Rivers of Light Review
Rivers of Light is the “new” nighttime spectacular at Animal Kingdom, offering entertainment for Walt Disney World guests staying a full day in the park thanks to Pandora – World of Avatar. In this Rivers of Light review, I’ll share photos from the show, thoughts about it, how it fits into an Animal Kingdom itinerary, and more.
Now, I realize Rivers of Light is new-ish rather than brand new, having debuted in February of this year. Given that many of you who read this visit Walt Disney World about once per year, there’s a decent chance you’ve already seen this. However, it took us a couple of trips before finally taking the time to watch the show–and many of you expressed interest in reading this review, so perhaps it is still relevant.
Regardless, I’m going to keep this review fairly brief (by my standards). While there are interesting aspects of Rivers of Light worth discussing, this is an understandably polarizing nighttime spectacular, and it’s fairly easy to make recommendations on that basis. With that said, this should probably be two different reviews to Rivers of Light: my impressions of the show and whether I think it’s worth the time…
I’ll start with my overall impression of the show. For me, Rivers of Light is a flawed but nonetheless enjoyable show. At its best, Rivers of Light features a brilliant confluence of sound and light, offering a multi-sensory experience that is mesmerizing. A truly beautiful experience.
While not entirely apt, Rivers of Light is essentially IllumiNations: Reflections of Nature. This entails both the good and bad of IllumiNations. In terms of the good, Rivers of Light has a soundtrack that contains some of the most beautiful Walt Disney World music ever recorded.
Personally, I still prefer the soundtrack for IllumiNations, but I’ve also listened to the full 68-minute pre-show through post-show IllumiNations audio track more than any other Disney music (per iTunes stats, at least), by a huge margin. So there’s at least some bias on my part there. In any case, for Rivers of Light’s soundtrack to be mentioned in the same sentence as IllumiNations soundtrack is about the highest praise I can give it.
Rivers of Light utilizes mist screens, fountains, lasers, music, boats, floats, and performing shaman, to bring to life its world. This is all awash with color, and some pretty impressive technology. Going on these visuals alone, Rivers of Light is gorgeous. I will say, though, that the normal “photos don’t do it justice” line does not apply here. If anything, photos do it too much justice. Whether the stunning imagery and beautiful soundtrack is enough to carry the show is a matter of personal taste and expectations.
As with IllumiNations, Rivers of Light features zero Disney intellectual property. This is going to buck expectations for many guests, I suspect. As someone who is primarily a Disney theme parks fan rather than Disney movies fan, I greatly appreciate this. Don’t get me wrong, I love Happily Ever After, which is the perfect show for Magic Kingdom. At Epcot and Animal Kingdom, I feel that a different tone is appropriate. Your mileage may vary.
Also like IllumiNations, Rivers of Light is fairly abstract. Disney describes the show as “a timeless show that celebrates the beauty of all living things” featuring a procession of animal spirits that transport guests across the world. I think that’s a fairly apt description. There’s a lot of nuance, symbolism, and subtle beauty to Rivers of Light, and it’s nice to see another nighttime spectacular at Walt Disney World take an elegant and understated approach.
If you’re a family with small children visiting Walt Disney World for a character-driven experience, the lack of Disney IP and understated approach might make Rivers of Light a non-starter. While the color and light was entrancing to the kid in me, I could envision actual child growing antsy during Rivers of Light.
Likewise, the criticisms people levy against IllumiNations will be repeated with Rivers of Light. If anything, they’re more pronounced here as there’s not much you might call “spectacular” in this nighttime spectacular. (I’ve seen Rivers of Light compared to both World of Color and Fantasmic, and I’d vehemently disagree with both comparisons.) If you do not like IllumiNations, there is little chance you’ll enjoy Rivers of Light. More specifically, if you don’t like the middle portion of IllumiNations–the part lacking in pyro–there’s almost zero chance you’ll like Rivers of Light.
Those who complain of IllumiNations’ purported “slowness” will no doubt feel the same way about Rivers of Light. In the past, I’ve argued that IllumiNations has no problems in this regard; that audiences with short attention spans are the issue. I stand by that, and maintain that IllumiNations builds perfectly to its finale.
