Happily Ever After & EPCOT Forever Fireworks Return Dates!
With the conclusion of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, the Enchantment Fireworks at Magic Kingdom and Harmonious will be replaced by their predecessors, Happily Ever After and EPCOT Forever. This post covers dates and details about the triumphant returns (well, at least HEA) of these nighttime spectaculars plus our commentary.
This was first announced last fall during the “A Boundless Future: Disney Parks, Experiences and Products” presentation at the D23 Expo. Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro offered a sneak peek at concept art for the future in addition and teased what was to come in a few years. However, no timing for the conclusions or returns of the nighttime spectaculars was given.
More recently, Walt Disney World has quietly updated its official website for the World’s Most Magical Celebration, suggesting that the Disney Enchantment Fireworks and Harmonious nighttime spectacular would conclude along with the end of the 50th Anniversary on March 31, 2023. Well, that is not quite correct, but it’s close!
Walt Disney World has now shared the specific dates and details for the conclusion of the current nighttime spectaculars and returns of the beloved fan-favorites. Here’s the official announcement:
Happy 2023! A new year means fresh memories waiting to be made at Walt Disney World Resort, and one of the best moments for many of us is watching fireworks pop above the skies to wrap up a perfect Disney day.
Well, I hope you’re “Ready to begin…” because fan-favorite nighttime spectacular “Happily Ever After” returns to Magic Kingdom on April 3, 2023. Happily Ever After will feature all-new projections down Main Street, U.S.A. “Disney Enchantment” will be offered through April 2, 2023. Whether it’s your first time, or the park is your home away from home, get ready to reach out and find your happily ever after with us at Cinderella Castle soon.
And as we shared at D23 Expo in September, an all-new nighttime spectacular is planned to debut at EPCOT later this year. Before the new show launches, we will bring back “EPCOT Forever” as an interim show over the skies of World Showcase Lagoon starting April 3, 2023.
Similar to how it appeared in 2021, “EPCOT Forever” is the perfect offering while the Disney Entertainment team preps the Lagoon, including a phased removal of fireworks platforms following the final “Harmonious” performance on April 2, 2023. A limited-time spectacle of lasers, lighting, special effects, and fireworks, “EPCOT Forever” returns with a collection of songs that offer both a trip down memory lane and a look toward the future.
In terms of commentary, let’s start with the conclusion of Harmonious. I was shocked when this was announced back at the D23 Expo, as Harmonious was never intended to be a temporary nighttime spectacular for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary. The company invested a ton of money on this–Harmonious was rumored to cost north of $100 million–putting it in the same budgetary league as the Little Mermaid dark ride.
That investment was not for an 18-month nighttime spectacular, either; Harmonious was supposed to be EPCOT’s answer to World of Color, lasting a decade or more. It would’ve been Walt Disney World’s distinct nighttime draw, pulling people to EPCOT in the evenings to spend money on food & beverages, and recouping much of its investment. In fairness, it did draw people to EPCOT for a while…but largely because Animal Kingdom has no nighttime spectacular and Fantasmic took longer than expected to refresh.
Unfortunately, Harmonious garnered mixed reviews among Walt Disney World fans, us included. (Read our Harmonious Review for much more.) We have heard numerous credible reports that its guest satisfaction scores were low for a nighttime spectacular, right around the same level as EPCOT Forever–not good since that was an interim show.
Harmonious also, supposedly, was met with a mixed response by high level leadership at the Walt Disney Company. There was chatter about this prior to Harmonious debuting, with Chapek and others being disappointed with the nighttime spectacular when it was screened for them. (For all of his other faults, this actually is not the only rumor about Chapek demanding better of a notably underwhelming addition.)
This was reinforced by interviews with certain creatives, who suggested that the songs were shuffled around relatively last minute. If you’ve ever had the sense that Harmonious feels disjointed and some songs slotted in almost at random, you’re not that far off; the ordering of scenes could be changed by dragging and dropping songs on a computer. (It was also designed for future updates to keep it fresh.)
Perhaps equally as important, Harmonious appears to be maintenance-intensive. While I cannot corroborate this, it’s one of those things that sounds plausible. The infrastructure has a lot of moving parts (literally) and we’ve seen crews out working on the Stargate and water tacos many days while walking around World Showcase. That cannot be cheap.
