Some encouraging news re: Rivers of Light

[Mom2Stitch]

I'm going to wish for an end to JB and opening of ROL during my Labor Day trip. What I'm betting will happen however is that JB will end and have to be dismantled and then there will need to be time to set up and rehearse ROL- so the Thanksgiving holiday seems like a good estimate to me.

 

[HopperFan]

I'm going to wish for an end to JB and opening of ROL during my Labor Day trip. What I'm betting will happen however is that JB will end and have to be dismantled and then there will need to be time to set up and rehearse ROL- so the Thanksgiving holiday seems like a good estimate to me.

This Saturday Disney is holding Auditions for Jungle Book Alive with Magic dancers .........

 

[Mom2Stitch]

Auditions would make it seem like the current show will not be gone by early September.

 

[bryanb]

I understand this seems ludicrous but it is not an unheard of occurrence when you are dealing with larger projects (as this apparently is for them) especially given the uniqueness. Everyone on the team will agree that the issue should have been caught earlier in the process, 1000's of hours of brainstorming caught 100's of other potential issues but sometimes that one tiny little fact that everyone in the room overlooked, or couldn't fathom is the mountain not the mole hill.

^ Thank you for the chuckles today

That aside I still have problems with a company like Disney to have such big technical issues that they "didn't know about" until the opening was upon them. Even if they popped up they have the resources to resolve quickly. I still believe that this is more about spreading out the "grand openings" since doing this with Soarin' (which should have waited for new movie given it is breaking down almost daily including an evacuation this weekend), Frozen attraction & meet/greet, new Castle show, new SW fireworks, Disney Springs and Shanghai etc was just too much in too small a time frame. Spreading the grand openings spreads the excitement and the budget hits. Maybe they also realized that the disaster of the load/unload of theater would be better attached to JB than RoL and this gave them time to see it in operation. Let's face it there clearly was zero planning for queuing people in that theater.

Not doubting your friend's info that there were issues. I believe it came from higher up to slow the process for a variety of reasons. It's just too bad how this has all been handled.

This is really all speculation and again really not fair. I realize people are skeptical of "management" but people work incredibly hard to make these shows happen. Chances are that in most posters jobs, we are not being constantly judged by people on the internet who think they know better than us. Given the expensive extended hours at Animal Kingdom, and the ROL publicity campaign, this wasn't some conspiracy to spread out the excitement.

 

[bryanb]

Auditions would make it seem like the current show will not be gone by early September.

Not necessarily. They need to fill shifts sevens day a week through at least the end of summer. It's possible that more performers are needed just to do that. There's always turnover, people get sick, backups are needed for the primary performers, etc.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

Thanks for the info. I'll be there mid-Sept. so I'm guessing it could go either way for me. Whichever way it goes, I'm good with it. Not one of those to beat my chest and lament over something that isn't there. Got too much else to worry about, frankly I need to know about the extras for F&W.

We're going at the end of September and I can deal with it either way, I just want to know. I have two sets of plans right now and am holding onto additional ADRs because so much is in flux.

 

[mort1331]

Cross fingers they want to do test runs of ROL with the DVC nights in Sept. Not sure what else I can fill 3 hours of time with for the night we have planned to go.

 

[aprincessatlast]

But they are working on it. IMO, getting it out in a hurry if it is not ready would be much worse than getting it out when it is right. I have not idea what goes into these productions, but I do know they are complicated, and unless the departments that the Imagineers work with respect the timeframes, this kind of disappointment can happen.

So JB was slapped together. think it is pretty disrespectful to blame the people who are invested in making this production the spectacular that Disney fans expect.

This is probably an unfair statement to the many people who are genuinely working to make this show happen. They didn't get into this business with all the deadlines and stress because they love to disappoint the Internet.

So do you go around here telling people they are "disrespectful" because they go on and on about how terrible the JB show is? I mean some imagineer "slapped" that together? Sorry but being critical of a companies timeline and the way they do business on a discussion forum is not what I would call disrespectful. I find your chastising to be a little harsh.

I do not think that is an unfair statement. They have had over 2 years to put this show together. In a business there is a reason for timelines and deadlines. It is a "job" so people must answer to these things as money and customers are lost when these things are not fulfilled.

I find this place stranger and stranger. It is an amusement park, a business. I am not that invested in Disney to really defend them as a company. It is fun and we go occasionally (not like most on here) and I enjoy reading and looking at Disney from a business perspective. So perhaps that is why I do not find the remarks unfair of disrespectful. It is business, not personal. In the end the decisions made no matter who was creating or building or sitting behind the desk makes the business look bad. Just as much as when things go right it makes all look good. This project has went very wrong!

