More hardware arrives in EPCOT's World Showcase lagoon for 'Luminous The Symphony of Us'

Oct 04, 2023 in "Luminous the Symphony of Us"

Luminous barges in World Showcase Lagoon - October 3 2023
Posted: Wednesday October 4, 2023 9:08am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

More hardware for the upcoming Luminous nighttime spectacular took to World Showcase lagoon last night for systems tests as preparations for the December 5 debut continue.

 

Two of the barges were out in the lagoon, complete with six mini firework barges transported inside the main barges. Note that unlike Harmonious, Luminous hardware will be moved out of the lagoon during the daytime.

Luminous features a large number of barges, with six main central platforms, each containing multiple smaller barges that will deploy out in a spoke design.

Don't expect to see any full-scale rehearsals for the show just yet. Crews need to work through the new hardware setup and conduct tests on individual systems and pyro products.

"Luminous The Symphony of Us" will officially debut to guests on December 5 at EPCOT in Walt Disney World. The new show is the long-term replacement for Harmonious and the interim EPCOT Forever show.

Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle recently said that Luminous will be a "Brand new show filled with fireworks, fountains, lasers, lighting effects. Fabulous Disney music. Luminous is going to touch your heart. And it's going to continue our long tradition of amazing nighttime entertainment EPCOT. I cannot wait for you to see it."

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Disone8 days ago

Sorry. I was just joking. It's was just snark.

jrhwdw8 days ago

Yeah......Steve hasn't reported that....... IDK why Lum. did that but Tink flew and HEA looked normal last night.

Disone8 days ago

In unrelated news Walt Disney World just updated its " safety " criteria for using a wind version of this show. Winds of 3 mph or higher 🙂

Squishy8 days ago

Seems like they altered the Luminous moderate winds version, it now contains even less shells than previous moderate winds showings, I noticed in the second half of the show a lot of shells are missing.

WDWTrojan27 days ago

SageOfTime27 days ago

Is there a video of this? I've heard about it happening from quite a few on here, but never seen it for myself.

SoFloMagic28 days ago

But I feel like it missed even on that. They gave up on the languages bit after like one song. Then they just played a greatest hits of happily ever after, then jumped into Tiana and lion king. Then I guess they wanted to add a bit of tension, so they ended it with such a crappy finale that eveyone always looked around trying to figure out if that was really it.

SoFloMagic28 days ago

It's as close as you're going to get to an IP Illuminations

Vinnie Mac28 days ago

There is another element of the show I really appreciate. I absolutely love the way the show uses the park to help tell the story. I mean it literally does this from the get go with the "welcome" introductions. It's awesome and it feels like something straight out of the Illuminations era of shows. Also love the way they play the tapestry of nation's soundtrack with little fun facts being shared on days that the barges are pulled from backstage. Just really makes the show feel like an integral part of the park rather than a separate addition

Chef idea Mickey`=28 days ago

They went with the continents route, although they did skip on by Australia even they had an old IP Rescuer's Down Under.

SoFloMagic29 days ago

It also screamed of the age it was made - it forced diversity in an attempt to show how welcoming Disney is. But rather than using... the theme park it's in which happened to be built to show diversity and togetherness across cultures... They used the lion king to represent an entire continent. It was a hardware failure and a content failure. Just a nightmare. Thank God we have a show now that remembers what park it is in and has more reasonable hardware.

BocabearDec 17, 2024

Some shows just don't work... That was one of them... It felt like a movie clip show...it didn't feel right for the park. The pacing was terrible... a collection of random Disney IP songs with a big finale moment with each song so that after three of them it was just repetitive...It did not feel like a story...which is what a show usually has...some sort of an arching through-line to make it feel like it is going some where...building...a journey.... That show had none of that. I noticed people around me, after the third pointless song and "finale moment" started fidgeting and looking around...away from the show... Looking disinterested... I noticed of course because it had lost my attention too. It was new technology...all new hardware....unfortunately the show gave away all the wow moments early in the game...so that then, it just became repetitious.. I saw another show that was just like this at Shanghai Disneyland a few years ago... Too many cartoon clips, ponderous poorly paced show that just seemed to go on and on... I was thinking it was the new trend... then Luminous replaced Harmonious... and it was a lot better. Same problem plagued Rivers Of Light... Too many clips, too much forced IP... when it could have been something original and beautiful...

MisterPenguinDec 17, 2024

In the lead-up to Harmonious, various Imagineers and PR people gave differing account about what Harmonious was all about: It's about joy in music. (The PatF song was overworked and overwrought leading to the opposite of joy.) It's about international unity with Disney songs in different languages. (The Aladdin song representing Near East culture was... problematic.) It's about dance uniting all people. (Only one song was danceable.)

osianDec 17, 2024

Harmonious was a Disney movie clip show with no relevance to EPCOT. They tried to make it relevant by forcing natives of countries around the world to sing western Disney songs. This completely missed the target. That doesn't say celebrating other cultures to me at all, it's more how to abuse them and introduce western pop culture to them. Regardless of the oft-quoted reasons for scrapping Harmonious (sightlines, reduced restaurant takings) I'm sure there was a certain amount of irrelevancy backlash that has been heard and Disney is not going to admit that publicly. I present Journey of Water as evidence...the IP is nowhere near as in-your-face as previous efforts. The IP-based refurb of SSE has been scrapped, together with the IP Play pavilion, and a Mary Poppins focus for the UK pavilion. (Although I will probably be proved wrong when the next annoucement is IP-heavy). Luminous is a more fitting show for EPCOT, it celebrates humanity. That is the core of what EPCOT is, for both World Showcase and what was originally Future World. It's quite telling that you mention the only EPCOT relevance are the beginning and ending songs, i.e. those that are original and not coming from Disney IP. Whichever angle you take, trying to make Disney movie IP fit into EPCOT is like pushing a square peg into a round hole.