Every time I go home to visit my family in Orlando, we always go to Walt Disney World. This time we made a stop at Disney's Polynesian Resort Hotel. It is a gorgeous hotel, all decked out in everything tiki. I have stayed there before. I love it. The rooms are fantastic and so is the pool area. The gardens are gorgeous, even in the winter time. They have a luau dinner show and several other restaurants. At O'Hana's you can eat breakfast with Mickey Mouse and Lilo and Stitch.

Here are some photos I took of the tiki decor. Definitely inspires me to do a tiki room this spring.

for more photos of the tiki decor at the Polynesian, check out my flickr set.

Recently our pals Julie and Mike took a trip way, way, way far away! They ventured to Rapa Nui a.k.a. Easter Island, the remote island of the giant Moai tikis.

Julie knows what a tiki fanatic I am and she was kind enough to answer a few questions for my Retro Info blog.

These Moai sit at one of the two beautiful beaches on Rapa Nui. The solitary Moai is the one restored by Thor Heyerdahl of the infamous Kon Tiki expedition.

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We escaped the NYC cold and went to visit our family and friends in sunny Orlando Florida. My mom works at Disney, as my belated Christmas present she took us to Disney World. We stayed at the Polynesian Resort Hotel.

I have been to the Polynesian before to see the luau, which is really fun. The food is ok, but the show is pretty amazing. I have always wanted to stay at the Polynesian. I love Hawaiian tiki style. When you drive up to the Polynesian you come upon this amazing waterfall pond with big coy fish and you are greeted by tikis of course. You are given a traditional Hawaiian lei as well.

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My buddy Mike just clued me into these oh so tiki-riffic dog toys. They are the Squeeki Tiki Dog Toys by Pet Projekt. Your Polynesian pup can pay homage to the tiki gods by playing with these tiki shaped chew toys. They come in Tiki God or Moai shapes and are available in various colors. They are non-toxic and measure 10.8x2.8x2".

$14.00 each Otomik.com

I am proud to say our tiki statues have found a new home. When we moved from our Brooklyn brownstone to our apartment on Roosevelt Island, we no longer had a backyard. So we were forced to get rid of our mod patio furniture and tiki gods. We donated our tikis to the newly renovated tiki/conference room at Campfire, an advertising agency where my husband works.

Mike Monello is my husband Brian's boss at Campfire. He is a very good friend of ours and he is also an avid tiki collector. Mike was kind enough to let me snap some photos of the tiki room and he also agreed to answer a few questions for my blog.

What got you into the whole tiki craze?

I’ve always been fascinated by world-building — the idea of creating an immersive environment that puts people into a story and encourages behaviors and experiences that are outside everyday life. Theme parks, Las Vegas, themed restaurants, etc. I also love mid-century modern design, so Tiki and Polynesian pop is a perfect hybrid of the two.

Grayson and mom love tikis

More tikis after the jump

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