Rivers of Light --- Almost Ready for Prime Time

[skier_pete]

So, looks like "a few weeks away" continues to apply. Until it doesn't.

another disaster of a show.

"Another disaster of a show" implies (or rather doesn't imply but states) there was another disaster of a show - what show are you referring to?

 

[rteetz]

So, looks like "a few weeks away" continues to apply. Until it doesn't.



"Another disaster of a show" implies (or rather doesn't imply but states) there was another disaster of a show - what show are you referring to?

Probably jungle book

 

[ElyseInWonderland]

I'm an eternal Disney optimist, but I think that this show is going to be truly spectacular (like Fantasmic) when it does open. I feel like they have some tricks up their sleeve here.

Or maybe they'll just bring out another JB show with a Christmas overlay: The Jungle Book: Alive with Christmas!

 

[HopperFan]

"Another disaster of a show" implies (or rather doesn't imply but states) there was another disaster of a show - what show are you referring to?

I am often a Disney apologist but there truly was nothing positive to say about Jungle Book Alive, and that sentiment was loud and clear among many and reviews.

I was disappointed in what I saw on live feed and videos but I still went anyway, using a FP+. I was with a CM. We both sat there with our mouths wide open the whole time - how Disney thought that was even close to their standards on any level was beyond me. It was technically a mess, it was visually a mess, it appeared half the performers were missing, the choreography and storyline was .... well I've seen better in middle school programs. The audio was awful and painful. The water walls were broken, the projections were impossible to make out. It was so random .... performers walking around with props, no real purpose. The best part was the fire guy that floated by, and he was probably from FOTLK. It truly was the worse thing I have ever seen performed at Disney.

FP+/Dining side was not full and SB side was 2/3rds empty ... which was no surprise after all the bad reviews.

Or maybe they'll just bring out another JB show with a Christmas overlay: The Jungle Book: Alive with Christmas!

When I was thinking about booking the D23 event for DS and I, and maybe ROL was the Sunday surprise .......... he says "No, James Cameron will be there that day, it's probably going to be Avatar Alive premiere to take up more time." While we both cracked up laughing ............ I cancelled my hotel and didn't register for the event. After JBA .... I can wait until I know it's worth more than me just being in the park that day.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

You can plan an evening at AK. My FP day was yesterday. They still have the night safaris and tree awakenings. I would be very surprised if rivers of light isn't open before January.

only potential hiccup is do we know it will run every night? I know for a while Star Wars fireworks were every night but then only select nights. Would be a bummer to plan an evening at AK only to find out later that Rivers of Light is running - but not on that night

 

[TheMaxRebo]

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.

I fully agree and think the dance parties really add to the vibe at night - almost a party like environment. I loved the park at night!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I am often a Disney apologist but there truly was nothing positive to say about Jungle Book Alive, and that sentiment was loud and clear among many and reviews.

I was disappointed in what I saw on live feed and videos but I still went anyway, using a FP+. I was with a CM. We both sat there with our mouths wide open the whole time - how Disney thought that was even close to their standards on any level was beyond me. It was technically a mess, it was visually a mess, it appeared half the performers were missing, the choreography and storyline was .... well I've seen better in middle school programs. The audio was awful and painful. The water walls were broken, the projections were impossible to make out. It was so random .... performers walking around with props, no real purpose. The best part was the fire guy that floated by, and he was probably from FOTLK. It truly was the worse thing I have ever seen performed at Disney.

FP+/Dining side was not full and SB side was 2/3rds empty ... which was no surprise after all the bad reviews.
.

I might be the only one but I like the Jungle Book show ... to be fair, I went after seeing the poor reviews so I definitely had lowered expectations.

That said, we did not notice any of the technical issues you are pointing to and I thought all dancers were pretty on with their choreography. We saw it the end of the summer so perhaps they got better as time went on.

The crowd we were with seemed to love the show - lots of big applause, etc. ... and the theater was packed and when we got out the FP line was probably 200 people long for the next show

don't get me wrong, this certainly was not up to the promise of Rivers of Light but for what it was I thought it was an enjoyable dance show

 

[rteetz]

only potential hiccup is do we know it will run every night? I know for a while Star Wars fireworks were every night but then only select nights. Would be a bummer to plan an evening at AK only to find out later that Rivers of Light is running - but not on that night

When it debuts i can't imagine it not running every night.

 

[Josh Hendy]

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.

It's a shame that when Disney finally adds a big night time show to AK, it results in Everest being closed down during the show.

