5 Kingdoms

They seem to be the essence, the simplest attraction and yet of the defining experience of any Magic Kingdom. They can be a gentle swirl as well the craziest spin !

This article is about the 5 Mad Tea Party attractions of the 5 Magic Kingdoms.

This title was not easy to come up with and certainly doesn’t flatter your humble servant but with 4 versions all called differently, something had to suffer : this was the title. But have I written it well, it would have turned out like that : 

2 Mad Tea Party, 1 Alice’s Tea Party, 1 Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, and 1 Mad Hatter Tea Cups.

For various reasons, only Disneyland and Magic Kingdom park used the same name. All other three parks had to altere it in someway. Tokyo more expressively attached it to Alice, Paris in a curious anglophonic move linked it more directly to the funny Mad Hatter, and Hong Kong simply removed the possesive mark which seemed confusing enough in the french speaking Disneyland.

Early pre-1955 concept show the ride much richer, with the birthday party happening right in the middle of the spin, and lanterns hanging from the dancing in the air. Unfortunately, the ride ended up much lighter. Cups were fancily decorated, though not all of them, and lanterns were striped.

It was born rather naked, and moved away for the arrival of the new Fantasyland. Since then, Disneyland’s orignal bares more decorations, like the lanterns it was once deprived of. 

In every Magic Kingdom but one, the Cups were part of the initial package. In Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland the were all present on opening day even though the US versions eventually had to change locations. Awkardly, when aranging placemaking for Walt Disney World’s new Fantasyland, the cups had to be pushed out of the land and on Tomorrowland ground. Only there can you watch Indy Speedway while waiting for your cup. In every park though, they sit on the right angle of Fantasyland triangle that trace Dumbo, the Cups, and the Carroussel at the lower corner.

Only Tokyo didn’t get its cups intitialy, they got it later on in 1986. It was actually the first new attraction added to the restort after its 1983 opening. In 1998 this asian replica of the Orlando version got a major facelift along their own Fantasyland redesign. It is now richer in detail and fancier than’t its Floridian counterpart.

In Disneyland, Mad Tea Party lays naked in the california sun, only there do the cups spin in the open. Moving it to Florida, because of shower storm the attraction had to be topped, so it did in rainy Tokyo and Paris, and eventualy in Hong Kong. Those four canopies are the major distinction between cups. 

In Walt Disney World and Hong Kong Disneyland, the marquee is rather bulk. Magic Kingdom’s canopy is dwarfed by the big trees above it. Both their design are very simple.  Tokyo’s new version is definitely more sophisticated even though it doesn’t compete with the Disney grandeur of the 90’s. Once again, Europe was lucky with that one. It’s all glass and ironwork. Description would get 4/5 of the Disney fans jealous, I’ll let the pictures explain. Inside the canopy, big hard lanterns hang still above the cups in every 5 Kingdoms. Disneyland being open air, they are attached to garden strings which allow a gentle sway.

 

Under the canopy (or the sky) every attractions bears the same mecanics of 3 rotating discs on wich 6 cups spins on an their axis, making a total of 18 cups. Interstingly, walking on Disneyland version it seems smaller than the other ones. This effect is due to the absence of roof. In every other locations, the canopy confine you into a unique area where laughters and shouts resonate such as in a big indoor attraction. You are therefor isolated from Fantasyland and feel like experiencing a major attraction rather than just the C ticket it actually is.

Edit : It appears my history was wrong, Walt Disney World Mad Tea Party openned roofless and was covered only after the redesign of Fantasyland. Evidence can be found here.

Thanks for the commenting user

Credits :

Tokyo’s Cups picture is from Life’s a long journey

Let’s start by the revisited locations, and first the most recent one. In Tokyo Disneyland, Tiki is located right after Jungle cruise, along the track of their abridged Disneyland Railroad (Western River Railroad as it’s called there) 
Historically they started with the same version as Disneyland and WDW, it was, after all, olny the 3rd Magic Kingdom. The present version, Get The Fever (soon to be replaced by Stich) is biased by some Las Vegas references and groovier music including exerps from the Jungle Book. It keeps the same atmosphere of the other ones except the language prevent any foreigner to quiet catch the charm.
Tokyo is the most recent reproduction of Tiki, the last one as well, even though money has been obviously poored on themeing the surrounding area, the Tiki gods doesn’t move at all, they’re just still wooden props tagged by very sophistiquated signs, only two animated birds perched on a god give a light performance similar to the WDW version.

