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

[Jon81uk]

So how many ADRs do you think have been cancelled in the last 6 hours? I hope a lot. and I hope disney corp wallets are crying. I know dining at one park is a mere .05% of disney profit but .05% is too much for them.

Probably not that many as the restaurants in Animal Kingdom hadn't yet adjusted for the longer park hours. I'm going in September but haven't been able to book dining for my DAK day as I need the new park hours, showtimes and restaurant hours to be able to book a reservation at the appropriate time.
The issue for people visiting in late April will be the opposite, that they left an evening open for RoL and may now be looking for a dinner reservation at short notice.

 

[goofyfan78]

This is very simply not good enough and shows a serious lack of project management skill from the people who are 'managing' the project!

If Disney are announcing a delay, they should certainy be announcing a new 'firm' date....and they will have one, they're just not releasing it! It's the least they could do as they make us plan 6 months ahead of time for a dining reservation!

 

[ford91exploder]

Yeah they have been hit pretty hard on the blog and on Facebook not counting fan forums. You know they are seeing this reaction.

This is the other edge of the double edged sword of Disney insisting that every activity be planned weeks or months in advance. People expect nay DEMAND the experiences be available in exchange for the efforts in advance planning for their trips

Looks like a lot of people wanted to be there for 'opening day'. In the past Disney would have dropped everything and made damn sure that the show opened on time. Once again Disney is showing its utter contempt for the guests.

Now what those commenters on the DPB should have done is cancel their trips and told the reservation agent why a few thousand trips cancelled because of a schedule miss on disneys part would have sent a powerful message and probably the only one today's leadership would understand

 

[ford91exploder]

I remember Baghdad Bob - reminds me of Iger a little bit.

"The parks are fine, nothing is broken"

The TWDC critics stomachs will burn (with apologies to Baghdad Bob)

 

[ford91exploder]

I wouldn't say people are necessarily mad about improving quality, its the fact that they announced an official premiere date and have hyped this nighttime even up for a month now, encouraging people to book their trips so they don't miss out on all of the nighttime fun. So in result people did book trips, made reservations, bought tickets, etc... And for what?

My advice at least is to cancel a trip planned around this event ask for refund and Tell Disney WHY in no uncertain terms.

Disney is immune to PR campaigns for the moment but not stuff which costs them money like a cancelled trip

 

[ford91exploder]

Of course my inner cynic is asking is the real reason behind RoL not opening on time being the huge park budget cuts in that the attraction may indeed be show ready but AK simply does not have sufficient operating budget to run the park with ROL and extended hours

Reality of business is that one needs gold to breed gold.

 

[Ripken10]

This is very simply not good enough and shows a serious lack of project management skill from the people who are 'managing' the project!

If Disney are announcing a delay, they should certainy be announcing a new 'firm' date....and they will have one, they're just not releasing it! It's the least they could do as they make us plan 6 months ahead of time for a dining reservation!

Let's get the facts straight. Disney does not force anybody to book 6 months out. It is said way too much. Disney allows reservations to be booked up to 6 months out...it is the fans that are so crazy about booking so early that we are now forced to book our favorites 6 months out. Not everything in this world is in such high demand as Disney - but it is NOT Disney that is forcing people to plan everything out 6 months in advance -- it is each one of us doing it.

 

[ford91exploder]

Let's get the facts straight. Disney does not force anybody to book 6 months out. It is said way too much. Disney allows reservations to be booked up to 6 months out...it is the fans that are so crazy about booking so early that we are now forced to book our favorites 6 months out. Not everything in this world is in such high demand as Disney - but it is NOT Disney that is forcing people to plan everything out 6 months in advance -- it is each one of us doing it.

Just no yes technically reservations are optional in reality they are not any longer
because of inadequate dining capacity and staffing patterns it is a necessary item to plan dining in advance at Disney unless you want to pay 11 bucks for a hotdog or 18 for a overlooked flavorless burger at a QS stand

In no other place can you walk into a half empty restaurant and be turned away as a walk up because disneys. Staffing plan is based on advanced reservations only with no extra capacity

 

[dgp602]

I am actually OK with the delay. The optimist in me is saying that they want the show to be perfect, and they must have encountered some issues during the rehearsals. Am I being naïve?

