Walt Disney World is announcing its plans for June through September 2024, promising that Summertime at The Most Magical Place On Earth is going to be extra magical this year! This means new offerings and entertainment for EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. And now, the biggest news of allâa brand new drone show!
To quickly recap whatâs coming for Summer 2024, the ¥CelebraciĂłn Encanto! Sing-Along is Coming to EPCOT. Along with this, CommuniCore Hall will finally open and greet guests. As we discuss in the commentary to that post, weâre also expecting a fully-fledged EPCOT Summer Festivalâitâs not just tinfoil hat speculation, Disney even teases something more.
Then thereâs the Lion King 30th Anniversary Celebration Coming to Animal Kingdom in Summer 2024. As announced, this isnât really anything. Merchandise, food, characters, and maybe some photo ops. However, as we discuss there, itâs not the first time Animal Kingdom has hosted a Lion King anniversary eventâand the park needs people to stay laterâso hopefully more is on the horizon there, too. Weâre not holding our breath, though.
Next up is Disneyâs Hollywood Studios, where youâll be able to get into your feels with Joy herself! Sheâs headed to Pixar Plaza starting June 10, where she joins other Pixar stars. Sheâll be in her new home just in time for Disney Pixarâs âInside Out 2,â which premieres in theaters June 14, 2024.
Of the four parks, the final stop is Magic Kingdom. Nothing was announced for Summer 2024, but we already know that Tianaâs Bayou Adventure is opening there. Personally, I would not expect this to open by early June, but I would expect it to debut before Independence Day.
My guess is that Walt Disney World didnât share an official opening date today because theyâre not quite confident in one just yet. Unlike other recent attraction openings, Tianaâs Bayou Adventure has been moved forward and is now a race against the clock, rather than waiting it out. Our other guess is that Magic Kingdom will do something for summer beyond TBA, but thatâs TBA. I could see it being relatively simpleâlike a refreshed cavalcade and a foodie âeventâ at locations around the park, all inspired by Princess Tiana.
All of that brings us to the finalâand biggestâpiece of news for Summer 2024 at Walt Disney WorldâŠ
At Disney Springs, drones take to the skies above Lake Buena Vista with âDisney Dreams That Soar,â a summertime experience that will be a late-night perk for Walt Disney World visitors. âYou can flyâ takes on a whole new meaning as Walt Disney World showcases stories celebrating the joy of flight with state-of-the-art drones choreographed to create designs in the sky and paired with a soaring musical score and memorable movie quotes.
After spending a day delighting in shopping, discovering fun activities and savoring diverse flavors at Disney Springs, turn your eyes to the skies above the West Side for âDisney Dreams That Soar,â a nighttime show amongst the stars.
âDisney Dreams That Soarâ will run nightly at Disney Springs from May 24 through September 2, 2024!
To regular readers, it probably doesnât come as a surprise that Walt Disney World is getting a drone show. Finally. Itâs something weâve been covering this year in Will Walt Disney World Get a Dazzling Drone Display? We lay out the âwhyâ in that post, but our answer has been that itâs an inevitability, and sooner rather than later.
This saga started with the drone shows at Disneyland Paris, and the incredibly positive guest reception to those. At that point, it became a foregone conclusion that any Disney destination that could get drones, would get drones. Given its abundance of space, Walt Disney World was/is the logical landing point for the next Disney drone display.
The most recent development was drone testing visible from Saratoga Springs Resort that occurred exactly one month ago, in late February. According to firsthand reports, the drone made several loops around the Disney Springs lake before returning to its launch pad in the parking lot behind Cirque du Soleil. The drone was illuminated with a bright purple show light and carried out several take-offs and landings as part of the test.
While weâve been betting big on drones coming to Walt Disney World, but is the one part of the prediction we got wrong. Our belief was that testing was only occurring at Disney Springs out of convenienceâto avoid areas in the parks with people or having to test during the overnight hours to avoid guests. Itâs also easier to stage and test drone displays at Disney Springs without making any infrastructure changes.
Our expectation was that drones would come to one of the parks and not Disney Springs. Although thereâs been a drone show there before, that was almost a different era. Itâs highly unlikely the current-day Walt Disney World would put on an âungatedâ drone show. Whoops! (In our defense, nobody bats 1.000 or even .500 with Disney news/rumor predictions.)
Even though I was undeniably incorrect, Iâm going to double down on that wrong-ness. Iâm still highly skeptical that âDisney Dreams That Soarâ is Walt Disney Worldâs end game with drones. Everything Disney does with entertainment is expensiveâfrom the development costs to the music to the infrastructure and so forth. Itâs also labor intensive, which itself is becoming increasingly costly.
I do not believe for a second that Walt Disney World would spend all of that money to put on a free drone show at Disney Springs, largely for the benefit of guests and third party operating participants (who will see increased business with added foot traffic). It just doesnât pass the smell test as something modern Disney would do.
