OKAY ............... RUMORS OF LIGHT has been seen.
I opted for FP+ since I knew we would have a busy day and didn't want to waste time at a TS, and no way would I do Standby at this point. There initially was only one show but when they announced the second show I easily moved our FP+ to that second show - giving us more time to enjoy the park. It was myself - completely neck deep in the whole Rumors of Light fiasco. DS who is a huge Disney fanatic, artistic, creative, very detailed oriented with movies etc, highly technical and some engineering - my point was he has followed and would be watching with many hats. And a CM who loves Disney and it's core beginnings, and who purposely watched no videos.
Prior to both shows we walked over to the Standby area. Folks began lining up a couple hours ahead of the first show and it seemed the line never disappeared as I guess by time show 1 entered show 2 folks were already in line. No way would I be doing this. They utilized the walkway along the water that is just greenery between it and Dinoland outerpath. They had ropes set up so it was queued zig zagged 3 times. It was so full so early my guess is the line had to come out and head somewhere as others has seen before. Photo below was 1.5 hours before first show started.
After watching the first showing on the Trees of Life - DS first time and friend & I second time - we LOVED it and could have sat there all night. This time we saw the more projection style one with Disney animal characters and it was very well done. Less creative in terms of the lights than the last one but still very good. We then walked over to watch the back of ROL from Flame Tree along with many others. By time we arrived front rows very full. The dead center bridge (below the concrete ponds) was a great view. At the time I said we couldn't make out the water projections other than some color but little did we know .... But it was great the floats came very close to us and that was cool. What I really noted was that Everest was an awesome backdrop to the show, better than a distant tree. Had they switched the theater they could have really been more bold.
It was time to go to our FP+ so we headed from Yak & Yeti direction to help keep down the congestion in areas we didn't need to be. Well, it was a mess. By time we walked over there the theaters looked close to empty so it was surprising that the walkways were still packed with people. Just too narrow. They wouldn't let anyone near Everest or the theater instead packing us all into side paths towards Kali. We sat there for some time before they finally let us out. The area around the theater was very crowded. They were letting FP+ folks into a roped area leading to entrance by scanning with portable scanners. When the roped area was full they stood blocking the entrance to it and I assume the folks were in some sort of line from there back. We were just inside the roped area. While it was probably faster for them to scan us than us scan the machines .... there was nothing to keep folks from ducking under the rope and joining us.
Once inside they seemed to be sending folks in by section but by time we approached steps they let us go where we wanted. We chose wood seats (we've done the stone and they are uncomfortable) in section H down close to D, what I think were good seats. E and I were blocked except to a few so guessing that is the VIP section. As we were entering they were also loading the Dining Section. They seemed to be directing folks to their seats as it was filling in fairly compact. They were in L K Q P. They kept Standby standing in their lines which we could see lined up out past T. At 8 pm they finally started to load the Standby. It was like watching the Parking lots with CMs at each turn making them go into specific rows and filling up the sections tight. By show time Sections T and O (1/3 of the SB area) were completely empty. Had you not gotten in line and just walked up you would have had no trouble sitting. Section A of FP+ was still fairly empty 10 minutes before show time.
I get 2nd shows were added last minute and no way to tell what the future holds for crowds but on this day you did not need a Dining Package or FP+ to still have a seat. Even a front row seat. And you didn't even need to stand in a line.
There was no pre-show .... I know a few mentioned .... we had lotus flowers sitting in water. There were a few lights in trees by Flame Tree. A few times they projected animal shadows walking by but that was minimal.
THE SHOW ....
(1) CM friend ......... enjoyed the show. I am not sure how that would transfer to average guest. They seemed to hear the story but I don't know if it was because they knew the story going in or listened closely to the speaking parks. They did not pick up on any of the details that we were discussing after. It's hard when they experience fireworks every work day and were happy for something more low key ... but is their expectation that of the average guest, I don't know. If the average guest is good with a low key show then it will do it's job.
(2) DS ............. did not like it. His opinion makes sense as to why we waited a year so they could make this work rather than retool the floats to work otherwise. He said Disney wanted to show they mastered this float technology and then built a show around it. It was more about showing off (why they had to get it working) than putting together a cohesive show. We had lots of convo on the technical aspects that could have been done better. Said the first 3 minutes good, last 3 minutes good and then nothing in between. He said he never needs to see it again. If he has dead time, he'll grab some food or drinks and just sit at Flame Tree. [NOTE: He LOVES Illuminations, understands the whole story, thinks it's a powerful show so I had expected him to like this.]
