Animal Kingdom, Opening Weekend (2016-05-27 and 28)

[Accident]

I had the pleasure to jump into Animal Kingdom on the first night they had late night hours.

My Original plans were to enjoy the rides at night on my first opening night of anything at Disney. Very quickly it started to get reported and official disneyparks blog announced earlier in the day that Jungle Book show was happening and fastpasses were available for a limited time. They went away quick and more on the show and stadium later.

Not sure if I was going to partake in any libations, I played it safe and we ubered over from home arriving a little later and closer to 7:30pm. There was some small showers near 6 so we just rested and decided it was better to cut it closer. Also going uber meant we did't need to park and just got dropped off.

For the first time I saw a ton of traffic on I4 heading both directions. We went in the west side but I skip the highways so we got in with no wait in traffic. I'm sure many others did not as it looked like a stand still of traffic.

I'm not 100% familiar with all parking around animal kingdom but my best guess is at 7:20ish there was about 3/4th of the lot filled up already. We had it easy getting curb side dropoff (normal for uber/taxi/guest dropoff).

I didn't grab any pictures outside but you could tell this was going to be at night as the normal things that flash being sold from carts with slight animal themes was the first thing for sale for both parked and bused in guests.

Security was very quick and they made it pretty simple. Everyone was going to be checked and they had the staff to make it extremely quick. Kudos to disney on this efficiency and I have high hopes for the summer crowds. We spend no more than 1 minutes to get bag checked and metal detector.

After making it to the tree your presented with more flashing things to buy and that was a repetitive theme all night long anywhere you want.



At this point I actually didn't hear the news that Jungle Book was going to be showing so we made our way over to DinoLand to see if the standby entrance for the new theater had a line. We could immediately hear something new. Dinoland was more of a pre-show current pop music small town carnival vibe. It didn't take long to find it was a DJ out playing music. I liked the change and it fit in well with my Jersey Shore/Coney Island memories.



It wasn't the disney pop music that you would hear waiting for fantasmic in Hollywood Studios which was a nice touch as Animal Kingdom is barely disney like to start with. It gives a nice variety of somethign different to listen to when waiting to go in.

We did find a long long long line waiting to get into the theater. This is the first thing where I'm calling it a huge fail for Disney. They used to walkway alongside dinoland to rope off half of it for standby. What it meant is nobody could walk past the theater when they actually let the line start to enter. It made that corner a zoo, meanwhile the walkway that is directly next to the river was completely empty and barely used. One CM actually tried to say go around the other way (meaning go all the way back to the tree, around to africa and then back around just to get past the line of people). I actually waited for the line to start moving and I just went in like I was in it and kept walking around the theater. This is going to start some family fights when people jump into the line near the front... I could have just as easily went in as one of the first people and got the best seat..

We kept to our plan that we're going to try the rides, we didn't expect the crowds with no show originally and knew the second night, that we have diner packages for tiffins and the show would be the swamped night. So far it was crowded a little, but it was most of the crowd rushing the theater and rides had no line (except of Kilamajaro Safari but more on that in a moment).

I had wondered leading up to this show, which is easy to hear and see from the walkway what they were going to do about more people blocking the little walking paths instead of going in. As we turned the corner closer to Everest we got our answer. They made a viewing area for people on the walkway at the bridge..



There was 3 stages, 1 that was perfect for standby, 1 perfect for this bridge and the third was perfect for fastpass. There really isn't a good or bad side.

this was from the second show but this is the view from the bridge.



The first image is the right side of the bridge. The second is the left side if your facing the show. You can get a better idea of the 3 stages and how both sides of the stadium have a good view...

The center stage doesn't make too much sense to me as it does appear to be for the people on the bridge.

This is what the stadium looks like from the opposite side of the river. Left side is fastpass, right side is standby and the center is the bridge..



Getting back to our rides.. Before we did our walk around the stadium, we actually rode dinosaur. It wasn't exactly a walk on but it was pretty fast. We only had 2 and there was a bunch of families there so our pro tip is once your near the trucks being loaded listen. They will call out asking for people to fill in partially empty trucks. We skipped 95% of the people that were in the opening theater with us because we knew to hold up our hand showing we were 2 people and he was calling for a party of 3 people. We actually came out of the theater last.

Dinosaur was as rough as I remember it. I like the idea of this ride but whoever programmed the truck to not do motions of how a real truck acts really killed it for me. I was looking close trying to decide what they were going to fix and nothing stood out. It also felt like the trucks were going faster than normal. the seat belt did slip on mine but i'm not sure it was ever really tight to start. I'm actually hoping there is new money being pumped into AK now with the nights and the plan to finish the ride finally. If you don't know the dark scenes aren't by design, they cut the budget and there is sections with nothing but track and no lighting so you can't tell there is nothing there. We rode with 2 families that had never been on so their screams were rather enjoyable....

The next ride was EE. We say it saying 15 minute wait and decided to have some ice cream while waiting for the sun to finish dropping. It was only about 30 minutes from the first stage show so how much longer until it's really dark was there. We went into the ride about 8:45 and it was darker but not completely dark..

EE at night might be my favorite ride at night now. This first time riding it was nice and inside it was REALLY dark. Never noticed you could kind of see things if you payed attention, like you can tell you were about to exit the mountain. This time it was dark. Also the people who normally yell "why are we going backwards, you said this wasn't a coaster, etc etc etc" wasn't happening. This time it was pure shrieks of terror and they couldnt' form words. I enjoyed it

We had a fastpass for the night safari so that was next on the list but we had to kill a little time. As a smoker that meant Harambre near the bathrooms by lion king show.

As we made our way around, we could see the disney parks blog crew setup to film. Wow there is a lot of people which explains why the quality of their new webcast series is better. hopefully that are also part of the live webcasts becasue it was nice, but not great production value in my mind..

This is also the first time around the theater when into dark mode. First there was absolutely no warning and BAM, not 1 single light on anymore. You couldn't see peopel next to you, you couldn't see the walk way.. Someone is going to get seriously hurt. Disney is not ready for this park to be opened at night and at minimum, there should be walkway lighting so you can see all the curves and rocks and things they have sticking out... When I say dark, every person turned on their mobile phone flashlight to be able to see. Later for the second show, they left the still not enough minimal lighting to see the path which was better. How they didn't know turning it off was a bad idea after 2 cast member nights to experience it first is beyond me..

Harambe isn't much more than the small stage near the restrooms and the newer shops at night. This is ok with me, the night entertainment was excellent and I really liked it better than the day performances..



Since I'm a smoker I made my way all the way around to the only other smoking section near the bathrooms by the lion king show. The show wasn't going on, that food area wasn't opened for business so it was really a dead walkway and a great escape for a moment..



More in the next post, I ran out of photos that I can attach in 1 post..

