New nighttime show 'Rivers of Light' confirmed to be coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom

[Sage of Time]

My daughter just reminded me that the globe in Illuminations enters the middle of the lake (driverless of course) during the show. Is that guided by someone with a remote, or is it programmed to float for a certain distance and then stop? I know it's a completely different situation, but I had forgotten that there is one other barge on Disney property that functions without a person physically on it.

There's a driver on the Earth Barge.

 

[Sage of Time]

WDW NT keeps saying that a float sank? I find that hard to believe.

I also find an alternate show hard to believe, especially if Disney is waiting to debut all the other night entertainment...

 

[danlb_2000]

The problems still revolve around the wireless control systems.. It is indeed all new tech.. not just a new application of off-the-shelf tech... To my knowledge they was never a situation that involved the sinking or loss of a show element below the surface of the water.

Based on the rumblings I've seen/heard in the last week, I'm not optimistic about the opening any time soon... But every day brings new discoveries (and challenges) so, we'll see... I stand by my previous statement of 'Don't book a trip by it'

Can we imply from the wording of that sentence that there may have been a flotation issue with one of the elements but not an actual sinking?

 

[doctornick]

No shooting here. We all learn from our failures, Disney is no exception. In fact I take the fact that they tried to do something NEW that no one else had done as a good thing even though it may take some rework. I love it when Disney innovates

Agreed. I'd rather they be ambitious and unique and spend the time and money to get it right. They probably shouldn't have announced a date without being far more secure about that as a target, but I have no problems with them working to get the show to function as intended.

 

[Cletus]

Rivers of Gringotts. There. Coming from an equal Orlando theme park fan (have spent many thousands of vacation $$ at Uni since what we considered a slide at WDW). This is your Gringotts, WDW. Uni got ripped for the opening of Gringotts and its issues.

WDW deserves every bit of criticism it receives for this debacle. They should at least open the rest of the nighttime attractions. Sure, Gringotts got it's fair share of grief. It's not like they didn't open Diagon to help distract from it a bit.

 

[matt9112]

As bad as that is right now I'm still hoping that is an interim show

the internet has been won sir. all further posts after this point are null and void.

 

[wogwog]

Brought to you by the folks who gave us Magic Bands and MM+. Maybe the people who know how to make it work were sent to China.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Why is Jim Hill suddenly being taken as a very trusted source? What has he been right on recently? I do not believe Jungle Book is being added, because the show is too far along to do that, and I think it would disappoint many of the Floridians and big WDW fans that this is being marketed to. They have to focus on fixing the problems, and changing the show would only complicate things.

I don't know how big of a problem there is but it must be pretty significant. I suspect the main issue is with the float guiding. Have we seen any daytime testing recently?

Also, I doubt the media event will preview much. Day 2 of the event was originally just going to focus on Animal Kingdom, but now other projects have been thrown in to divide the time. They will probably show clips of testing and rehearsal and try to give off a positive vibe.

Still excited for RoL and I really hope the issues are fixed any day now.

Some recent things he had before anyone else:

• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• 3rd theater for Soarin'
• C3PO as the pilot in Star Tours
• Three Caballeros animatronics coming to Gran Fiesta Tour
• Frozen Ever After replacing Maelstrom

Aside from that though, nothing.

 

[RSoxNo1]

in general
when he says something positive about WDW he s a joke
when he says something negative he s on point

I would refine this as when he's reporting news that doesn't have spin or opinion he's on point. When he's trying to explain something the company did or is doing he seemingly gets fed bad information. He initially had very positive opinions on Next Gen and is now coming around to how much of a black hole it has become.

 

[Brian Swan]

The scariest thing about this interim show is that if it is just "good enough" and can be shown nightly, then they will probably just scrap the effort to fix whatever is delaying the actual RoL show and then we'll be stuck with this interim show for years to come....oh and they will try to shoehorn every Disney movie coming soon as short clips/ads like they do now in World of Color (i.e. Avatar 2-6, Star Wars, Jungle Book 2, Finding Dory, Frozen 2, Zootopia 2?)....

That's my pessimism kicking in.....

I'm far from being a "pixieduster", but I really don't think this will be the case. With all of the pre-publicity, released concept art, etc, - not to mention all that they have put into it so far - I really don't think they can just drop it completely. But I hope enough heads roll over this that Trader Sam will have a very good year...

