Illuminations Fireworks Question

[danlb_2000]

When I saw Illuminations a few weeks ago the rockets that normally launch from the shoreline, instead launched from barges in the lagoon. I thought this was a change, but I was watching a live stream tonight and they were launching from the shore as I am used to seeing. Is this some sort of operational change that is made at certain times?

 

[nickys]

Yes. They will not shoot the shells from the shore if conditions are to windy. As far as I can tell, they can make the decision within seconds on whether or not to fire them. Pretty amazing tbh

I thought once they were loaded they had to be launched? Which is why there will always be fireworks at MK, even if they are delayed several hours. Even if it has to be after park close.

Does that mean they sometimes load both sets at Epcot, if the weather conditions are forecast to be windy, and let the unused ones off later on in the evening?

 

[marni1971]

Yes. They will not shoot the shells from the shore if conditions are to windy. As far as I can tell, they can make the decision within seconds on whether or not to fire them. Pretty amazing tbh

Yes, the decision is made during the show by humans. Same for castle shows; there’s a list of wind speeds, what needs to be manually disabled for each, and a set of anemometers. This is mainly for the in park launchers. If the wind gust drops they can immediately be reinstated. If I recall the main concerns for RoE are perimeters, the inferno barge intensity and lasers.

I thought once they were loaded they had to be launched? Which is why there will always be fireworks at MK, even if they are delayed several hours. Even if it has to be after park close.

Does that mean they sometimes load both sets at Epcot, if the weather conditions are forecast to be windy, and let the unused ones off later on in the evening?

Yes. If it’s been too windy for perimeters so far, they’ll try and launch all 3 sets of RoE perimeters at the same time in the final launch if possible (an interesting effect) but if it’s still too windy they’re held in the tubes until afterwards.

 

[DisAl]

If I remember correctly the shells at WDW are air launched rather than with an explosive charge so it should be relatively safe to unload the launch tubes if needed. Of course the shells themselves are still explosive but they are controlled electronically.

 

[marni1971]

If I remember correctly the shells at WDW are air launched rather than with an explosive charge so it should be relatively safe to unload the launch tubes if needed. Of course the shells themselves are still explosive but they are controlled electronically.

Only three shells at WDW are air launched.

 

[nitstalker]

Tonight just one shell was launched from the lagoon, looked like was near where the globe barge parks near the theater

 

[WDW Monorail]

The seawall comets are generally loaded about an hour before show time. I’ve seen all sorts of launch cues for these things. All three at once on the cue for the final 3” comet, 3 separate cues when both the seawall and barge comets are loaded and the most interesting was when there was a totally different cue when the comets were launched just as the finale shells began to launch about 4 seconds after the normal cue.