I cannot offer that same defense of Rivers of Light. The biggest problem for me is that Rivers of Light it doesn’t build to anything, and is sort of all over the place. At least part of this stems from the show being hacked from its original version, which was 21 minutes long (listen to the soundtrack here–it’s beautiful from beginning to end) to the “finished” 15-minute version.
About halfway through the finished version of Rivers of Light, the soundtrack reaches something of a crescendo, which is the closest thing this version of the show has to a climax. In a normal Disney nighttime spectacular, this would build into the grand finale, after which you’d have something of an epilogue winding down. That doesn’t exactly happen here. I never saw the full/original show, but if I had to guess, I’d say Rivers of Light’s runtime was ultimately truncated due to guest feedback that the show was boring and too long.
This would come as no surprise; it’s the same type of feedback that IllumiNations elicits, and that show has pretty overhead explosions to placate the Michael Bay fans out there. There are a lot of guests who are not be interested in experiences that last 20 minutes, much less ones that can be described as “subtle” and “understated.”
Serious technical issues caused some visual wizardry to be cut, which might’ve also impacted the final runtime to some degree. There has been a lot of speculation that the visual ‘wow-moment’ originally planned for Rivers of Light had to be dropped because it couldn’t get off the ground. A stunning visual climax definitely would’ve helped make Rivers of Light more of a crowd-pleasing experience.
Personally, I’m not expecting a formulaic narrative structure nor am I expecting a show-stopping grand finale with crazy pyro. My problem with Rivers of Light is that its flow is unnatural and it sort of fizzles out after the second half drags on for a bit. I cannot speak to whether the show would’ve been better with the longer 22-minute runtime, but the soundtrack certainly is better in that version.
In Rivers of Light, about half of the show remains after what seems like the climax. Some people will be able to look past this, enjoying the rest of the show for what it is: a beautiful mixture of music and colorful visuals. However, it’s understandably an issue for others, since the show bucks narrative convention (and in so doing, guest expectations) for no particular reason. It just sort of sticks around, running out the clock for another ~7 minutes.
Even as someone who could watch IllumiNations every single night and never get sick of it, I felt the second half of Rivers of Light dragged a bit…and that was on my very first viewing. I feel like my tolerance for this sort of experience is pretty high, and even I will probably not make a regular point of watching Rivers of Light. I enjoyed seeing it, and will probably see it once every few trips (until it’s inevitably replaced by something with characters), but I’m perfectly content with occasional viewings as a “refresher” on the full soundtrack, which is in my regular rotation on iTunes.
Alright, now let’s talk Rivers of Light strategy. If you do elect to see Rivers of Light, the good news is that it’s now much easier to get a last-minute seat. Early reviews of Rivers of Light focus on the difficulty of scoring a FastPass+ and the lengthy standby waits. Those are both things of the past, existing in the days before Pandora opened, drawing the majority of Animal Kingdom guests to the other side of the park at night.
Even with Rivers of Light being shown once nightly (versus twice when it debuted), it’s fairly easy to grab a last-minute spot without having FastPass+. There are nights when the theater does not fill to capacity, so you can score a good view literally as Rivers of Light is beginning. If you want to play it safe, another option is a same-day FastPass+ after using your initial allotment. I’ve noticed they’re often available until (at least) noon.
I would not recommend reserving a FastPass+ for Rivers of Light in advance of your trip. This is true even if you’re visiting Walt Disney World during a busier time of year when same-day FastPass+ might not be available for Rivers of Light. Getting one really handcuffs you in terms of same-day FastPasses for other attractions, and you’ll likely want one for Expedition Everest, DINOSAUR, and Kilimanjaro Safaris, in addition to Avatar Flight of Passage (preferably) or Na’vi River Journey.
The best and safest option is ultimately the Rivers of Light Dining Package. When getting this at Tiffins (a restaurant we highly recommend), you can actually come out ahead. At worst, you’re only paying a very slight premium for the reserved Rivers of Light seating, which is still better than using a FastPass+ allotment on it. We’ve yet to do the Rivers of Light Dining Package–and honestly, probably won’t do it anytime soon–but that’s certainly the safe choice.
