Orlando's Animatronic Bird Shopping Center: The Tiki Room Mall

Animatronic Birds Perform at Orlando's old Mercado Shopping Center

You can find gifts big and you can find gifts small at Orlando's Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Mall!

Way back in the Summer of 1987, I got to spend a week with my parents at a condo in Orlando, Florida.  We spent multiple days at SeaWorld on this trip (we got a good deal) as well as a visit to Epcot and the Disney Village Marketplace.  We spent a great deal of time seeing things around Orlando, including some Outlet Malls, restaurants, and a shopping center with an animatronic bird show.

In the early 1980s, animatronic shows were all the rage.  They were in pizza places and amusement centers everywhere.

I will never forget these birds singing "Put the Lime in the Coconut".  What I have forgotten is the name of the mall, where it was exactly, and what stores we visited.  Does the mall still exist? (No).  Are the birds still performing somewhere?  I like to think that someone in Orlando has them on display in their living room.

Update:  Thanks to Bobby Bickert, we can now identify the mall as the Mercado Mediterranean Shopping Village (opened in 1986).  It looks like the birds ended up flying the coop.  According to Bobby:



So now we now we know the rest of the story.  Looks like the Mercado birds met the same fate as the Showbiz Pizza Place robots.

The former Mercado site is now the home of the Orlando Eye complex (now called the "Coca-Cola Orlando Eye").