![]() ![]() I loved almost every other kind of music. I would never lose this part of my identity. I’d heard terrifying tales of Raffi and The Wiggles and other insidious kids’ music creators infiltrating homes like audio kudzu, but I was confident I would never cave. It was from a musical and I hated musicals. I don’t mind most of the music, but there was one song that I couldn’t bear, and it put me in the worst mood. We played it a lot at home so the music would be familiar when she heard it in class. The music is the playlist from her Boston Ballet Adaptive Dance class, a program for students who have Down syndrome. On this particular day, we make it through cry o’clock and Lulu is maybe 20 feet away from me, spinning around and around in her tutu, listening to her music while I cook. She gobbled up ginger glazed salmon, happily dipped her purple heirloom carrots in carrot top pesto and crunched on crispy double-fried tostones. I was happier when I cooked because this wonderfully unfussy baby of mine loved everything I made. Once Lulu woke up, I’d shock my tears away with icy cold water and start making dinner. I cried because I thought this sweet, beautiful baby deserved a better mother than me. I cried because the enormous Ikea couch I snagged for half price to accommodate my family - who I thought would visit often to dote on the first and only grandchild - sat empty day after day. But this new exhaustion felt like it was tattooed on my soul. I thought I knew tired working 80-hour weeks in the service industry. I cried because I was tired in a way I didn't know you could be. I’d cry and cry and cry while she napped. It happened every afternoon at around 4:00 pm, when it felt like the equivalent of three days had already passed, but there were still three more hours until another adult would be home. When my daughter Lulu was a toddler, I dreaded “cry o’clock”. A mother with a child who loves musicals." (Courtesy Bethany Van Delft) ![]() "It’s a whole new world, where I am the me I was and the me I am now - a mother. This isn’t the old me," writes Bethany Van Delft. ![]() For several months, guests didn’t know what was to come for the future of the Tiki Room.Facebook Email "This isn’t my old world. While Disney has never released many details about the cause or how extensive the damage was, the Tiki Room was closed indefinitely with reports that the main Iago animatronic had suffered significant damage and that the sprinklers had caused damage to the other birds. In January of 2011, a fire broke out in the building. Although this version of the Tiki Room still had its fans, namely the children of the 90’s who grew up with those movies and didn’t know the original, the larger consensus was that it was one of the worst refurbishments in Disney parks history, with one popular quote simply stating, “They ruined it.” However, driven by the popularity among the generation that knew it as THE Tiki Room, Under New Management ran for nearly thirteen years. It took the previously leisurely and calming experience, and made it loud and disjointed. The new script, new characters, and new songs (reimagined version of older pop songs) were considered by many guests to be abrasive, with much of the scorn directed toward Iago’s “jarring and cynical” attitude. ![]() The updated show was not exactly the hit Disney was hoping for. He reappears at the end, slightly worse for wear, to proclaim that he’s changed his mind, that the Tiki Birds are the greatest act he’s ever seen, and that it won’t be long before they make him and Zazu a fortune! Guests filed out while he was still talking. Of course, all his squawking awoke and upset a Tiki goddess (a new character named Uh-Oa) who proceeds to banish him for his insolence. The new storyline was that Iago and Zazu were now the owners of the Tiki Room, and, while Zazu was respectful of the history there, Iago was his usual cranky self, concerned only with making money, something he felt the antiquated Tiki birds weren’t capable of doing for him. The Enchanted Tiki Room closed for refurbishment in September of 1997 and reopened as the Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management) in April 1998. In a bid to remain relevant and hip, Iago and Zazu were about to relocate and find new jobs in Polynesia. By a coincidental stroke of luck, Disney had released two of their most popular and most profitable animated films in the early 90s, Aladdin and The Lion King, which both featured plucky bird sidekicks. For a couple of decades, the attraction proved to be just as popular at Disney World, but eventually, attendance started to dwindle. Naturally, Imagineers wanted to recreate it for the Florida park. The Enchanted Tiki Room in Disneyland was already a classic, and was considered an engineering marvel for its extensive use of audio-animatronics. Tropical Serenade, as it was called in Walt Disney World, was an opening day attraction for the Magic Kingdom. ![]()
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