Category — p. News and Changes

This morning, the paperback version of the 2017 edition of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit became available on Amazon. (Kindle and PDF versions will be available soon.)

Totally updated to reflect all the new rides and restaurants and hotel refurbs, it’s your best place to start planning for a 2017 visit to Disney World!

And for those going in 2016, it’s a better choice than our 2016 edition, particularly because all the park plans have been heavily updated.

To learn more about it, click here or click anywhere on the cover!

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Disney added in late May 2016 three special features to its Animal Kingdom theme park, and also street entertainment, especially in Harambe.

At the same time it extended park close from the old-style summer 8p close to 11p. 11p closes continue through Labor Day, and the rest of September is currently showing 8p closes through September 16, and 7.30p closes the rest of the month, instead of the typical mix of 5p and 6p September closes. Update: see this for extended September operating hours.

Those who have been going to Disney World long enough to recall the old evening Extra Magic Hours in the Animal Kingdom know how cool the park is at night.

With the added late hours, most attractions continue operating until park close, and some shows have later offerings than the old days as well—for example, on Saturday 8/27, randomly picked because it’s the next time I’ll be at the Animal Kingdom, Festival of the Lion King has its last show at 8p.

So even without the new special features, the Animal Kingdom is great after sunset. The new stuff makes it just a little better (links are to full reviews):

• Jungle Book: Alive with Magic is Disney’s weakest evening show, but worth seeing if you are in the park anyway
• Tree of Life Awakenings is an oddly mesmerizing projection show
• Kilimanjaro Safaris has had some lights added and is now open into full dark, and the “Sunset” version is worth seeing in full dark if you also have a chance to see it in daylight or in early twilight, just after sunset, as well.

SUNSET VERSUS TWILIGHT

Some animals—such as lions—can be most active during twilight (the technical term for this is crepuscular, which I had always thought meant something much more insulting). While your results may vary, the most active I’ve ever seen the lions on Kilimanjaro Safaris was during my ride during early twilight.

But what is twilight?

As we all know, the period between sunset and full dark is divided into three different twilight periods—civil twilight, which begins at sunset; nautical twilight; and astronomical twilight that ends with full dark. Each covers a separate six degree period of the distance of the sun below the horizon—known as a Bacon unit– and the duration of each varies by both latitude and time of year.

From this, lightly edited:

• Civil twilight occurs when the Sun is less than 6 degrees below the horizon. There is enough natural sunlight during this period that artificial light may not be required to carry out outdoor activities.
• Nautical twilight occurs when the geometrical center of the Sun is between 6 degrees and 12 degrees below the horizon. This twilight period is less bright than civil twilight and artificial light is generally required for outdoor activities.
• Astronomical twilight occurs when the Sun is between 12 degrees and 18 degrees below the horizon. Astronomical dusk, when twilight ends, is the instant when the geographical center of the Sun is at 18 degrees below the horizon. After this point, the sky is no longer illuminated.

You can find the various twilight ends in Orlando on this handy page. At the bottom you can change the month.

I used it to build the following table of Orlando sunset times, the times that civil and nautical twilight end, and the time of the beginning of full dark.

Worth noting is that there’s basically a 90 minute period between sunset and full dark, and that much of this summer Disney started the 9p Jungle Book show as “early” in the day as just after civil twilight.

Civil twilight in September ends at 8.10p at the beginning of the month at and 7.34p at the end of the month.

Update: see this for extended September operating hours. As I write this, the Animal Kingdom is scheduled to be open until 11p thru Labor Day, then til 8p until September 16, and 7.30p the rest of the month. These hours may be extended when Disney does its September update later this month, but if not, during no date after Labor Day will the park be open at full dark, nor even during nautical twilight.

My guess—and it’s just a guess—is that Animal Kingdom will schedule Jungle Book at the currently scheduled 8p or 7.30p park close those dates, and will add a second show 90 minutes later (with park close extended an hour, kinda like Hollywood Studios does with some second Fantasmics) on nights of expected heavier Animal Kingdom attendance.

This would put the first/only Jungle Book start right before nautical twilight, the second show, if scheduled, in full dark.

The other schools of thought are (1) that Rivers of Light will replace the Jungle Book in mid-September, or that the Jungle Book show will end after Labor Day and Rivers of Light will open later in 2016.

There are also mixed opinions on how to sequence events.

• Some prefer the Sunset Safaris in civil twilight for the combination of activity and visibility, and some prefer them in full dark (so long as you can also ride it in daylight or civil twilight) to see—if somewhat poorly—the very different full dark behaviors.
• For the Jungle Book, some prefer the second show for lower crowds, more likely day-of FastPass+ availability and a clearer shot at a civil twilight ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris, and others prefer the first show because since it likely will be more crowded than the second show, the audience gains more energy from one another.

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While Disney World is great for couples, friends, and even solo travelers, it’s probably at its best for families.

And that’s the topic of this month’s WDW Magazine, which you can find on Apple Newsstand, Google Play or at WDW-Magazine.com.

I write the “First-Timer’s Corner” for the magazine–who else?–and my contribution this month is about fitting larger families into the Disney World resorts.

And there’s all kinds of other great stuff in this month’s issue, including a treasure trove of pictures of families having fun!

Check this month’s issue out here.

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As part of its new late night program, in May 2016 Disney World began running Kilimanjaro Safaris, which used to close before sunset, until park close.

While known informally as “Sunset Kilimanjaro Safaris,” the ride does not have a different name during the evening hours than daylight, so if, for example, you want to book a FastPass+ for it, you need to know what time you want to see it.

Lights have been added to the Safari area, some subtle, some not so much, so you can now enjoy this ride in daylight, during twilight, and during full dark.

Many have recommended riding the Safari during “sunset.”  Sunset, of course, is a moment in time, so I imagine they mean during early twilight.

The image above is from the beginning of early twilight. If you do go during early twilight, you will see largely the same things you will see during full daylight.

If you go after twilight, during full dark, you will see very different behaviors, most of which you will not be able to photograph…

For most people, the full dark behaviors will be less interesting than daylight behaviors, so my advice would be that if you will be seeing Kilimanjaro Safaris just once, see it during the day or in early twilight.  If you have time in your schedule to see it twice, and enjoy animals, then see it the second time during full dark.

Full dark begins 80-90 minutes after sunset. Sunset times in Orlando are on this page–links at its bottom take you to all the different months. Full dark begins at the end of astronomical twilight.

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The Tree of Life has been the symbol of Disney’s Animal Kingdom since it opened.

As part of the Animal Kingdom’s recent move to late hours and an after dark program, a set of projections have been added to the Tree to add new interest to it in the evening.

Called Tree of Life Awakenings, there are four distinct brief shows, featuring

• A playing deer and a watching hawk
• A hummingbird and flowers
• A red fox in winter
• Images from Bambi, Dinosaur, Tarzan, Finding Nemo, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, and other Animal-Kingdom related movies

The start of each show is signaled by music. Between shows, what appears to be the “regular” Tree of Life appears–but not really, so watch closely.

Here’s some images from my visit to the shows:

I found the shows and the interludes between them to be oddly compelling.

While not worth a special trip, those who are in the Animal Kingdom after dark anyway should check them out.  You may find them as fun as I did!

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OVERVIEW: FEBRUARY 2017 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews February 2017 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, and operating hours; adds a few other notes; and ends with week by week summaries.

Early February 2017 will have some of the lowest crowds and prices of the year, but also the risk of ride closures.

The end of the month brings slightly higher prices and crowds, but better weather and few closures.

In between–in 2017, the period from Thursday the 16th through Saturday the 25th–we will see high crowds and high prices.

[Read more →]