Summer 2016 Updates at WDW

[Len90]

So it looks like we are getting a lot of changes for summer of 2016:

EPCOT: expect this park to be really busy through the summer season.
Soarin: Opens 6/17 with the new film but will have a limited run starting next week to experience the classic attraction one more time.
Forzen Ever After: Opens 6/21

DAK:
Night experiences start 5/27 beginning with the Jungle Book inspired projection show as the Rivers of Light is currently running behind schedule. It also opens up for the long awaited night safari. I personally am interested to see how this park will handle the night activities and crowds. The lighting in parts of the park, to me, is among the worst when I was there in the past during EMH. Should be interesting to see if they made it a bit easier to navigate.

Dinosaur: Closing July 25th through late September for a much needed refurb

DHS:
Fireworks change starting on 6/17: "Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular" will replace "Symphony in the Stars". The new show promises to be even better incorporating more fireworks, projection, etc. Symphony in the Stars was a big hit during its 6 month run so this new show will really have to pack a lot to make people not miss Symphony.

MK:
Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire: the new castle stage show that replaced Dream Along with Mickey is set to open on June 17th.

[TikiTikiRoom]

Can't wait to finally see AK at night. Gonna be pretty cool I reckon!

[Amy]

We got to experience AK during a couple of evening EMH and it was really neat. I agree with Len that the lighting was not the best, but I find the night lighting at DHS to be a problem sometimes as well. Those floodlights that are in the sidewalks shining straight up mess with watching for curbs and stairs in my humble opinion. Looking forward to the night safari. Wonder what they will have out as they normally put those critters to bed fairly early I would guess. Plus they have to get them fed and watered too. On the plus side, maybe the lions will actually be a bit more animated toward the later afternoon/early evening!

[Len90]

We got to experience AK during a couple of evening EMH and it was really neat. I agree with Len that the lighting was not the best, but I find the night lighting at DHS to be a problem sometimes as well. Those floodlights that are in the sidewalks shining straight up mess with watching for curbs and stairs in my humble opinion. Looking forward to the night safari. Wonder what they will have out as they normally put those critters to bed fairly early I would guess. Plus they have to get them fed and watered too. On the plus side, maybe the lions will actually be a bit more animated toward the later afternoon/early evening!

I actually find EPCOT to be worse than DHS for night lighting. The walk around the World Showcase during evening EMH can be quite dark and lonely. It gives a great chance to just stop and enjoy the park. It was a lot emptier when the EMH was for three hours.

The night safari will be interesting as well. I assume this means that they have the full fleet of new safari trucks in. I recall when I was down in December they mentioned that they had just hit the point where they were had more new trucks than they did old trucks and the transition was going on for about 6 months at that point (first new truck arrived sometime May/June 2015 from what I understand).

[Amy]

We got to experience AK during a couple of evening EMH and it was really neat. I agree with Len that the lighting was not the best, but I find the night lighting at DHS to be a problem sometimes as well. Those floodlights that are in the sidewalks shining straight up mess with watching for curbs and stairs in my humble opinion. Looking forward to the night safari. Wonder what they will have out as they normally put those critters to bed fairly early I would guess. Plus they have to get them fed and watered too. On the plus side, maybe the lions will actually be a bit more animated toward the later afternoon/early evening!

I actually find EPCOT to be worse than DHS for night lighting. The walk around the World Showcase during evening EMH can be quite dark and lonely. It gives a great chance to just stop and enjoy the park. It was a lot emptier when the EMH was for three hours.

The night safari will be interesting as well. I assume this means that they have the full fleet of new safari trucks in. I recall when I was down in December they mentioned that they had just hit the point where they were had more new trucks than they did old trucks and the transition was going on for about 6 months at that point (first new truck arrived sometime May/June 2015 from what I understand).

I suppose DHS bothers me more because of the numerous curbs and stairs along the walkways, where World Showcase is just pretty much flat and curvy unless you wander further into some of the countries.
Are the new safari trucks different from the old ones? Do they run on a different fuel? Look different? Have different seating configurations?

[theBIGyowski]

I'm really looking forward to seeing what AK has to offer as a nighttime park. Since we won't be there until December, I'm hopeful that all the kinks will be ironed out by then. Since I've never been to AK after sunset, I don't know how they light it currently. I wonder if they could or have added a lot of low-profile lighting that you wouldn't necessarily notice during the day, but would at night.

The only good thing about the early sunsets in the Fall/Winter is that it should allow my kids to be awake for the AK stuff in December.