Subsonic Radio

We went to Disneyland on Saturday and were so disappointed with the fireworks show. They had us stand the entire time and had a traffic flow of people right in front of the castle! They said they have you stand as a safety precaution which I think is a bunch of balogna. I think it's just a way to cram more people closer together. Is that really safer? We had even staked out spots 2 hours early in the very front but because of all the people walking in front of us our kids could hardly see the show.

When we saw the show two years ago they had the traffic flow of people quite aways back and they let you sit on the ground in front of the castle, which was a much better plan in my opinion. Also, we were really disappointed when Tinkerbell didn't make her usual flight above the castle. Is that a normal occurance? We had looked forward to the show all week and we were really bummed with what we got.

Standing is a safety issue, as people could get stepped on in the traffic flow areas (aside from the problem with having to move quickly in an emergency and possibly getting trampled). I know they allow you to sit where there isn't any traffic, such as the hub itself, without any problems.
The reason that they don't allow seating/viewing directly in front of the castle is that for this show there are many more pyrotechnics coming out of the castle itself and the area immediately surrounding the area. Two years ago most (if not all) of the display was actually set off behind toon town, and there wasn't as much danger of people viewing directly in front of the castle. I'm sorry that you didn't get Tinkerbell , as that is still part of the show (to the best of my knowledge).
I'm surprised you were dissapointed with the show. It is by far the best fireworks display I have seen in my life. The tour through Disneyland is a great storytelling vehicle in my opinion, and the surprises of the Haunted Mansion and Pirates areas are truly awesome. The entire show is wonderfully orchestrated and planned out and they hit every que perfectly. I love the show so much that I still make sure to catch the showing every time I'm at the park when they have it going, even though I have an annual pass.
Is there any particular part of the show that you didn't like?

danimal3114u wrote:Standing is a safety issue, as people could get stepped on in the traffic flow areas (aside from the problem with having to move quickly in an emergency and possibly getting trampled). I know they allow you to sit where there isn't any traffic, such as the hub itself, without any problems.
The reason that they don't allow seating/viewing directly in front of the castle is that for this show there are many more pyrotechnics coming out of the castle itself and the area immediately surrounding the area. Two years ago most (if not all) of the display was actually set off behind toon town, and there wasn't as much danger of people viewing directly in front of the castle. I'm sorry that you didn't get Tinkerbell , as that is still part of the show (to the best of my knowledge).
I'm surprised you were dissapointed with the show. It is by far the best fireworks display I have seen in my life. The tour through Disneyland is a great storytelling vehicle in my opinion, and the surprises of the Haunted Mansion and Pirates areas are truly awesome. The entire show is wonderfully orchestrated and planned out and they hit every que perfectly. I love the show so much that I still make sure to catch the showing every time I'm at the park when they have it going, even though I have an annual pass.
Is there any particular part of the show that you didn't like?

I didn't mean to come across like I didn't enjoy the show. I totally agree with you in that it is the coolest fireworks show Disney has ever created. They have done amazing work with perfectly orchestrating the music to the fireworks. And yes, the Pirates and Haunted Mansion parts are very cool! I was just hoping for the same experience that we had before when we watched the show in 2005.

I can understand that if they changed where they actually light off the fireworks that they can't have people on the sidewalk in front of the castle anymore for safety reasons. I can even get past the fact that they have you stand through the whole show. But why on earth would you have the flow of people traffic directly in front of the castle?? I can't believe that they didn't direct people to walk across Main Street further back behind the main viewing area. Why right in front of the castle? There were SO many people who would stop right in front of us to watch or take a picture before a CM would tell them to keep moving. It was just really frustrating. How annoying would it be if they had the flow of people traffic walking right along the Rivers of America during Fantasmic? There's a reason why they direct people to walk behind those that are trying to enjoy Fantasmic-so they can SEE the show! And the fact that Tinkerbell never showed up was the icing on the cake of disappointment. Tinkerbell was my daughter's favorite part of the show two years ago and we were all so disappointed when she didn't show. I guess next time we won't bother waiting two hours right in front of the castle to get a "good" spot when it really wasn't. Sorry for venting! I was just really frustrated!

That is very strange about the traffic right in front of the castle. I imagine that it might have something to do with the increase in the amount of people watching the show. You are correct that before they used to have people cross Main Street to head to Adventure/Frontier/Critter County or Tomorrowland. The last couple of times I've noticed that they have each side of Main Street delegated one way, and have everyone continue moving up toward Tomorrowland and not cross anywhere until past the hub. I always assumed that they had people go around the back and not in front of the castle, as they now doing. It looks like they aren't able to let people cross Main Street anymore because the entire street is full of people all the way back to the Emporium. That is poor planning that they have the crossing right in front of the castle, and hopefully they can change that next time.
Once again, really sorry that you had a bad experience during the fireworks, and I really hope that you can go again sometime relatively soon and be sure to watch tinkbelle and not have to deal with people cutting across.
Also, just FYI I found one of the best places to view the fireworks and not have to deal with the crowds is over to the west side of the castle, near the side entrance to Frontierland with the covered performance area (they use to have an ice cream parlor here). You're able to see about 90% of the show, and only miss a couple of low lying fireworks that shoot off on the east side of the castle, or from the very back of the park. You have a perfect view of the Matterhorn (probably the best in the park) for those segments, and you're right in the middle of some great Haunted Mansion and Indiana Jones pyros. You can still hear the music perfectly, and you don't miss a beat. But the best part is that you can usually grab a chair from the band performance area and have key seating about 10 minutes before start. Out of the 6 times I've watched from here, only once were there more than 15 people in this location, so you also got a nice sense of comrarderie with strangers which you can only get at Disneyland . I'm not sure how the change in traffic direction impacts this area, but it might be designated as a foot traffic area now, so sorry if this suggestion is out of date.
Anyway, I hope you have a better experience next time! Thanks!

