Walt Disney World Cast Members will be the first to see the return of 'Happily Ever After' at Magic Kingdom with a special preview ahead of its April 3 official reopening

Feb 23, 2023 in "Happily Ever After"

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Happily Ever After preview

Posted: Thursday February 23, 2023 11:52am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Two thousand Florida-based Disney Cast Members and their guests will be among the first to see the return of 'Happily Ever After' at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

Disney is hosting a special preview opportunity on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, from 11:30pm – 12:00am., where Cast Members will be randomly selected to see the early showing of the fan-favorite firework show.

For guests, the eagerly awaited return of 'Happily Ever After' will take place at 9pm on April 3, 2023.

Happily Ever After preview

The updated 'Happily Ever After' will feature all-new projections down Main Street, U.S.A., using the new projectors installed for the 50th anniversary. The 50th anniversary show, "Disney Enchantment" will be offered through April 2 2023.

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Starship8243 days ago

I assume you mean at Disneyland at IASW?

wbostic123 days ago

For sure. Does anybody remember the outrage at the first projector setup for Magic Memories and you? These don’t look good, but anything could be better than that.

cjkeating3 days ago

I would expect these will be themed in due course. They have only just been installed for testing the new show.

SpectroMickey855 days ago

I do not want to see boxes on the roofs either. The current quality is poor but I hope there are other options to improve that than rooftop projectors.

TTA945 days ago

I agree. If they could raise up and down that would be ideal, but like @Squishy said the alignment could be an issue. MK, for the most part and with the exception of the hub light poles, has always been good at not having show equipment and lighting visible. It will be interesting though to see if that is about to come to an end with the rumor of new parade route lighting for Starlight.

Starship8245 days ago

Honestly, I'd rather not have giant boxes at top of Main Street that you could see during the day. I think our current setup is pretty good even if our projection quality isn't as good as Disneyland or what Disneyland Paris will be if we can avoid having big boxes on the top of Main Street.

Squishy5 days ago

The quality is better than the WDW MS ones from what I seen in the recent preview video. The DLP projectors are not on lifts, lifts are typically avoided for projectors as even the slightest mm misalignment will cause a greater misalignment on the projected surface at a distance. If they went with the indoor projector route like MK they would be the same projectors as MK to not take up a lot of space.

TTA945 days ago

Interesting, Paris is installing their new MS projectors on the rooftops. Doesn’t look the greatest but it might be better than in the windows like MKs. I assume they will raise up come show time like the other rooftop lights do. Let’s hope MK does the same eventually.

Starship82426 days ago

Wanted to just point out that the show looked great tonight and it looks like the very top of the castle has brighter projections? Maybe I'm going crazy but it looked clearer and brighter at the top. Maybe they're updating the protections sections at a time? if you look at the left side it looks brighter too. That or I'm just going crazy.

ToTBellHopAug 29, 2024

Yeah. Will ops fund it well going forward, though? I don’t want to see empty character spots. It’s distracting on FoF.

jrhwdwAug 29, 2024

What ever budget Starlight has.....that Budget is totally secure, correct?????

DisoneAug 28, 2024

The budget is about $4.63. But that is about $4 more than they previously had🙂

Starship824Aug 28, 2024

I wouldn't be surprised to see some other kind of drone show to come along. Or updates to Luminous that have had recent rumors, I also watched the Nighttime spectacular panel from d23 and Steve Davison heavily hinted at updates even though he said he's "not announcing anything".

TTA94Aug 28, 2024

Something else new or plussing to go along with Starlight next year would have been nice, but I’m guessing Starlight is taking every last cent of WDWs entertainment budget. Let’s hope it’s a large budget.