room

During the late 1990s, Disney attempted to make Magic Kingdom's version of the Enchanted Tiki Room (called “Tropical Serenade”) more relevant to a new generation of guests. Imagineers changed the story to include characters from hit Disney films at that time. Iago from Aladdin and Zazu from The Lion King became the new “managers” of the attraction, which featured fictional tiki “goddess of disaster,” Uh-Oa, and some updated songs. It opened in 1998 as “The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management,” and was not at all well-received.

When Iago caught fire during a January 2011 performance, the sprinkler system damaged many of the birds in the show, and Disney took the opportunity to return the attraction to its former glory. Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room at Magic Kingdom is now a slightly abridged version of the Disneyland original.

Interestingly enough, you can still see the Uh-Oa audio-animatronic from “New Management” inside Trader Sam's Grog Grotto at Disney World's Polynesian Village Resort. Whenever someone orders her signature drink, her eyes glow as she recites her memorable line, “If you mess with Polynesia, the Tiki Gods will squeeze ya!”

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