Fireworks shows have colorful new neighbors in the skies above Central Florida’s attractions. Hundreds of drones, scurrying around for entertainment purposes, are increasingly common.
The devices, armed with flexible lighting capacities, are changing the look of nighttime spectaculars, sometimes as a supplement to traditional pyrotechnics, sometimes flying solo.
“This is the power of the drone show in established parks: a new storytelling device to add one more layer to night shows,” Morrow said.
“How many points of light would that take to make it immediately reveal that look … and you’re not kind of squinting to understand what it is?” was one consideration, he said. In addition, a drone’s battery life is about 10 minutes, he said, and “CineSational” clocks in at 22 minutes.
Despite the “shiny new toy” status of drones, the Universal show’s creators sought to balance the scenes on land, sea and air.
“We wanted it to feel like everything is working together, nothing is driving you away from a major moment,” Aiello said.
But they also delayed the arrival of drones until about the six-minute mark of the show. They also built in a “surprise and delight” moment with the arrival of a character from “How to Train Your Dragon.”
“That gasp that we get every time Toothless appears up in the sky? … It happens every show because we’ve held it back,” Aiello said.
For the Disney Springs show, the company decided it would not use fireworks at all.
That number of units keeps the sky from going completely dark, he said, unless by design “like before the Death Star appears,” he said.
Disney Springs was home to a drone show in 2016. That was a limited-run holiday production.
“It’s just a completely different world of technology that drones are these days,” Duffy said. For instance, drone battery life was six minutes back then, he said.
“So I think that 2016 was a great kind of first pass, if you will, for the company in general,” he said.
Drones are common sights on the internet, but seeing a drone show in person can be a new experience, he said.
“I think probably 99% of our guests are seeing a drone show for the very first time in person,” Duffy said. “And I remember my own experience. It is truly magic when they just appear in the sky.”
The Disney show formations morph from Dumbo to the “Up” house and also include Peter Pan, Wall-E and Buzz Lightyear, among other characters that, well, soar. Spectators line the walkways that face the water between the shopping complex and Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort.
Legoland Florida will stage its drone show above Lake Eloise. There are two grandstands and a grassy hill facing the water.
“Drones, being a pixelated picture in the sky, play so perfectly over water,” said Juliette Guedry, head of entertainment for the theme park. The 10-minute, 500-drone show will feature “Lord Vampyre hosting a monster party,” she said.
It will be the first drone show with “very specific Lego DNA in it,” Guedry said. “We’ve been working very closely to get those identifiable, recognizable minifigs (minifigures) in the sky,” she said.
The Legoland show will have fireworks, too.
“When it comes to transitions and flow of show and the creativity behind the ebbs and flows of the show, I think that fireworks really supplement that,” Guedry said.
Pyro has proven staying power, said Dennis Speigel, founder of International Theme Park Services.
“Fireworks have been with us for thousands of years. … I don’t believe fireworks will ever go away. I think that the two, as we’ve seen in some cases, will be homogenized together,” he said. “I do believe that the sizzle of the fireworks will always be there because it’s so exciting.”
The drone trend has a foothold with attractions big and small, he said.
The machines “were originally rented. Now companies are buying some of them. … A lot of places don’t want to buy them because they’re evolving,” Speigel said.
Drone shows have additional benefits for smaller customers, including zoos, Morrow said.
“The hottest trend we are seeing is our nonprofit zoological clients are very interested in them as a ‘drone-only show’ concept as limited-cost, low-pollution output, and lack of sound impact to animals are of top interest to them,” he said.
“Also the direct storytelling that can be done with drones—literally spelling words—is of interest to zoological educational teams,” Morrow said.
The Disney Springs show ends with the drones spelling out the show’s title, and that moment has become a selfie opportunity, Duffy said.
The drones are an additional show element, Duffy said, not unlike the arrival of projections upon Cinderella Castle or laser beams coming from the Magic Kingdom icon.
“Could we have a day where we have a drone/projection/water fountain show? Maybe. Or a drone-only show or drones with pyro on them?” Duffy said. “I think that there is still kind of a visceral reaction that happens with pyrotechnics and fireworks that I don’t know that the world’s ready to be done with.”