 

[Accident]

Part 2..

It was a nice surprise to suddenly hear the Star Wars Fireworks in Hollywood began. I was on the bridge where you enter africa and you can't see them all but you get a little glimpse of them. The music was louder so it's not really noticed unless you were in a quiet spot..



After a quick stop for some of the Africa themed entertainment and this glimpse of the fireworks we finally made our way to our Safari ride at night...

It's dark, really dark. If an animal is closer you can sort of see them. If they moved a little you could kind of see a silhouette of them. Basically it was a ride with "rocks", "rocks that moved", "rocks kind of tree height", "rocks that are lion shaped" aka "furry rocks". It was interesting to do. We knew it was going to be dark when the guide did the normal, if you look up you can see the list of animals you may be able to see but it's night and theres no light so you don't really need to look up as you can't read it.. Then we got the, no flash, no video lights and a very strict, it'll scare the animals dont even consider it..

There was some spots with some lighting, it was more annoying bouncing around i the truck than anythign else. this ride had a wait and i'm very happy we had a fastpass. I personally wouldn't have been happy if I did standby and for the most part, saw nothing while riding it.. I'll try it again after the guides have more experience with spoting the animals at night and the animals are more settled in to the idea that trucks are passing them now at night... I think to a small degree they were hiding and I would have been also..

There was a couple pics I did end up getting so here is the couple that kind of look ok to see somethign in them..



You also can't really tell but on that first one it's the strangest light in the background. Your first view of it and immediately I thought "OSBOURNE LIGHTS!!!!! THEY ARE BACK AND WE'RE DIVING THROUGH THEM!" It's actually a mountain where it's very brightly projected like the sun is setting and it's that redish orange glow. It's very weird to see, you'll understand when you try it..

The rest of the ride was just too dark to get any photos and being there didn't make it better. It was interesting but it was dark and animals were hiding.. Again I can't wait to see it in a month or two after they have some adjustment to this..

We were kind of hungry and we were noticing nowhere to eat. Apparently table service stops seating so they are empty by 10pm. Counter service/small stands with some food also close at 10pm. We happened to be walking past Caravan road when we realized it wasn't another drink/ice cream stand. It's hard to tell where you are never seeing this park at night. We had a few minutes before they closed and ordered some drinks and sliders.. This is when the heavens opened. they were closing and gave it to us free. We ordered the rest of the small menu to try everything very quick. The people in front of us also got it free as well as the last 2 people behind us.. This was better than after hours, emptish park and non-ice cream meal!!! This made my night. I also forget the gentlemens name but i've seen him before at a dining event and I think he's in charge of all food in AK. We had a nice discussion about what was opened. Everything pretty much closes at 10pm except dine-o-rama (counter service next to dinosaur) that closes with the park. He used that wording so there is food but you might need to hike over to it. if you want table serivce, eat before the first show as it won't be opened to sit down after it starts at 9pm and the last of the little booths/counters close at 10pm (including flame tree).

After this we made our way to Kali and I made the mistake to just skip the lockers. Kali didn't have fastpass opened (but we had one) and minimal wait after the long walk. This is another area disney is not ready for nights. we ran into posts, ropes, rocks sticking out, things you can see in the light and there just isn't enough path lighting to see them as your winding back and forth.. Some we missed because a group in front of us ran into them first.

For those that don't know my history with this ride, out of 20 times trying to ride it, I've been on it once. It either breaks, bad storms, wasn't running to begin with. once I even sat in the raft for 30 minutes during some heaven opened up rains and we still didnt' get to ride it as it broke during the rain and needed to be repaired to reopen. (but got tons of fastpasses that one so it wasn't bad).

I don't remember it being this rough or fast. We were all adults and there was 2 seats with nobody in it. It might be the new lighting that enhanced the feeling but this ride was great! I ended up being the seat that got completely soaked but everyone else got hit with some other form of water shooting. There was even a few times that water came into the boat, and not lightly in, it splashed the seats next to it over them into the boat. You want to be ready to get wet, you want to use the lockers which are next to the entrance to the ride and you want to keep your feet up. There is no more place to store your stuff on the boat and it's just a railing now so more peopel get wet and your feet will get wet if you don't put them on the bar in front of you... This gets a much better at night thumbs up. I got soaked but it was good timing and I enjoyed it.. I didnt' dry since it was night time and no sun beating me but it was great!

Now that it was much darker and Everest was still almost no wait, we went for a second ride of that. We wanted to do it really dark. It didn't disappoint and wait for it to be completely dark to ride it, you can barely see any track and you can't see when your exiting the mountain.. I really want the Yeti to be fixed now, it's one of the few spots with light in the ride and it would be amazing if it was moving now... before it was great, now your eyes are night adjusted from the rest of the park and it really stands out.. you even finish completely in the dark and wait to turn the corner and leave the mountain to get off.. This is my favorite coast of this type right now. (rnr is still my favorite dark coaster). BTMRR is nice but this is great at night.

We were soaked, it was almost 10:30 so we just casually made our way around passing by dinoland. I might be the only one that likes that whirling coaster ride and it was opened. This area looked really great in the dark and I regret not getting a photo (I'll get one tomorrow). It reminded me of coney island/jersey shore. Now that I moved away from that, it's a nice touch of home and fond memories of playing those games and cheesy coasters so this area will have more of a spot as the years go by.. We didnt' stop, we were too wet to want too and we know we're back tomorrow again to do it..

We never saw the tree get animated. This is where disney has their mega fail.. Your never in front of the tree. We had a hour or two that we could have seen it if it was on the back of the tree but this is all you get behind the tree all night...



What happened is there was a huge crowd that made it impossible to leave waiting to see the tree animate. The random schedule is not so random as they told everyone it will animate 1 more time at closing (about 15 minutes away). Again we're coming back tomorrow so we just left to beat the traffic..

From the front:



I do have 1 more interesting picture. This was some random light that wasn't out earlier to help see in a really dark spot. I kept saying "I hate to see the size of the Ood that is coming back to get this..."..



That thing was huge, you can see the garbage bins next to it....

Conclusion..

I LOVED THIS!!! I think my gut that opening night wasn't going to be very crowded and we should see the park and do all the rides paid off. It was great being in the AK when it was a hot day out and actually be a little chilly. I never go to AK summer or fall because it's too damn hot and this was great. It wasn't a humid day so we'll see if I still think that, but at least the sun wasn't blazing down trying to bake us... It did make kali getting us wet a little more annoying but overall we're happy...

We're going back tomorrow where we think it's going to be insane. our only goal is dinner at tiffins, dinner seating for the jungle book show and seeing the tree. anything else we can fit in with that will just be some extra gravy...