More likely, in my opinion, is that Walt Disney World realizes extensive testing and training will be necessary for a permanent production in one of the parks, so why not hold that out in the open at Disney Springs and get some benefit out of it? Throw together a quick show, and market that alongside a suite of other entertainment offerings for Summer 2024.
Suddenly, thereâs a compelling reason not just for those who already are visiting to spend an evening at Disney Springs, but for other fans to plan summer vacations to Walt Disney World in the first place. Increase buzz and bookings, while also benefiting the tenants at Disney Springs. (And, if people are going to leave Animal Kingdom early anyway, give them somewhere to go thatâs not Magic Kingdom or EPCOT, thereby reducing the overcrowding in those parks.) Now that makes perfect sense!
Itâs easy to forget, but this has happened in the pastâWalt Disney World already did a drone show at Disney Springs!
Itâs now been almost a decade ago that Walt Disney World went to great lengths to get waivers on their no-fly zones. In November 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration granted Walt Disney Parks & Resorts a waiver to use âsmall unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) operationsâ within its restricted airspaces. These sUAS are drones, and Disney has dubbed the technology Flixels (per a 2014 patent filing), which it has planned to use in nighttime shows.
Based on the approval, the flight paths of drones must be 100 feet away from guest areas at all times, and they must primarily fly over water and restricted areas, maxing out at 150 feet above the ground. The only question was how and where Disney would use this Flixels technology.
To the surprise of many of us, the first answer to that was:Â Disney Springs. Only a couple weeks after the waiver, Walt Disney World launched a free-to-view Christmas drone show over the water. It was short-lived, leading to the âobviousâ conclusion that it was early testing for Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom or Windows on the World, the working title for EPCOTâs Illuminations replacement.
That ended up being incorrect, but it is worth noting that the development for both Rivers of Light and the IllumiNations replacement were troubled (stating the obviousâsee end results) and itâs entirely plausible that drones were planned for one of them at some point. Weâll never know the why behind that not happening, but itâs safe to assume a free 2-month drone show at Disney Springs was the starting point of testing and not the end game. Regardless, there hasnât been a drone display at Walt Disney World since 2016.
Ultimately, weâre really looking forward to the âDisney Dreams That Soarâ drone show. The name is fantastic and the concept of showcasing stories celebrating the joy of flight is phenomenal. I hope it includes a nod to the excellent Soarinâ score (too bad The Wind Rises isnât a Disney movie). Iâm also pleased that, regardless of the reason, Disney Springs is getting entertainment. We got burnt out on Disney Springs as locals, thanks to AMC A-List and visiting often during the phased reopening. Weâve since visited fewer times in the last 3 years than we did during a single month from 2018 to 2020, but thatâs obviously an âus issue.â
Above all else, Iâm excited for what I think this signalsâushering in a new era of entertainment at Walt Disney World. Purely speculative, but Iâm betting that the âDisney Dreams That Soarâ drone show at Disney Springs is the starting point for drones at WDW, but certainly not the endpoint. That âDisney Dreams That Soarâ is a test, and the real deal will come to Animal Kingdom in 2025.
Weâve been over this before, but thereâs currently nothing on the official timeline for Walt Disney World in 2025. Tropical Americas almost certainly wonât be ready by then and there are no yet-unannounced brand-new additions that could conceivably be ready by then. It appears increasingly likely that Walt Disney World is going to âsit outâ 2025 and not try to compete with Universalâs Epic Universe. At least, not in the traditional sense of the term.
However, that doesnât mean that Walt Disney World will do nothing at all. Theyâll want something to market, to capture some of the guests drawn down by Epic Universe. I remain of the belief that a reimagined Rock ânâ Roller Coaster will be the tentpole addition of 2025. Test Track 3.0 has already been announced, so it stands to reason that could be ready by 2025. Add to that maybe a couple more redone things in EPCOT, and you have the marketable ride roster.
This is where a drone show and other entertainment is the ace up Walt Disney Worldâs sleeve. Although theyâre becoming increasingly common, drone shows still have a certain wow-factor not found in fireworks or fountain shows on a lagoon. A Walt Disney World drone show could be the secret sauce to somehow competing with Universal for eyeballs in 2025âthe kind of thing that manages to resonate on social media as much as Mario.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited for the âDisney Dreams That Soarâ drone show at Disney Springs? Do you think this is testing for a fully-fledged, drone-driven nighttime spectacular at Walt Disney World in 2025? Or do you think it ends here, at Disney Springs? Do you agree or disagree with our reasons as to why one is unlikelyâor desirableâin the foreseeable future? Think drones will be the ace up Disneyâs sleeve to âcompeteâ (air quotes) with Epic Universe? If a drone show comes to Walt Disney World, at which park would you like to see it? Any other thoughts or commentary to add? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedbackâeven when you disagree with usâis both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!