Speaking of which, the Harmonious barges add undeniable visual blight to World Showcase Lagoon. The daytime fountains that would make the barges ‘blend in blue’ never came to fruition. Feeble attempts to conceal them with cloud-covered screens have been laughably bad. Given that the announcement to end Harmonious came shortly after a Board of Directors site tour of Walt Disney World, I wonder if that played a part in the nighttime spectacular’s downfall.
Beyond that, Harmonious doesn’t actually address the core complaints normal guests had with IllumiNations. Once you look beyond the pyro and other effects–features that would’ve been part of any new nighttime spectacular–Harmonious is not really accomplishing anything unique or impressive. That’s a problem for a show that’s elaborate and heavy-handed with its presentation.
Harmonious stumbles in some of the exact same ways as IllumiNations. It has limited viewing angles and pacing problems along with some wow-inducing segments. Like its predecessor, Harmonious feels destined to alienate some guests and partially satisfy others. It’s hard to envision this being a homerun or beloved nighttime spectacular for many guests, but it also shouldn’t be a complete flop for many guests. It succeeds more than Magic Kingdom’s new fireworks show (and fails less), but given what Disney invested in Harmonious and its higher stakes, that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Rather than building the weird tribute to Kang and Kodos from the Simpsons, Disney literally would’ve been better off upgrading the infrastructure from IllumiNations, building a bigger floating globe, and swapping out the soundtrack. (As much as I loved IllumiNations, I realize it’s not what regular guests want.)
Turning to Magic Kingdom, I’ve made secret that I’m not a fan of the Disney Enchantment fireworks. I’ve been openly rooting for it to flop from the beginning, with the hope that lower guest satisfaction scores that would result in the return of Happily Ever After.
Just for the record, we were always on board with Happily Ever After. From our commentary to its original announcement: “While we enjoy Wishes and the nostalgics in us will miss the show, it has a good, long run…Disney Creative Entertainment has demonstrated what it is capable of in the intervening years, fully harnessing technological innovations to create an entire new generation of nighttime spectaculars. If Wishes was Disney Fireworks 2.0, these new shows…are Disney Fireworks 3.0.”
“Magic Kingdom deserves a ‘3.0’ show like Paris and Shanghai, and we are really rooting for this to be a worthy successor to Wishes! The big question is whether it will deliver on an emotional level, because all the technology in the world is meaningless if it doesn’t have heart…We suspect Disney will deliver. They no doubt realize the stakes are high: fans love Wishes and many are going to be predisposed to favoring their nostalgic favorite over anything new, no matter how good.”
Then there was our Happily Ever After Review published immediately after that show’s debut, which put it bluntly: “Happily Ever After is the best regular fireworks show to ever grace the skies above Magic Kingdom.” Moreover, “it’s better than Wishes, and also better than the nighttime spectaculars in Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.”
The point is that at no time were we against Happily Ever After replacing Wishes, despite our nostalgia for the latter. Likewise, in the lead-up to Disney Enchantment, you won’t find any feet-dragging on our part about the change. We went into this new nighttime spectacular with an open mind, assuming that Walt Disney World was pretty confident in it if they already announced it would not just be a temporary replacement for Happily Ever After.
With the “what” out of the way, let’s turn to the “why” and cover the company’s potential motivations for retiring Disney Enchantment so soon after its debut. Guest satisfaction is the big one, and everything else really flows from that.
At this point, I want to turn back to an article we published last July, long before fans started clamoring for its return or anyone had even seen its successor: Happily Ever After Ending “Permanently.” That post came after Walt Disney World officially announced that the beloved nighttime spectacular was being permanently retired, a statement of which we were highly skeptical at the time. (Hence the air quotes around permanently.)
In particular, we shared this: “Happily Ever After’s guest satisfaction scores are through the roof…It’s my understanding that a decision about Magic Kingdom fireworks post-50th Anniversary will depend almost entirely on which nighttime spectacular scores better. If it’s close, Disney Enchantment will continue.”
I haven’t heard anything precise for Disney Enchantment, except that its guest satisfaction is considerably lower than its predecessor. Honestly, this isn’t saying a ton. Happily Ever After had one of the highest guest satisfaction scores of anything ever at Walt Disney World (it might have had the highest ever, but I’m not 100% sure about that).