It would have been nice if you had a choice between watching the early show and riding Everest during the late show, or vice-versa. I imagine that Everest is going to be extremely packed in the evening outside of RoL showtimes with very few FP or walkup seats available.

It highlights what a small park AK is. It has far too few compelling attractions.

It's still my favorite park because of the animals and landscaping (and Everest) and most of my family members' 2nd favorite (after MK) but I think that Disney has a long way to go to bring up AK and DHS to even half of the size and variety of attractions in MK.

 

[HopperFan]

I might be the only one but I like the Jungle Book show ... to be fair, I went after seeing the poor reviews so I definitely had lowered expectations.

That said, we did not notice any of the technical issues you are pointing to and I thought all dancers were pretty on with their choreography. We saw it the end of the summer so perhaps they got better as time went on.

The crowd we were with seemed to love the show - lots of big applause, etc. ... and the theater was packed and when we got out the FP line was probably 200 people long for the next show

don't get me wrong, this certainly was not up to the promise of Rivers of Light but for what it was I thought it was an enjoyable dance show

I went last week of August, plenty of time to fix stuff. Oh I'm not dissing the entertainers at all ... I think what they were given to work with was awful. It doesn't matter how good you are of a dancer, you can't change the choreography. We were in lower seats (which if those barges are still there for ROL, avoid those seats because they are blocked from the view of the "river") and watching them up close. I felt bad for them. Most were clearly just trying to get through it and be done. Their faces said it all.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

When it debuts i can't imagine it not running every night.

I agree, particularly through the holiday season ... just thinking January is traditionally slower so might not be every day then

 

[rteetz]

I agree, particularly through the holiday season ... just thinking January is traditionally slower so might not be every day then

Lets hypothetically say it debuts November 18th. I can't see this not running nightly until maybe next fall. This is going to be a popular show for a while and its a show that will be used to draw people into AK at night. AK at night is dead right now and executives are not happy about it.

 

[FredQc]

Rteetz, do you believe that introduction of so many new nighttime entertainment across several WDW venues (Castle show in MK, Jingle Bell Jingle BAM in DHS, now the based-drone show at DS) are signs that River of Lights may face additional challenge and not debut this fall?

 

[rteetz]

Rteetz, do you believe that introduction of so many new nighttime entertainment across several WDW venues (Castle show in MK, Jingle Bell Jingle BAM in DHS, now the based-drone show at DS) are signs that River of Lights may face additional challenge and not debut this fall?

Not necessarily. The projectors at MK were upgraded earlier this year so a new show has probably been worked on for a while now. Shows like this can't be thrown together in a few days. Projection shows take time. I think the DHS show is to make up for no Osborne Lights. Disney has been trying to use drones in a show for well over a year now so I don't think that has anything to do with it. Disney Springs also needs more people there so sales go up.

 

[MrsIncredibleNY]

I

Or maybe they'll just bring out another JB show with a Christmas overlay: The Jungle Book: Alive with Christmas!

I'd watch that

 

[Keels]

This show is even more weather-affected than Fantasmic! ... the wind has been out of control here in Orlando for the better part of two weeks. I know that affects the show.

As I was told when I saw the dress, the plan was for it to run nightly and 2-3 times a night as part of a large-scale night operation. It works in concert with the parties and light show on the Tree of Life.

 

[skier_pete]

I am often a Disney apologist but there truly was nothing positive to say about Jungle Book Alive, and that sentiment was loud and clear among many and reviews.

OK - I wasn't sure you were counting that show. To me that's not a REAL show - it was a placeholder to try and stem the disaster that was THIS show, so I guess I wouldn't have included it as "another" show - it was all part of this same mess.

I am not sure now who was telling me about this on our trip in October, but one of our local friends indicated that the leads on the Jungle Book show were literally given THREE days by Disney brass to design that entire show. It's really surprising that it worked in any way at all. I don't think Rivers of Light will be anything close to that.

 

[HopperFan]

OK - I wasn't sure you were counting that show. To me that's not a REAL show - it was a placeholder to try and stem the disaster that was THIS show, so I guess I wouldn't have included it as "another" show - it was all part of this same mess.

I am not sure now who was telling me about this on our trip in October, but one of our local friends indicated that the leads on the Jungle Book show were literally given THREE days by Disney brass to design that entire show. It's really surprising that it worked in any way at all. I don't think Rivers of Light will be anything close to that.

