DAK 'Encanto' and 'Indiana Jones'-themed experiences at Animal Kingdom

[Mr. Sullivan]

Nonsense. The park regularly operated a nighttime version of the safari from 2016 (coinciding with the Pandora opening, the nighttime lagoon shows, and push toward greater nighttime activities in the park overall) through early 2020 until the Covid shutdowns. They did so in full compliance with animal welfare regulations and best practices.

Yes, there were challenges with certain species. No, not all species were present in the evening. Yes, visibility was limited with the low light levels. But they were able to operate the nighttime attraction for years, while complying with animal safety and comfort needs, without even needing to pause operations in the evening while certain animals came indoors for the evening. While the number of animals visible was lower than during the day, they were often much more active, accounting for some of the more interesting sightings I’ve had on the attraction (including a rhino running alongside our ride vehicle and lions getting frisky after dark).

They don’t run it any more because they’re too cheap to operate the park with any meaningful nighttime activities. And curiously, when there’s barely anything to do after dark and all of the animal viewing opportunities close early, park guests also leave early, reinforcing their self-fulfilling claim that nobody wants to be in the park after dark. It has nothing to do with animal welfare, and everything to do with being cheap. How quickly we (willfully?) forget our history!

Outside of veterinary treatment and specific needs based on care, animals are not forcibly moved around the habitats and barns at any well run zoological park.

The park already ran night safaris nor was night activities something unique to Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Thank you!

I had always incorrectly been under the impression they took them in. Unsure where I picked that up from, but I appreciate you correcting me on it. You learn something every day!

 

[FettFan]

Again, why not construct on the expansion pad between Kali River and Rafiki’s planet watch? Maybe put a third train station in to visit Tropical Americas?

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

Again, why not construct on the expansion pad between Kali River and Rafiki’s planet watch? Maybe put a third train station in to visit Tropical Americas?

Logistics I would imagine. Right now there is a staging space there that people speculated could be kept and reused for a LK ride. (Pure speculation though).

Plus it would shake up the park being the only land not directly connected to DI + the park is not currently open long enough in some people’s mind to justify that many attractions while Dinoland is a pretty universally low guest satisfaction rate. Just a bunch of things going against it kinda lead to it

 

[lazyboy97o]

the park is not currently open long enough in some people’s mind to justify that many attractions

That’s backwards.

 

[EagleScout610]

New demolition pics from the site we can't say. More of the theming on TriceraTop Spin and the gift shop are gone:

 

[Gusey]

Again, why not construct on the expansion pad between Kali River and Rafiki’s planet watch? Maybe put a third train station in to visit Tropical Americas?

Disney logic: because if they use all the expansion pads now, where will they expand in 10/20 years time.

 

[danlb_2000]

Again, why not construct on the expansion pad between Kali River and Rafiki’s planet watch? Maybe put a third train station in to visit Tropical Americas?

Because the goal is not to expand the park but instead to optimize what is already there.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Because the goal is not to expand the park but instead to optimize what is already there.

Why is that the goal is still a very valid question for a park with insufficient capacity.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

That’s backwards.

I mean Disney doesn't want to update the opening times yet soooo

 

[MrPromey]

They stop the safaris earlier than park close because it can be a rather complicated process to take the animals in for the evening. They don't just leave them there on the savannah overnight, they are taken to backstage facilities to be cared for and put to bed.

It's the same reason that not many zoos stay open past dark. It's a pretty difficult thing to get the animals in where they need to be at night, especially since many of them are nocturnal and thus more active and less prone to following along what needs to be done. Beyond that too, these animals are used to a routine and it can be very distressing to them if this routine is broken. They're used to being put in their backstage places at a certain time, and it could very well be troubling to them to be left out and met with the trucks and park guests past the time they're used to winding down.

Yes, a night safari would be cool but logistically there's just not really any way for them to do that that also allows the zoological cast members to do what they need to do to the best of their ability. They already are working on it past park close as is, it'd be a real nightmare and time consuming process for them if they were only starting it at park close.

Thanks. I appreciate you trying to come up with a possible reason why but you might want to re-read my post that you responded to.

There was a night safari there for years. I did it. It had a perpetual simulated sunset in the savanna portion.

I'm aware that the animals don't all run loose 24/7 but whatever difficulties you're hypothesizing, they had some way of working around it.

Maybe it was too much effort (or more likely, too much $)?

My question was for people who might actually know if there's a legitimate reason for why that couldn't have continued or be brought back. Seems like the perfect way to make Africa not be a dead zone if they don't want to put an additional ride/attraction there and they don't want to do an evening LOTLK evening show.*

*Which is puzzling as to why this would need to be a dead zone if they can run a night safari and do evening shows since the only thing they would need to close attraction-wise would be the trail in that area.

 

[MrPromey]

I'm pretty sure it makes life difficult for the resident animals who cannot choose to escape the loud noise and lights like people can. It's the same reason the park closes so early.

LOTLK and Nemo are both entirely indoor shows, though so I'm not sure what lights and loud noises being produced by them would be impacting animals.

