Epcot cancelled illuminations tonight

[swissamy]

Wow- for the first time in my visiting, they had to cancel illuminations which had been delayed 25 minutes. They said there was a problem with the sound system. That surprised me. No worries though because just being here is perfect!!

 

[menamechris]

Not surprised by this. The speaker to the entrance to World Showcase was crackling (loudly) and buzzing in the middle of the day last weekend. Apparently no one knew how to disconnect it or turn it off. So it just sounded like constant blaring static.... Sounds like they need a sound system upgrade..

 

[THEMEPARKPIONEER]

Thats imbarising on they're behalf

 

[Rob562]

When they cancel a show, what do they do with all the loaded pyro? Do they send it back to the marina or just fire it off later in the night?

It's unsafe to try and unload it, so it would have eventually been fired off in some fashion. But unlike the smaller pyro at Fantasmic that they shoot off in a special rainout 4-minute show, that would be a *lot* of pyro to waste. I'll bet that if it's at all possible, they leave the barges out on the water tonight and all day tomorrow and use it all for tomorrow night's show.They *might* fire off the perimeter seawall shells tonight so that they're not sitting near Guest areas all day.

This would mean that the WS Friendship boat service would most likely not operate tomorrow. (Friendships to/from the Epcot resorts could still come back to the docks behind China by skirting the edge of the Future World side of the lagoon, just like they used to do when coming in while they were still breaking down the barges)

-Rob

 

[marni1971]

Wow. Just wow. ROE is never cancelled! It's had plenty of audio issues in the past that haven't scrubbed the show.

Assuming they didn't blow the show after hours it could look quite interesting for day guests all day today.

 

[hollywoodj]

The one time I went JUST to see ROE, it was cancelled. The speaker issue was in France, where I was, too. Needless to say, it was very disappointing.

 

[marni1971]

Indeed, the show audio system failed. Wow.

 

[Nemo14]

Is this likely to still be down tonight?

 

[KeithVH]

My youngest is celebrating her 21st birthday there and she and one of friends had dinner at R&C and had scored seating on the seawall. Amazingly bummed - of course it's their last nite.

This seems somewhat rare? When was the last time they had a non-weather cancellation?

 

[marni1971]

My youngest is celebrating her 21st birthday there and she and one of friends had dinner at R&C and had scored seating on the seawall. Amazingly bummed - of course it's their last nite.

This seems somewhat rare? When was the last time they had a non-weather cancellation?

RoE has never been cancelled on a normal operating day.

 

[MarkTwain]

RoE has never been cancelled on a normal operating day.

 

[Alektronic]

I was sitting in Germany waiting for the show tonight, and all throughout the pre-show music the speakers kept turning on and off. Eventually towards the end of the set, they did stay on for a while, but they were barely audible, then right at 9pm, it seemed like the speakers decided to just quit for the night. It was definitely a shock to see them cancel the show. When they cancel a show, what do they do with all the loaded pyro? Do they send it back to the marina or just fire it off later in the night?

With all the loaded pyro they will just take it back to the Marina and use it again for tomorrow night's show, but they need someone to stay with it all night like a security guard to make sure nothing happens to it.

I don't really know what happened but I have a good guess. Thursday night was the annual Epcot Power Outage, they shut down power to the whole park, then Reedy Creek inspects each building, attraction, restaurant, trailers, etc. and make sure that the emergency lighting comes on and all the exit signs are lit.

They supposed to power down all critical and sensitive electric and electronic equipment before the outage so it doesn't get affected by power surges or spikes. It could have happened during shutdown or startup of the equipment.

If they didn't have audio anywhere then it must have been in the Mexico Control Booth or Central. This is the first I have heard of it not working because they have backup systems also. Normally, everything is send out as digital audio but in case that fails then they have an analog path. If they lost the source, they have backup players in the control booth as well as Central.

 

[bethymouse]

Seems strange to cancel the show just because of audio.

 

[marni1971]

Seems strange to cancel the show just because of audio.

If no music comes out....

I'd hazard a guess, given the redundancy listed above, and say it was amplification that failed.

 

[raven]

I don't really know what happened but I have a good guess. Thursday night was the annual Epcot Power Outage, they shut down power to the whole park, then Reedy Creek inspects each building, attraction, restaurant, trailers, etc. and make sure that the emergency lighting comes on and all the exit signs are lit.

They supposed to power down all critical and sensitive electric and electronic equipment before the outage so it doesn't get affected by power surges or spikes. It could have happened during shutdown or startup of the equipment.

I was informed that the power outage was scrubbed and never happened and that also the speakers around WS were being tested through the night last night.

 

[joanna71985]

Wow, that's a first! I don't think I've heard of it being canceled before then

 

[Polydweller]

Seems strange to cancel the show just because of audio.

We'd have to know the details to know what the lost union track would affect. We have a show on Discovery here in Canada called Pyros that gives behind the scene views of firework shows. In some shows the audio tracks carry firing cues. They have had shows stopped because the audio track was not sending the cues correctly to the various firing panel boxes. Equipment sometime fails and the Pyros won't run a show if even small things compromise safety even slightly. It may have been something like that rather than just not getting audio to the speakers. Only the details would let us know for sure.

 

[Nemo14]

Just saw it tonight, and I thought it was more in sync than the last time I saw it.

 

[Rob562]

Just saw it tonight, and I thought it was more in sync than the last time I saw it.

Good to hear they got it operational.

-Rob

 

[THEMEPARKPIONEER]

A few years back they had a big downpour with thunder and lightning that finally ended before the show. They even announced that the show might me canceled. There was quie a few inches of rain. The storm finally passed, the park was a mess and the fog was thick enough to make everything damp. The show still went on, the sea wall pyrotechnics barely made it past the tree line and the park was smoked out after he show. You couldn't even see Spaceship Earth between the fog, the smoke and the steam. If that didn't stop the show then something really bad must have happened.