Happily Ever After’s Emotional Return
Happily Ever After has made its heartwarming, emotional, and triumphant return to Magic Kingdom. We were on hand for the first night of fireworks in over a year at Walt Disney World, and will share photos of the crowds and pyro, plus thoughts on our experience and how this was about more than just fireworks–it truly felt like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel…exploding overhead.
As you’re no doubt aware, no nighttime spectaculars have been shown at Walt Disney World since pre-closure. As of July 2021, both Happily Ever After and Epcot Forever have now returned. Disney Enchantment and Harmonious will replace those respective shows on October 1, 2021.
No word yet on Fantasmic or the pyro and projection shows at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but the latter should be back before fall. Our expectation is that nighttime is once again pretty normal by the start of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary. See What’s Returning to Walt Disney World in 2021 & 2022 for more on all of that.
As with so many days the past couple of weeks, the return of Happily Ever After was a rainy one. (If you’re visiting in the near future, we’d strongly recommend reading our 2021 Storm Season at Walt Disney World & Hurricane Elsa Update.) There was an afternoon downpour, followed by several hours of light rain.
We had planned on arriving earlier, but the rain foiled those plans. Instead, we rolled up to Magic Kingdom at around 8 pm. Unsurprisingly, guests were already camped out in Town Square and the Central Plaza. Basically, everywhere from the Cinderella Castle Forecourt back to Casey’s Corner was packed with people roughly 90 minutes before the start of the fireworks.
Fair warning: nothing here is useful information for your Walt Disney World planning purposes. What follows is mostly just me being reflective about the last year, plus fireworks photos. It should go without saying, but the return of Happily Ever After is a big deal for locals and fans. On a normal night with this much precipitation, crowds would’ve thinned out more. Conversely, if it weren’t pouring for several consecutive hours, more tourists might’ve lingered in Magic Kingdom.
We’ll see where Happily Ever After crowds “settle” after the Fourth of July holiday. Our expectation is that you’ll need to arrive early to stake out a prime viewing location, as that was the case even pre-closure. While a few years old, Happily Ever After is incredibly popular–and for good reason (sorry, Wishes faithful). Between pent-up demand and fans wanting to see it one last time before Disney Enchantment replaces it for a couple years, it’s likely to be a few busy months on Main Street.
Since our main motivation for being there was to be there and enjoy the homecoming of Happily Ever After, I didn’t place much emphasis on photos. Given the crowds, weather, and ever-present likelihood of a last-minute shoulder kid, the conditions were far from ideal for photography, anyway.
We’ll be back to Magic Kingdom many times in the coming weeks and months and will have more/better photos and practical advice, so stay tuned for that. For now, some thoughts on the return of fireworks at Walt Disney World…
During Happily Ever After, I’ll admit that I got a bit choked up. Not because the princesses’ heroic journeys overwhelmed my emotions, but because this felt like coming full circle, closure, or something of that sort. I’m honestly not entirely sure. I think everyone realizes that it’s been quite a year and, to varying degrees, we’re all still processing that as we plow forward to normalcy.
Perhaps the most apt way to describe standing on Main Street in Magic Kingdom among a sea of excited and happy people while watching pyro explode overhead is an on-the-nose embodiment of reaching the light at the end of the tunnel.
We can hear Happily Ever After from our house, which started as a fun novelty but pretty quickly faded into the background. “Fireworks time” was like an afternoon storm, something so routine we took it for granted. When it happened for what we assumed would be the final time in a while last March, we paid attention–it was an emotional night for all of the wrong reasons.
Upon returning to Walt Disney World at the end of last June when DVC resorts reopened, I remarked that being there had a detoxifying effect—we didn’t fixate on the news, social media, or any real world problems. Our cares melted away, replaced by the magic of Walt Disney World. At the time, it was most definitely escapism. The concerns still existed, but we had a temporary reprieve from them.
Even though we knew it was (much-needed) escapism at the time, we naively did think the worst of it was behind us. We were quickly disabused of that notion by last July. Seeing the resorts and parks as ghost towns was a novelty at first, but the reality of what that meant for the people of Central Florida was crystal clear.