Surpassing the popularity of Happily Ever After was going to be a herculean task for even a great new nighttime spectacular, which Disney Enchantment is not. This is why we were confident as far back as last summer (long before knowing Enchantment was a dud) that Happily Ever After’s fate had not yet been determined.
With that said, I do want to be fair here. Disney Enchantment is undeniably popular and reasonably well-received by first-time visitors and infrequent guests. There’s a minimum baseline to guest satisfaction for any Magic Kingdom nighttime spectacular, and even a “bad” one is still “good” relative to most other attractions.
All Magic Kingdom fireworks shows have the same core qualities, with pyro exploding over Cinderella Castle to conclude a long, memory-filled day at Walt Disney World. The music is pulled from sentimental moments in memorable Disney movies and the visuals are dazzling. The whole production tugs at the heartstrings, overwhelming the senses and emotions in the best way possible. While fans can easily compare memories of Happily Ever After to Disney Enchantment and reach the conclusion that the former is far better, most first-timers lacking that frame of reference still enjoy Enchantment.
To be sure, Disney Enchantment is still achieving respectable guest satisfaction scores…but it’s doing so relative to normal rides. That Enchantment is outdoing the Magic Carpets of Aladdin is not much cause for celebration. That’s an apples to cupcakes comparison, and almost everyone prefers the latter. (Enchantment is the dessert in that analogy, just to be clear).
However, Enchantment is not doing so well as compared to Wishes, Happily Ever After, or any of its direct counterparts. However, that was always going to be a tough task. None of the other contemporary castle park nighttime spectaculars anywhere in the world hit the same high notes or form a cohesive whole like Happily Ever After. That nighttime spectacular truly captured lightning in a bottle.
Back when Disney Enchantment added the Florida Project and Walt Disney-centric introduction, we cynically speculated that it was being done to reposition that nighttime spectacular as the 50th Anniversary nighttime spectacular. Again, the company stated that Happily Ever After was being permanently retired, with Disney Enchantment replacing it. Not just for the duration of the 50th Anniversary, but for an open-ended run.
However, adding a couple minutes of Roy and Walt Disney to the front of the show turned Disney Enchantment into the Magic Kingdom 50th Anniversary fireworks, even if that’s not what the rest of the show is in the least. That made for easier revisionist history, and claiming that Enchantment was always intended to have a limited run, concluding only a few days after the rest of the World’s Most Magical Celebration.
Ultimately, I’m pretty excited about the triumphant return of Happily Ever After to Magic Kingdom on April 3, 2023. While it’s great to see Walt Disney World evolve and bring in new things, there’s also the reality that evolution connotes progress. Disney Enchantment was not progress, it was change for the sake of change. Had it been better, we would’ve loved seeing it stick around. But that was not the case, and it’s going to be a tough task for any fireworks show to surpass Happily Ever After. So in this case, updating and expanding the projections is actual evolution of Happily Ever After.
With that said, we’d still love to see Walt Disney World continue testing out new nighttime spectacular ideas for Magic Kingdom. There will be some duds, and although disappointing, that’s the nature of the beast. What would be great is if Walt Disney World eventually has a “portfolio” of fireworks shows, a la Disneyland, that it can rotate or bring back for temporary runs to excite fans. Actually, they’re already pretty close to that–can you imagine a limited run of Wishes or the Magic, Music & Mayhem fireworks…or even Holiday Wishes at Christmastime?!
As for EPCOT Forever, I have no strong opinion on the return of that. That show actually grew on me over time, and I don’t think it was nearly as bad as some of its detractors suggest. It was a temporary show following a beloved nighttime spectacular–and almost destined for failure as a result. Some of the song remixes were a bit odd, sure, but it had some charm and fun visuals, too. I’m actually looking forward to seeing EPCOT Forever again, but I also wouldn’t shed any tears if I never saw it again.
What has me really optimistic is the next nighttime spectacular at EPCOT. I hope lessons have been learned from the failure of Harmonious, and also the success of the Disneyland Paris 30th Anniversary nighttime spectacular additions. There’s definitely a way to do something wow-inducing over World Showcase Lagoon without a bunch of hideous permanent infrastructure causing daytime blight. In a word: drones.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think about the permanent return of Happily Ever After and interim appearance of EPCOT Forever in April 2023? Excited about this news, or wish Disney Enchantment or another fireworks show were returning? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I had high hopes for Epcot a few years ago. Poor Epcot. Such a bummer that they missed the mark with Harmonious. I just hope the dirt pit gets finished up soon and that when they are done with the unnecessary Splash Mountain redo, that they can move forward with things that actually do need fixing: Spaceship Earth, and Journey Into Imagination come to mind. An updated Land Pavilion to bring it out of the 80s would be good too. Still holding out hope that the Magic Kingdom gets a night time parade someday.
