Enchanted Tiki Room Gets Old Lease on Life

The phoenix rises from the ashes. Maybe, just maybe, the ashes left behind by this year's fire at Disney World's Enchanted Tiki Room mean that the original birds will rise to take back the lease from the 'new management'. Disney says: yes!

- by Bob McLain, May 15, 2011

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Rumors have been rife recently about what's happening behind the closed doors at the Enchanted Tiki Room in Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

On January 12, a fire charred parts of the attraction, and park pundits felt the fire would give Disney an excuse to evict the 'new management' and return the old birds to their former prominence.

Today, Disney's Jennifer Fickley-Baker reports that the attraction is being 'retro-hauled', and that it will re-open this summer.

Will Disney restore the old show note for note, chirp for chirp?

Probably not.

According to Jennifer, Disney will "reshape the attraction into a version reminiscent of the original show". Those words were carefully chosen, and they mean... not very much.

The current version of the show is also 'reminiscent of the original'. If you first saw the show in the 1970s, and then didn't see it again until after the 'new management' had taken over, you'd have no trouble reminiscing about the original despite the changes.

So far, nearly 60 people have left comments about Jennifer's story, and the comments are overwhelmingly positive. In fact, they're ecstatic: "YAY!!!", as Tim from Oregon wrote, summing up the sentiments.

But we haven't seen it yet. I'll keep my "YAY!!!" in abeyance.

I'm one of those rare birds who first saw the Tiki Room show in the 1970s, thought it was nice but not fantastic, and enjoy the new version.

What we can expect, guaranteed, is lots of chatter between now and this summer about the Tiki Room.

Good for business! And, let's hope, good for the birds, too.

Here's what might be coming back: