From Tiki Birds to Jungle River Expeditions: Big And Small Ways I'd Improve Walt Disney World's Adventureland

(Missy Martinez on Flickr)

In my last post on Haunted Serenade, I talked about what I would like to see happen in future refurbishments of Walt Disney World's version of Pirates of the Caribbean. After sharing these ideas about Pirates of the Caribbean, I thought about what I would like to see happen to the rest of WDW's Adventureland. Adventureland is by far the strongest land in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in terms of both scenic design and current roster of attractions. However, it too has had poorly thought out additions and changes, and some small but crucial details that added up with the rest of the land to create a truly brilliant themed space have been removed. So in this post, I'll share some of my ideas on ways to refurbish and restore parts of Adventureland that need it, starting with the smallest details and ending with the biggest projects.

Small Details

Restore the Fountains in Caribbean Plaza and the Tiki Room's Magic Fountain

Before

After
 (special thanks to Foxxy at Passport to Dreams for these pictures)

Once upon a time, Caribbean Plaza had several beautiful tile fountains with lovely flowing agua. By the start of the new millennium, all of these fountains were turned off and turned into planters, resulting in the loss of the wonderful kinetic motion and reflections that the water in those fountains once provided. Bringing water back to these fountains would restore a nice detail of Caribbean Plaza.



(Thanks to How Bowers for letting me use this picture)

Of even more importance is resurrecting the greatest fountain that ever existed at the Magic Kingdom: the wondrous old magic fountain in Tropical Serenade (now known as Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room). This masterfully designed fountain with water flowing between the teeth of tikis into the water-filled base and bird-shaped arches supporting the top of the fountain was a visual masterpiece. Even better was the mesmerizing motion of the streams of water at the top of the fountain, and the impressive column of water that seemed to defy gravity by reaching up to the top of the room and descending in time with the birdmobile as it appeared from above. Sadly, this marvelous centerpiece of the Tiki Room disappeared during its transformation into the awful Under New Management, and replaced by a planter from which Uh-Oah, the Tiki goddess of disaster, emerged. Now that the original show has returned at long last, it is time to return the wonderful magic fountain and once more join the birdmobile in delighting guests who look at the center (of the room, that is).

Bring Back The Other Barker Bird of Adventureland

(Special Thanks to Mike Lee for permission to use this photo and several others in this post)

The salty old parrot that once beckoned to guests from the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean may have been the most famous of WDW's "Barker Birds", but he wasn't the only one. An adorable toucan (voiced by Wally Boag, the same person who lent his voice to José in the Tiki Room) used to sit on a perch underneath a special alcove of the thatched roof of Tropical Serenade and entice guests to sit on their tail feathers inside the air-conditioned Tiki Room and enjoy the performance given by the flowers, tikis, and all his relatives. He also entertained people with animal imitations and other sounds, similar to what Clyde and Claude do in the excellent Tiki Room preshow. This wonderful fellow could be heard and seen in the heart of Adventureland for many years. After going through a strange phase where he became Artemus the Jamaican toucan in the 90s, he sadly flew the coop when the New Management took over and he hasn't been seen since. Returning him and his cousin at Pirates of the Caribbean to their respective perches above two of Adventureland's greatest attractions would be a small but incredible restoration of one of the greatest and most beloved details of Adventureland.

Big Projects

Switch Back the Locations of Sunshine Tree Terrace and Aloha Isle and Return the Sunshine Tree Terrace To Its Former Glory

(Sam Howzit on Flickr)

If you don't know who this little guy is, let me start by saying he's the Orange Bird and he's an adorable character born from a partnership between the creators of the Magic Kingdom and the Florida Citrus Commission, the original sponsor of the whole Sunshine Pavilion (the complex which includes the Tiki Room and Sunshine Tree Terrace; a trip to any of a number of awesome sites will tell you more about the Orange Bird's unique role in marketing Florida citrus). He's also a living artifact from a time when the Sunshine Tree Terrace was truly awesome.

 

 His original home and the original location of the Sunshine Tree Terrace (pictured above) once featured its magnificent namesake; the Sunshine Tree, thick with dark green plastic leaves, blooming with artificial citrus flowers and filled with ripe plastic oranges, where the Orange Bird swung in a perch and thought orange thoughts (a neat projection effect), a perfect centerpiece for this tropical citrus snack bar. Among the many amazing citrus treats* courtesy of Floridian citrus growers according to a 1972 Los Angeles Times article was tangerine soft freeze ("a sherbet-like mixture of orange juice, tangerine concentrate, tangerine oil and sweetener"), a clear ancestor of the underrated yet much beloved Citrus Swirl, an orange juice bar on a stick, tangerine cheesecake ("cake topped with tangerine and orange glaze sauce"), citrus tarts ("heavy cream in an open shell, topped with orange sections and glazed orange sauce"), and crêpes ambrosia ("a delightful mixture of oranges, tangerines, marshmallows and coconut dipped in heavy cream and rolled in a French pancake"). No doubt your mouth is salivating right now, and if you ever tasted it, you may have thought the Citrus Swirl was great by itself!

*NOT including whatever the heck "jellied citrus salad" was!

Sadly, for one reason or another these delectable citrus sweets disappeared (with the exception of the Citrus Swirl, of course) and in 1986 the Orange Bird (pictured above in his old perch) flew the coop as the FCC's sponsorship ended. In 2000, the grand Sunshine Tree joined its former resident in disappearance, torn down and lost to the sands of time. At its absolute low, the Sunshine Pavilion had had its Tiki Room taken over by New Management, the Orange Bird and Sunshine Tree had both gone away, the flames of the decorative tiki torchbearers on the Terrace had been snuffed, and even the Citrus Swirl had vanished! Then a miraculous fire destroyed the New Management and brought back the real Tiki Room from the dead. Meanwhile, the Orange Bird had been revived out of nowhere thousands of miles away, appearing in merchandise appropriately enough for Japan's Orange Day. In spring of 2012, the Orange Bird finally flew back to his home at the Sunshine Tree Terrace, and although there was no longer a Sunshine Tree to roost in, it was an incredible return of a small but significant piece of Walt Disney World's spectacular history. Then in 2015, something peculiar happened; the Sunshine Tree Terrace switched locations with Aloha Isle. The latter now serves the highly popular Dole Whip right next to the Tiki Room, while Citrus Swirls (and the Orange Bird himself, who fortunately made the trip across Adventureland) can now be found at the former in a juice bar much closer to the main entrance of Adventureland. With the current menus of both venues in consideration, this switch makes sense; the presence of the Dole Whip, not to mention Pineapple Float and now Pineapple Upside-Down Cake at Aloha Isle compared to Sunshine Tree Terrace's assortment of Citrus Swirls, floats and drinks means the bigger counter is needed by Aloha Isle. But this still leaves us with the sad fact that the Sunshine Tree Terrace is now severed from the Sunshine Pavilion, its ancestral home. What if the Sunshine Tree Terrace brought back those undoubtedly delightful tangerine cheesecakes, crêpes ambrosia, and citrus tarts, and went back to its original home near the Tiki Room with the space for serving such treats, putting floats, drinks, frozen juice on a stick, and Aloha Isle's delicious pineapple treats back at the smaller juice bar? In addition to that, the Sunshine Tree could be put back behind the counter at its Terrace hideaway, Orange Bird swaying in the breeze and thinking orange thoughts once again on a perch in its branches. Oh, and returning the walk around Orange Bird that as seen below once delighted countless guests near the Sunshine Tree Terrace wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Demolish the Magic Carpets of Aladdin and Revitalize the Center of Adventureland

A once impressive view of Tropical Serenade and the Sunshine Pavilion from all the way across Adventureland...



(Loren Javier on Flickr)

Has been obstructed by the worst-placed spinner attraction in all of Walt Disney World.

A formerly wide and spacious plaza...

(Mark and Paul Luukkonen on Flickr)

Is now a crowd-flow nuisance complete with annoying spitting camels.



(xiquinhosilva on Flickr)

And the cheap tent façade of Agrabah Bazaar...

Pales in comparison to the North African façade it replaced.

In short, placing the Magic Carpets of Aladdin right in the middle of Adventureland was a major mistake, one that is long overdue for being undone. It is time now to demolish the Magic Carpets of Aladdin and reclaim the space that it sits on. If this unnecessary spinner attraction were to disappear, a multitude of wonderful things could happen, such as expanding the beautiful pond in front of the Tiki Room back to its former size, putting in new planters and other decorative touches, and taking down the tent façade of Agrabah Bazaar and restoring the original, superior façade of that section of Adventureland. These changes would combine to transform one of the Magic Kingdom's least successful crowd areas into a marvelous plaza with enough space for everyone drawn to the majesty of the Balinese Sunshine Pavilion.