Will the jet skis and kites still be included in Epcot Forever? That was the best part for us.
We did not like Harmonious at all. the barges were an eyesore, could not take the boat over to another part of world showcase, the music was terrible. I am so happy it is being replaced. MK fireworks were even less impressive. We are soo happy these 2 will be gone.
Personally, I’m happy Harmonious is being replaced. To me it always looked like space aliens just landed in the pool and a chapter from the War of the Worlds was about to begin.
I absolutely LOVE Harmonious. So bummed it is ending – I am shocked the satisfaction scores are low with it. I think it’s incredible!
I liked it a lot too! I certainly thought it was better the Illuminations. The water tacos sure were ugly to look at in the daylight, though…
Harmonious also really resonated with me. I can absolutely agree that the daytime blight is not worth the spectacle, but nevertheless I actually find the moving arms with the water really shiver-inducingly beautiful. I won’t be sad when it’s gone, but I am very glad I’ve gotten to see it.
I would also really love a drone show to replace it! Preferably one without pyro – my traveling companions are noise sensitive so fireworks shows are right out. It’d be great for there to be a nighttime spectacular they could see!
I’m really sad that Harmonious is ending! we stayed at beach club last August and watched it daily for nearly 2 weeks and loved it. I recorded it and watch it often. I’ve just watched epcot forever on you tube and am majorly underwhelmed, how boring compared to Harmonious, may aswell give that a miss, go to bed early and get up early for rope drop the next day haha
No way they are able to move the barges out in time for the new old show since it took months to put them out there and achor them. So we get the old show back again with no jet skis or kites. Not as good. Hopefully the future Epcot show will be better.
hi Fljoey,
The good news is it takes way longer to build a set than strike it. Tacos and Stargate should be gone sooner than you think.
I know that. I have lived here for years. I watched as they worked on the barges behind the scenes then took a month to get them in place. My point is they will not be gone the day after Harmonious ends and the new old show begins.
First of all, “water tacos” is my new favorite phrase and I wish it could be fit into every day conversation, lol.
Second, I *LOVE* HEA. Like, love it. They really did catch lightening in a bottle with it. I also think the show’s popularity benefits from two things that very few other (if any) shows will ever have….. 1) Jordan Fisher and 2) The Pandemic.
IMO, Jordan Fisher is on his way to becoming a John Stamos or Neil Patrick Harris in terms of Disney fandom. Not to that level, yet, but they have quite a few years on him. He clearly loves Disney just like us and loves this project. I do think it builds an extra dose of loyalty in the fans’ hearts. Combined with that, I think the fact that HEA was the show we saw first after over a year of no fireworks at Disney cements a feeling of hope in diehard Disney fans. When they were doing the cast previews and the TikToks starting popping up, I cried. A few weeks later, when I finally got to see it in person again, I sobbed. As cheesy as it sounds, it really felt like we had come out on the other side of this really horrible nightmare and could celebrate joy, again.
All that to say, I think Enchantment was somewhat doomed from the beginning. It’s not as strong in a lot of objective ways, but it also was fighting a losing battle from a subjective standpoint. Any show they try from here on out will need all guns ablazing and not a millisecond phoned in, imo.
How do we feel about the possibility that EPCOT could put in underwater lights and fountains a la California Adventure’s show (World of Color)? I know the lagoon is way bigger and so they wouldn’t cover the lagoon as densely as at CA (but could do as a ring or some smaller area). Something like that would deal with the blight, but still offer the layered visual elements we got with the tacos and Stargate (plus drones!).
“How do we feel about the possibility that EPCOT could put in underwater lights and fountains a la California Adventure’s show (World of Color)?”
Highly doubt it, but would love to be wrong. Disney has spent a ton of money maintaining and repairing World of Color. I don’t think they’d do it again (at least that same way) if starting from scratch in 2023.