The safari is not that great yet. We liked the night ride but you couldn't see anything. animals were literally being described as the rock that is 3 from the tree. If they moved you could tell it wasn't a rock. I think this will improve as the animals get used to the trucks going around at night but some of them aren't nocturnal so don't expect to much from them. This for us is a when we feel like it, when we want another ride and there is no line or we happened to score a fastpass. we're never waiting in line for the night safari... it's not worth the time..

Speaking of time, 11pm was too early. We ran out of time riding the few rides opened and we didnt' stop to see the show.. your going to need to pick what you don't ride at night and make sure your early enough to do them.. I'm pretty sure everyone that watched the show probably got 1 or 2 rides at max.. maybe they did EE a few times in a row (it was that empty).. kali was letting peopel ride again without getting off so maybe a few there too. otherwise, you ran out of dark.. Pandora sounds like a place you want to explore at night so it's realyl going to be pick the park or pandora at night or come 2 different nights...

More tomorrow...

As mentioned.. this was our opening night to say we did an opening night at disney bucket list item and tomorrow is our new signature and show night at AK again. We're actually doing a full day with some things we want to tick off the list at epcot first..

 

[Accident]

That's the first night/opening night... reading some coverage of the show and I think i'm regretting not using a fastpass I could cancel and going for the tiffins meal on it's own earlier in the day... I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow, I may try to call up an cancel saying the reviews say the show isn't a show yet and it's rushed, in the bad way...

 

[lffamDSon]

Looks great! We heard about it after we got back from our last trip and were so bummed that we missed it!

 

[KnK]

Thanks for the report. Looking forward to our Sept trip.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Thanks for the write up - glad to hear that even with some kinks to work out you still enjoyed the evening as a whole


As for the show, people that view it as more of a song and dance thing rather than full blown story driven show seem happy with it - seems to be a case of high expectations (at least partly due the promotion of Disney) not being met but if you lower expectations you can enjoy it

 

[bigbabyblues]

Thanks for the report! I am excited for AK at night on our trip next week.

 

[Accident]

As for the show, people that view it as more of a song and dance thing rather than full blown story driven show seem happy with it - seems to be a case of high expectations (at least partly due the promotion of Disney) not being met but if you lower expectations you can enjoy it

I re-read everything after getting some sleep and I'm thinking the people reviewing it badly are not familiar with india style productions. We're going to keep our reservations as the dining package and check out the show to see for ourselves because while I can't call us fans of those productions, it's something few and far inbetween around the US and I'm looking forward to a live production like this. I think to a degree they went in expected it to be awful so their mind was a little closed to start with.

 

[michellekl]

"I hate to see the size of the Ood that is coming back to get this..."

 

[Accident]

Day 2 (2016-05-28):

As I left off with opening day, that trip into AK at night was all about everything except the Jungle Book Show. Today was the day we have our Tiffins Dining Package with Jungle Book First show.

The day was gorgeous but hot. I think the high peaked at 91F and was reasonable humidty most of the day.



We got our start in EPCOT and not AK this afternoon. We left a little later maybe getting to the back entrance of epcot about 2pm. We learned earlier in the week that Stephen Twinnings of the Twinnings tea family was in the UK to meet and get his signature on the families tea. My daughter is a huge tea fan but my sister will flip when she gets her surprised gift with him signing it (and a picture of him signing it).

We also ran into something very rare at epcot. I wish I got a full picture but there was approximately 10 different characters out together inbetween UK and Canada in front of the meeting/conference space they have there. Not only was there 10 characters out, but there was this very rare gem...



You never see both of them out unless it's a parade!!!! Not many people noticed them in the back so it was a very short line to get some pictures with them.. (We did).

I don't remember the full list but there was spot, donald, pluto, some of the jungle book characters and a few others that again I can't remember and kicking myself for not getting more pictures of them...

From there we just did our fastpass for soarin to catch the soaring over california at least 1 more time. That was an adventure. When we first came up to soaring about 30 minutes early it was an 85 minute wait. We grabbed some side salads as we didn't get lunch.

2 minutes before our fastpass time came suddenly the wait time doubled to 175 minutes. I know from reading around that soarin is using only 2 of the 3 theaters right now so this was obviously 1 theater suddenly being broken.. We had a fastpass and about an hour we could spare to wait so we still went in..

We didn't get very far and the line was creeping forward for the first 30 minutes. Then we heard a barely legible announcement saying technical difficulties, it might take up to 4 hours in line. We found out later it was hard to hear because it was an announcement for the standby line who iddn't know they went from 85 to 175 minute wait (and it was getting longer and longer).

Eventually I figured out that the reason it took so long is they had to take everyone already in concourse B hallway and move them to C to view the show. After that they cleared the fastpass line before going back to letting standby watch.

The show was great, the new theater is nice and clean. The new projection system is AMAZING and the scents are perfect also. It looked much better than the film version.. We had nowhere to be so even though it took an hour, we didn't mind.

Off to AK!

We knew we were doing dinner out and to be safe drivers, we did the uber thing again so we didn't need to be concerned about drinking. Our uber driver happened to be someone interesting that works behind the scenes at animal kingdom lodge. I do like getting ubers around disney, you generally meet interesting cast members driving your around.

Going from Epcot to AK we just used disney transportation and it was quick and no wait once we made it to the bus. We could tell walking in that there was more people around. We also were getting there prior to 6pm and there was also a lot of people exiting the park also...

Tiffins is located behind Pizzafari in what will be the closest entrance to pandora once that is opened.. It's coming along really nice. I still think they can pull off a sooner than expected opening..



We arrived about 15 minutes early and checked in. Tiffins is the first signature that is not using the pagers they had you. Instead they txt you when your room is ready. It was toasty outside so we just sat around inside waiting..



And we waited.. and we waited.. and we waited.. eventually I realized how long I was waiting and asked what was going on. My phone can be testy sometimes and maybe we didnt' get the page. We were also only 2 people and most groups that came in behind us were larger so we know sometimes 2 people just need to wait for a 2 person table to be opened. It was when 2 groups of 2 came in and immediately seated that we finally said something... once we did, 1 minute later we were seated..

The theming is amazing and there is multiple rooms with different themes. I think the room we were in was called the grand something or other (too lazy to look it up). Basically tiffins theme is all the things collected during the world wide travels and research to design the animal kingdom. It's a great fit and a nice signature. It's also a new place with air conditioning. We did look in the lounge but we didn't get anything while there. The lounge is not reserved so you can just walk in and they do have a menu there with some items plus a bar. We didnt' walk out onto the outdoor seating area and not sure if it's even opened yet (didn't check). It does overlook the river on the pandora side of the park so i'm thinking it might not be in use yet so you can't see the construction.. Did anyone else explore this to know?

I'm not one of those people that photographs everything but we did get pictures of our appetizers and entrees. We tore into the bread a little fast and completely lost our mind when desert came so that was mostly gone before we remembered we needed to take a picture..



