The shrine for Nor Treblig in the Voodoo Lady's shack is a reference to series creator Ron Gilbert (Nor Treblig is Ron Gilbert spelled backwards).
Although he was not on the developers team (working at Hothead Games at the time), series creator Ron Gilbert was involved in the brainstorming process for the story (credited as "Visiting Professor of Monkeyology"), making this the first Monkey Island game with his involvement since Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991).
Tales of Monkey Island is the only game in the series where Monkey island itself isn't visited (originally, the place did not feature in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991) either, but this was later retconned in The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)).
The list of ingredients needed to make the Cursed Cutlass of Kaflu contains four objects that had to be obtained in the previous four Monkey Island games (hence Guybrush' remark "you wouldn't believe all the incredible adventures I went through finding all the parts for this thing!"):
- Enchanted root beer had to be made in order to defeat the ghost pirate LeChuck in The Secret of Monkey Island (1990);
- A voodoo doll needed to be assembled to defeat LeChuck in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991);
- The "Midas Diamond Ring" refers to the cursed diamond ring that Guybrush gave to Elaine in The Curse of Monkey Island (1997), which turned her into a gold statue (named for King Midas from Greek mythology, who was cursed with the ability to turn everything he touched into gold).
- The "Ultimate Insult" was the object sought by Guybrush to destroy LeChuck in Escape from Monkey Island (2000).
When asked about the rug in her cabin, the Voodoo Lady will describe it as depicting the sign of the Crossroads, something that will feature heavily in Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 5 - Rise of the Pirate God (2009).