News Happily Ever After fireworks show returning to Magic Kingdom in 2023

[jrhwdw]

They’re going to give up and bring back illuminations aren’t they?

It doesn't sound like all of Luminous is going........

 

[peter11435]

Is this an extinction level event for luminous, or just a plussing of the middle?

I don’t think so. It should just be the removal and replacement of one or two songs.

 

[Starship824]

The way everyone just imminently jumped to conclusions saying Illuminations will come back. Yall @ToTBellHop just they're thinking about changing the songs in Luminous, not completely redoing the show, guest satisfaction on Luminous is also pretty high so it's pretty unlikely they would decide to get rid of it.

 

[Starship824]

I don’t think so. It should just be the removal and replacement of one or two songs.

If I had to guess both the Toy Story songs are probably on the chopping block. Honestly I think they should change "When somebody loved me" with "Married Life" from "Up" I think it gets the point across the same way and I think it's better to have an instrumental.

 

[Sneaky]

Oh no I didn’t mean immediately. Here’s my line of thinking:
If this singular tinkering works? They keep it, and it runs for a while.
If they have to keep tinkering over and over again, different songs, or other things over the next few years, and it doesn’t work in their eyes? THEN illuminations is back

 

[ToTBellHop]

Is this an extinction level event for luminous, or just a plussing of the middle?

Plussing.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Plussing.

That's exactly what "A Whole New World" would do for the show!!

 

[TTA94]

Plussing.

Unlikely I know for drones to be added but if they did I wouldn’t mind a copy of this scene, assuming they do throw Moana in this. Well minus the projection.

 

[James J]

Any interesting Fireworks rumors Steve?

I would love HEA to take a break in November/December in favor of Wishes and Castle Dreamlights! Or, do Wishes for AH or at least, a little Wishes Tag along with HEA!!!!

Let's not, as I haven't seen HEA since 2019 and am very much looking forward to it on my November trip after suffering through Enchantment in 2022.

 

[Brian]

That's exactly what "A Whole New World" would do for the show!!

 

[wbostic12]

Plussing.

Glad that’s the case. I remember the rumored changes to Harmonious that obviously ended up not happening. Luminous is definitely not the same quality of ROE, but under the restrictions of budget and IP mandate, probably the best we could have gotten in 2023.

 

[Starship824]

I’ve not heard of any plans to remove HEA in the near term. They’re trying to avoid unforced errors after Harm; meanwhile, HEA is very popular.

Heaven forbid they put in a less popular fireworks show and have a light parade that falls flat. I’m not saying the parade will, but you don’t know until you know. They didn’t expect Harm or DisEnchantment to fail.

I’d expect some updates to Luminous first. There are already talks of switching out songs.

Have you heard of anything to upgrade the projectors or projection quality?

 

[Disone]

Disneyland Paris updated their projectors to laser a couple of years back. I'm not a AV geek but I believe the benefit is the laser does not reduce in luminosity like a typical projector would?

I didn't know that. But whatever they did it was clearly better than what's currently being offered at the Magic Kingdom. I still think The projections the Magic Kingdom have diminished in their clarity and it's not just an upgrade at Disneyland Paris.

The painting didn't happen overnight but by the time they started doing projections again the painting was done and they had to update everything to account for the color change.

This is a detail I had forgotten and I'm going credit you at this point. Most of the repainting, if not all, was during a period when the fireworks were not in place. Good call on that. I don't know that I'm 100% convinced they adjusted the projections of happily ever after for the new colors in the castle but your point is.... well on point

 

[MisterPenguin]

 

[TheCoasterNerd]

I think that Fantasy In The Sky needs to be retired for New Years. It's dated, visually not that interesting, and the music choices are very bland. I say they swap Fantasy In The Sky for a modified version of Wishes with the new years tag.
Also, can we just acknowledge how strange it is to do four showings of the show with the countdown? Having any New Years countdown at all on the 30th is just strange. I don't know if you're trying to fool kids, but they aren't gonna think that the 30th is new years. Now on the 31st, I think it's dumb to have two shows with the countdown. Maybe do the one show at 9, without the countdown tag, and then the one at midnight with the countdown tag? I don't know. Either way, I say if they want to bring back Wishes in any form, New Years is a great place to start

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I think that Fantasy In The Sky needs to be retired for New Years. It's dated, visually not that interesting, and the music choices are very bland. I say they swap Fantasy In The Sky for a modified version of Wishes with the new years tag.