So how was the food? My daughter proclaimed at the end that she was upset that was going to be dinner because there was nothing on the menu that appealed to her. This is now our favorite restuarant so far... We will be back....

Also there is a money saver here. When a new place opened it never takes discounts right away. AP or TiW wasn't an option. BUT if you do the math, it's cheaper to get the dining package with the Jungle Book show then to pay out of pocket, especially if your going to order the Wagu Beef. With a 20% tip, no alcohol but 1 special non-alcoholic drink my daughter got (added $5 to the bill) it came out to $165ish... If we ordered the same thing without discount with a 20% tip it would have been $200. Now there is a range of different entrees and appetizers and we did both get desert so you can do the place for lower cost but we had our set package dinner and took advantage of it to try this place out. I was also excited to get here one of the first days so saved up my appetite and got more food than we normally would.

There was nothing below stellar quality. This is a wonderful high standards place and somehow disney owns it.. (I know shocking, right?!??!!). Our server was excellent, she was very cheery, really happy to tell us about the room in a positive not waste our time way. We didn't need to ask for more drinks and she was early with the refills and quick to clear plates. she was never in the way and was great.. It appeared the whole staff is like this so whoever is in charge of this place is a great hire and they need to get more of them...

This is the first place in animal kingdom I would go in just to eat at and no other reason. AK really needed it and I hope we get some more signatures here. This is the type of menu I want when I'm looking to spend a little more on food an atmosphere. Well done disney!

Off to Jungle Book!

we had a little time to spare so we took a quick stroll into africa to see what the crowd was like and to take a peak at tusker house. We never saw it yesterday this early so we coulnd't compare as tusker was still opened. The night entertainment was just getting started and most peopel were eating and not watching it (but a small crowd started to form)..

We cut back past the tree. This is when we first noticed that disney is ready everythign peopel posted yesterday (and my daughter that yelled at them on twitter). As I said earlier in the thread, disney failed by making the tree come to life on the entrance side of the park and not the back side. There was press, bloggers and everyone that turned the entrance into a new hub just waiting for the tree to come to life as it got dark..

Now where they listened is they had people who have experience keeping the place moving. Today they had tape down showing you were you could stand, where was walking. Everything was in favor of someone walking by so you didn't need to go around anyone. The CMs had tons of questions to answer as many unplanned clueless guests couldn't figure out why everyone was waiting and why animal kingdom wasn't closed yet. that got a little in the way but it wasn't bad, nobody just stopped and blocked the place..

As we circled by approaching dinoland, we ran into an interesting act that was playing an electric harp like he was a dj.. I really liked it, make sure you stop by and catch a few minutes if you come in and he's on stage..



This is directly across from flame tree BBQ between the restrooms and the gift shop/store near the bug life entrance. I never noticed the stage there before either..

Jumping ahead. The quick service next to dinosaur which I think is called Dine-o-rama (but I'm probably wrong or that was the old name). It's the only eater opened as long as the park is there and next to dinosaur.. They had these great light up drink cups that my daughter got and everyone wanted to know where to get it (and quickly more and more had them).. We got the cup at the end of the night but it fits in here if you want one too



The color changes and depending on what drink is in it, changes it even more since it shines through the drink...

Next post will be all about Jungle Book and the line and how disney listened and got serious about the park today... I have a lot to say about it...

 

[Accident]

NIGHT 2: Jungle Book Show..

This is going to be divided into a couple sections. First I'm going to just go over things and give some light opinions.

The theater and stage..

The theater is located on the river between dinoland and everest. It's in 2 parts with the center being the river and bridge located between everest and the nemo stage show. The everest side is the fastpass section, the dinoland side is the standby. The row of seats directly in front of the nemo stage (close to center) is the reserved seats for dining package. Along the back of both sides is the mobility assisted seating (I think, I actually couldn't tell from looking over at the fastpass side if there was fastpass seating for this. it might all be in the preferred section in the middle of the theater. There is a wheelchair ramp going down to the river but I think that is not in use for this stage show but expect it to be an option for future productions.

In addition to this seating there is walkway viewing. A section of the bridge in the middle gets a designated standing room spot (but for this show you miss part of the show, I can see it being great for rivers of light in the future). There is also views surrounding the river from the walkway and many people were allowed to stand and watch from the walkway. I woudln't count on these sections though as peopel start to line up for the second show as soon as the first show loads into the theater. They are nice if you happen to be there and there is room and your not sure if you want to get in line for the second show or not

The stage is in 7 pieces plus 3 floating barges that come out. Floating in the water is a stage on both sides of the theater and then there is a center stage that is angled so both sides can see it (and lined up facing the bridge).

This image is the center and standby side of the above.



I am seated as far right on the standby side as you can be, in the top row of the theater when I took this picture. This is the dining package seating area..

Still floating but attached to the theater was more stages. There is the same exactly thing on both sides of the theater so fastpass is not different than standby, just different performers on the same stages... This is where the musicians and some dancers are located throughout the show. The production is a live music and not a pre-recorded soundtrack (I think, there is spots I question it but overall, there is some people playing instruments but there is a recorded piece to the show as well).



Again this is from the same seat all the way back near the center of the theater.

The barges come out 3 times, first to drop off dancers to the left and right floating stage and singers to the center stage (1 for each floating stage). They also come out with a fire juggling section and the last time is to pick up the performers on the floating stages as they exit with cheers...




the center stage being singers isn't obvious. There is no live video to show you they have microphones, the far ends of the theater probably can't see it too well.. I had to zoom in (forgive the bad quality but it was a mobile device in the dark zoomed way in) to tell they weren't just lingering around and actually singing throughout the show..



Now during the show there is 3 water screens in use with a project behind it. I find the projector to be seriously bright and actually got annoying to see the video with this really bright light behind it.. There is a large screen that is made from 2 fountains coming together in the middle. you'll also notice the gap in the middle of the image.. there is a spot that the water doesn't come together. This isn't a big deal to me as this show is temporary and I suspect there is suppose to be a barge or something in the water filling it in. What does bother me is whoever edited the video has big chunks missing in that spot and some scenes you can't tell what is going on.. (more on this later, it's minor but it's there).



My angle of the side screen wasn't good and I suspect it's for the benefit of peopel all the way on the edges of the theater. There is also another image on night 1 earlier from the bridge showing it a little clearer..



One last thing that really impressed me. There was amazing usage of the shoreline behind the stages. They used some projections and some lights. You can even see some of the lights when they were pointing into the mist above..




This is going to be really impressive when rivers of light which this theater was built for comes out and this is nice use of it with a temporary show but you can an idea how immersive they can make the images using everything around the river/lake/whatever disney calls this body of water they dug a hole for..