What happened in the ensuing months is well-documented. Throughout the fall and winter, the parks lost billions of dollars, laid off tens of thousands of Cast Members, and things got even bleaker. We haven’t called Central Florida home for that long, but it was nevertheless devastating to see all of this unfold. Experts forecast that it would take until 2025 for the region to recover, and it felt like things might never be the same.
All of this was flashing through my head while watching Happily Ever After. If I’m being honest, I barely paid attention to the show. If you asked me to recap it, I couldn’t. (Well, I could since I’ve seen it enough times, but you get the point.) It has been quite a year, and experiencing Happily Ever After for the first time since last March–except this time, from inside Magic Kingdom–was an emotional experience for all of the right reasons.
Obviously, the last year has unfolded differently for everyone–and for much of the world outside the United States, that light at the end of the tunnel is not “fireworks-sized” quite yet. However, it is in Central Florida, and it’s impossible to fully articulate just how different the mood is here as compared to last year. I was becoming increasingly optimistic by the beginning of this year, but I still never expected things to get this good, this soon.
It’s not just having the fireworks back. It’s seeing the park packed with happy and unstressed guests, visiting resorts where we’re not the only ones in the lobby, and so much demand for everything that Disney can’t keep up. It’s going from a situation where tens of thousands of people are losing their livelihoods and there are dozens of daily heartbreaking goodbyes on social media to one where Walt Disney World literally cannot hire people fast enough and is importing college students en masse in an attempt to fill the surplus of open positions.
It’s that instead of escaping a grim reality, we’re visiting Walt Disney World with sincere senses of calm, comfort, and happiness–celebrating having reached that light at the end of the tunnel.
I’m sure everyone would describe it differently, but that was the communal vibe and palpable energy of standing on Main Street for the first night of Happily Ever After’s return. Chatting before and after the show, people were excited about seeing the fireworks for the first time in over a year, but more so about what the returned symbolized. During Happily Ever After, with the start of each poignant segment, the collective cheers literally drowned out the audio. It was like everyone unburdening themselves from a year of stress all at once. It wasn’t just rain or joy in the air, but a sense of relief. We’ve made it to the other side.
Suffice to say, being part of that crowd was something special. And so, our journey with the return of fireworks in Magic Kingdom comes to an end. But yours continues on. Grab ahold of your dreams and make them come true. For you are the key to unlocking your own magic. Now go. Let your dreams guide you. Reach out and find your Happily Ever After!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Were you present for the return of Happily Ever After or Epcot Forever? Did you notice a similar mood from the crowd? Did seeing nighttime spectaculars at Walt Disney World once again make you similarly emotional or reflective? Looking forward to seeing the fireworks soon? Have your own thoughts on the comeback story of Walt Disney World, Central Florida, or the United States? Do you agree or disagree with our thoughts? 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!
Thank you for a truly heart-felt article. I visited WDW last August, basically as an act of defiance and to show support. I admit that it was a wonderful visit but stressful and sad in a lot of ways. I’m looking forward to my trip next month (!) and know that a lot of the magic will be back. If I had any doubts, your article as removed them. Thanks again.
This post alone brought tears to my eyes–can’t imagine being there!
” . . .I didn’t place much emphasis on photos. Given the crowds, weather, and ever-present likelihood of a last-minute shoulder kid, the conditions were far from ideal for photography, anyway”
. . . followed by some singularly spectacular photography. Thank you!
I would definitely buy a Disney “last minute shoulder kid” shirt, too.
Great post Tom! Curious if you or any of your readers can share experiences with getting back to the resorts via Disney busses after HEA. Trying to plan which night to watch HEA on our upcoming trip and just wondering what time or how long to expect it will take to get back to our resort. Any insight is much appreciated!
We were there last night and it was such an incredible atmosphere!!!
Great post. My home park is Cedar Point in Ohio, and they just started doing their nighttime show last weekend. It’s not like Happily Ever After, where it’s been the same show every night for years, it’s a big song and dance spectacular that they’re just doing this summer to celebrate their 150th anniversary.
Anyway, when I was watching it, I got choked up in a similar way. It just felt so refreshingly normal, and to me, was more a celebration of us nearing the end of a dark year than an anniversary celebration. I know that this pandemic is not over, and I know that hundreds of Americans are still dying every day. But for the most part, those of us who have chosen to acknowledge the severity of the virus and have trusted our top doctors and scientists to develop an incredibly effective deterrent, are finally ready to move on with our lives. That’s something worth celebrating.