Perhaps the biggest problem with seeing Rivers of Light, and likely part of why its popularity has waned (aside from poor word of mouth) is because of the opportunity cost. Currently, seeing Rivers of Light will preclude you from jumping into the standby line for Avatar Flight of Passage or Na’vi River Journey at the end of the night when waits are shortest, or just spending the evening in the bioluminescence of Pandora. (In our Ultimate Guide to Pandora – World of Avatar, these are all things we recommend.)
If you’re a first-timer, doing something in Pandora is probably a better use of time for 95%+ of visitors to Animal Kingdom. In fact, this is why it took us so long to see Rivers of Light. On our last two trips, our focus had been trying to enjoy the ambiance of Pandora at night, and do those attractions with shorter waits.
Ultimately, it’s easy to see why Rivers of Light is such a polarizing show. Families and adults who are looking for a more traditional Walt Disney World nighttime spectacular are likely going to leave unsatisfied. My view is that Rivers of Light is very much a niche product, appealing to a small minority of Walt Disney World fans, and a disappointment to the rest. Even those who love IllumiNations will be able to find plenty to fault in Rivers of Light. With that said, its beautiful visuals, groundbreaking technology, and–most importantly–wonderful soundtrack mean it’ll leave a lasting legacy in the grand scheme of Walt Disney World entertainment.
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Your Thoughts
Do you agree or disagree with our take on Rivers of Light? If you haven’t seen it, are you looking forward to Rivers of Light? If you’ve already seen it, will you make a point of seeing it again? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Thank you so much for this review. We will be at WDW this coming week. I was debating whether we really need to push to see ROL, but now we will enjoy Pandora and see if we can get on the banshee ride via standby. Thank you!
I thought the musical vocals were some of the worst I’ve heard yet! Where do tbeu find these people??!!
We were able to catch what amounted to a private group type viewing during the DVC event last month and we really enjoyed it. I had read a lot of not so stellar reviews about the show, so it far exceeded my expectations. I thought it was a great nighttime show for AK, as it fit in with the vibe of the park and stayed on theme in my opinion. Add the Tree of Life awakenings and you have a great duo to end a wonderful day at AK. Personally, I have no desire to see every park turn every into Magic Kingdom and I applaud the Imagineers for this show.
We waited until the final night of our 10-day trip last month to see Rivers of Light.
What a way to end the trip!
Totally blew us away!
The colors & music were amazing!!
It instantly became one of my favorite things in all of Disney World.
My favorite thing has long been Illuminations, so that tells you where I’m coming from.
We also loved drinking beers & hanging out after dark in Pandora.
AK is now a great place to be at night.
I was excited to see a review get put up for RoL because I was really interested to hear your take on the show. I just recently began to follow the site to help plan for my upcoming trip and all of your guides and insights have been amazing. My current conundrum is wondering if skipping RoL to park hop over to Magic Kingdom for Happily Ever After would then be the right choice or not, given that I had not planned to do so initially. I’m torn because this will be my first time at Animal Kingdom so I really want to take in the ambiance of the park at night, but it will also be my only chance to see the Happily Ever After fireworks on account of the Halloween party occurring the other night of the trip. My question then is do you believe Happily Ever After warrants the park hopper upgrade to see? Or is my time and money better spent taking in Animal Kingdom to the fullest? Any input is appreciated, love the site and keep up the fantastic job!
How does one get their hands on that 68-minute Illuminations music? Youtube?
Yes! The entire show soundtrack is on there, and the post-show music that’s played after Illuminations, from the Millenium celebration parade Tapestry of Nations, is on there too. Excellent music
We saw ROL in June and I was a bit disappointed actually. We had decided to do a 3rd day at WDW instead of seeing Cirque de Soleil since it was about the same price, but after seeing ROL, I think we made a mistake. It was pretty, but not “wow” and as you note, we did miss seeing Pandora at night because the little kids in our party were done for the day. We had good seats adjacent to the “reserved” spots for the dining folks, who I noticed were rushed in at the last minute with barely a second to spare before the show started and they were really crammed into those seats rather uncomfortably.
Is the only way to see the show by going inside the theatre?
So interesting to see other points of view!
I really enjoyed ROL, and I don’t particularly care for Illuminations (sorry Tom!). In fact, after being local APs for two years, we saw ROL and Illuminations the same amount of times–twice! With our little ones, it wasn’t often that we stayed out late enough to see the night time shows.