The Theater Cons

I didnt' get into the theater early enough to get some pictures of the seating. It's bench like similar to Fantasmic but they are very close to each other. how close? my daughter sat behind me and her knees were in my back. The young woman in front of me was basically between my knees because I'm 6'4". If someone wanted to get in or out past you, you had to stand and lean and there was no room for their feet. once I even had to just stand on my bench (and I got yelled out) for a family to fit past us and the peopel in the row in front of us had to also stand to give them enough room to walk straight..

They also packed everyone in TIGHT. It was a warm night near 82F when the show started. It was about 62% humidity (I looked it up) so it was damn but not making you dripping wet. This theater is going to be hot and annoying when it's 100% humidity with 150F summer weather.. I think this is the next disney fail, they should have made the rows wider and this was built into the river, they could have gone another 10-15 feet into it to get a few more rows and room to sit. someone dropped the ball on designing it and there is no freaking way the mocked up a test to see if people would be able to sit down next to each other..

The theater is already falling apart and it's only day 2 (and technically the first official full night with all options to view it). There was several lights that already had broken bulbs...



The only other con I have is specific to this temporary show, it wasn't designed for stages to be floating with things. The preferred seating near the center of the theater has an obstructed view with the stage to see the center of the video projected behind it. This will get better and it wasn't miserable, but it is a con to this design and if disney is reading, I noticed this problem..

Comparing to other reports

I didn't sit in the theater the first night but I read how people found the music ear piercing loud and just unhappy. My experiewnce wasn't this and the music was a good volume and I might say it was a hair lower than it should have been. I'll go more into my view of sound in another post when I pick apart this show professionally but the sound could have been better but wasn't horrible to me..

And there is some pyro!

I love pyro. It's only used at the very end, a quick burst of the style of pyro you might find in an indoor theater or concert. It doesn't make any loud booms, it's just a few colors tat pop up from the ground and little to no smoke as a result. It was a nice touch to end the show with and very disney like in it's usage and very colorful to go with the show itself.

The show itself

The show basically used clips and 1 or 2 sentences from the recent in theaters movie to tell the story of jungle book from start to end, it does help to know the story but you get the idea if you dont (I think, I know the story though would be interested to hear someone that didn't if they could follow along). In between clips was the songs we know from the original junglebook cartoon but performed live with indian instruments and a vary degree of bollywood feel. The dancers were also performing to them in a style you would see in india.

Overall, I did enjoy seeing it and I wouldn't mind seeing it again with friends or family if they visit. I will not be making a trip to see it again before it is replaced with rivers of light. If it was going for longer than a couple months, I would see it again before it closed. 1 thing very noticable from other productions like this I'm familiar with is a lack of performers. Bollywood films for example as just filled with more dancers than disney has on stage.

The costuming was excellent, how the musicians are on stage and what instruments they have is authentic. They sounded good and it was very colorful as is the people from india with their style and clothing.

I do like that disney has brought in something they didn't have before and it really fits into the animal kingdom well. I would hope they could find a way to keep this style of performance, even if not this show in the future after it's gone.

The stage, well that could be better but this theater wasn't really designed to have people on stage so it feels quickly added but was done better than I expected.

Getting into the theater

As you may have read before, it was a ZOO on 5/27/2016. people were being told to walk around the long way, people could just jump in line. People were getting in fastpass section without fastpasses. The staff was unexperienced which shocked me as disney has 45 years of experience with crowds and performances...

That completely changed overnight and today was a completely different situation. First everyone was informative and knew exactly what was going on. Signage helped you know you were going in the correct direction. They had more things blocked off, but they had fair alternative routes if you were trying to get around the theater ready to go... They also had experienced staff helping direct and keep everyone moving. It was 10,000 times improved and made sense now...

fastpass. I didn't walk past the fastpass entrance but I heard it was improved. The very start of the line is next to the Kali ride. They have the path roped off so next to the river was the line and the other half opened to walking by. It was no less room than when the construction walls were up. I can't comment any more on this as I didn't witness it first hand but it sounded much better.

Stroller parking. Stroller parking is the path along the river that you probably only used to exit the park faster that direction. You keep your stroller until your getting into the theater so it's not like drop it off and wait in the long line. I am not sure what stroller parking on the fastpass side of the theater is.. Personally this was a wast of this walk way but i'm not sure it's big enough to fit everyone and keep an emergency route opened with strollers on the side.

Standby. The road that wraps around dino land is the standby line with the entrance almost all the way back where dinosaur lets out into dinoland. It was roped off in a way that you can't walk past the line anymore but they made sure you could walk through dinoland, under the dinosaur to get to the road that goes around the theater now. That was a new improvement and it worked well in my mind. The following are photos of the back of the line and it's entrance around the bend..



Something to note, the theater was already full. That was the line for the second show and it was only 8:30pm.

Dining package entrance: is located in the middle of the theater across the nemo so you do not wait in standby and you sit on the standby side but close to the middle of the theater.. You walk through dino (or around from everest) and enter directly across from the entrance to nemo. If you arrive before you can get into the theater, they use the standby line for nemo as the waiting area. This works insanely well and that design was great.

Disabled/mobility assisted entrance. I'm actually not sure on this, I didn't see anyone in line that had a wheelchair and they were sitting near the nemo center entrance so I think they have anyone that needs this special seating go around to the middle entrance to get in and wait with the dining package guests.

What else changed overnight?

The lighting in the park was very different as well. This is what my daughter yelled at them for on twitter but there was a lot more of those large white circle lights (see post 2 above). They left the path lighting in asia and the intensity of the lights around the part were brighter. I can't speak for if the ride entrances changed or if you could read any signs for them as I didnt' do any rides on night 2...

Talking to important people

As with any opening, the people in charge are there to peopel watch. We happened to have the reserved show ticket that happened to be dated and for the first show. They ripped them in half but we wanted both sides. We didnt think of it at the time but asking around trying to see if they had any of the ripped pieces to get some to keep we ran into the man in charge. not really sure who it was or his title but at least for the night show, he was the person and I wouldn't be surprised if he was in charge of the whole park, i'm not really sure who that is... He instantly understood exactly why we wanted the ticket as it literally was a ticket that said we were at the very first show in the theater that had a ticket.. Ultimately we got clean copies from guest relations on the way out but he asked for my honest opinion of the show and I was professional and frank about my thoughts.. You could tell he was upset by the bad news that hit the internetwebs last night and they were trying to fix things right away.

I need a break here.. Next post will be my professional opinion of the show + the tree of life at night... That wont be until I sleep though as this forum seems to not work from 4am and on (and I want to sleep now anyway).

 

[KnK]

We got our start in EPCOT and not AK this afternoon. We left a little later maybe getting to the back entrance of epcot about 2pm. We learned earlier in the week that Stephen Twinnings of the Twinnings tea family was in the UK to meet and get his signature on the families tea. My daughter is a huge tea fan but my sister will flip when she gets her surprised gift with him signing it (and a picture of him signing it).

