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

[epcotty]

Good report. I wonder if the lighting at night/during the JB show has consistently improved

 

[cyndiella]

Great, informative review!! Thanks!

 

[EmmyKay]

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.

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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...

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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..

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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..

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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..

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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..

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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

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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...

Is the menu for the dining package the same as the regular menu? Were there any omissions? Thanks for all of the great information!!!

 

[Accident]

Is the menu for the dining package the same as the regular menu? Were there any omissions? Thanks for all of the great information!!!

Exactly the same. I paid Out of pocket but it looks to me like it's 2 dining credits to eat or get the package. If your seeing the show it seems like a no brainier to just get the pacakge with dining plan as well.

 

[Accident]

The Jungle Book Show: My thoughts after a couple days have passed..

I've been reading what others have reported and posted and I think I have a better feel on why the junglebook has a mostly negative tone.. You may not want to read this if you want to go in open minded and see the show for yourself....

1: The theater has a lot to do with the negativity....

The seating is tight to everyone around you so your kind of trapped and right now everyone is going in so early for "a good seat" that your not all that happy when it finally starts the show. I went in closer to the show time so I was just getting to the I'm annoyed sitting here spot and wasn't miserable to begin with...

The stage design is not that great. Parts get the water screens blocked by the set, parts can't really see the close stage unless you stand (even tall people), performs are far away with no video or anything to bring them closer, and the singers that are rather interesting to watch are way in the middle and even if your the closest seat your still too far to see their mouths move.

2: The use of lighting is distracting.

The distant shore lighting while it does fill in the look and feel in parts of the show, mostly is just washing out the video which is very dark to begin with. When the video is colorful, it works better but not well.

I think rivers of light has somethign to help block the projectors or that's not where the projectors are planned to be during that show. During this show your trying to watch a dark video with a blinding white light in your eye.

3: It's not the style show your expecting...

We all see shows, there is singers, actors, dancers and you watch a story progress. Depending on where your sitting your basically just seeing dancers and there what we would all call a show missing. This isn't a dance performance and maybe that is the mistake. If this was a musical dance review of jungle book songs then we would go in expecting dancing and know to look for a singer if that interested us...

4: It needs a narrator...

There is nothing guiding you along what your seeing in this iteration of the show. It's just confusing. disney guides you through a story and this has no guide and it's very different from anything disney in the past..

5: Bollywood isn't mainstream here for a reason...

It's just not popular here.. It's a nice exposure to it because it's not really in our media consumption or theaters but if this is your first exposure, then there is even more confusion on if you like it or not..

6: the line is too damn long...

Right now people are literally waiting 3-4 hours either in a line or in a very tight stadium, some of that your in the sun being baked if you get there early enough for something that is confusing on stage for 20 minutes. It's too tight you can't even get up and decide to leave unless you sit in the edge of a row.

 

[Accident]

Heads up for anyone using this for your planning. There is some (for the better) changes to how to get to jungle book show, as well as a little more entertaining and prep for what the show your about to see is prior to it starting.. Just ask but standby enters from the side walkway near where the dinosaur dig is located, meal package still by nemo and standby is closer now entering near where the bar at Everest is.

otherwise, things are the same.