What a great article! Thank you so much for sharing. It really does sound like a special experience and like it symbolizes the light at the end of the tunnel after such a horrible and painful time. I’m so looking forward to seeing the fireworks later this year (although it will be the new show by the time I go in November) and I’m sure I will get super emotional. In fact I’ll probably be emotional the entire time I’m there but that’s ok. After what we’ve all been through we need joy and hope and being with other people!
And now Elsa is going to rain, instead of freeze, all of Florida in a few days.
There are a lot of these emotional “firsts,” for a while. First it was just getting to WDW last year on a trip, getting to Magic Kingdom. I felt the emotions watching the video of the testing of the full show last weekend recorded from Polynesian beach. I watched a few minutes this morning of posted video from last night just to hear the cheers at the start and the start of the pyro portion.
One comment I’ve been thinking about related to Happily Ever After and it going away for at least a year-and-a-half: while I’m looking forward to seeing the anniversary special fireworks, we will certainly miss Happily Ever After – we really find it to have an emotional connection (and it started just before the 2nd trip after we started our Disney obsession and 1-3x/yr visits), so it especially connects with memories with our kids, who were 3-1/2 and 5 when we first saw it).
I hope the popularity means it will definitely be back after the 50th show, but sadly, I don’t think we will ever see the exact same Happily Ever After (“HEA”). Hopefully it won’t be major changes, but I could definitely see it getting an update. As much as we love the show, I do think one “flaw” in the show is that due to the use of movies, particularly ones released in the last few decades, it definitely has a bit of a “moment-in-time” aspect to it. The most recent movie that came out prior to the show’s start was Moana. Cars 3 came out the month after HEA’s debut, and there is a quick reference to it showing Lightning McQueen and Cruz Ramirez. At some point it will start to become obvious that the famous and staples of Disney Animation and Pixar are all featured or at least referenced, but nothing after spring 2017. By the time it comes back, it will have been 7 years since Moana was released and 6 years since Cars 3. Since then there have been 9 Disney or Pixar movies released, and likely 13 movies by the time HEA returns. Some of those movies also have emotional/family, etc. moments that would lend particularly well to a spot in HEA (think Coco, Onward, Raya, Luca, and more).
My wife and I are actually going for the weekend in 2 weeks, but weren’t planning on going to Magic Kingdom (just doing a relaxing, resort/Food & Wine/Galaxy’s Edge weekend), but are thinking we may need to go see Happily Ever After one last time before the hiatus and for what could be the last time in its current form.
I’ve never seen Happily Ever After but hope to catch it just before the 50th on a solo trip I’m taking at the tail-end of Sept. In your photos the projections look gorgeous with the 50th anniversary wrapping, but it also made me curious if the bunting gets in the way of any of the scenes?
Thank you so much for sharing these photos with us. We can hardly wait until we are there for the actual thing. Have a great week, will keep on following you, your advice and comments are great.
I get teary during this show normally, so I can’t imagine how I would feel if I were there now (chances are, I won’t get to see it in this abbreviated run, since we won’t be back until the 50th has started). I remember during the worst of everything last year, my benchmark for “normal” was seeing this show return. Amazing that we got here.
Watched last night from the TTC ferry dock. Awesome view, but I was very disappointed by the music situation. There are a few speakers faintly playing the music, but you basically have to choose between standing somewhere you can hear the music or standing where you have a good view. I scrambled and just played the music in my earbuds, but wish I’d known and been better prepared, you know?
I have to say the line “say goodbye to the pain of the past” never meant more to me… we are indeed getting back to normal. â¤ï¸
Thank you Tom. I’m choked up reading this! I appreciate you sharing your experience. Next best thing to being there.
Tom, any idea if HEA will return once the anniversary festivities are over?
Posts like this are why you have such a loyal following. Thanks for giving all of us a bit of escapism, context, and hope during the past 15 months.
Those pictures are AMAZING! Thanks Tom!
(Insert sigh of relief) This encapsulates what I hope everyone’s experiences will be in the parks for the rest of the year. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Brilliant post Tom.