 

[bryanb]

So do you go around here telling people they are "disrespectful" because they go on and on about how terrible the JB show is? I mean some imagineer "slapped" that together? Sorry but being critical of a companies timeline and the way they do business on a discussion forum is not what I would call disrespectful. I find your chastising to be a little harsh.

I do not think that is an unfair statement. They have had over 2 years to put this show together. In a business there is a reason for timelines and deadlines. It is a "job" so people must answer to these things as money and customers are lost when these things are not fulfilled.

I find this place stranger and stranger. It is an amusement park, a business. I am not that invested in Disney to really defend them as a company. It is fun and we go occasionally (not like most on here) and I enjoy reading and looking at Disney from a business perspective. So perhaps that is why I do not find the remarks unfair of disrespectful. It is business, not personal. In the end the decisions made no matter who was creating or building or sitting behind the desk makes the business look bad. Just as much as when things go right it makes all look good. This project has went very wrong!

The unfair statement is reaching a conclusion that people aren't genuinely working on getting this show to work. It's fine to speculate if you keep in mind that it's just speculation, but taking it to a conclusion like that one is not fair. Nobody is arguing that they didn't meet the timelines and deadlines, and I can't fault anyone for being disappointed about that.

 

[HopperFan]

I understand this seems ludicrous but it is not an unheard of occurrence when you are dealing with larger projects (as this apparently is for them) especially given the uniqueness. Everyone on the team will agree that the issue should have been caught earlier in the process, 1000's of hours of brainstorming caught 100's of other potential issues but sometimes that one tiny little fact that everyone in the room overlooked, or couldn't fathom is the mountain not the mole hill.

This is really all speculation and again really not fair. I realize people are skeptical of "management" but people work incredibly hard to make these shows happen. Chances are that in most posters jobs, we are not being constantly judged by people on the internet who think they know better than us. Given the expensive extended hours at Animal Kingdom, and the ROL publicity campaign, this wasn't some conspiracy to spread out the excitement.

First, 90% of the discussion on this forum is speculation. My post alone said "I believe, I think, Maybe" and never did I once state something as fact. Some others may be declaring "fact" but unless they are Disney execs on here posting .... it's not. And even if something is fact at Disney, say Tier 1 vs Tier 2, that isn't to say it will be fact tomorrow given how Disney has been operating lately. No reason for folks to call other posters unfair, judgemental, disrepectfaul .......... when all they are doing is expressing their opinions or thoughts based on what has happened and not happened. It's a DISCUSSION forum.

I am a huge Disney World fan, my first visit was in 1970, yup I was there on property before it opened, and right after it opened and ever since. I at times will be one of those that people trash talk because I support some decisions and moves Disney makes that others hate. Yes, I love FP+. I am one of the last people who would call Disney out on something. So if I do, it's not lightly.

This Rivers of Light has been a disaster and there are LOTS responsible for it. I get people have worked hard but there are some people in this instance that have clearly screwed up. And as a 30 year stockholder, I don't like it. Everytime they screw up and overspend - my stock drops. Don't for a minute think it's not possible for a company to make an executive decision to spread the accounting pain and glory. Companies do it all the time. Disney folks are sharp and strategic and they will adjust on any given day as needed. They thrive on ask forgiveness later.

Disney has great engineers and they hire some of the best engineering firms to execute. These floats may not be a common operation for Disney but they aren't rocket science and there are two other major parks in a stones throw that are getting positioning systems to work without issue. I am disappointed in Disney that they hyped this show, and either sadly never tried to execute it until the last minute or one hand never told the other that it was unable to complete it's job or the issue was small .......... and there were executive reasons to delay. I do not believe that Disney couldn't get working a system that others utilize. And I get that lots of folks have worked very hard on this .... but it's not operating. So some didn't do their jobs or not being allowed to do their jobs. I'm allowed to have that opinion, disappointment and aggravation both as a guest and stockholder.

 

[cigar95]

To the OP, but off topic, but is your friend OK with you posting identifying information about her online? Based on the demogrpahic details you provided, it probably wouldn't be hard for someone from the inside to identify your friend by process of elimination.

It's a fair question. but another aspect of being around for 45 years is that she's very well-versed on what she is and is not allowed to say to outsiders, and she's quite careful in that regard. In this case, the only information was that a couple of the technical hurdles have been cleared. (That, plus the tidbit that the original opening announcement was premature.)
Sh'es passed along much juicier information over the years, and enjoys teasing me with hints about stuff that *can't* be disclosed.

 

[Tomh]

Hmm . .. . not looking good for me to see ROL in August lol. Guess that is something to look forward to NEXT summer, though I WAS looking forward to it for THIS summer.

