Should we switch our AK day to avoid Rivers of Light crowds?

[Nutmeg2016]

Hey everyone,

My family (including DS5 and DD2) plan on being at AK on 3/2. I just found out that Rivers of Light will be showing that night (along with Tues, Sat and Sun that week).

We have no interest in seeing RoL ourselves. (Our plan is to catch some of the Tree of Life Awakenings and head out before kids reach meltdown point).

Will crowds be nuts that day/night?

Anecdotally, I've already seen one "we hadn't planned on being at AK on 3/2, but changed our plans to catch RoL" comment. I realize this is just one comment, but I'm wondering how many other guests will also do this (?).

We could swap days, going to AK on Friday 3/3 and EPCOT on Thursday, 3/2, but we'd originally wanted to avoid Thursday's AM EMH at EPCOT (we're staying on-site but are unlikely to arrive in time to take advantage . . ). Plus we have all our FPs booked, blah, blah.

Am I overthinking this? What would you do? Any advice is much appreciated!

Many thanks!

 

[CAS239]

If you don't have plans to see ROL, then I would keep your AK day where it is, unless it wouldn't affect anything else by moving it around. ROL viewing area isn't huge, so you're not going to see an extra 50k people pouring into AK to view it. And there will be a ton of people who have no clue ROL will even be going on..And on other nights, you'll have a ton of people thinking ROL is every night.

I would keep your days how you have them since you already have fastpasses and maybe take advantage of low wait times around AK if people are spending an hour or so in line waiting for ROL. Or if you're leaving before 7:15 then you won't even see the line for ROL and likely won't be affected

 

[hardlabor]

From a different perspective... our AK day does not have ROL.... we debated switching two of our days to see it, but decided to leave our plans alone. We are thinking crowds will be lighter and don't want to risk our previously booked FP.

 

[SgtTibbs]

And on other nights, you'll have a ton of people thinking ROL is every night.

Wait, what? It's not planned for every night? Huh.

 

[Masonmj84]

Wait, what? It's not planned for every night? Huh.

After opening night on Feb. 17, it's scheduled for Tue, Thur, Sat, and Sun (and not Mon, Wed, and Fri) through the first week of April.

However, I note that, at least for late March, Disney just changed AK closing time from 7 pm to 9 pm every night and not just on the nights currently scheduled for ROL.

Not sure whether this means Disney is leaving the possibility open to have ROL show every night earlier than what they are currently showing.

 

[Geoff_M]

Not sure how big the impact will be on the crowds at AK... the amphitheater isn't that large like Fantasmic!

 

[hakepb]

Wait times in AK during the evening seemed to be minimal during the Jungle Book show last summer.

I don't think there's much to worry about before Pandora opens.

 

[eastendlights]

After opening night on Feb. 17, it's scheduled for Tue, Thur, Sat, and Sun (and not Mon, Wed, and Fri) through the first week of April.

However, I note that, at least for late March, Disney just changed AK closing time from 7 pm to 9 pm every night and not just on the nights currently scheduled for ROL.

Not sure whether this means Disney is leaving the possibility open to have ROL show every night earlier than what they are currently showing.

They also extended early March closings to 8 even on the days that RoL is not scheduled. Wouldn't you know, every day that we had planned for AKL-3 out of 13 days- has no RoL scheduled so I had to change our plans. I do hope they add it for those nights even though I booked a dining package because I would like to FP it to compare the two.

 

[Nutmeg2016]

Okay, thanks for feedback everyone! Sounds like this isn't something to be too concerned about