News EPCOT's Harmonious to be replaced with new nighttime spectacular Luminous

[mattpeto]

I really feel that the thought was, the end result would be so good after dark, that people would put up with the daytime intrusion. When the show was poorly received, it was doomed.

It actually had better ratings than RoE for pre-schoolers, grade school and teenagers.

See @lentesta post from another thread:

Some EPCOT nighttime spectacular survey ratings for context, updated to show non-rounded averages. Shows with clearly higher ratings are in bold.

________________ROE____EP4Ever____Harm
Pre-School______3.8______4.0_______4.2*
Grade School____4.2______4.1_______4.3*
Teens___________4.3______4.1_______4.5*
Young Adults____4.4______4.1_______4.1*
Over 30s________4.4______4.0_______4.1
Seniors_________4.5______4.0_______4.0

For Harmonious demographics with an asterisk(*), the number of surveys we have is low, so the 95% confidence interval is pretty wide. I'd hold off making decisions about Harmonious until we get more survey data there.

For example, we've got 71 surveys from teens who've seen Harmonious, with an average rating of 4.46 and a standard deviation of 0.80. The 95% confidence interval for that is 4.27 to 4.65. So teens probably rate Harmonious higher than ROE, but maybe by not much.

For ROE, the 95% confidence interval for teens is much, much smaller: 4.24 to 4.32. That's because we have more than 2,300 surveys from teens.

That said, if people look at the Harmonious barges and decide they're ugly and then skip the show, that's a problem that's not going to show up in the survey results.

As it is, I think it's safe to say:

• Pre-schoolers probably like Harmonious much more than ROE.
• Young adults, Over 30s, and Seniors all liked ROE much more than either Harmonious or EPCOT Forever.
• Grade schoolers probably like ROE and Harmonious about the same.
• Teens may have a slight preference for Harmonious over ROE.

ETA: The survey results above are bad for Harmonious for a number of reasons:

1. There are far, far more people in the Young Adults, Over 30, and Senior categories than in pre- and grade-school. So the number of less-satisfied people is very high.
2. Those people in the YA, Over 30, and Senior categories tend to make the "what do we want to see" and "where do we spend our money" decisions. So if they're less satisified AND control the money, that's really, really not good.

Harmonious was doomed when the daytime fountains couldn't mass the ugliness during the day.

They could have made some tweaks to improve the show for the older demographics, but it wouldn't solve the daytime views. If the barges were mobile from the beginning, the show likely would have had tweaks and been salvaged.

 

[EeyoreFan#24]

I have to give them credit for taking those tacos away. It’s great they actually listened.

My next hope is they learned from this too, instead of just reacting to this show.

I hope they learned any show needs to have the infrastructure built so that it is not intrusive during the day. Remove it during the day or invest in a setup that disappears when not in use.

 

[JohnD]

You aren't going to get what you want, but I have hope it can be something special. It is still in development, so it has not been Chapeked at this point.

And won't be Chapeked at all. But what will Igered look like?

 

[jrhwdw]

And won't be Chapeked at all. But what will Igered look like?

And will it done and ready before End of 2023????

 

[Schweino]

So I'm biased because Harmonious was my first ever 'night time' show at Epcot - but I've got to say it was pretty great. My wife even got a tad emotional during it. I didn't think it was horrible at all and felt it was a good offering.

 

[OG Runner]

Disney should just go back to the Millennium Celebration fireworks show. It was great for twenty years and neither of the replacements were as good.

 

[doctornick]

While they wouldn’t need them all…Animal Kingdom says hi.

If they could bring them in and out each day from the DAK lagoon, I think they'd work there. Even the stargate since the seats/crowd face one direction.

 

[MrPromey]

Okay. I know EF has some fans. I just find it the worst of the lot. For me It ranks just ahead of Illuminations 25a . Horrible ending. If they bring it back I hope they could at least do a new ending. EF's whole new world is.....zzzzzzzzz.

As an interim show, you really don't want them putting much thought into this.

The more they start to invest in it, the more likely it is to become something more than interim.

And not to knock this show but by its very nature, it's supposed to do with less.

