So Once AK Is Open At Night....

[jhaig]

How will this affect your AK touring plan? With the nighttime safari and Rivers of Light show being (I assume) very popular, will this make morning AK touring less crowded in general?

Will Kali be open to ride in the dark?

Does anyone expect there to eventually be evening EMH?

 

[Robo]

How will this affect your AK touring plan? With the nighttime safari and Rivers of Light show being (I assume) very popular,

1. will this make morning AK touring less crowded in general?

2. Will Kali be open to ride in the dark?

3. Does anyone expect there to eventually be evening EMH?

1. Maybe a bit... for awhile, anyway.
PM EMH does not lessen the morning crowds at the other parks.

2. Maybe. It used to be open for PM EMH, but only seasonally, if it was warm enough.

3. Maybe. They USED to offer PM EMH at DAK every week for years.

 

[mrzrich]

I used to love Evening EMH at AK when they used to have them. Kali was definitely open at night and was awesome, because the fire effects are amazing at night. I see no reason why it wouldn't be open at night when the hours are extended.

Even Dinoland is cool looking at night. And I hate Dinoland.

 

[jhaig]

Never done Everest in the dark. Is it worth it?

 

[mrzrich]

Never done Everest in the dark. Is it worth it?

Everest is very cool at night.

 

[bbak30]

It will definitely alter our touring plan. We always do rope drop at AK and usually head out around lunch. Now we will have to make it all day or at least hop over in the afternoon. Can't wait! Everest is one of my favorites and I bet it's awesome at night!

 

[jhaig]

We also do RD so we can catch the animals at their most active early in the morning. Plus the park isn't so blasted hot at that time. Now I think it looks like an early afternoon-ish arrival and we'll have to save our FP's for nighttime AK stuff.

 

[jmoak]

Is there any anticipation as to when they will announce the actual times and then the availability of fast passes? I assume it will be announced and then it will be a free for all for people to "revise" fast pass times? Anybody have any experience in these types of things opening up and how it works?

 

[minnie mum]

It will be interesting to see how the extended hours play out and affect touring patterns over the next few months. Glad I'm not going til Nov- hopefully things will shake out by then. I do think it will affect how we tour. Usually we're there from RD til late afternoon. I can't see doing RD to close when that would mean a 12-14 hour day. We will likely still hit RD, tour til after lunch then go back to the resort for a break, have dinner, then hit the park's evening offerings. Or do 2 partial days: a morning/early afternoon day, and a late afternoon/evening day.

 

[Robo]

1. Is there any anticipation as to when they will announce the actual times
2. and then the availability of fast passes?
3. I assume it will be announced and then it will be a free for all for people to "revise" fast pass times?
4. Anybody have any experience in these types of things opening up and how it works?

1. Nope.
But, there is much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much speculation about it.

2. Nope.
But, there are pages, and pages, and pages, and pages, and pages, and pages, and pages of speculation about it.

3. Could be.

4. It's never happened before.
Comparing it to when the other parks get their hours extended from earlier-posted calendar times...
the FP+ just become "available" and guests book them.

 

[jmoak]

Thanks Robo!

 

[DisneyGateway]

It won't change our full day at AK as we can't do everything there in 1/2 a day! Our park hopping days we may find ourselves ending the day at AK instead of Epcot or MK though!

 

[jhaig]

It won't change our full day at AK as we can't do everything there in 1/2 a day! Our park hopping days we may find ourselves ending the day at AK instead of Epcot or MK though!

We always found a full day at AK included a lot of sitting around in air conditioning. Once we do KS, Everest, Kali and Dinoland that's pretty much it. Now with the park being open at night, it just might make us stick around a little longer.

 

[Day-Day]

I suspect that many guests who have never visited AK will go in the morning if they are morning people and will end up spending the whole day there with plans to see ROL. They won't know ahead of time whether the AK is an "all day" park for them or not. Many guests who have been to AK and feel that they don't need a full day will probably arrive later than they normally would so maybe this will lighten up the morning a little.

We will probably visit AK one morning and visit again in the late afternoon; either same day or different days since we can hop. I don't think we will stay there all day and into the night. We have always found the middle of the day to be packed in the AK while early morning and the last few hours before closing have much lighter crowds. Depending on the times, we will likely do rides and catch the last ROL; we usually go to the 2nd Fantasmic when there are two on a night.

The rides may still have short lines near closing time depending on how many guests plan to go to ROL but who knows when the park will close and when the ROL shows will be on a given day? Some people who want to go to the first show may not get in so where will they go; wait for the next show or do some rides?

We are going in late May so hopefully we will get some good information on the new schedule and crowds before we visit.

Oops! Just remembered, we will be traveling with little ones this trip so we may not go to ROL at all...

 

[Tomh]

We are generally park open to park close kind of people. AK used to be a short day, with the park often closing at 6 toward the end of the summer, we would usually stay until around 5:30, and then take a bus to the Poly for dinner at 'Ohana. After dinner, we would take the monorail over to MK, and then get a bus from MK back to POR.

With AK open late, getting dinner at 'Ohana AFTER AK isn't all that attractive, so we have moved our 'Ohana dinner to an MK night allowing us to use the monorail to get to / from dinner, and on our AK day we will spend the whole day in the park, eating supper there.

As for crowds, I don't expect the park to be any less crowded. It IS possible that the crowds will take a little longer to build up, making the park just a bit less crowded for the first couple of hours, guess we will just have to wait and see how that plays out.

Evening EMH, maybe. The used to have them. I remember doing evening EMH at AK around 2009 / 2010.

 

[Makcarly]

I have no idea when they're going to announce hours or EMH but I am super excited and it's going to definitely affect my AK touring plans. I usually head out of AK fairly early and have 2 EP days. For my trip in May I'm going to do an early AK Day and then use my EP extra day to do the new nighttime attractions at AK.

 

[hakepb]

Never done Everest in the dark. Is it worth it?

IMHO it's the best night ride in WDW (especially with the fog going in the queue).

You used to have to go Christmas week to have extended hours when it was dark.

 

[rteetz]

How will this affect your AK touring plan? With the nighttime safari and Rivers of Light show being (I assume) very popular, will this make morning AK touring less crowded in general?

Will Kali be open to ride in the dark?

Does anyone expect there to eventually be evening EMH?

Maybe. Rope drop will always be the least busy. I think the evenings will be crowded for a while because it's "new".

Yes Kali will be open.

I would say probably not.

 

[rteetz]

IMHO it's the best night ride in WDW (especially with the fog going in the queue).

You used to have to go Christmas week to have extended hours when it was dark.

It would be even better if the yeti worked.

 

[mecllapfigment]

Trying to catch up on new info after being on hiatus for awhile. So, Rivers of Light is a hard seating show like Fantasmic (I was hoping for something more like Illuminations -- just finding a spot)? and probably no fireworks? May be disappointing, based on the float photos and storyline briefing I've found so far?

Looking forward to reviews of it.