Very happy to have Happily ever after back although I might give the Easter season a skip given Tron arriving at nearly the same time. The stargate and taco’s going cant come soon enough. I know things change but hoping for an illuminations 2.0 even if using film soundtracks are going to be part of it. Speaking of going back to old firework showas it looks like the Disney Dreams is going back to Disneyland Paris but they are keeping the drone show. Now if we can only get Remember Dreams Come True back for Disneyland as the default past the hundreth and we are close to fan bingo.
With the return of EPCOT Forever, will there be anything we need to see in the lagoon or will it all be fireworks based? Thank you for all the insight you provide!
Previously, EPCOT Forever did not demand a front-row spot or to be viewed from any particular angle. It did have jet skis, but those pull kites in the air.
We loved watching EPCOT Forever from deeper in the Japan or Italy pavilions.
Why not move the “tacos” to Animal Kingdom? Almost no one looks at that body of water day or night, unless there is a cavalcade going by! Just use projections and water so as not to disturb the animals…
They tried that with Rivers of Light and it was not well received. I don’t think the water tacos would bring anything new to the table, and if they’re a maintenance nightmare, that makes it a nonstarter, anyway.
Yeah, I know Tom. Just wishful thinking! It just seems like there needs to be more at the animal kingdom. Maybe if they did a parade with the Merry Menagerie in the early evening, that would be a lot of fun!
Now I’m going to assume that Kite Tails was literally Epcot Forever’s jet skis and kite frames until someone proves otherwise.
Kite Tails at night could have been fun.
I thought the samething. we watched harmonius from Canada and couldn’t see the center projections. Made it hard to follow.
At least at AK, maybe you’d get a better view of the main water taco.
I think they should run Happily Ever After as long as they possibly can. I would be one of the people giving it through the roof guest satisfaction scores; one of my favorite things I’ve ever seen/done/experienced at WDW.
I agree there’s potential with drones, but hesitate because you can’t have them with pyro and I’m not sure I want to give up on pyro at EPCOT. You can have the drones come out first and then clear them before pyro, but they have to be well clear which creates a major lull in the pacing of the show. (At Disneyland Paris they literally are considered their own little preshow, and then you just stand there for a few minutes while they fly away before the castle projections start.) Now at Animal Kingdom where they can’t do pyro anyway…
I’m so excited about Happily Ever After and I really just hope Epcot gets a show that’s worthy of Epcot. Part of what was so disappointing to me about HarmonioUS was the fact that other than the songs in different languages, there was nothing to distinguish it as an Epcot show vs. something that could be in any castle park.
I would love to see an EPCOT drone show! I saw DLP’s 30th Anniversary drone show in September, and it genuinely brought tears to my eyes. It was the perfect ending to a great day!
i’m really surprised disney is so far behind in using drone shows.
I liked Harmonious, but LOVED IllumiNations. I would like to see an IllumiNations 2.0, as it were.
this. so much good will would return.
I had an outright visceral reaction while reading this: lump in my throat, actual chills, tear-filled eyes. The last word, “drones”, was exactly what I was thinking 1/2 second prior to reading it and I physically shook when I did.
Ok, I need a nap.
Love your writing, Tom. Top shelf.
When Chapek (good riddance) announced the theme song was returning I was afraid that meant big changes to my favorite show.
The addition of projections down Main Street sound lovely! Keeping what people love and adding to it without changing the core…sign me up!
Now we just need annual passes to return. Maybe an AP option for out of state folks. Please.
I cannot wait to see HEA again.
A guess — The new Epcot show will:
1 — Be drone intensive
2 — Will not completely do away with the Stargate and tacos — spent too much money to scrap them so quickly.
I have absolutely zero inside info, but here are my guesses in response:
1. Agreed
2. https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/resources/mini-encyclopedia-of-be/sunk-cost-fallacy/
“…including a phased removal of fireworks platforms following the final “Harmonious” performance”
This line in the announcement makes me think the water tacos are on their way out. Depending on how they are constructed, I could maybe see them being repurposed into actual barges that move into the lagoon before showtime and move back out afterwards. That would solve the visual blight problem while not completely trashing the R&D investment. But I also see Tom’s point about the sunk-cost fallacy and if management hates them like guests do, they could just take the loss and start over.
can we just be rid of the eyesores in the lagoon?