Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room

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“Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people, you!”

Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room opened on June 23, 1963 in Adventureland at Disneyland. The Tiki Room is well-known for being the first attraction to feature Audio-Animatronics. These birds were inspired by a mechanical bird Walt found in a curio shop while on a trip to New Orleans. He brought the bird back to show his Imagineers and asked them to recreate something similar, only one that would be able to move its mouth to synchronized sounds. The technology of the Audio-Animatronic blossomed from there to include other realistic movements such as the stretch-and-recover aspect of the chest to simulate breathing.

Originally the Enchanted Tiki Room was going to be a dinner show where guests were entertained by the Audio-Animatronics while they ate. One early idea was a Chinese restaurant featuring a fire-breathing, joke-telling Audio-Animatronic dragon. Walt instead decided on a tropical theme because since Hawaii had just become a state in 1959, there was a big interest in Polynesian culture in America at the time.

The working title of the attraction was Legends of the Enchanted Tiki. Soon after realizing there was such a slow turnover of guests since they would linger over their dessert, the Tiki Room was changed to only feature the show portion. The show is hosted by four macaws: Fritz from Germany (voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft), Michael from Ireland (voiced by Fulton Burley), Pierre from France (voiced by Ernie Newton), and José from Mexico (voiced by Wally Boag). Joining the four macaws are more than 200 singing birds, flowers, and tikis. The Imagineers designed whimsical characters they could give human personalities to. A favourite part of the show is the Birdmobile which lowers from the ceiling to feature the cockatoo showgirls: Collette, Suzette, Mimi, Gigi, Fifi, and Josephine. These birds were inspired by Peruvian singer Yma Sumac. During this part of the show, José wonders “what happened to Rosita?” and more than 55 years later, Disneyland guests finally found out. A quick service restaurant next door to the Tiki Room opened in 2018 called The Tropical Hideaway. There Rosita, another Audio-Animatronic cockatoo, tells jokes to the guests dining along the rivers of Adventureland. Rosita is actually the second Tiki Room bird to entertain guests outside of the main attraction. During the early days of the Enchanted Tiki Room, a Barker Bird named Juan (a cousin of José) would chat with guests outside of the attraction to try and invite them in. However, Juan soon became so popular that guests would stop to watch him and clog up the entrance to Adventureland, so the Barker Bird was soon retired.

Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room features quite the catchy tune which will be stuck in your head all day, until it’s replaced by “It’s a Small World” that is. Walt loved Richard and Robert Sherman’s song “Pineapple Princess” so much, he asked them to compose another tropical song for the new attraction and they wrote “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room.” The attraction also features the songs “Let’s All Sing like the Birdies Sing” and “Hawaiian War Chant.”

The Tiki room was sponsored by United Airlines from 1964 to 1973 and has been sponsored by Dole since 1976.

The Enchanted Tiki Room can be found in two other Disney parks. A similar attraction called Tropical Serenade was an opening day attraction at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World on October 1, 1971. Over the years, it had many named changes including Sunshine Pavilion, The Enchanted Tiki Birds, and The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management. This show opened in 1998 and featured Iago from Aladdin and Zazu from The Lion King. In 2011, a small fire caught in the Tiki Room and the attraction was closed down. It was remodeled and opened later that year as the original Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.

The Enchanted Tiki Room was also an opening day attraction at Tokyo Disneyland on April 15, 1983. In 1999, it changed to The Enchanted Tiki Room: Now Playing Get the Fever! which was essentially a Tiki Room with a Las Vegas nightclub vibe. There was another remodel in 2008 and the attraction became The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents “Aloha E Komo Mai!” This version features songs from Lilo & Stitch (both the movie and the show) such as “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride” and “Aloha, E Komo Mai” as well as Stitch himself. Even though the show is entirely in Japanese, handheld translators are given to guests to follow along with their own language.