Rivers of Light --- Almost Ready for Prime Time

[Anal Annie]

I really don't think that AK will close at 6,Disney has been bumping that close to at least 7 in the few weeks leading up to each new month .

AK hours are currently set to close at 7:00 for our trip in January - but I don't call closing at 7:00 a nighttime experience... Many people like to eat in the 6-7:00 hour. If you're there for the nighttime activities you're not (or at least we're not) going to waste time eating during that hour. That means when we're kicked out at 7:00 we have to go somewhere else to eat closer to 8:00. Which, 8:00 is fine for us - it's just silly that we have to leave & go somewhere else to find food. We'll likely head to Disney Springs or something unless we decide to call it an early night & we head back to SSR to eat. It's another missed opportunity by Disney to stay open late enough to at least feed people before they close up shop.

(PS) Polybound we ate lunch at both Tiffins & the Nomad Lounge on our Sept trip & it was fabulous - we have a lunch res to go back again in January & I am really looking forward to it.

 

[BlueFairy]

AK hours are currently set to close at 7:00 for our trip in January - but I don't call closing at 7:00 a nighttime experience... Many people like to eat in the 6-7:00 hour. If you're there for the nighttime activities you're not (or at least we're not) going to waste time eating during that hour. That means when we're kicked out at 7:00 we have to go somewhere else to eat closer to 8:00. Which, 8:00 is fine for us - it's just silly that we have to leave & go somewhere else to find food. We'll likely head to Disney Springs or something unless we decide to call it an early night & we head back to SSR to eat. It's another missed opportunity by Disney to stay open late enough to at least feed people before they close up shop.

(PS) Polybound we ate lunch at both Tiffins & the Nomad Lounge on our Sept trip & it was fabulous - we have a lunch res to go back again in January & I am really looking forward to it.

It is customary for the parks to have ADRs available until close and provide transportation options until the last guest exits the park. So you could tour until 7pm and have a 7pm ADR, leaving after 8pm without having to make another stop.

 

[Anal Annie]

It is customary for the parks to have ADRs available until close and provide transportation options until the last guest exits the park. So you could tour until 7pm and have a 7pm ADR, leaving after 8pm without having to make another stop.

While that's true without knowing IF or WHAT TIME ROL is I'm not going to plan to eat anywhere there. The whole point of being there at night would be to see ROL. I also don't want the slop that's left in the bottom of the barrel. We made the mistake of eating LATE at the new Harambe Market in June when we stayed late - they were anxious to close up shop & it wasn't good at all - and certainly not fresh. We also made that mistake at HS one time at the end of the night & we grabbed burgers at Fairfax Fare or something. GROSS. NASTY. ICK. Neither of us could stomach finishing them and we tossed them at about half way through. They were cold & the toppings were slime. Disney food costs way too much to toss it out half way thru. Tiffins for dinner is outside of our budget & we already have 6 ADR's booked that week (including Tiffins for lunch) so we'll just move on. But thanks for the thoughts...

 

[Polybound]

I really don't think that AK will close at 6,Disney has been bumping that close to at least 7 in the few weeks leading up to each new month .

The park is already scheduled to close at 7:00. ROL may push that back though. After thinking about it we have just moved our meal at Tiffin to Lunch, which makes more since anyway. Gives us a lot more flexibility.

 

[soniam]

The park is already scheduled to close at 7:00. ROL may push that back though. After thinking about it we have just moved our meal at Tiffin to Lunch, which makes more since anyway. Gives us a lot more flexibility.

We are going after Xmas. I have a Tiffins reservation for both lunch and dinner at 6pm. I will keep both until more is determined. They may even have dining packages by that point.

 

[aprincessatlast]

If it's not up & running by then they should just ditch it. I know I can plan an evening but I'd rather be able to book my FP's around knowing what TIME the show will be. I don't want to have to go & re-do everything all over again.

So by your logic they should have just given up on test track too? I mean there was delay after delay and then even after the soft opening it did not open fully for months down the road. In total what was it like 2 years almost in delays from target date to fully opening. Then again maybe it did not receive quite as much grief as social media was in it its infancy with the rare chat board here and there. Regardless we missed ROL with our trip and it should have been open for months by that point but it will have to wait till next trip in 3 years. Hope they don't throw in the towel though, still want to see it!

 

[kangamangus]

We just returned yesterday from our trip, closed down Animal Kingdom twice, we got to ride expedition Everest seven times in a row and then rode Kali five times. We watched the tree awakening and ran to be the last safari of the night. We were the last vehicle in the parking lot! It was amazing, as my kids went on their third Everest ride it did seem like they were working on Rivers of light. Even without the show my kids and I have tied AK with MK. The ambience the music the whole atmosphere is something to be enjoyed.

 

[Hoodie]

Touring Plans is reporting an expected opening date of December 1.

 

[HopperFan]

Touring Plans is reporting an expected opening date of December 1.