My kids (6 and 9 at the time) really enjoyed it as well. We saw it before Pandora opened, so we didn’t have to worry about that conflict, which may have helped too. We found the show itself to be beautiful, and loved the little details to find while waiting.
I really liked ROL (probably because I was expecting to not like it because of the ever-critical disTwitter) but man, I will never love being crammed into bleacher seating and feeling stuck. This probably will prevent me from seeing it for a long time, while I’ll hit illuminations ever trip, most likely. (Thanks, love your blog!!!)
My husband and I did the Tiffins RoL dining package for our anniversary in July. Since we’d gotten a sitter for the night, we didn’t have to worry so much about short attention spans! While I completely understand all of your critiques (and agree a bigger “Wow” would be great), we really enjoyed the show overall. We loved the visuals, didn’t mind the pacing and even enjoyed following the subtle shifts during the preshow (the animal shadows in the trees, the movement of the lotus blossoms).
As for the dining package, I would highly recommend it, especially if you were planning a Tiffins visit anyway or are celebrating a special occasion. It is definitely a splurge, but we were very impressed with the quality and amount of food we got for the price. We each got three courses (and some really fantastic iced tea) for less than it would have cost us a la carte, and that’s without even taking the RoL passes into the value proposition.
We did the Tiffins dining package, as we wanted to splurge and try that restaurant. I’m glad we did, as we really enjoyed Tiffins. I liked the show quite a bit, but didn’t like waiting 30 minutes for it even with a reserved seat in order to have a good view. I suspect being able to walk up closer to the show will increase my enjoyment.
I mostly agree with your review on the show/soundtrack. I’ve listened to the soundtrack quite a bit and really enjoy it, though not as much as Wishes. It’s not my favorite show (they can’t all be the favorite), but I like it and its infinitely better than not having a show at all.
So much of my enjoyment of parks’ audio is rooted in nostalgia, and it’s too early to have that for Rivers of Light.
IDK if the same is true for you, but that could explain your feeling on Wishes v. Rivers of Light.
Well, that was actually a complete typo on my part! I meant that I enjoy it, but not as much as Illuminations. Wishes is an entirely different show/audio and is hard to compare, but I think I like RoL better.
Nostalgia is part of it, and I think that Illuminations probably grew on me over time. That’s one reason I’ve listened to RoL multiple times – to give it that chance. (In contrast, I instantly loved HEA so I’ve avoided listening to it to keep it “special”. I don’t know if that makes sense)
I appreciate your honest take of the show. After multiple viewings I feel that the show features great technology and the soundtrack is fantastic. The lack of a climax is very jarring and this is amplified when the show (unlike Illuminations or Happily Ever After) requires you to get seated early, at least 30 minutes before the show, in the humid Florida air.
One note however, I listened to the full 21 minute soundtrack you linked to. This is actually the finished show, but it just includes the 2 minute fade in that the show has and the 3 minute post show soundtrack.
Interesting regarding the soundtrack. I’ve heard from multiple people who saw the Cast Member preview show who said it was longer, but this is the soundtrack that was released back in 2016, before the show had been cut.
Can you tell me how to get that complete recording for illuminations, pre show to post show?
It’s on Mousebits.com.
We saw it back in the spring, and our kids were bored about halfway through. When that happens, you as the parent are no longer enjoying the show to the fulllest extent.
We had booked FP for the late show, which was a waste. We ended up getting pretty good standby viewing for the earlier show. Should have used that FP on something else.
I thought it seemed like a decent show (what parts I was able to focus on), but nothing to write home about. I’d say it’s worh a viewing, but certainly not something I would set aside time to do every visit.
Next time, give them a twenty and tell ’em to go nuts on the Dino-Rama carnival games while you watch Rivers of Light. (That’s good parenting, right? 😉 )
Finally saw Rivers of Light just a couple of weeks ago (Tuesday, 9/26) and actually loved it. I felt it to be very organic in nature and fit right in with Animal Kingdom’s message. I was actually quite disappointed in myself for not leaving enough opportunity to view it a second time. And now, after reading your review, I’m quite interested to check out the longer, original soundtrack. I also understand that there were other pieces of the show that were cut due to technical issues…but as the show is presented now, I still loved it. With all that said, I can understand why there are guests that don’t enjoy it. It’s probably those same guests that for years would pop into DAK, visit it’s short list of high octane attractions, then head off to another park. I find DAK to be a park that needs to be sipped, not gulped. I can spend days in the park, enjoying it’s nuances and generally decompressing while touring-even on the hottest of days. With the addition of RoL and the Tree of Life Awakenings, for those that have always appreciated this special park, we now have a perfect way to end our day.
