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

Coaster Lover

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Just heard unofficially that all of the nighttime stuff at DAK is off the cards until RoL is ready.

Makes sense. I mean regardless of if "everything else" is ready or not, if "everything else" is insufficient to keep a large number of guests in the park late into the evening, it makes n sense to keep the park open later and therefore makes no sense to offer any of the other night time offerings. I mean, night time rides are fun and all, but the primary reason the vast majority of park guests stay at the parks late into the evening is for the night time shows. If half your guests are going to leave AK at nightfall to go to one of the other parks for a night time show, makes no sense to keep the park open. I would (however) think that at least Tiffens should open. I mean, they can still make plenty of money from Tiffens as the park would still be open for the restaurants busiest time periods (lunch and dinner).
 

hopemax

Well-Known Member
agree, shanghai anyone? just my opinion but have a feeling this is part of the cutbacks on purpose.

I think it's a series of issues. With the rumored Shanghai induced 20% cutbacks at domestic theme park operations, my Dad and I were wondering how AK was going to manage to accomplish that while also needing to extend park hours. It's not like they will need to operate another hour to do the show but looking at 9 or 10 PM closings for a park that is pretty dead by 4PM even if it isn't closing until 6. 9 to 6 is a 9 hour day, so extending 3 or 4 hours is a 33-44% increase in operations when there is no guarantee that attendance will match it. That's a lot of additional expenditures for very little increased business. If you were the money guy and/or management AK, what would you do; which master would you serve? So I don't think WDW Management is upset that they can't run the show, until maybe after Shanghai gets its doors open.

Second, is show readiness. I know Disney thinks they can just "turn it on" when they need to, but there has just been so many changes in every business unit that I wonder at what point does Disney lose the ability to "turn it on." That they simply don't have all the right people anymore because they retired, got laid off in cost saving measures, found greener pastures elsewhere, etc. If we're supposed to look for further announcements in mid to late May, that means the debut is probably mid-late June. Two months behind schedule. That's a pretty big deal.
 

jrhwdw

Well-Known Member
I understand the delay however the Preview pic of ROL shown today shows that ROL is just about ready. Was that a real pic pic or just concept art? What is there left to do with ROL?

Anything new our insiders hear, please share!
 

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Original Poster
I understand the delay however the Preview pic of ROL shown today shows that ROL is just about ready. Was that a real pic pic or just concept art? What is there left to do with ROL?
It is having issues performing reliably in a show ready state. It has been able to do operate to some extend for some time now, like you see int he photo, but that is a world away from having it work 3 times a night in-front of 5000 people per show.
 

Seabasealpha1

Well-Known Member
Disney just can't seem to get things together can they? Staggs, cutbacks in all the parks, ROL delay, TSL cutbacks and I'm sure I'm missing plenty of other things.
Yeah...having this same feeling...maybe they knew it might turn out like this...makes me laugh on the inside at the whole "No one can touch us" crap we got from a certain former imagineer...
 

Lirael

Well-Known Member
Just heard unofficially that all of the nighttime stuff at DAK is off the cards until RoL is ready.
Hopefully that doesnt include Tiffins. I can understand not wanting to rack up more costs by extending park hours without the unique show to offer, but the restaurant shouldnt suffer because of it, and might in fact bring in more money.
 

note2001

Well-Known Member
Rats, hate this delay. I mean I do want every aspect to be ready before they start the shows, but I was hoping it would open at the end of April to sift out all those annoying gotta-be-first vloggers before the summer crowds start up. (Not you wdwmagic - I actually like to refer to your videos in lieu of setting up my own camera to get some memories of the exact same thing :) )
 

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