Friends… have we solved a theme park mystery? Do we now know What Happened To Rosita?
Ok, let me back up.
In Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, José drops this infamous line, and it has haunted me, and many others, forever.
Let's be honest. This "joke" makes no sense. After naming a bunch of fancy birds, José blurts out "I wonder what happened to Rosita?"
I often wondered if learning the meaning of the joke would make me cringe (a bit like José's accent). It didn't add up. It was clearly SOMETHING.
Imagineering answered the question in their own way by expanding the Tiki Room into the new "Tangaroa Terrace". Besides being a wonderful place to eat a Bao (the perfect theme park food), it added a new outdoor animatronic: Rosita!
Also, trivia: these two logos are similar… because Fry's was a spin-off of Fry's!
"The [original] store billed itself as 'The One-Stop Shop for the Silicon Valley Professional', as one could buy both electronics and groceries (computer chips and potato chips) at the same time."
My lord. Disney+ is getting all the Disney Dollars. A good reminder for park fans that the parks are likely going into new attraction hibernation for at LEAST five years. Current projects will be finished, but I doubt we'll see anything new for a very, very long time. 😔