Speaking of which… Let’s head wester. When Roy O. Disney found out about the plans for the Florida’s Magic Kingdom after his brother’s unexpected death, orders shifted from “Let’s explore new horizons” to “just give them Disneyland” Nough Said : Attractions were now simply supposed to be the faithful replica from the beloved and already proved successful originals of the motherpark. So Tiki dropped its suitcase in Florida dressed exactly like its older Californian brother. But it sat inside a grander reproduction of Disneyland’s original Tiki’s environement. The Sunshine pavilion held three different premises including Tiki. This magnificent structure is still present these days but Aladdin’s Carpet blocking the view, the disapearance of the wonderful pool it used to overlook and the permanent closure of its two restaurants make me surprisingly use past tense.
Let’s get back to present, inside the Sunshine Pavilion fights two extra birds : The Enchanted Tiki Room : Under New Management ! The preshow already features a fight between the protagonist’s two lawyers. They bable about their clients and ownership claim. Like in bad law shows, they start the fighting even before the episode starts. Then the Room you seat it, cirlce shaped, neck stiffing, same old Tiki. The music is rearanged like in Tokyo borrowing some tunes from the Lion King and Aladdin. Iago and Zazu animatronics are well detailed especially the feather burned Iago you can easily contemplate leaving the premises as he angrily picks at walking out guests. It’s a good show, maybe pulling a bit to hard on the bad guy string…

Now of course, we’re intrigued by all those different versions of the script, but the one true fans or even kids really want to see is the original. It lays in Disneyland. But as you may guess, it was supposed to go away, closed to be lost as well… Indeed in the late 90’s when Disneyland Management (Team Building) wanted to refresh the Tiki Room, they thought about putting the New Management version in there. They finaly pushed it back due to the ever occuring budget restrictions of those day, only ahead of the 50’s anniversary did they switch to just refreshing it, and only technicly “plussing it”… Gee this 50th campaign really did save a lot of elders in the motherpark. 
Now, thanks to this welcomed 2 years anniversary homage, it is called Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room there in honor of the man who first envisioned it and also to reminds people that this is the Original Tiki : only in Disneyland !

The preshow does hold the 7 Hawaiian Gods, all animated and scripted. They introduce themselves one at a time and animate to illustrate their bound with a certain nature force.
I was lucky enough when I first discovered it to enjoy the performance of a great Cast Member, certainly one of the most motivated I had seen in a while. It was obvious that he loved the attraction and amazed all the kids with his outstanding performance handling Walt’s very own baguette !
Now only in Disneyland will you get historical fact about Tiki, so he spent a few minutes detailing the historical facts about the attraction.
When you leave, you now you have eventually experienced the Tiki Room the way Disney wanted you to see it. Off California, the only way to relive it is if you own A Musical History of Disneyland.

Now even though Disneyland Paris doesn’t host a Tiki Room, on opening day stood the restaurant Walt envisionned with twist of theme. The Explorers Club sat proudly across Adventure Isle. It is considered by Imagineers and die hard fans as one of the most accomplished and detailed construction ever Imagineered. In the center rises a very furnished tree, on which stand many Audio-Animatronic birds. Many pictures of it can be found over the internet, but be sure to google Colonel Hathi’s Pizza Outpost now, for it is the name magement chose to give it after they decided this fine table service restaurant should be turned into a cheap counter pizza place. Now as you can guess, as soon as 200$ table bill vanished, so went the animated birds, or so went to sleep should I say. Today you can still enjoy some fine exotic music concert buff with your Pizza, but I’ve never witnessed the birds animate. I know they sporadicaly work because of some sources on the internet, but nobody notices them nowadays. They don’t really have a show worth of looking away from your mickey shaped pizza.

Now why all the versions ? Why every Magic Kingdom can’t cope with the Original and the historical and living memorabilia status it bares ? Well, because this kind of expectations sadly only works in Disneyland. Only there, do the guests care for the history of a park most of them have been visiting regularly since they were kids. In Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, guest visit it twice or three times a decades, regulars there, don’t show up more than once every two years. The orlando area, don’t represent the percentage of guest OC area does for Disneyland. Out-of-staters don’t really feel attached to past attractions that much. 
In Tokyo Disneyland they do, for this park is also mainly visited by the locals. But Tokyo Disneyland’s guest tend to like uniqueness. Knowing that they just have the same attraction as in the others parks really does’nt make it for them. So having their own is always better. We’ll talk m
ore about the differences between people and feel in Magic Kingdoms in a soon to be published post.

That’s it for Tiki, despite his great performance, please don’t tip the Cast Member.