Expedition Everest unavailable for nighttime booking in April?

[mrsincredible3]

Hello,
I am trying to book a nighttime ride on expedition everest in animal kingdom, and for every night i try to latest possible booking is 5pm. Park hours were just extended and other rides show availability for later booking up until 9/9:30. I would like to book fastpass to ride at night. Is this no longer an option for this ride? I thought this was part of the nighttime openings in the park? ROL is showing at 8:45 that night, so even if they shut it down while the show is going on, there should still be availability for evening hours. Does anyone know why i can't book a night time ride on everest for any of the march/april nights i tried? Thanks.

 

[Robo]

There MIGHT be an issue with EE operating during (and its associated noise interfering with) Rivers of Light.

Otherwise... just keep checking.

 

[Farro]

Ugh. That would be awful if they stop it at night. Hopefully just a temporary glitch!

 

[hiroMYhero]

EE didn't offer FPs during the Jungle Book show timeframe. The ride still operated as Standby-only.

It was due to crowd management issues for the area surrounding the show and EE.

 

[Robo]

EE didn't offer FPs during the Jungle Book show timeframe. The ride still operated as Standby-only.

It was due to crowd management issues for the area surrounding the show and EE.

Did EE have to give up some CMs (i.e. at least the ones who staffed FP) to help with the crowd for the evening water show?

 

[Farro]

EE didn't offer FPs during the Jungle Book show timeframe. The ride still operated as Standby-only.

It was due to crowd management issues for the area surrounding the show and EE.

Hmmm. How were the lines, do you know? One of my favorite parts of AK at night was riding EE. It was easy to do as a standby before, but with Rivers of Light and Pandora, the standby lines are bound to be long.

I'm quietly hoping River of Lights goes back to an every other night schedule in October and we can go to AK on an off night, less crowds.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Did EE have to give up some CMs (i.e. at least the ones who staffed FP) to help with the crowd for the evening water show?

I believe it was due to the size of the crowd waiting for the nighttime show - they were being proactive regarding bottleneck issues.

@FastPasser may be better able to explain the reasoning.

 

[Robo]

I believe it was due to the size of the crowd waiting for the nighttime show - they were being proactive regarding bottleneck issues.

@FastPasser may be better able to explain the reasoning.

Looking at the tiny amount of space that guests doing FP on EE take up
(basically none, in comparison to the long standby line) I can't see a direct way how not
offering FP would create an "improvement."

 

[hiroMYhero]

Looking at the tiny amount of space that guests doing FP on EE take up
(basically none, in comparison to the long standby line) I can't see a direct way how not
offering FP would create an "improvement."

The only way is that some guests would think EE wasn't operating during that timeframe because FPs weren't being offered and they would choose to FP/Standby for earlier in the day.

 

[Robo]

This whole Rivers of Light thing appears to suffer from the "we didn't fully think this thing through"
to which so many of the crowds for evening events have recently been subjected over the past couple of years.

 

[loutoo]

Looking at the tiny amount of space that guests doing FP on EE take up
(basically none, in comparison to the long standby line) I can't see a direct way how not
offering FP would create an "improvement."

By not offering fp+ at thsee timed the standby line moves much quicker

 

[DisDad4Life]

I too was hoping to snag an evening FP for EE when I saw the hours for the first week of April were extended to 9:30pm. I get that Disney may want to limit or even shut down the ride during ROL, but according to the calendar on wdwmagic.com ROL isn't performing on the night that we'll be there (it shows an every other night schedule until the following week when it starts to go every night). If ROL isn't running that night, why no evening FPs? Guess I'll just keep checking to see if they open FP up or just hope stand-by isn't too bad that night.

 

[FastPasser]

@FastPasser may be better able to explain the reasoning.

Just saw this and nope, no clue why, I'd be guessing as well. Maybe just a glitch with the FP system.
When I did the debut last Wed night, the park was closed and there were only 750 guests, so no audience control or EE noise issues.
Maybe someone who was there Friday or Saturday night can weigh in. That would be more representative of what March and April will be like.

 

[Robo]

Guess I'll just keep checking to see if they open FP up...

That would be the thing to do!