I'm a HUGE fan of Twinnings. What a great treat for your sister. Thanks again for the in-depth look at the new attraction. We'll miss this one but hope Rivers is running when we visit in September.

 

[10CJ]

Glad to hear you enjoyed Tiffins! I am looking forward to trying it.

 

[thiabelle]

Awesome write-up. Thank you!! I'll be there in July and I'm a little concerned about the seating situation (too close- too hot- and not enough egress space). Might be a once and done for us. At least I know what to expect.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Great write-up .... very glad to hear Disney is listening and acting so quick to fix

Feels like for seats/avoiding waiting in line the dining package is worth it if you were planning on eating at Tiffins or TH anyway

 

[ariane37]

Thank you for your review! We're not going until November and since I'm not holding out hope for RoL to be running, I'll be interested in hearing lots of reviews of the JB show. It does seem like the dining package is a good way to go!
The food at Tiffin's looks great. Unfortunately I don't think older DS would eat anything although maybe like your daughter, he'd end up liking it
I read Josh's review posted on his easywdw site and he sat outside in the lounge on the 27th (26th?). The pictures look very nice, he said it's very comfortable out there but he did mention if you sit on the side closest to Pandora you'll hear construction noise for the next year or so. I guess it'll be up to guests whether they want to enjoy the construction view/noise or just stay inside! However it seemed from his review there are some seats out there that don't face that side by the construction so it's probably relaxing if you sit in that area.

 

[Tiggerette]

This is a beautiful, well-thought review. Thank you very much for your time in writing about your experiences.

 

[Accident]

Night 2, Professional review of the jungle book show

***SPOILER ALERT*** ​

If you do not want to be influenced by some very specific details of where this show could be better or done poorly, please skip this first section and go into the jungle book show with an open mind. I consider myself a professional in this area so I'm going to pick it apart in that manor. It was a nice show and a good first exposure to india based productions and I recommend not reading this as it wasn't a bad show, just not an amazing show.

***SPOILER ALERT*** ​

Set Design

this came together very quick for disney so I'm not sure they could have done much better. I suspect the floating stages were originally meant for the musicians however they are floating and subject to movement which is not friendly to live music. The near stages that are attached to land seem like they might have been meant to be out in the water also since they are a little close to see it. The stadium isn't designed to be able to look at something near the front row and even someone small in front of someone tall can't really see it well. There is a wall behind the last row and during my performance, everyone back there, including myself was standing up to be able to see.. Standing up it was a great view. To make it better they would need it more permanently anchored with minimal movement to work. There is also some performers that go into the stands and between that stage so again not much choice to make it work here with the time frame they had to pull it off...

I think a big fail is nobody can really tell what is happening on the center stage. The water screens are barely used while the performers are doing their part of the show so having live video of the singers on the water screens would have been a huge improvement to understand what is going on.

The large water screen having the upper middle missing is also a huge fail. Not really a fail that it was missing but the person that edited or directed the scenes projected on them did not take this into account and have chunks missing and in some parts of the show, you can't actually tell what is being projected unless you know the story. They need to quickly re-edit this to line up the video different on that screen, probably a quick overnight change...

The water screens themselves are actually very impressive. it's nothing really fancy but the mist they create is very translucent and it's almost like they aren't on for most of the show with clear views of the shoreline behind it. Some of the video however is too dark and the brightness of the projectors across the river overpowers the greyish, dark video. Because nothing was filmed for this show, I can understand this challenge but it really makes it seem like your watching bright lights pointed at your eyes and not a video playing. The first night when I watched part of the show from the bridge, this wasn't an issue because the stage blocked the projector lights from that angle and you could see the projected video better. If you look at the concept video for rivers of light there is 3 floating flowers that are lower, I suspect they are designed to overcome the projector annoyance in the real show as well as fill in the center of the screen. I suspect that might be what sank and the delay is getting the technology replaced. In the tech world, that's 90-120 days depending on if it's custom hardware and where it's coming from. Not to mention they also have to figure out why it sank and how to not have it sank so if it's a redesign of the floating technology so it actually floats, then the delay makes sense.

The seating of dinner package guests will be great when it's the rivers of light show, however the design of the floating stages does have things obstructing the view of the large water screen (and the very left side of the fastpass closest to the bridge by EE).. All it does it make the whole in the video much more obvious because you can't see a good portion of the projection. The fix is to change the floating stage but as previously talked about, not sure there is much choice here in this time frame unless they wanted to (or in the process of designing) something that can be more permanently anchored if they want to add the ability to use this theater with live performers (maybe a day show after river of lights coming out). Something specific to the stage and not using all the lighting around the edge/screens.

I do really like the use of lights and projections on the trees surrounding the shore line. There is times where it overtakes seeing the video because that screen is that translucent and clear to look through.. That could be tweaked a little to lower the intensity. To be honest, I wouldn't have noticed it and it would have blended in (as good lighting should) if tweaked a hair.

Costuming

This was perfect for this show. Everyone is dressed in india formal wear and it's very possible this wasn't costume department made. It was the right look and style for this show.

Performers

This is a part that is going to be very nit picked. I'm familiar with some bollywood style performances and how tight the performers are to each other. Most of the dancers were very fluid, you can tell they have been dancing like this for probably their entire life, have experience dancing with others. Some of the dancers were good, don't get me wrong this is a nit pick, but they weren't as fluid and comfortable with the moves. It's minor but if you know the style of dance it sticks out like a sore thumb. They will improve as I said they were good, just not perfect yet.. It still beats any other theme parks dancing performances so it's above.

There also just wasn't enough of them. India has a lot of people and their performances match that. It was a little thin, especially on the floating stages where you only had 3 people in a space that should have been more like 10-15 to capture that essence of a bollywood musical. I'm not sure 15 would be safe to have out there and this is an ok compromise..

There was something I really enjoyed and being seated where you can get to the bugs life theater area quick is a bonus. They are using the bugs life backstage for the performers. There is a great percession of them around the path heading to the backstage area. It was a nice addition and they got a lot of cheers as they passed by. I wasn't expected it so my video of them wasn't really usable and neither of us got any pictures as we both tried to video it instead. I will eventually make an effort to capture this in a future trip to AK at night.

The singers, they were performing like you would expect singers to do, once you realized they were singing. This was very theater like, except they were nowhere near anybody to see them and no live video was in use with the screen to project them clearly to everyone. It was also a little awkward as there is nowhere for the signers not in the scene to hide so they just stand in the corner with no lighting on them when there is a solo singer situation. It was ok, but again you had to figure out that was happening to understand that stage. The singers I felt were good, they still perform well above the standard that the other theme parks have for their performers.

