The fireworks are beautiful!Epcot Forever has only been around for a few days, and already I have heard countless complaints about it. (Most of these complaints are from people who did not see it in person, and they are not from the Disney Over 50 community.) The main complaint seems to be that it is not as good as IllumiNations. That is usually followed by the thought that Walt Disney World should have kept IllumiNations until the debut of HarmonioUS.
No one ever said that Epcot Forever is supposed to be as good as IllumiNations was. There’s a reason why the show was around for 20 years, it was that special. That doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the new fireworks show. I was there for the debut. The fireworks are spectacular, and the kites exceeded my expectations. I’ll admit that when I first heard that the show would contain kites, I was not all that impressed. I guess that I forgot that the Disney magic would be part of the equation, because the kites blew me away. (There’s got to be a pun in that last sentence somewhere.)
I loved the kites As far as keeping IllumiNations until HarmonioUS is concerned, that just was not a possibility. World Showcase Lagoon was an integral part of IllumiNations. It is also going to be an integral part of HarmonioUS. It just was not possible to keep the underwater electrical work for IllumiNations in place in World Showcase Lagoon while getting things ready for HarmonioUS. The alternative was to not have a nighttime fireworks show at Epcot until HarmonioUS is ready. Disney did not want to do that, they want to send Epcot guests home with a fireworks smile on their faces. Epcot Forever takes place in the sky, so crews can still work on HarmonioUS. In a way, Epcot Forever is like a gift to the Epcot guests. They could have walked away with nothing after dark, and still paid the same price for admission.
The music for Epcot Forever is half of the fun. Longtime Epcot fans will be going down memory lane when they hear the soundtrack. That said, many people are complaining about the addition of the song A Whole New World at the end. They say that it doesn’t fit in with the theme of Epcot Forever. I think it fits in perfectly. The name of the new show isn’t Past Epcot. A Whole New World represents the future, because the Epcot that they are working on right now is going to be very different from the Epcot of the past. It will be “a whole new world”.
This is a gorgeous show Do I think that Epcot Forever is the type of show that could be around for 20 years? No, not at all. The thing to remember, though, is that it isn’t supposed to be. A friend of mine refers to it as a placeholder, which I think is a perfect description. It’s a great show that will hold the nighttime fireworks place open until HarmonioUS is ready. It’s beautiful, it’s well done, and it has several “wow” moments. I hope that you can see it in person.
One final thought. A placeholder fireworks show at Disney is going to be a lot better than 99% of the fireworks displays elsewhere on the planet. So don’t look for things that others say are wrong, and instead just enjoy the magic, because Epcot Forever is filled with magical moments.