The Rivers of Light nighttime spectacular at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park will soft open tonight, February 10th, 2017.
FastPass+ reservations are available now to all guests for tonight’s show.
Rivers of Light will formally debut on February 17th, 2017.
Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom finally performed for the public on February 10th, 2017 after 10 months of delays. So, how was it?
Our guest review from the cast member previews rings true, but I think that a fair amount of you reading this will find Rivers of Light at least somewhat enjoyable. There is some brilliant technology and fun music, but the whole thing sort of falls apart in the second half and the show indeed lacks a big finale like every other nighttime show at Disney Parks. If you have never seen World of Color at Disney’s California Adventure, a lot of the technology in this show should be new to you, making for some true “wow” moments. There are scenes of brilliance that make the show worth at least one watch for any guest, but it will probably lack the repeatability of many other nighttime spectaculars, at least in its current form.
The pre-show is fantastic, yet subtle. The lotus blossoms slowly roll in once the Tree of Life illuminates about 15 minutes before showtime, and the trees in the background of the show slowly come to life. Every now and then, one of the animals from the lantern floats makes it way through the background projections in shadow form, a brilliant and subtle foreshadowing of what is to come.
The show starts and the opening is everything I could have ever wanted the show to be. The entire theater quickly comes to life in a celebratory atmosphere for the arrival of the animal floats. The entrance of the animal lantern floats is beyond magnificent, and the way they exit this scene is even more inventive. The portion that follows with the lotus blossoms shooting water into the air is also fun, but then all of that stops.
Despite the “We Are One” song being fantastic (it’s going to be one off those catchy Disney songs that stays with you forever), the show loses its narrative and completely falls apart at this point. It sort of turns into an animal clip show on the projection mist screens, followed by a finale that lacks absolutely any bigger effects than the rest of the show. The big payoff piece in the large lotus blossom (featuring a fire effect) just isn’t impressive and leaves guests wondering if the show is actually over. The second half of this show is such a shame, especially after the artful execution of the first half. This is where you can tell something is missing and also that the show was hacked to death creatively over time.
The good news is given the nature of these shows, fixing it or adding new segments is fairly simple. Rivers of Light in its current form is a solid foundation that I do not doubt can grow over time into something just as epic and powerful as any other nighttime show.
Rivers of Light isn’t perfect, but I don’t think it’s a waste of your time either. A dining package may be a little overkill, but I would recommend a FastPass+ reservation. With the nature of the soft opening, I am not quite willing to provide any strategies for seeing the show just yet, but I will write up a separate post once I have tried a few different ways of viewing it and have seen it from a wide array of vantage points.
Rivers of Light from WDWNTube on Vimeo.
In the meantime, preview shows are taking place on a regular basis between now and the official debut February 17th, so be sure to check in the morning around 9am if you’re looking for a FastPass+ for one of these early showings.
Special thanks to Josh of EasyWDW.com for the use of his photos.
Here is a video of last night’s debut of Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. For whatever reason, YouTube refuses to allow anyone to upload the full show due to copyright claims on the soundtrack, so I had to reactivate the old Vimeo account from the former WDWNTube site to share this. Regardless, we hope you enjoy it!
If for some reason you do not like Vimeo, here is a highlights video from YouTube:
Tonight on WDW News Tonight, we go in depth on getting around Walt Disney World (including rumors of a Skyway-type gondola system), we review Rivers of Light, and we play WDWNT: The Dating Game…
If you are in the Orlando area, you can tune in to 105.5 FM or AM 1520 WBZW at showtime. For those outside of the Orlando area, the show can be watched via video stream at listen.WDWNT.com on your computer or mobile device. You can also use WDWNT: The App to watch and chat along. The show also utilizes a live chat and the ability to call-in to interact with the show. WDW News Tonight is hosted by Tom Corless and Nick LoCicero, but also features appearances by a number of other WDWNT correspondents and announcer Michelle Wargo.
Coming up on this week’s show:
We hope that you will tune in tonight at 9PM ET for another episode of WDW News Tonight!