Give Jungle Cruise the Major Refurbishment it Deserves

(Josh Hallett on Flickr)

If and when a major refurbishment of the classic Jungle Cruise happens, there is a veritable treasure trove of uninstalled scenes designed by Marc Davis himself that would be excellent enhancements of the attraction, not to mention previously removed effects and figures that could be returned. My refurbishment of the Jungle Cruise would take advantage of both, not only restoring pieces of the wild river expedition that have been AWOL for years or decades, but also finally filling in specially prepared and empty sections of the riverbank with the Marc Davis scenes they were always intended for. Although a thorough detailing of what I would like to see happen in a refurbishment of the Jungle Cruise should and will comprise its own complete blog post on Haunted Serenade, I will say this; my refurbishment involves such wonderful things deeply rooted in the history of the Jungle Cruise as cute frogs, baboons, an angry gorilla confronting a crocodile, and flaming skulls (!) among other stuff. I look forward to sharing with you all my comprehensive plan for refurbishing one of WDW's most exotic and signature attractions in my next post on Haunted Serenade. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos to give you a preview of the stuff that I will talk about in the Jungle Cruise refurbishment post:

I hope you all enjoyed this look at Walt Disney World's Adventureland and the big and small ways I would improve it. I promise I won't leave you guys hanging too long on a jungle branch waiting for my next post, so be sure to keep an eye out for my upcoming post on Haunted Serenade about how I'd refurbish the Jungle Cruise!

 

Happy 44th Anniversary to WDW's Pirates of The Caribbean: My Wish List For Refurbishing This Classic Attraction

(Lee on Flickr)

Today sadly marks 51 years since the passing of Walt Disney, but it also marks the 44th anniversary of one of WDW's greatest attractions, the Pirates of the Caribbean. Plagued by a harried construction and ride length half that of Disneyland's version, WDW's Pirates is consistently the lowest rated of all the Pirates of the Caribbean attractions throughout the world. But nonetheless, it has some wonderful, unique elements that set it apart from the rest of the Pirate rides. For one thing, it has the magnificent Caribbean Plaza as its home, a wonderful work of terraces, hidden courtyards, and wrought-iron details that truly set the Caribbean stage for the Pirates. The facade of WDW's Pirates is the stunning Castillo del Morro, an impressive recreation of a Spanish fortress, complete with the iconic clock tower. The dark and sublimely detailed fortress and dungeon queue nearly make up for the shortcomings the ride has, and in fact was an important part of the entirely different story the WDW Pirates once told. In the original WDW Pirates of the Caribbean, there was no time travel; guests traveled to a Caribbean town, entered a fortress under attack by pirates, boarded longboats to escape the marauders as a pirate ship sails in the distance, and then ended up back in the same Caribbean town as the pirate ship arrives and attacks. Unfortunately, both the queue and ride have been altered greatly over the years and not necessarily for the better, from political corrections to the arrival of Jack Sparrow to the questionable addition of Fastpass+. These changes have impacted not only many of the iconic scenes but also the experience itself; now it is possible to infer time travel in the story, and much of the pirates ransacking of the Spanish Main has been turned into a Where's Waldo-esque search for Captain Jack Sparrow. On top of all of this, there is at least one more controversial change yet to come. From February 26th to March 18th next year, WDW's Pirates of the Caribbean is set to have a refurbishment for the primary purpose of politically correcting the classic auction scene. I have already wrote a lengthy post about why I feel this is a bad idea, so needless to say I am hoping above all else that this does not happen (unfortunately, it did). However, seeing an upcoming refurb for Pirates got me thinking about what I'd love to see Disney do during the three-week refurbishment or a similarly short refurb of the ride, and what long-term things that I think Disney should do to restore Pirates of the Caribbean in time for WDW's 50th anniversary. So without further ado, here's my wish list for both this short refurbishment and long-term refurbishments for WDW's Pirates of the Caribbean:

What Could and Should Be Done in 3 Weeks*

* I've made my most educated guesses on what could actually be done in a three week refurbishment, but it is possible that one or more of these things could require more time to accomplish.

• Turn back on the firing cannons on the fort facade. Before Jack Sparrow invaded Castillo del Morro, the cannons on the top of the facade used to loudly fire across Caribbean Plaza and Adventureland. Restoring the firing cannons would not only add texture to the sounds of Caribbean Plaza, but also restore an integral part of the story that the pirates are actively attacking the fort, and of course the fort must defend itself!

• Restore the original queue music and soundscape. The queue is already a visual masterpiece, but it also used to be an auditory one. At the entrance tunnel of the fort, an eerie piece of music called "Fortune Red" played, and then faded out into a mixture of silence, the voices of the Spanish soldiers as they prepared for the pirate attack, and choruses of "Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me" implying that the pirates were already in the fort and could be around any corner. In both sides of the queue, a lonely invisible man strummed the gentle chords of a Spanish guitar into the darkness. On the right path of the queue, as guests prepared to make sail, the sounds of someone digging with a shovel and drunken singing and laughing emanated out of a cave, where no doubt pirates lay just out of sight digging for treasure. The cumulative effect of these sounds was an incredible introduction using sound to the experience that awaited guests as they prepared to escape from the besieged Spanish fortress and into the murky, eerie caverns. All of this was drowned out in 2006 by the loud playing of the gentle flutes in Disneyland's "Pirate Overture" which has always played in their queue. This poor decision reduced the once impressive audio atmosphere of the queue to mere whispers all but silenced by an ill-fitting piece of music. Restoring the sound systems in the queue and the original compositions to boot would be an excellent idea.
  
