Monday, July 06, 2009

Let’s all sing like the birdies sing, but hurry it up, will you?

We turn right out of the Jungle Cruise exit and walk the short distance to Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.

Honestly, the six of us who visited the Tiki Room yesterday are not overly excited about attending another showing, but at least my parents and aunt & uncle haven’t seen it. And the timing should be fairly good. It’s not that long of a show, so we should be able to get in, see the birds’ and flowers’ performance, and then amble over to Club 33 at a leisurely pace.

We file into the preshow seating area – they’re not loading right now like they were we came in yesterday. We take our seats and enjoy this little tropical oasis just off of the main pathway into Adventureland.

There’s a widescreen TV showing scenes from Polynesia above a snack bar. Hey, the snack bar is selling Dole whips, those cups of smooth soft-serve pineapple sherbet. They sound wonderful to us right now, and at any other time we’d get one right away – even if we were seated soon, you can even eat and drink in the Tiki room! BUT... we’ve got Club 33 coming up within a half hour, so we have to be responsible and say no to the Dole whips for now.

I’m realizing that the satisfaction of my Cheetos and toffee peanuts breakfast has worn off long ago, and I could be really ready for our meal!

The tropical images on the TV fade to black, so I think it’s about time to enter the Tiki Room. Nope – it's time instead for a preshow, that I’ve heard of but never before experienced. The various “tiki god” carvings around the waiting area come to life with drums and voices introducing themselves and talking about their place in Polynesian mythology. At first I pay it scant attention, but then start to get a little worried as I count up the number of idols remaining to speak and start doing a rough estimate of our time.

Apparently our timing wasn’t as good as I thought. We must have arrived just after the previous show finished loading, so we’re having to sit through the entire cycle before it’s our turn. It’s going to cut things close.

We’re finally able to load in at about a quarter until two. If the show started right away... well, it takes several minutes for the room to fill before the show starts, and while I’m optimistic, this could be a problem. Fortunately, the Tiki room is set up so that you can exit in the middle of the show if necessary. I’d just hate to make the commotion necessary to do so.

The show finally starts up, and we enjoy it to an extent, but always with the clock ticking in the background. Finally, at about 1:57, I’ve run through the remaining show in my head and realize that if we stay to the end, we run the risk of being significantly late to our reservation, especially with the walk to the restaurant by our slow-moving group. And too late to a Club 33 reservation can mean no reservation at all.

We whisper around a “we need to go” to our ten and stand up. Fortunately, we parked ourselves by the exit just in case this might be necessary, but I know it’s still disruptive. Sorry, other guests. And birds. And plants, flowers, tiki gods...

Out the door, into the sunlight, and down the steps we go, and we start off in a brisk pace – brisk for us, at least – for New Orleans Square. At long last, Club 33 here we come!

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