 

[Alice Sr.]

No reason for folks to call other posters unfair, judgemental, disrepectfaul .......... when all they are doing is expressing their opinions or thoughts based on what has happened and not happened. It's a DISCUSSION forum.

I didn't do any of those things. I was just doing the same thing you were doing, sharing my opinion, based on my experience.

This Rivers of Light has been a disaster and there are LOTS responsible for it. I get people have worked hard but there are some people in this instance that have clearly screwed up. And as a 30 year stockholder, I don't like it. Everytime they screw up and overspend - my stock drops. Don't for a minute think it's not possible for a company to make an executive decision to spread the accounting pain and glory. Companies do it all the time. Disney folks are sharp and strategic and they will adjust on any given day as needed. They thrive on ask forgiveness later.

I agree, corporations do make decisions based on their overall strategy. But I did not remark about your "spreading out the "grand openings"" theory/opinion, that's your opinion and I respect that.

Disney has great engineers and they hire some of the best engineering firms to execute. These floats may not be a common operation for Disney but they aren't rocket science and there are two other major parks in a stones throw that are getting positioning systems to work without issue. I am disappointed in Disney that they hyped this show, and either sadly never tried to execute it until the last minute or one hand never told the other that it was unable to complete it's job or the issue was small .......... and there were executive reasons to delay. I do not believe that Disney couldn't get working a system that others utilize. And I get that lots of folks have worked very hard on this .... but it's not operating. So some didn't do their jobs or not being allowed to do their jobs. I'm allowed to have that opinion, disappointment and aggravation both as a guest and stockholder.

You are certainly allowed to have your opinion. I honestly do not care what the reason for the delay is. I do care however, that you do not think I was trying to diminish the value of your post or discredit your theory/opinion. Hopefully if you have a second, you will reread my post and see that there was no attempt on my part to do anything other than shed some light on an area where I have some experience.

 

[bryanb]

I'd be willing to accept the disagreement. I'm just sorry that these discussions get as unhappy as they do when we already agree that it's speculation.

 

[bryanb]

I was curious about that too. Isn't it just 2 rides and some shops? Maybe I've underestimated it.

Maybe it is two rides and some shops. But I guess that formula worked for Universal during the Harry Potter phase 1.

 

[rg35]

It's a fair question. but another aspect of being around for 45 years is that she's very well-versed on what she is and is not allowed to say to outsiders, and she's quite careful in that regard. In this case, the only information was that a couple of the technical hurdles have been cleared. (That, plus the tidbit that the original opening announcement was premature.)
Sh'es passed along much juicier information over the years, and enjoys teasing me with hints about stuff that *can't* be disclosed.

Gotcha. Makes total sense. Thanks for responding

 

[AngiTN]

Hmm . .. . not looking good for me to see ROL in August lol. Guess that is something to look forward to NEXT summer, though I WAS looking forward to it for THIS summer.

I don't think things ever looked good for Aug, sorry. They have JB on the schedule till Sept so I do would not expect to see RoL prior to that. I do think if it's ready in Sept they won't hold it till Nov. I think they'll put it out in Sept if it's ready. Why not put it out during a slower time, brings in folks and gives them a slower time to work out any other kinks.

 

[elle101me]

Hmm . .. . not looking good for me to see ROL in August lol. Guess that is something to look forward to NEXT summer, though I WAS looking forward to it for THIS summer.

Same here. We were planning to see it on opening night in April. We all know how that worked out. I though for sure it would be ready by August. I guess I was a bit premature when I mentioned it on my August countdown ticker.

 

[Atlanta WDW Fan]

We'll be there in September and would love to see ROL. I was bummed when it did not open on time, and the reviews of Jungle Book have me less than inspired to check it out. However it shakes out will be fine. I have no issue with spending an extra evening at the pool, sipping beverages and going for a swim!

 

[6loversofdisney]

This came from my contact at Imagineering who has been at WDW and several other Disney parks since 1970 or 71. (Yes, she was very involved with Shanghai. No, it isn't her fault!) I don't have fine details, so can't give much more than what I say here.

When the opening was postponed, RoL was dealing with one major and three modest technical issues. The major issue is now under control, along with one of the modest ones. So a big piece of the problem is dealt with. I don't know how complex the remaining issues are.

No word on what this means for possible opening dates. That answer may come soon. and I have no doubt that lots of input from the present Jungle Book show are going to contribute to the fine-tuning, both technically and operationally.

But progress is being made, and that's good news.

Thank you for the info! I love insider news! My person (who is and has been directly working on this project) said the hope is end of August which closely aligns with what you are hearing. Yay!