If you missed last week’s show, be sure to watch it:
Our latest photo report brings us to Disney’s Animal Kingdom to see the latest progress on Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Rivers of Light, and more around the park. Let’s take a look…
The large dirt barrier behind Pandora: The World of AVATAR is still quite visible from outside of the park. Trees should be planted here fairly soon.
I didn’t realize that they had installed electric vehicle parking at Animal Kingdom, but it is there, located just behind the handicap section.
Pandora looms in the distance…
The AVATAR area continues to speed towards an expected May 2017 opening, although Disney is just saying Summer 2017 at this point.
Pandora, as seen from the top of Expedition Everest.
If you want more photos of Pandora: The World of AVATAR, be sure to check out our latest post on it here. Also, the video update below:
The former Terra Treats allergy friendly menu is gone, replaced by beer and wings (for the most part)…
The clearly labeled display wings… I’m not sure of there real order is that small, but if it is, it is $2 a wing.
Meanwhile, the Harambe Popcorn cart is now selling merchandise: music CDs and binoculars.
On most days, the Discovery River Theater is open for guest seating. It’s starting to sound like we won’t see Rivers of Light until AVATAR opens though.
All of the FastPass+ signage is up and ready to go when the time comes.
If you haven’t seen our video of the show being tested earlier this month, take a look below:
It’s hard to write these stories over and over as Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom has been continually delayed since its original debut date was set for April 22nd, 2016. I know we have told you many times that the show was near completion, and in most recent times it has been, but for one reason or another, Disney has refused to debut the show. There were even cast member previews in early December, but there has not been a word about any further performances since then. Well, it appears as if cast members staffing the show have been scheduled to work at the Discovery River Theater as of next week. What this means exactly is unknown (even to the cast members involved at this point), but many rumors are pointing to a February 12th (or roughly around that date) debut for Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom. We don’t expect any big hoopla by Disney should the show debut now, but based on the PR fiasco it has been up until this point, who could blame them? As always, you can take this with a grain of salt when it comes to this show, but something is definitely happening at the Discovery River Theater next week (and hopefully it isn’t The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic). We will keep you in the loop as we find out more in the coming days. While visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom yesterday, I was surprised to see that the viewing area for Rivers of Light was open for guests to explore, perhaps offering a seating area for some nearby eateries. Ae we explored, we noticed that techs for the show were out and turning things on. After playing with the two boats for a while, things went quiet, so we left. As evening fell, it was clear that the animal lantern barges had been rolled out, but they were not illuminated yet. However, once 7:30PM hit and the park closed, the boat and two of the animal lanterns illuminated. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the show will debut soon, but it is a pretty decent sign at least. We also have a video of the test to share with you: So, what do you think? A rather interesting new item appeared today in the Shop Disney Parks app… It’s a light-up totem pole representing the Rivers of Light nighttime show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The below picture shows the glow wan illuminated.
Why suddenly start selling merchandise for a show that has been delayed for so long? Well, we can only assume that the nighttime spectacular will finally debut soon at thew park, just a few weeks after cast members were the first to see it in late-November 2016. We expect a starting date announcement soon from Disney, but as you know with this show, something could always happen between now and then… In addition to the glow wand we posted earlier today, a selection of other items featuring Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom are scheduled to be released over the next few weeks. No release dates for these items are available as of yet, but their existence now seems to confirm that the debut of the show is at least within sight now. In addition to the glow wand we posted earlier today, a selection of other items featuring Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom are scheduled to be released over the next few weeks. No release dates for these items are available as of yet, but their existence now seems to confirm that the debut of the show is at least within sight now.
RUMOR: Rivers of Light Possibly Debuting This Month at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
PHOTOS, VIDEO: Rivers of Light Nighttime Show Testing During Animal Kingdom Park Hours
Rivers of Light Merchandise Hitting Shelves, Show Debut at Animal Kingdom Seems Imminent
PHOTOS: Even More Rivers of Light Merchandise Coming Soon to Disney’s Animal Kingdom
PHOTOS: Even More Rivers of Light Merchandise Coming Soon to Disney’s Animal Kingdom