Show Start

This is awkward as suddenly some barges come out to the floating stage with lots of light and not much really happening. It would have been better to do it in the dark (if possible) using either the screens to welcome you to what your about to see, or concentrate on the closer stages and musicians to give them a moment with the audience. You didn't know what was happening, you didn't know where to look and nothing happened when they finally made it to the stage..

There is probably also something that could have happened to introduce the singers better here. i'm not sure what exactly but the direction of the first 5-10 minutes could be revamped to make this work. This would take some more planning than a quick type up in a forum from someone not involved in the show.

Show End

Now this worked out well, you knew the show was ending, the music changed to that intensity of the end of a show and the dancers left first and the singers second. People cheered as everyone was boated off the river. The singers again need a better say bye to everyone and not just a quick run from their stage to the river exit.. Again more time would be needed to really work out how to do that effectively, but this is one area that doesn't look polished and very weird compared to other live performer shows where get a moment to take a bow and cheer them off stage for a job well done...

Overall Feeling

The show is close and there is just a disconnect from the audience. You almost have to see it once to know how to watch it a second time. It's good but your confused about what is happening and what your watching.. It's a stadium show without the things you need to be able to watch a stadium show with a few peopel on a far away stage..

how do you fix it?

If I was directing it I would revamp part of the show right away. First the movie clips just don't work to tell the story.. I would keep the images, edited for the missing hole in the center of the screen and use a narrator to guide you through what is happening. Live video usage to project the singers from the center stage to the water screens would be that missing stadium technology you need to know what's going on and where to look..

The shoreline lighting needs to be toned down a little, it shouldn't be washing out the projected images.

the start and the end needs to be revamped a little so you can connect with the performers and understand why there is barges out there (or do it in the dark at the start and surprise everyone that people are on stage now)... This feels like that long and boring sequence of the illuminations ball coming out and I still don't it. It's not up with the fast pace that current teens and younger adults are used to in their entertainment options. Engaged family members usually makes a better family vacation instead of them bored while parents and grandparents enjoy the show..

Of course if I could start over, this wouldn't be a blend of new movie and live performances of old animated movie song favorites. It would just be a musicial review of the jungle book with some narration (maybe). Sure you can use images from the new movie, but make it what it is, an india inspired performance of the old favorite jungle book favorites...

*** SPOILER END ***

The next post will be AK itself and the tree of life animations. I think it's better to separate this as people should really skip if and watch the show with an open mind. It's not a normal disney show and that's where I think people are hating it. It's a nice india inspired performance and go in expecting that and you'll have a nice time.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Great info, great review, thank you for taking the time to write it! We will be there next week, and you answered the questions I had.

 

[Accident]

Night 2, The tree of life nighttime awakening!!!

While they said in their press information that this is designed to not cause a crowd, they really failed in doing that. First the projection on the tree do not happen from the back. In fact the back is barely lighted but interesting. This park you spend most of your time behind the tree and it's visible from many places. They need to just schedule a bunch of shows and let people gather, it will make it much easier to see it. the show is short so you can arrive, see it and move on and there is plenty of room for everyone instead of like the magic kingdom where you only have 1 chance to view it and it's a 15-20 minute show that you need to pick and choose your spots for..

One thing interesting if you know the area in front of the tree is that there is 2 corner shops. Much like the emporium on main street you can bypass the center and get near the back if your entering or exiting with a crowd. The first day this area was a huge mess and this is a design fail. The second night there was plenty of castmembers on both sides telling you if you wanted to see the tree or exit the park to walk through the shop. They even had castmembers in the shop with exit signs at every door telling you to keep moving through the shop. If your passing by the tree, then you can walk towards it normally and skip the shop and there is a nice taped on the ground path for you. It was generous, didn't interfere with seeing the tree, even if you were holding a camera and someone passed in front of you on this path. i'm not sure how well this is going to work when it's a huge amount of people. The park was crowded but it wasn't MK hub at night crowded.. It's still animal kingdom with even less things to do opened...

Between Shows

As far as I can tell there is a scheduled show for when it finally gets dark enough to open the tree being lit up and the last one exactly as the park closes kind of like the AK kiss goodnight. I did not watch either of these to know if they are different or how many shows there are. There was a ton of people with tripods and cameras there all night long so I'm sure we'll be seeing blogger coverage of all the animations and more information on how often they happen..

When the show isn't happening, the tree isn't lifeless. every 1-2 minutes there is something that happens and it's very easy to miss. You'll hear people saying things like "that tail moved, or that bird looked at me" with their family members saying they are imagining things. You'll want to get comfortable and keep watching it. it is interesting to see the carvings move. (btw they don't actually move, this is a projected image on the tree all night and the animation moves and it works really well). There is also some sequences where suddenly butterflies are flying around and probably more. Even cast memebrs have no clue (although photopass photographers have the most time watching the tree and I got my best information from them). Near 10:30 there was some cast members starting to leave and many of them suddenly ran into the crowd when they heard something was happening so nobody expect whoever made it really knows everything that happens..

Knowing the show is starting

It's very easy to tell when it's getting close to the show. The tree gets a little more active with the frequency in which things move on it and then you can hear the music in the background disappear for a moment and then a louder soundtrack comes over the speakers. it doesn't explode into an annimation at first but when you hear that drop out of audio, it's time to quickly raise the cameras and be ready, it's pretty quick.

The show

I saw the 10:20pm show (again not on a schedule, this is just when it happened). I noticed while waiting for my 9pm jungle book show that the tree also appeared to animate about 10 minutes prior to the show start. 10:20 is ten minutes prior to the second show starting. That might be the trigger and it's 10 minutes before each show plus another one at the end of the night... hopefully it's more frequent then that as it's a waste of time to be waiting all night in front of the tree with nothing else to really do in order to see it...

This is the video I took, again with a mobile device and I was holding my arms up so it's not all that wonderful. I really need to get a tripod. My daughter for some reason never got the gopro up in the air when it finally started so this is all we captured of the tree.. google or yourtube search for it, a lot of bloggers were out and about with their better cameras and tripods..

EDITED TO ADD:

This is easyWDW's video of all presentations the tree did on the same saturday. They said it happens about every 15-20 minutes and there is 4 different animations.

don't forget about photopass!

The photopass photographers had really good spots to get you with the tree and not the crowd, but you had to remember hey were there and it's really dark to just notice them. Following the camera flashes to find them. We almost forget we wanted a nighttime father/daughter photo until we suddenly noticed the flash. one off thing is they weren't scanning bands so you got handed the photopass card you have to link later. This really sucked as I couldn't see if the photo was good and if we should go to another photographer or not. I suspect they might have had some issues with all the bloggers probably live streaming around them and the wifi was rather slow in this area so the fastpass card is the backup to not being able to scan bands/cards.. We got a good image so I was happy but I had to wait to get home and have more time to get it linked.