  

  

  (Brian Hammond on Flickr)

• Restore the Pirate Barker Bird to his rightful place at the entrance of the ride. This wonderful fellow was originally located above the unloading dock of the attraction, cautioning guests to watch out for the "moving gangplank". His delightful appearance quickly caused a bottleneck there, and so he was moved to the entrance of Pirates of the Caribbean, and he became the Barker Bird. For over 30 years, he was a wonderful sight to see, a feathered and salty squawking and whistling "pirrot". He was also quick to tell guests about the adventure with salty old pirates that awaited them if they passed through the old fortress and didn't miss the longboats waiting to take them to Pirates Cove. The Barker Bird became an iconic character and absolute fan favorite at WDW's Pirates of the Caribbean. Inexplicably and regrettably, he flew the coop during the 2006 film-based refurbishment, and he has only shown up as part of displays in special events elsewhere. It has now been over a decade since he disappeared for no good reason, and it is way past time for him to return to the perch at the home he should've never left.

 Long-Term Things to Refurbish and Restore

(Joe Penniston on Flickr)

• Take Pirates of the Caribbean off of the Fastpass+ attraction roster and undo the physical changes to the queue made for Fastpass+. When Disney ludicrously decided that Fastpass was needed for Pirates of the Caribbean, a high capacity boat ride, they made two physical alterations to the queue that weakened its effectiveness. First, a new merge point was created, meaning the two separate queues not only now meet each other, but now have an open view of the loading dock where there was once walls. Keeping this merge point if Fastpass+ was discontinued for this attraction would be as unnecessary as Fastpass+ is currently for Pirates. I would close back up the walls and return the queues to the state where neither one could be seen from the other until after exiting the "fort". The other change made was the knocking down of a wall near the entrance of the tunnel to turn the righthand queue into a Fastpass queue. The resulting expansion of the left Standby queue resulted in the loss of the original passageway into the right queue, which cleverly declined after the incline of the entrance ramp to produce the illusion of descending deep into the dungeons on that side. Again, as Fastpass is unnecessary for this attraction in my opinion, I would restore this original passageway and incline and decline illusion to the queue.

• Reconsider the political correction of the pirates. I've already covered much of this ground in my previous post about the future changes to the auction scene, but I wanted to note once more that political correctness does not do any favors to an already family friendly attraction about pirates. Despite the romanticized portrayal of pirates in the attraction, it is important to remember that the Pirates of the Caribbean is not a fun tale of the ransacking of a town by pirates; it is a morality play that uses scenes of skeletal pirates in desolate coves to remind us that those who are greedy, cruel and selfish will pay the price in the end. The original pirates chasing women scene and the auction scene are two of the most effective enforcers of this story. The Pooped Pirate's original dialogue, along with the petticoat and slipper that he held, the two turntables of pirates chasing women culminating in the gag the third turntable with a fat lady pursuing a shy pirate and the lady in the barrel should be brought back. And of course, keep the auction scene in its original form. 

(Norm Lanier on Flickr)

• Begone Captain Jack Sparrow, and take your friends and foes with you! I'll admit I was excited when it was first announced that Jack Sparrow would be joining the Pirates of the Caribbean. I had seen Johnny Depp's remarkable performance as Captain Jack in Curse of the Black Pearl, and I was right among the chorus of 7-year old boys who were out of their mind happy that Jack Sparrow would soon be in Disney World. When he finally did arrive, it was really wonderful and cool at first, especially with how lifelike the Jack Sparrow animatronics were. But as I got older, I started recalling more and more often things that I dimly remembered had been in the attraction before Jack that I had loved but had gone away. I started to miss the Barker Bird and the talking skull (kudos to WDI for recently returning the latter), and the new narrative in the attraction involving the movie characters made less and less sense. I have now come to realize just how nonsensical and poorly thought out the movie additions to WDW's Pirates of the Caribbean really were from a narrative and logical standpoint, especially since this confusing search for Jack Sparrow replaced a linear non-narrative experience of pirates ransacking a town that didn't need elaborate explanation. WDI should unfetter this iconic ride and give it the care and respect it deserves by giving movie tie-ins the boot and focusing on what made the original Pirates of the Caribbean a truly classic attraction.

I hope you've all enjoyed my thoughts on what should happen in both short and long term refurbishments to revitalize and restore WDW's Pirates of the Caribbean in time for WDW's grand 50th anniversary. Haunted Serenade wishes Pirates of the Caribbean at Walt Disney World a very happy 44th anniversary!