Disneyland Experimenting With Adding Drones to Nighttime Spectaculars

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Disneyland fireworks over Sleeping Beauty Castle

Credit: Disney

If you love nighttime spectaculars at Disneyland Resort, they could be getting even more magical in the future.

As technology continues to become more and more prevalent, Disney is looking to stay ahead of the curve and offer some of the best experiences possible for its Disney Park Guests.

world of color
Credit: Disney

Walt Disney World Resort offers Disney Enchantment at Magic Kingdom and Harmonious at EPCOT. The beloved show Fantasmic! is also set to return at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the future, but an exact date has not been announced as of yet.

At Disneyland Resort, all nighttime spectaculars are back. “World of Color” returned to Disney California Adventure and the Main Street Electrical Parade and Disneyland Forever fireworks show also came back to Disneyland Park this past spring. Fantasmic! also came back to the joy of Guests everywhere this past month.

main street electrical parade
Credit: Disney

Now, as Disney looks ahead, there are more exciting offerings being considered.

Disneyland Paris has introduced the Disney D-Light show with drones to celebrate its 30th anniversary and it seems there may be considerations for using this technology in other Disney Parks, as well.

The Orange County Register recently reported that Disney is experimenting with adding drones to other nighttime spectaculars in the future.

“We are looking at it and curious about how to do it,” Disney Live Entertainment show director and writer Wendy Ruth said of the Disneyland Paris drone show. “There are definitely experiments to be done with a variety of drones — in size, in what they do and their programmability.”

Disneyland Paris castle with drones
Credit: Disney Parks Blog

Ruth shared that finding a way to keep the tradition blended with new technology is key to an endeavor such as this one.

“Here at Disneyland our guests don’t like to see a lot of change. They want what they know,” Ruth said. “But when we can do something like a ‘World of Color’ and surprise them and say, ‘You didn’t know that you wanted this. You’re still seeing those characters you like. You’re still hearing the music that you love. We’re just presenting it in a brand new way.’”

“Disneyland Forever” at Disneyland Park
Credit: Disney

Of course, one of the biggest hurdles to adding drones in a Disneyland show would be compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as the impact the performances would have on nearby neighborhoods and traffic.

“It’s exciting to see what people are doing,” Ruth said of drone shows. “But when they do it, they go out to the desert to do these shows. We just have different parameters.”

It should be noted that Disney just recently celebrated Disney+ with a spectacular drone show in Los Angeles that left many fans absolutely stunned and impressed.

Would you want to see drones added to nighttime spectaculars at Disneyland? Let us know in the comments!

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