Night 2 around Animal Kingdom

The second night felt like there was more people but it was not the massive crowd I was thinking it might be. A lot of people tried to do it all and you can't do it all at night. I'll add some recommendations on how i'm goign to try a full day at ak to offer some pointers that i'm going to attempt on my next full day trip into this park..

They did improve the cast members and had experienced night crowd cast members all around. Everyone knew what was happening, where you needed to be. Lighting was better and safer. I do really love the rides at night (safari is a not sure)... I really enjoyed being in this park at night and loved not having the sun beating down on me. The new signature (Tiffin) I'm calling the best disney owned and operated meal on property at this time. The food is spectacular and worth every penny. It's not overpriced at 2 dining credits, the quality is higher and the food portion is correct for this price and style of dining.

This is a nice addition to disney and long overdue. Now I'm very excited for pandora, before I was just excited for more rides now I really want it opened soon. Rivers of light I hope lives up to their hype.


How should you do animal kingdom now??

This one is going to be tough. Assuming the park stays closing at 11 it's really not that much time when you have the dark. The theater is smaller than fantasmic and lines form early. You could take the whole night just seeing the show and not much else. There is 2 rides that I think are better in the dark, Everest and Kali and for the ride lover, that should be high on the list of rides to get on. Kali you can get soaked and with no sun you did not really have the chance to dry off. Dress appropriately for that and consider doing this as your last ride. It seemed more intense riding it and there is some lighting but not light up the place lighting. I loved it, I never really got the attraction of kali in the day and this is a great way to experience this ride. Everest is so dark. Everest at night is disney's darkest ride and RnR has more light than everest does. There is no need to close your eyes if that's how you ride it, you can't see anything with them opened. Now the key spots like where the ride reverses and seeing the yeti at the end is lighted and it really stands out now. People were screaming and not the normal "get me off", they coulnd't form words and it really added to the ride.. My daughter never smiles on rides even when happy and she couldn't stop smiling. This is my favorite night coaster now and I hate to say it, everest at night is going to be a must do for our family for awhile.. We may go into ak just to eat at tiffins, ride everest in the dark and leave

The safari I'm on the fence for. You can't really see the animals for most of the ride. This might be the fact they are live animals and not used to having trucks with headlights going around so they might warm up to them and come closer. If you want to see this area at night, it's a nice ride. I found it really bumpy because it is so dark that you can't really see what the truck is about to do and you just bounce all over.... Have a good night time camera if you want to try to get any type of photo and try to sit near the front where you can request a quick stop for photos so the truck isn't moving and you can get something not blurry time to time. If the animals are important, this is a do before it's completely dark ride. If your just into the animal kingdom, this is a do twice ride with both daytime and night time..

My first thought on a strategy of how to brings friends visiting florida to animal kingdom..

This is my best guess for how a full day might go well for someone new to AK or trying to get the best of day and best of night into 1 day at AK. It's how I plan to take some visiting friends soon to see it...

during the day:

The live animal parks of the park you need to get done during the day. The sun is still going to beat down on you in summer and fall so this makes it a really good rest in the middle park. do your morning through lunch concentrating on the live animals and things not opened at night. Nemo theater, dinosaur are both indoors (and nemo is closed at night) so get them in during your day visit. You really don't need to skip anything and can do your most of the day at AK like normal. This includes the safari.

Some standalone shops do close earlier as it starts to get dark. I woudln't count on enough time at the end of the evening to shop or have them opened to shop. your going to want to pick up things that interest you on the way. If you don't nkow disney has a pick up from front of the park option or send to your resort. Front of park you can do from the shop disney parks app also but there is a cutoff time so do that earlier in the day if you want to take advantage. Sending to your disney resort doens't have a cutoff but does take a couple days to get to the resort so factor that into when your at AK. Ak does have a lot of plants, breakable items so I'm recommending this park early in the trip if your staying at the resort to take advantage of sending it to your resort.

night:

At night with standby for junglebook, your going to be in line and right now you need to try to see the first show. I have no clue how early you can line up but right now it seems like get there hours early or fastpass/dining package it.. The line for the second show is really full before the first show even starts. If you dont' see the first show, your probably looking at only doing the jungle book and maybe 1 night ride for your entire evening while the sun is gone if AK stays with 11pm closing. Safari is interesting at night but I would compare it to visiting the animal kingdom villas and trying to see the animals outside of Sanaa afer the sun goes down. You kind of think you see something but this is not a great way to view the animals. It's really just a long line, and a night drive through their artificial enviroment. If that is worth a couple hours to stand in line and do it for your family, then go for it. I would strongly suggest fastpass or skip unless this is your famillies favorite park then it becomes a must experience at least once at night.

Dining:

Tiffins was AMAZING and it's a must do on my list when budget allows as it is a pricey but worth the price signature restaurant. To sample it, just go in and hang in the nomad lounge. It has a/c, a menu of food to grab some tastes of what they cook and how they cook it. Don't get too caught up in the weird menu items, it's not some experience in food disney is doing, this is real fine dining at disney that you can do in shorts and flip flops.

If your going to go for the full blown food meal, really price out the jungle book dining package. Even if you don't care abotu the show, it came out cheaper than eating at normal menu out of pocket prices. The passes are tickets you give to get into the show so if your going to skip the show, surprise a family with a little guest to guest pixie dust and let someone get into your reserved seats instead. Right now the dining package is a discount at tiffins. That will change once AP and TiW comes into play or if your not going to do a full 3 coarse meal trying out their highest priced items..

The rest is the same, I didn't price if tusker would save money if you get the package with show as it didn't interest me. One draw to tiffins is that it's 1 of 4 places in AK with air conditioning to cool off. This park is hot and consider that especially if in AK during the summer/fall heat..

THINGS CLOSE:

Table service stops seating between 8:30 and 9 and fully closed by 10. Everything else with food closes by 10pm with the exception of the largest quick service location located directly next to the entrance to dinoasaur. That closes the same time the park does (right now it's 11pm). There is some drink locations till opened after 10 but they are few and far inbetween. Keep that in mind if your going to stand in line from 8:30 until the second show, you want to have something to eat and carry in some drinks with you. Peopel were running out to popcorn and drinks sold near the show entrances (that remain opened after the show also), but it's a long line and the second show ends when the park closes..

Overall:

In high heat, this is a great morning to lunch, break and then return for dinner and night at AK park now. The tree and the show is pretty much going to take all your time that the park is dark. The night time is a great way to get away from the dark sun and I find kali and everest to be better (to me) at night when it's dark. I would still ride them in the day but they might be must dos at night for me... I wouldn't'; call this a full day park yet, but that will change next spring when pandora opens..

You can also see from this that it took 2 nights to do everything. if you want to experience everything in the dark.