If Disney is putting it on stage, spending large sums of money, utilizing FP+ and Dining Packages, and locating it in a big venue, then yes I count it as a real show. This wasn't a handful of performers in front of the tree or in Harambe (although they were better) this was a full production overseen by top entertainment CMs.

I don't believe at all it was 3 days, I think you can look at the video below and see that much more effort than that was put in to it. They probably began this work in early April when Jungle Book came out a hit, and ROL folks already knew they were doomed to open anytime soon. They began to put this together so they had something to announce at Earth Day. And it opened Memorial Day Weekend ... no not long enough for a mass production like Nemo or FOTLK but certainly plenty of time for what they put out there. These are professionals that create shows and entertainment for a living ....

Here is the issues that does tie it to ROL ..............
- The large water wall that is part of ROL did not work, not even close. And this was end of August. The two sprays are to meet and become a wall for the projection. The left wall was incredibly higher than the right wall. There was no match. The projection had the entire middle piece missing. This is for ROL.
- The projections did not work. What we saw as dull colors hitting the water. It was as if we had on blurry glasses, you couldn't really make out anything, just guess based on the movie. This is for ROL.
- The side water spouts, kinda like big feathers, seemed to have no purpose other than allowing spray to come on us. This is for ROL.
- There are two huge stages aka barges in front of theater seats. Ugly and blocked our view of the water. Even though there is room on theater bottom level for performers ........ they were all standing on this thing. If they stay - then don't sit in the bottom third of the theater or your view of these beautiful animal floats will be blocked. Is this for ROL?
- Moving barges ....... they were awkward, they were bumping, they were distracting. Only the one moving the fire guy seemed to be under control (driver on board) .............. are these like ROL? If so I see why they are having float problems.
- Audio, awful technology. Could barely hear singing but the music was ear drum offensive. This is for ROL.

In order to pull this off in 8 weeks they needed to use parts of ROL to do so ............ so yes, concern is there.

 

[rteetz]

If Disney is putting it on stage, spending large sums of money, utilizing FP+ and Dining Packages, and locating it in a big venue, then yes I count it as a real show. This wasn't a handful of performers in front of the tree or in Harambe (although they were better) this was a full production overseen by top entertainment CMs.

I don't believe at all it was 3 days, I think you can look at the video below and see that much more effort than that was put in to it. They probably began this work in early April when Jungle Book came out a hit, and ROL folks already knew they were doomed to open anytime soon. They began to put this together so they had something to announce at Earth Day. And it opened Memorial Day Weekend ... no not long enough for a mass production like Nemo or FOTLK but certainly plenty of time for what they put out there. These are professionals that create shows and entertainment for a living ....

Here is the issues that does tie it to ROL ..............
- The large water wall that is part of ROL did not work, not even close. And this was end of August. The two sprays are to meet and become a wall for the projection. The left wall was incredibly higher than the right wall. There was no match. The projection had the entire middle piece missing. This is for ROL.
- The projections did not work. What we saw as dull colors hitting the water. It was as if we had on blurry glasses, you couldn't really make out anything, just guess based on the movie. This is for ROL.
- The side water spouts, kinda like big feathers, seemed to have no purpose other than allowing spray to come on us. This is for ROL.
- There are two huge stages aka barges in front of theater seats. Ugly and blocked our view of the water. Even though there is room on theater bottom level for performers ........ they were all standing on this thing. If they stay - then don't sit in the bottom third of the theater or your view of these beautiful animal floats will be blocked. Is this for ROL?
- Moving barges ....... they were awkward, they were bumping, they were distracting. Only the one moving the fire guy seemed to be under control (driver on board) .............. are these like ROL? If so I see why they are having float problems.
- Audio, awful technology. Could barely hear singing but the music was ear drum offensive. This is for ROL.

In order to pull this off in 8 weeks they needed to use parts of ROL to do so ............ so yes, concern is there.

Disney not put it on stage because they had to. Are we sure they spent large amounts of money on this? The venue wasn't built for this show and they just transferred the already built infrastructure for dining packages and FP from RoL to JB.

Don't assume dates when you don't know. "They probably began this in early April" you don't know that.

The water wall if that's what you want to call it was fixed before jungle book ended.

The barges are from Disneylands fantasmic and have been sent back I've told you that multiple times. These are not part of RoL.

Again moving barges not for RoL.

All of the infrastructure that is in place at AK around the lagoon was built for RoL not Jungle Book. You can't say the audio and technology is going to be bad when you haven't seen the finished product yet.

 

[lugnut33]

Anybody know how much this cost Disney not to have ROL up and running from last summer?