Rivers of Light

[srwarden1928]

I have read several sort of meh reviews of Rivers of Llight on disboards. I saw the show tonight for the first time myself. I wanted to give you my assessment. Rivers of Light did not bring tears to my eyes the way Illuminations does or the way Wishes always used to do. It is not a spectacular like Fantasmic. It is a very well done show using light, water, and lasers. It fits very well into Animal Kingdom. I watched the show standby. I would not blow a Fastpass on ANY show in ANY park. Even my very favorite shows can be seen easily enough standby. As far as the dinner option, if I wanted to eat at one of the qualifying restaurants anyway, I don't object to the idea. But I wanted to eat dinner at Boma after I left AK for the day.

To sum it up, I enjoyed Rivers of Light. I would take the time out of my day to see it again. I do not find it to be necessary to see multiple times on a trip, or even every trip if you go often, but it was certainly worth my time to see. If you have not seen Rivers of Light, try to work it in on your AK day. Not everyone may like it. I challenge anyone to find ANY attraction that EVERY person who goes to Disney World likes. It can't be done. There are people who don't like your favorites and mine. There are attractions that I don't need to try to know I don't want to spend time on them. Unless you really don't like ANY shows at Disney, I strongly recommend trying this one. Its the only was to know whether you like it or not.

 

[fbarker]

Hi,

Yes my review of RoL would be very similar as yours. Its a well done show in a great setting. So peaceful and pretty and a nice way to start to wind down your day. We will see it once each visit.

 

[Jessirip]

Thanks for the review, we have a Tusker House package with the seating (and would have eaten there anyway too) so am looking forward to seeing it for ourselves.

 

[Airship Ariadne]

I watched the show standby. I would not blow a Fastpass on ANY show in ANY park. Even my very favorite shows can be seen easily enough standby. As far as the dinner option, if I wanted to eat at one of the qualifying restaurants anyway, I don't object to the idea. But I wanted to eat dinner at Boma after I left AK for the day.

I would recommend FP+ for this one, the seats are a bit better unless you wait till the show start time to get in. And the preshow starts a good half hour before the show, so grab a beer, wine, or dole whip and sit back and enjoy.

We used it on one of our AK days, we had great seats. we didn't feel like we "blew" a fast pass on it because there are so few rides in AK that warrant a FP+ (the other day most our FP+ selections for the non-Pandora rides were for rides that had minimal wait, so THOSE were a waste). Since you can't get both Pandora rides ahead of time (and there is no way you are getting one as the 4th pick after burning the first 3), the best FP+ option for a day is a Pandora ride, Safari, then ROL...what other choices would you put there? Everest? Usually less than an hour and single rider line makes riding it over and over again (as my teen loves to do) possible without a FP+...Dinosaur, again, short wait usually...none of the other shows need FP+...and the carnival style rides in Dinoland aren't worth a FP+.


This is one of our new favorite shows. we had seen all the other shows at least once (except the Happily Ever After, we saved that for the last night) and really enjoyed this one. Went back to see it a second time after burning through all our HS FP+ selections and hopping over just for this and some dinner that wasn't burgers or pizza (off topic but that is the other flaw with HS, few rides, fewer menu styles...I can get much better burgers and pizza at home). We got on the bus and grabbed a couple of last minute FP+ for it as we were on the way....then when it was done, we headed over to enjoy Pandora after dark...then to AKL for a nigh-time safari we had booked.

 

[sclarked]

I really enjoyed it too - we did the dining package and it was lovely!

 

[loves to dive]

We also love it and I really had a great time last trip with the preshow.

There was a little one sitting in front of me and this guy scare the crap out of the little guy. He tried and tried to get the kid to smile and wasn't happening. We do FP because there are always last minute fps available for it and the seats are a little better. Last trip I was solo and there was a pole sort of in front of me, the CM was so nice and took me around to a number of seats to find one I could see well from, I'm height challenged so isle seats are always better for me. I was right front and center. You can see the little guy in front of me with this picture

I'm not a fan of Illuminations, like Fantasmic every once in awhile, don't enjoy the Star Wars show since it's laser based and if you are short you stand a real good chance of a tall man jamming himself in front of you at the last minute (happened twice, I even got behind a row of wheel chairs one time thinking no one would be rude enough to stand in front of wheel chairs, but yep, someone was). I have the same problem with the new MK show and the lasers and Dad's putting kids on shoulders in front of you so it was a one and done for me. Not worth being jammed in with all those people and then not being able to see half the show. ROL is perfect for me as long as I sit in an isle.