 

[peter11435]

Just no yes technically reservations are optional in reality they are not any longer
because of inadequate dining capacity and staffing patterns it is a necessary item to plan dining in advance at Disney unless you want to pay 11 bucks for a hotdog or 18 for a overlooked flavorless burger at a QS stand

In no other place can you walk into a half empty restaurant and be turned away as a walk up because disneys. Staffing plan is based on advanced reservations only with no extra capacity

But there are only a handful of restaurants at WDW that need to be booked 6 months in advance. And that's not because disney forces you to its because they offer you the ability to. It's the people that book at the point that consume all the reservations and that would happen whenever they were made available. Supply and demand.


I just checked for a family of 4 and received availability at 57 WDW restaurants for tonight.

 

[goofyfan78]

I am actually OK with the delay. The optimist in me is saying that they want the show to be perfect, and they must have encountered some issues during the rehearsals. Am I being naïve?

I dont think you are dgp602, In fact, you would hope they have encountered problems with rehearsal to cause a 3-4 week delay on even announcing further news.

With regards to what kind of problem, who knows? I can't invisage a mechanical issue causing such a big delay unless there is a failed bespoke part with a big lead time, but that brings into question thier contingency & spares planning.

In my very humble opinion, I would suggest its more of a problem with something like software, the score or something creative that an executive has made a call on?

 

[marni1971]

Am I being naïve?

With respect, yes.

The show, as is, can't guarantee to run more than once each night. Actually it can't guarantee to complete one show.

 

[marni1971]

They have an obsession with Earth Day for Animal Kingdom, that's why that date was announced as the opening. It sounds nice from a PR point of view, opening on Earth Day, but PR calendars and construction often don't mix well.

It is also the parks 18th birthday.

 

[Next Big Thing]

With respect, yes.

The show, as is, can't guarantee to run more than once each night. Actually it can't guarantee to complete one show.

I'm not surprised. From video I saw of testing, it looked like the floats were going all over the place with little control.

 

[wdwmagic]

Of course my inner cynic is asking is the real reason behind RoL not opening on time being the huge park budget cuts in that the attraction may indeed be show ready but AK simply does not have sufficient operating budget to run the park with ROL and extended hours

Reality of business is that one needs gold to breed gold.

It is costing Disney more at this point. They already recruited and transferred operations CMs to the nighttime offerings. This isn't a cost cut. This is a series of technical issues that aren't going away.

 

[ford91exploder]

It is costing Disney more at this point. They already recruited and transferred operations CMs to the nighttime offerings. This isn't a cost cut. This is a series of technical issues that aren't going away.

Damn this is just getting uglier by the minute

 

[Seabasealpha1]

I wouldn't say people are necessarily mad about improving quality, its the fact that they announced an official premiere date and have hyped this nighttime even up for a month now, encouraging people to book their trips so they don't miss out on all of the nighttime fun. So in result people did book trips, made reservations, bought tickets, etc... And for what?

Know what else they like to hype...and have for about the last ten years?

A. Broken. Yeti.

 

[lentesta]

Does anyone know how much of RoL's seating capacity is to be reserved for FastPass+?

Based on the seating configuration, the number looks to be either "all" or "half." But either of those numbers brings with some operational issues.

If it's "all", then 5K out of 30-40K people in the park get seats to see the show. I'm assuming there'll be SRO areas somewhere else around the lake? Probably not in Asia because of the walkways, but maybe Dinoland?

If it's "half", then they'll need a way to count 2,500 people in a standby line, so that people at the EOL don't wait for a show they can't get in to.

I'm interested in hearing what the plan is for this show, based on its relatively low capacity.

Len

 

[DisDan]

Does anyone know how much of RoL's seating capacity is to be reserved for FastPass+?

Based on the seating configuration, the number looks to be either "all" or "half." But either of those numbers brings with some operational issues.

If it's "all", then 5K out of 30-40K people in the park get seats to see the show. I'm assuming there'll be SRO areas somewhere else around the lake? Probably not in Asia because of the walkways, but maybe Dinoland?

If it's "half", then they'll need a way to count 2,500 people in a standby line, so that people at the EOL don't wait for a show they can't get in to.

I'm interested in hearing what the plan is for this show, based on its relatively low capacity.

Len

Yea, it's going to be a real cluster.... Anyhow, I think they should just go FP+ Only. IMO that is the only fair way to handle it then those that can't get a FP+ can just find viewing area from any of the SRO positions for the show time they want to catch.

 

[wdw71fan]

The problem with getting the show running is a little more serious than most realize.. Internally they aren't even shooting for a date now, it's just 'get it working first, then set the date'.. They are hopeful to have everything worked out for a June start, but there are no hard deadlines.

This issue goes back to systems integration and show control.. It's going to take a while to id, fix and test. It'll get done, but don't plan trips around it.