 

[Baloo62]

Helloo Karma, well helloo Karma, it's so nice to have you visit Disney World. You're looking swell, Karma, give 'em hell, Karma, faulty barges for up-charges, take the gloves off girl...

 

[Brian Swan]

I just don't know why they would even bother with an interim show. In my opinion that is just going to take away from ROL. A large majority of people will show up and not realize that its not the ROL show that they have been hearing about and see this half arsed show. I think throwing something together using elements of ROL will do more harm than good. Just open up all the other night time activities and let folks enjoy that for now. We'll also have Frozen and Soarin to keep everyone occupied until ROL is ready.

I'm inclined to agree with this point of view. There should still be enough other things going on to keep people in the park later than usual, and I think a show that is delayed due to technical issues is much less confusing than an interim show. But that being said, a new show, with a popular IP tie-in, will still draw people who "don't know any better", who will probably enjoy it, not knowing what RoL will eventually (I hope) deliver. If I was going to be there, I'd probably check it out just because it's something I haven't seen before.

 

[JustInTime]

Yikes. What a mess right now. I feel like so much is crumbling. I have a feeling an interim show may be a permanent one.

 

[Cletus]

Yikes. What a mess right now. I feel like so much is crumbling. I have a feeling an interim show may be a permanent one.

I doubt that. It would be Yeti squared.

 

[wdwgreek]

Disco light rivers of light would fit the theme! Think of the mark up on tickets, see the sinking barges one time only limited seating 500 dollars for a one of a kind malfunction!

 

[JustInTime]

I doubt that. It would be Yeti squared.

Worse things have happened.

 

[Cesar R M]

During yesterday's half marathon, I got to DAK just as the sun was beginning to lighten the sky, and was able to take a look at the new viewing areas in the dark. It was my first time seeing them in person, but they look really nice. Even though the Dinoland side isn't as elaborate as the Asia side, the nighttime lighting on it makes it look really good.

There wasn't any evidence of testing out on the water, so I don't know if they stopped early because they knew runners were coming, if they're usually done by that time of day (~6:30am), or if they aren't working on it nightly. There were work lights on at the marina, but I couldn't tell if anybody was there (we only saw it from a distance)

Dinoland side from the bridge, with the Tree of Life on the right side (color temperature is off in this photo):
View attachment 138377

Asia side from near the control booth:
View attachment 138378

Dinoland side from near the yeti shrine:
View attachment 138379

Asia side from near the yeti shrine:
View attachment 138380

I also saw the spare(?) petals that were linked earlier in this thread. I'm not sure exactly what they are for, but there seemed to be at least 4 or 5 of them (possibly more if there were multiple rows of them) on the south side of the backstage marina
View attachment 138376

This may or may not be related to Rivers of Light, but behind the Dinosaur show building, there were 3 wheeled containers (about the size of a airport luggage train cars) filled with black plastic patio chairs. I saw the same type of armless chairs later in the day, at one of the areas of World Showcase that had been rented out for a special Illuminations event. I have no idea if these are related to Rivers of Light, but they could explain the flat open areas behind the benches in the seating areas, which could presumably be configured for a ubiquitous upcharge event; the carts and chairs have not been here during previous races
View attachment 138375

nice update! thank you!

 

[Epcot82Guy]

The one way I think this could actually be very effective is to use the entertainment folks and tree lighting capacities. The old Tapestry idea from Epcot of a "street party" leading into something was very fun. They could easily program a tree lighting (ala Celebrate at MK) incorporating Jungle Book and a party on Discovery Island. It could be done once or twice a night, test the tree lighting aspects. And, then reprogram for the full ROL roll out. Just a thought...

 

[Cesar R M]

Puddles of Light

CMs and foamheads with the jungle book characters throwing water balloons and squirting water at the attendants

 

[Cesar R M]

Just stopped by to mention... Heard the phrase "Back to the Drawing Board" in a meeting today..

Don't shoot the messenger.

That sounds serious.
Does it means they will drop the GPS navigation and used a different way?

Can we imply from the wording of that sentence that there may have been a flotation issue with one of the elements but not an actual sinking?

Considering some of the photos did show "scratching" damage on some of the floats. I wouldnt be surprised if that happened.
I mean a more direct hit by faulty navigation.