This Summer, Walt Disney World installed some umbrellas at the Discovery River Amphitheater. The move was likely to provide more shade for guests relaxing in the area, but it’s the way that the umbrellas were installed that caught my eye during a recent visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Let’s take a closer look.
Umbrellas Drilled Through Benches at Discovery River Amphitheater
I’ll say this at the top: I may be reading too much into this, but here we go. As far as I can tell, the umbrellas were installed sometime in the last month or so, but I really didn’t pay them much attention until a recent visit to Animal Kingdom.
Here’s a look at the umbrellas from the DinoLand USA side of the amphitheater. Disney has progressively been providing more shade on the Expedition Everest side of the amphitheater in recent years. It seems like that side of the seating is used much more heavily than the DinoLand USA side of the amphitheater. If I had to guess, the imbalance likely comes from the fact that Expedition Everest is so close, and not every member of the family can ride it. Those sitting out likely seek out a place to relax for the 30-60 minutes that their family is in line, and the closest place to do so is the Discovery River Amphitheater.
To that end, it makes a ton of sense that Disney would want to make this area as comfortable as possible. Enter: umbrellas. There have been umbrellas in this area in the past, but they have been confined to the tables that are found “behind” the seating area. Now, there are umbrellas covering the amphitheater seating area, and Disney drilled right through the benches to secure them.
It’s a rather inelegant solution, but a solution nonetheless. If I had to speculate, I would say that the prioritization of the umbrellas over the benches indicates that there are no plans to utilize this theater for a nighttime show anytime soon.
I would imagine that the benches can be repaired rather quickly following the removal of the umbrellas. Again, perhaps I’m reading too much into this, but I wouldn’t plan on a new nighttime show anytime soon. In fact, Disney has probably identified that there isn’t an operational need for a nighttime show until closer to the 2027 opening of the Tropical Americas land at the earliest. We saw something similar for the debut of Rivers of Light in early 2017 (originally planned for 2016), ahead of the May 2017 grand opening of Pandora – The World of Avatar.
Here’s a closer look at the current umbrella situation.
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Adds some shade for resting. The whole that is in the bench is small enough that no repair would even be needed if the umbrellas are removed.