** I should mention that I had plenty of time to exit the RoL theatre and get to Pandora to join the line for Flight of Passage. Actually got there with more than 10 minutes to spare….and with no FP after official closing, the 135 minute line was really just 52 minutes. After the ride, I was able to leisurely exit the park in all it’s illuminated glory.
Good to know about making it to Flight of Passage after Rivers of Light.
I’m also a bit disappointed that we didn’t view it before this, or a second time. I didn’t focus on photos my first viewing (since I wanted to take in the show), and now I’m concerned that I might not have many more chances to see Rivers of Light on future trips.
Would love to hear how this worked — on the day you went, was time was ROL and what time was park close?
I’m wondering if the bad word-of-mouth I’ve seen about this show has already doomed it? I’m less than 90 days out from my next WDW trip– a month from my FastPass window, but Disney’s website already has schedules up for all the parks the week I’ll be there, and I’m not seeing any scheduled times for Rivers of Light. I’d certainly like to see it, even if it turns out I don’t enjoy it, rather than having it pass away before I had the chance.
Unrelated thought: I wonder if the lack of “spectacular” in the show was forced by the constraints of Animal Kingdom being a zoo as well as a theme park? Animal care at the park, in the evening when they’re trying to settle the animals in for the night, could be severely impacted if the animals are getting terrified by loud noises (particularly pyro) right at that moment. The design of the show could have been limited by that issue from the beginning, made worse if some animal-friendly alternative was planned but failed to work.
WDW has been really slow with the Rivers of Light schedule; I assume it’ll be showing at least some nights of your trip, but I guess there’s the possibility it’ll go seasonal? I could see them not showing it much in the doldrums of January.
The animals are definitely the reason there’s no pyro in the show (none was ever planned), but there are other ways to have a ‘wow’ factor. For example, a large rising centerpiece or a bunch of drone lanterns.
I actually loved Rivers of Light and am not an Illuminations fan (at all, eek!) but can certainly see the comparison you make between the two shows. I highly recommend the Dining Package as well, I wouldn’t recommend wasting a FP on Rivers of Light (or any nighttime show really). I saw the show last February utilizing the Tiffins dining package and had a wonderful experience- our meal was exceptional, and we got in the last row of reserved seats for Rivers of Light putting us up against the back wall, which was mighty convenient to lean against while waiting for the show to start. I’ll be returning this coming weekend (no ROL planned, Food and Wine will be the focus) but am going to utilize the Dining Package for our “Christmas” trip at the beginning of December. (My boyfriend and I date long distance and the majority of our dates have been in Disney World! Your blog has been very helpful as I’ve planned each trip, so thank you for your hard work!)
Since I am also a Disney theme parks fan rather than Disney movies fan and the number of similarities to Illuminations, I am looking forward to seeing Rivers of Life on my upcoming trip regardless of the negative reviews.
Well Tom, you have succeeded in making me more confused then ever about whether we should see this on our next trip. I was hoping to read this review and come out at the end, more excited to see it, but I just feel “blah” about it now. I wasted a Fastpass on it, and now I’m thinking about cancelling it and picking something else instead. Your review of Tiffins makes me consider a Dining Package, but we weren’t really planning on time for a table service meal this trip as its a 4 parks, 4 days trip. I do like Illuminations, so theres that. But I’d also like to spend time enjoying Pandora at night, and with Disney still showing AK only open until 7pm the 1st week of December, I don’t think there is time for both! Decisions, decisions..
I’m not Tom, but I would definitely say to get rid of that fast pass and use it for something else. Also it seemed to me that the rivers of light show was offered at Park close time in some cases so you might not have to sacrifice as much Pandora viewing time. We came back from wdw yesterday and all the park closing times were later than I had expected from doing planning six months ago. That may occur in your case as well which would give you more time to spend at night in Pandora.