I really like it - I thought Fantasy in the Sky had a lot more pyro than wishes but not totally sure.

Also, can we just acknowledge how strange it is to do four showings of the show with the countdown? Having any New Years countdown at all on the 30th is just strange. I don't know if you're trying to fool kids, but they aren't gonna think that the 30th is new years.

It’s not strange at all - the goal is to spread the crowds out by doing the exact same show 4 times. It’s not tricking anyone - it’s allowing people to see the same show and then leave early and celebrate at the resort (all the resorts have countdown parties too) or celebrate at another park like Epcot or studios.

 

[Starship824]

I think that Fantasy In The Sky needs to be retired for New Years. It's dated, visually not that interesting, and the music choices are very bland. I say they swap Fantasy In The Sky for a modified version of Wishes with the new years tag.
Also, can we just acknowledge how strange it is to do four showings of the show with the countdown? Having any New Years countdown at all on the 30th is just strange. I don't know if you're trying to fool kids, but they aren't gonna think that the 30th is new years. Now on the 31st, I think it's dumb to have two shows with the countdown. Maybe do the one show at 9, without the countdown tag, and then the one at midnight with the countdown tag? I don't know. Either way, I say if they want to bring back Wishes in any form, New Years is a great place to start

I disagree, it has a certain charm to it, it's supposed to be dated, it is an old show after all. Showing Fantasy in the sky only during New Year's is fine, it gives you a reason to watch the New Year's show, the older show that used to be. I also really want to see Wishes again but I don't think it's going to happen for New years Eve. I think the best case scenario for a return of Wishes is probably the after hours events, but who knows they might just bring back enchantment for that or they'll have no fireworks show at all. We'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Brian]

I think that Fantasy In The Sky needs to be retired for New Years. It's dated, visually not that interesting, and the music choices are very bland. I say they swap Fantasy In The Sky for a modified version of Wishes with the new years tag.
Also, can we just acknowledge how strange it is to do four showings of the show with the countdown? Having any New Years countdown at all on the 30th is just strange. I don't know if you're trying to fool kids, but they aren't gonna think that the 30th is new years. Now on the 31st, I think it's dumb to have two shows with the countdown. Maybe do the one show at 9, without the countdown tag, and then the one at midnight with the countdown tag? I don't know. Either way, I say if they want to bring back Wishes in any form, New Years is a great place to start

They present it on the 30th for the same reason they present the 4th of July fireworks on the 3rd as well. Having a "one night only" event at MK has in the past led to more demand than they can handle.

They hope to spread some of the New Year's Eve (and 4th of July) demand to other parks, mainly EPCOT.

 

[Vinnie Mac]

Out of curiosity, why are people so happy with the idea of HEA going away? From what I understand, it seems like HEA is one of the most popular additions to WDW in possibly its entire existence. A lot of the hate against it replacing Wishes was SILENCED the night it debuted and everyone begged for it to come back 2 years ago. I absolutely adore Wishes it's one of my favorite things Disney has ever done and it's a core childhood memory for me (I can't listen to the soundtrack without tearing up multiple times) but why do people want it to replace HEA?

Wishes had an almost 14 year run, Illuminations ran for 20 years, Fantasmic is still going after all these years. HEA is only 7 years old and has technically only been running for 5 full years (3 actually if we wanna get really technical). If the product is good, let it have its moment. Like Imagine if Wishes died in 2010 instead of 2017?

 

[Vinnie Mac]

Unpopular opinion but can they switch out “Heartbeat Symphony”? Maybe replace it with “One Heartbeat”? So much better.

Heartbeat Symphony is so good I hope they don't switch out the intro. It sounds like modern Disney but it gives off enough 90's Epcot vibes for me to really like it.