Haha, they keep changing and putting up random dates, and yet no one else ever backs up their dates. They do note it is a "placeholder" .... but coding wise they don't need to have any date in there, but hey, gets them more clicks.

All guesswork. When it opens it opens.

 

[DisneyBiggsy]

Hi guys. Long time lurker, but first time poster. Just got back from three weeks at the World. I was chatting to a cast member in AK about ROL and the rumours that it was starting soft openings in the next few weeks and she was genuinely surprised, as the news that the cast members had heard was that ROL was never going to open because of the problems with the GPS on the boats - the problem is that they're computer driven and they're meant to form numerous different shapes and patterns during the show, but the GPS just keeps crashing the boats into each other, leaving them all in a mess. She told us that the last thing they'd heard was that the management were working on another simpler show to go on the lake to fill the gap and this would become the permanent show.

 

[rteetz]

Hi guys. Long time lurker, but first time poster. Just got back from three weeks at the World. I was chatting to a cast member in AK about ROL and the rumours that it was starting soft openings in the next few weeks and she was genuinely surprised, as the news that the cast members had heard was that ROL was never going to open because of the problems with the GPS on the boats - the problem is that they're computer driven and they're meant to form numerous different shapes and patterns during the show, but the GPS just keeps crashing the boats into each other, leaving them all in a mess. She told us that the last thing they'd heard was that the management were working on another simpler show to go on the lake to fill the gap and this would become the permanent show.

Front line cast members don't know anything more than most of us do. From what I understand the GPS issue has been fixed.

 

[HopperFan]

Front line cast members don't know anything more than most of us do. From what I understand the GPS issue has been fixed.

That actually is not true, it depends on the CM and where they work. Front line are given info particularly if will impact their job at some point.

That said I think this CM comments are incorrect.

 

[twebber55]

That actually is not true, it depends on the CM and where they work. Front line are given info particularly if will impact their job at some point.

That said I think this CM comments are incorrect.

agreed, you cant totally dismiss what Cms say

 

[jaxonp]

GPS isn't an issue anymore. That said, there was another minor collision in tests, after pressure was put on the team to deliver the show in a short window almost 2 weeks ago until another creative disagreement between top creative egos has now put the show on course for December. The team truly believed softs would have started a few days ago. The wait continues.

 

[rteetz]

That actually is not true, it depends on the CM and where they work. Front line are given info particularly if will impact their job at some point.

That said I think this CM comments are incorrect.

I don't think That CM is being affected by RoL.

 

[rteetz]

GPS isn't an issue anymore. That said, there was another minor collision in tests, after pressure was put on the team to deliver the show in a short window almost 2 weeks ago until another creative disagreement between top creative egos has now put the show on course for December. The team truly believed softs would have started a few days ago. The wait continues.

Interesting first I've heard of that.

 

[rangerxenos]

We just returned yesterday from our trip, closed down Animal Kingdom twice, we got to ride expedition Everest seven times in a row and then rode Kali five times. We watched the tree awakening and ran to be the last safari of the night. We were the last vehicle in the parking lot! It was amazing, as my kids went on their third Everest ride it did seem like they were working on Rivers of light. Even without the show my kids and I have tied AK with MK. The ambience the music the whole atmosphere is something to be enjoyed.

I love AK, and I think it's often looked at as an afterthought.

 

[jaxonp]

I love AK, and I think it's often looked at as an afterthought.

AK at night is great... especially with the 100s of guests in the park... lol. Joking aside. Everest at night is incredible. Not enough people are talking about how much better this ride is in the dark.

 

[HopperFan]

GPS isn't an issue anymore. That said, there was another minor collision in tests, after pressure was put on the team to deliver the show in a short window almost 2 weeks ago until another creative disagreement between top creative egos has now put the show on course for December. The team truly believed softs would have started a few days ago. The wait continues.

I laughed out loud here ............... this was to open in APRIL, we are now 7 mos out, so no team should be distressed that the powers that be are giving them any kind of "short" window. They've had a huge window to work in. If they are still crashing floats in to each other it's still not operational. The crash may have been minor but an issue that caused it certainly isn't. From the floats to the water walls, the final product - if matching the design on paper - means that the design was flawed. This has been an engineering fail, and embarrassing. I personally would rather they step back and get their stuff together rather than push out another disaster of a show.

AK at night is great... especially with the 100s of guests in the park... lol. Joking aside. Everest at night is incredible. Not enough people are talking about how much better this ride is in the dark.

I agree. We did EMH there at night years ago and loved it. The park looks totally different, Everest is AWESOME at night .... but they need Dinosaur running, many don't like DinoCarnival ... but these added dance parties/music and the tree awakening are certainly more than enough for me to enjoy a beautiful low key evening even if the night safari and ROL are not running.

 

[rteetz]

another disaster of a show.

Another disaster of a show? How do you know this would be a disaster of a show? Have you seen it? Don't assume when you don't know.