Drones above WDW skies?

[Amy]

Saw an article this morning that WDW has applied for three unmanned aerial vehicle patents. Here is a link to the full article.
http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/morn ... -have.html

What does everyone think? Might lead to some interesting nighttime shows....but I hope they would not replace the fireworks entirely!

[zammis]

Wow! Very interesting Amy! I actually have a drone myself and they are amazing! I love flying mine! It has a camera and I can film all sorts of angles with it! But I'm not sure it would be 100% safe to be above guests heads Haha! Sounds a fun and interesting idea to me! But I think it might bring up a lot of controversy! What do you think?

[Amy]

Wow! Very interesting Amy! I actually have a drone myself and they are amazing! I love flying mine! It has a camera and I can film all sorts of angles with it! But I'm not sure it would be 100% safe to be above guests heads Haha! Sounds a fun and interesting idea to me! But I think it might bring up a lot of controversy! What do you think?

I think it can be integrated into the shows pretty seamlessly, although they would have to be pretty big to be holding up scrims and the like. I would hate to see a laser show in the sky from the drones completely replace the fireworks though. I can always count on seeing fireworks at Disney and I really look forward to them each evening!

[zammis]

Yeah! Your right! I would really miss Disney fireworks! But if they had drones, they might get shot down with the fireworks Haha! Ooops! I would rather fireworks any day !!!

[Amy]

It will be interesting to see what ends up happening with them for sure! When I first clicked on the story I half expected that WDW would be using the drones to check out crowd levels in various places and allocate CMs accordingly.

[zammis]

Yeah! That's what I thought too! That would be good for the 4th July and Christmas! Haha ! It would also be great on the tower of terror Haha! And splash mountain Haha!

[Amy]

Found another article that has a little bit different spin on the patent
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/themargin/ ... rtainment/

[zammis]

Very interesting link! I think that the mickey ears were a fun idea! But are there as many people who where them now as they did a year ago? And will it just end up that the drones get boring and are nothing like fireworks!? Very interesting!

[zammis]

Anyway. I'm heading to bed now Amy! Speak soon Haha! Very interesting topic though!

[cy1229]

Fireworks shows are rrreeeaaallllyyyy expensive. Hubby's ex-wife did pyro shows at Disney for a year. Lots of man hours to choreograph and set up. Drones with programmed laser shows are much less expensive. Adding them in could make fireworks shows economically viable for a lot longer time. I doubt the pyros would ever go away entirely.

[kelpseaweedkelp]

Whoa this is very interesting - just got my imagination running. So much potential!
Total side note since we were talking about fireworks...I only want to watch fireworks like this from now on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... 9KZ3jgbbmI

[Amy]

Whoa this is very interesting - just got my imagination running. So much potential!
Total side note since we were talking about fireworks...I only want to watch fireworks like this from now on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... 9KZ3jgbbmI

I saw that ~ I guess it was really dangerous though since they didn't know the drone was up there. Guy was lucky he didn't get in big trouble!

[ImagineerWannabe]

Impressive! I like the 3D effect of the stars shooting past you, although I also enjoy the "wow" factor of seeing how huge fireworks are which is lost when you're in the middle of them. Well at least from that videos perspective.

I remember reading somewhere that after the military Disney was the largest purchaser of pyrotechnics. I'm not surprised and see how that could be super expensive.

I'm in the midst of reading the floating pixel patent. It's intriguing and seems to indicate that, at least to start, they could be used over a lagoon or stadium (i.e.: not over people, a wise decision I think). Wasn't part of the new Animal Kingdom expansion suppose to have water and a new night time show? Seems like a perfect place to launch something like this.

[Amy]

Impressive! I like the 3D effect of the stars shooting past you, although I also enjoy the "wow" factor of seeing how huge fireworks are which is lost when you're in the middle of them. Well at least from that videos perspective.

I remember reading somewhere that after the military Disney was the largest purchaser of pyrotechnics. I'm not surprised and see how that could be super expensive.

I'm in the midst of reading the floating pixel patent. It's intriguing and seems to indicate that, at least to start, they could be used over a lagoon or stadium (i.e.: not over people, a wise decision I think). Wasn't part of the new Animal Kingdom expansion suppose to have water and a new night time show? Seems like a perfect place to launch something like this.

I was thinking of the AK expansion as well when reading this.

[zammis]

Animal kingdom for me too! Just imagine those pink floating things in the film Avatar. They could make the drones look like them and have them floating around the sky, above the park!