Another good viewing area that I just recently discovered is right behind the castle in fantasyland and also back towards 'Its a small world". Its not the same as the show from the front of castle but still awesome to watch. You still get all the same music from the show and also a closeup view.

i have never seen the fireworks here before, but there is no way they can compare to IllumiNations at Epcot!!!!

danimal3114u wrote:That is very strange about the traffic right in front of the castle. I imagine that it might have something to do with the increase in the amount of people watching the show. You are correct that before they used to have people cross Main Street to head to Adventure/Frontier/Critter County or Tomorrowland. The last couple of times I've noticed that they have each side of Main Street delegated one way, and have everyone continue moving up toward Tomorrowland and not cross anywhere until past the hub. I always assumed that they had people go around the back and not in front of the castle, as they now doing. It looks like they aren't able to let people cross Main Street anymore because the entire street is full of people all the way back to the Emporium. That is poor planning that they have the crossing right in front of the castle, and hopefully they can change that next time.
Once again, really sorry that you had a bad experience during the fireworks, and I really hope that you can go again sometime relatively soon and be sure to watch tinkbelle and not have to deal with people cutting across.
Also, just FYI I found one of the best places to view the fireworks and not have to deal with the crowds is over to the west side of the castle, near the side entrance to Frontierland with the covered performance area (they use to have an ice cream parlor here). You're able to see about 90% of the show, and only miss a couple of low lying fireworks that shoot off on the east side of the castle, or from the very back of the park. You have a perfect view of the Matterhorn (probably the best in the park) for those segments, and you're right in the middle of some great Haunted Mansion and Indiana Jones pyros. You can still hear the music perfectly, and you don't miss a beat. But the best part is that you can usually grab a chair from the band performance area and have key seating about 10 minutes before start. Out of the 6 times I've watched from here, only once were there more than 15 people in this location, so you also got a nice sense of comrarderie with strangers which you can only get at Disneyland . I'm not sure how the change in traffic direction impacts this area, but it might be designated as a foot traffic area now, so sorry if this suggestion is out of date.
Anyway, I hope you have a better experience next time! Thanks!

Thanks for all your imput! We are going again this Saturday and we will be sure to check out one of the spots you mentioned. Hopefully Disney will try and fix this foot traffic problem right in front of the castle. You'd think that they could just rope off areas on Main Street ahead of time that would be designated traffic areas. It seems that they were already doing that in front of the castle. So I can't imagine that being too difficult to resolve. Oh, well. If they don't fix it then we'll just stick with one of the areas you mentioned! Thanks again!

the fireworks show has tremendously improved over the last year, love all the ride music in there. I feel you on the viewing locations, no matter what we do we always get gyp'd and end up getting just of good as a spot as we do when we just walk up when it starts. Still a very good show from any location.

yodiwan1 wrote:i have never seen the fireworks here before, but there is no way they can compare to IllumiNations at Epcot!!!!

I wouldnt say that unless you have seen the fireworks show at Disneyland.

yodiwan1 wrote:i have never seen the fireworks here before, but there is no way they can compare to IllumiNations at Epcot!!!!

I don't even think you can compare the two. I've watched IllumiNations and think we could do something more with it, I mean the globe just sits there the whole show. I like how the DL show has a flow, and a story, which is way more than IllumiNations has. Just my .02

how can you say the globe "just" sits there? first of all, if you have a good view of it, there is a very good video that si shown, 2nd once it opens up and the flames come out and the fireworks are shot directly from it's core, it becomes one of the most amazing sites in Disney!!!! Not to mention the show is much more than just fireworks and music. Granted, I have never seen it, but I don't think anything can ever compare to the show that goes on in the World Showcase lagoon. It's like combineing the fountain artistry from Fantasmic, fireworks, lasers, and a world class score.

broncoflyer8912 wrote: I mean the globe just sits there the whole show.

actually, the globe moves from around the England pavillion to the middle of the lagoon during the show, as it's spinning and playing the movie.

i have never seen the fireworks here before, but there is no way they can compare to IllumiNations at Epcot!!!!

I also thought nohting could top IllumiNations, then I saw a youtube video of "Remember" along with my cousin's (not as good) video-taping of it. The videos alone were enough to convince me that this fireworks show is the mother of all fireworks shows. I can't wait to see it in person. Unfortunatley for me, DL isn't going to be as easy to get to as WDW for various reasons.

They both have a different feel though. "Remember" is very "Disney" while IllumiNations does not resemble Disney at all.

(I do wish the globe was a bit bigger, then IllumiNations would be practically perfect)

since we're starting to get into WDW fireworks as well as the DLR ones, I'm moving the thread to the "general resorts" forum.

I think a good alternative to the globe (as far as the movie portion) would be the water vapor screen like in Fantasmic or the new PotC Davy Jones effect. everyone can see it from anywhere around the lagoon

i have never had a problem seeing the globe from an place I have ever stood.