How badly is the ambiance interupted at DL during construction?

[Yusani]

I knew Rivers of America was "down", but I did some Googling and it looks like part of the river is drained? Does it look bad? Is there a scaffolding up around the Fantasmic area/Tom Sawyer's Island? I am trying to decide if we should postpone our trip. We will be traveling from Texas and only get to go so often so I don't want to come at a time when the magic is spoiled. We might could try WDW instead, but I really prefer DL.

 

[mgd]

I didn't look especially hard, so maybe I missed it, but I could barely tell from frontierland side, they have a fake backdrop closing off the river, and it actually kind of blends in ok. From fantasyland, the walkway that would lead to Big thunder BBQ is closed off and blocked with vendors.

 

[kristabelle13]

You don't notice construction, really, on the river. Know what I noticed? The lovey music and calmness on the river at night. A distinct lack of hoards of people at night lining up for Fantasmic. It's lovely. The ships are still there, the water is still there, there is NO noticeable construction walls on Tom Sawyer's island. The coffers are noticeable, but I just pretended they were both a barrel bridge. So not a big deal.

 

[Nonsuch]

C-3PO visiting NOS would say:

That's funny, the damage doesn't look as bad from out here.

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

I am here right now. I think the ambience is just fine. ROA looks the same as it always does. I have to admit that the number of rides that are down does make an impact. It feels more like the number of rides available at MK at WDW instead of Disneyland. That should improv e in a few weeks when Autopia, Jungle Cruise and the Monorail open back up.

 

[ParkHopper1]

For the amount they are doing the visual impact is really minimal. They really did a great job minimizing the "under construction" feel. I have been many other times with walls everywhere and that was annoying...other than a few things being down and the walkway between Fantasy Land and Adventure Land gone, you really can't tell. They put up coffer dams in ROA and only drained the back half so from the park it looks the same as always.

Making a decision based on what is down is one thing, but I would not delay for fears on "visual" impact for one second.

Night time in the park is my favorite time and I LOVE Fantasmic, but as mentioned above...experiencing NOS as a nice peaceful evening without the crush of F! crowds was a pleasantly unexpected experience.

 

[realrellim]

It looks fine. The biggest impact is the closure of the passage between Fantasyland and Frontierland, which is especially problematic the closer you get to PTN. Two of the three nights we were there, they also closed the castle entrance so everyone in Fantasyland had to exit by Mad Tea Party or by the smaller passage that passes the wishing well and out to the hub. Basically, the crushing crowds that are usually near Fantasmic are now all along the parade route, which is also pretty much the route to get to anything besides Tomorrowland.