Just like last time around, it was meant for there to be something happening over the lagoon at night while they dealt with replacing the specialized hardware of one major show with the even more specialized and bulky hardware of another.

EF was never meant to be great. It was always just supposed to be good enough with the promise of something way better on the horizon.

The moment they start tinkering with it to improve it is the time management will begin to wonder if they even need to invest in a bigger permanent replacement.

 

[JohnD]

Couple of things.

From a PR perspective, Disney wants to end Enchantment and Harmonious alongside the close of the 50th, and forget they both ever happened. So it has to happen in April.

The new show is still in development and is not ready.

There are significant changes needed in the lagoon.

So as before, the simple interim show is needed.

You got that right. Enchantment and Harmonious end 4/2, HEA and Epcot Forever (temporary show) return 4/3, and Tron opens 4/4. WDW really is driving home the point that the 50th anniversary ending on 3/31 is the end of an error.

 

[MrPromey]

But it was Chapek's concept during his time as DPEP boss.

Him thinking any of this was a good idea just shows how little he understood about the role he inherited and the customers he was serving.

The exact same thing that happened once he became CEO.

To me it's a perfect symbol of why he was the wrong guy to run the parks as well as the wrong guy to run the company.

The people (cough, person) who put him in these positions are at least as much to blame for what he did as he is, probably more since it's a pretty huge ask to expect someone to have enough self-awareness to recognize what they can't rise to.

Seems like he did a bang-up job in the division he was in previously where his specific skill-set was more of an asset. Too bad there apparently wasn't anywhere for him to continue to rise on that side of the company where his work was appreciated.

Obviously, there would have been a ceiling there, one way or another but some people just aren't up for the challenges of certain roles no matter how much they might want them.

I feel like he came in and thought he could redefine the role of Disney CEO to compensate for his shortcomings and it became apparent that wasn't going to work with this company, their customer base, or their investors.

 

[GhostHost1000]

the 50th anniversary ending on 3/31 is the end of an error.

i see what you did there

 

[monothingie]

Harmonious sold itself as the ultimate merging of technology, IP, and diverse artistic creation, yet still failed spectacularly because it didn’t connect with anyone except maybe preschoolers.

ROE ran for almost 20 years for a reason. Whatever comes next should study the success of ROE.

 

[celluloid]

It is wild that everything for the 50th, sans Guardians with its delay ending up in the range of 50th was a complete dud(pyro pun kind of intended)

 

[Tony the Tigger]

'phased removal' - I gotta imagine Disney is still trying to figure out how to repurpose these beasts into something for a future show.

Sell them to South Of The Border.

 

[Figgy1]

Sell them to South Of The Border.

One of the very few places where they will improve the appearance of said place

 

[HauntedPirate]

Him thinking any of this was a good idea just shows how little he understood about the role he inherited and the customers he was serving.

The exact same thing that happened once he became CEO.

To me it's a perfect symbol of why he was the wrong guy to run the parks as well as the wrong guy to run the company.

The people (cough, person) who put him in these positions are at least as much to blame for what he did as he is, probably more since it's a pretty huge ask to expect someone to have enough self-awareness to recognize what they can't rise to.

Seems like he did a bang-up job in the division he was in previously. Too bad there apparently wasn't anywhere for him to continue to rise on that side of the company where his skills were appreciated.

$lappie is the poster child for the term, "rising to the level of your incompetence".

 

[TheMaxRebo]

It is wild that everything for the 50th, sans Guardians with its delay ending up in the range of 50th was a complete dud(pyro pun kind of intended)

It'd say the Beacons of Magic on Spaceship Earth is a resounding success as well ... but yeah, overall this will not be a "celebration" looked back on very fondly

 

[CaptinEO]

I have to give them credit for taking those tacos away. It’s great they actually listened.

My next hope is they learned from this too, instead of just reacting to this show.

I hope they learned any show needs to have the infrastructure built so that it is not intrusive during the day. Remove it during the day or invest in a setup that disappears when not in use.

I agree. It's rare to see Disney listen to feedback like they did in this case. Usually the egos are too high to make changes so soon.

 

[Notes from Neverland]

Good riddance. Those barges were so poorly thought out.

 

[THEMEPARKPIONEER]

Good Riddance