(3) Me ....... well I read enough and saw enough to know what to expect. My thought going in is that the most gushing is from folks who have walked away with beautiful photographs so I was expected that to be the plus. I know now that many of the photographs are enhanced except for the boats and animals.
The
animal floats are STUNNING and I could have watched them for hours. Sadly you only get to really see 2 of them because someone didn't think that maybe when they are at the far side of lake, all dark, that they should have switched positions so when they returned to show we all got to see the two we hadn't already seen. So YES there are two distinct views to the show. The
boats with the costumes and the lanterns etc hanging are CREATIVE and VIBRANT. Loved them using the sails for screens of shadows and at times helpful to identify what was on water screens. I did not understand what they were doing. Our boat at one point was spinning in place, maybe 3 times. The other boat disappeared behind the water wall area, went dark and so they appeared to have no boat to look at. At one point our boat left the theater back under the bridge but then later it returned. We agreed they were beautiful but sadly not utilized enough.
Lotus flowers. Before the show they just sat there. The lily pads were stained glass like the animals and beautiful. The lotus petals looked cheap and plastic. Once they are lit it doesn't matter as much so I let it go they just weren't creative enough to figure out how to make them as pretty as the animals and boats. LOVED the water elements, the spirals and spraying. I would love more of that with some awesome music. The most impressive was they had mini water screens and the projections on them were done in holograph style. They looked 3D, very cool, and when they jumped from one to the other - wow - until one wasn't working so the animal disappeared then reappeared two float over. But sadly I guess I expected glitches. The BIG lotus flower ...... hate the fire tower. For most the show it looks like collapsed scaffold in there because the float was already built when they added it. DS asked why they didn't build petals big enough to hide it and I told him it was added last minute. The fire that came out was minimal compared to size of structure and looked like candles .... It was not needed, it didn't add any wow factor.
Water Screens ............. not any better since JBA. The big middle one did match up but it didn't matter as we really couldn't make out most of what they were projecting. Sometimes the same image was on the boat sails so you could tell from there but these things are more a distraction. It appears the slightest air movement makes it hard to see. The times it was vibrant abstract colors it was fine because nothing was there but colors - but projection wise I'm 0 for 2. The two side feather like ones again add nothing and one appeared to be "off". When the small lotus have such great water screens - lower, tighter, less impacted by wind plus they are being projected on close up ---- why didn't they think about using more of that.
Music ...... I call it "Rihanna Music" ......... yea, not a fan. I laugh that she can only memorize a few words at a time and then repeats over and over and over again. The music was the same thing throughout, became very much background noise when this show needed music that permeated you and created the story. It had moments when it got louder or quieter but nothing memorable at all. If I heard it tomorrow I wouldn't be able to tell you where it's from. Music is too important to shows, movies etc and lost opportunity here. Sad.
Audience ..... children around us, 1 fell asleep, 2 couldn't sit still or stay focused, 1 about 18 mo stood on bench and danced. Overall it was mostly adults around us. The show ended. Clearly ended even without a finale. The music stopped, people clapped but it was not roaring, then lights all came up and you could see everyone in the audience ........... clearly their last clapping was at the scene, not an ending and they did not realize it was over. I was looking close at everyone ............ dead silence for about 15-20 seconds ............... they were all looking around everywhere looking kinda like "that's the end?". Then speakers came on with thanks for coming to our show. Folks at that point started to get up. Was a long time to have a theater that large silent and sitting ... waiting .... average guest obviously expected more.
The bones are there. Boats and Animals are just beautiful pieces of art. The lotus water effects were dance like and pretty. The lights and projections on the Flame Tree greenery and trees has SO MUCH potential. The tree of life is back there and creates a beautiful backdrop. They could drop the water walls and up the projections out there. Up the use of lasers. Plenty of other things they could easily adjust to greatly improve the show but clearly, given they have had time and didn't, don't plan to.
It was as I expected so can't say I was disappointed. It is not what was presented and hyped at the beginning. It was obvious at the end the audience was not overwhelmed either by their applause or their lost looks. Everyone should see it at least once but I certainly wouldn't stress my touring plan. No way I'd spend 2 hours in a Standby line. It does appear that each side of theater gets a different perspective due to the floats and boats, so maybe 2x would be best for full viewing.