On the subject of lights and noise, that didn't stop them from tearing out all the trees they did by the lagoon and putting seating in there for an outdoor night "spectacular" (minus fireworks, of course). I suspect if disturbing the animals had something to do with that failing, they'd have wanted to make that known as "the safety and welfare of our guests and animals is our top priority so we made the hard decision to cancel the show" has a much nicer ring to it than "after pouring tons of money into it, we could simply never get the show to run right".

 

[RSoxNo1]

Why is that the goal is still a very valid question for a park with insufficient capacity.

Just because something represents capacity, doesn't mean it represents optimal capacity.

Replacing / Upgrading Dinorama is something that absolutely needs to happen at DAK. It doesn't mean that the plot of land North of Asia shouldn't also be used at some point, but the two don't have to be mutually exclusive.

 

[MrPromey]

The theater show performers are unionized and there are restrictions on how many shows they can perform a day and rest times and such. They already have two casts for this reason, another thing is that these closing shows would probably not bring in enough guests to justify adding the cost.

So yeah, a solvable problem if they were inclined to solve it.

... or one they'd be more eager to solve if they could attach ILL and/or a dinner package to it, I'd imagine.

 

[MrPromey]

Why is that the goal is still a very valid question for a park with insufficient capacity.

I wonder if they just concluded it was more "efficient" to funnel people into Epcot and MK after a certain point of the day.

I'd also have to imagine that the other parks being open later would directly compete with MK after hours experiences, too.

This seems like it would be right in line with management's idea of efficiency, these days to me, especially if this would push people to pay for hopper upgrades or separate ticketed experiences.

 

[UNCgolf]

Just because something represents capacity, doesn't mean it represents optimal capacity.

Replacing / Upgrading Dinorama is something that absolutely needs to happen at DAK. It doesn't mean that the plot of land North of Asia shouldn't also be used at some point, but the two don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Optimizing doesn't really make sense when the park is significantly lacking, though. You optimize later once you've got other things up and running; you don't take a park that needs more to do and make it have even less to do for a couple of years.

At least Dinosaur is still running for now, and Primeval Whirl was already gone, so it's basically just a loss of a spinner and some carnival games at the moment... but it still doesn't seem like a smart investment strategy. Once Encanto and Indy open, there will be immediate pressure to build something else because the park will still be lacking but drawing more crowds.

 

[Gusey]

Optimizing doesn't really make sense when the park is significantly lacking, though. You optimize later once you've got other things up and running; you don't take a park that needs more to do and make it have even less to do for a couple of years.

At least Dinosaur is still running for now, and Primeval Whirl was already gone, so it's basically just a loss of a spinner and some carnival games at the moment... but it still doesn't seem like a smart investment strategy. Once Encanto and Indy open, there will be immediate pressure to build something else because the park will still be lacking but drawing more crowds.

They did the exact same thing with Hollywood Studios when in 2017 they had closed Streets of America and Grewt Movie Ride, then in 2018 Toy Story Mania before Toy Story Land for about a month. There was only 3 rides operating at that point and people still came

 

[cjkeating]

They were badly burned with Rivers of Light

Can you elbaorate on what exactly burned them? Was it a combination of all the various issues that plagued it or just that they felt like it wasn't a big enough draw that it kept people in the park?

Everything else is pretty minimal in terms of transportation hassle, but even AKL > AK kinda sucks.

Really? It's a 5 minute journey and the buses are the most frequent/reliable on this route from my experience.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Just because something represents capacity, doesn't mean it represents optimal capacity.

Replacing / Upgrading Dinorama is something that absolutely needs to happen at DAK. It doesn't mean that the plot of land North of Asia shouldn't also be used at some point, but the two don't have to be mutually exclusive.

This whole thing of optimal capacity is really just overloading and longer waits. Longer waits make for a worse guest experience, not a better one. Parks need capacity available for high demand days and downtime, both scheduled and unscheduled.

 

[BrianLo]

Why is that the goal is still a very valid question for a park with insufficient capacity.

I’m not defending it, because I agree you globally… but DAK has an attendance problem right now more than a capacity one.

Way more capacity could be derived by merely extending park hours. But clearly they don’t feel they desperately need capacity as the park has dropped like 40% in its attendance.

Where I disagree with executives and agree with you is that they aren’t being forward looking enough and adjusting for the inevitable rebound correctly.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I’m not defending it, because I agree you globally… but DAK has an attendance problem right now more than a capacity one.

Way more capacity could be derived by merely extending park hours. But clearly they don’t feel they desperately need capacity as the park has dropped like 40% in its attendance.

Where I disagree with executives and agree with you is that they aren’t being forward looking enough and adjusting for the inevitable rebound correctly.

Capacity is measured by the hour. Just being open longer doesn’t work because you need more attractions to fill that time, especially when the cost of entry is a premium. This isn’t an FEC where people are only looking to cycle through for a few hours and therefore can come in at a wider range of times. You have to offer people enough to fill 8-10 hours.