The more and more I hear about this, the more I'm convinced all this boils down to is a night time extra-cost event at Animal Kingdom. But somehow, Jim Hill, who has about one third the credibility and reliability factor of Al Lutz, has got all of this wires crossed again and has falsely reported this as an entirely new fifth theme park at WDW.
But if you scale it back a bit, it does make sense for a night time overlay type thing at Animal Kingdom. The scenario I have going through my mind is this;
200 or so days out of the year Animal Kingdom closes as normally at 5:00pm. The park is clear of day guests by 6:00pm. From 6:00pm until 7:30 a group of decorators/caterers/technicians set out the assorted decorations and equipment needed for that evenings "Night Kingdom" event, much like they do for private corporate parties all the time at Disneyland or Princess/Pirate or Christmas parties at Magic Kingdom. At 7:30 the gates to Animal Kingdom reopen as "Night Kingdom", and a thousand or so folks pour in the main entrance at 200 bucks a pop. They are treated to buffet dinners of upscale banquet cuisine and a few bars serving wine/beer included in their ticket price. Some of the attractions have had "Night" themed overlays set up, while special jeeps are dispatched into the savannah with night vision goggles, etc. Add in all the other gimmicky things Jim Hill mentioned, plus the usual bag of tricks Disney routinely does for private parties like dancing, bands and atmosphere entertainment, and sprinkle it with some extra happy-shiny Cast Members doling out TLC and little trinkets throughout the evening, and most people will perceive that they got something extra special enough to justify the 200 bucks.
Voila! You just got your Night Kingdom experience, and Disney just fully utilized a big piece of property and investment that they already have but that usually sits empty and underutilized after 7:00pm each night.
Aside from that scenario for an existing park, I can't wrap my mind around Disney spending money on a fifth theme park based on such a weak premise as "Animals In The Dark". Besides the fact that at the last shareholders meeting, when it came time to talk about Parks & Resorts all they talked about was stuff coming to Anaheim in the next four years and two new cruise ships under construction for the West Coast.
