Dragon at Disneyland's Fantasmic! destroyed by massive fire

gerararDec 28, 2024

About a year later, turns out that I happened to be in the LA area for the weekend, thus making an impromptu Disneyland visit, and I finally got to see the Fantasmic! here. Seeing the show for the 1st time, despite it being the 2.0 (or 2.5 at this point) version of the show was great. However, the viewing experience was probably the lowest part of it. I staked out my spot behind some ropes near Tiana's Palace ~30 mins before. Having to stand for the entire duration was rough, especially after a full day of rides and park hopping. Then about a couple mins before the show started, some people decided to stand in front of me. A CM told them to move, which they did by taking the rope in front of me and putting it in front of them. So now my view was partially blocked. Then throughout the show, CMs would regularly shout at guests to keep moving since it was a moving walkway, no fault to them. As for the show itself, the intro was fantastic. Those spotlights and the anticipation of Tuxedo Mickey appearing was great. The moving fountains, mickey hand pyro and everything was *chef's kiss*. The lion king and jungle book segment segment was fine. Pink elephant followed by Genie was meh. Really did not like seeing Sorcerer Mickey this early into the show. The transitions to Peter Pan and the princess segment was really rough. It seriously needs to be tweaked. Peter Pan segment itself was fine, but wished it was quicker since it kinda drags imo. The WDW action hero segment with all different small segments for each hero makes the pacing go quicker and more engaging. Aladdin/Jasmine doing a dance was okay, but hope they get their magic carpet back. The covered versions of the princess segment was eh, which was a common complaint with 2.0. Onto the villians – bring back the Evil Queen! The current fight with "Malificient" was nice with all the extra pyro, but the dragon was missed.. Then here comes the weird part, there was no Mark Twain in the finale. The lighting and everything indicated a B-mode stage finale should've occurred, but there were no characters on the stage. My best guess is the characters were on the boat but the Mark Twain didn't budge for whatever technical reason. I also found a closer spot with a better view by this point after people started leaving after the princess segment. Got the 2-mins of nothing on video as this is such a rare fail to see live. Then onto the Sorcerer Mickey finale. That should've been the first time we saw Mickey on top the cabin, not during the magic mirror scene earlier as it ruins the surprise. Besides that, the sync'd pyro was so good. I do think the spotlight choreography needs work as it was reduced with 2.5. The lasers could also be improved and better utlized, similar to the east coast version. Also noticed the green flares were missing and looks to have been turned off for quite a while now. Overall, the show is probably a 6.5/10 for me. I'm glad I finally got the chance to see the original in person after all these years, but it does have a lot of faults and overall mehs. The highs of the show imo are what was there originally and they built off for the newer version of the show. But the various changes/replacements made just doesn't match everything else. The viewing experience however really dampers the experience for the regular guests.

PiratesMansionDec 19, 2024

Doesn't it typically run nightly during Spring Break?

Disneyprince22Dec 19, 2024

Fantasmic will remain running weekends only next year until May.

AJFiremanDec 19, 2024

The rest of the article describes the inconsistency between show times and dining packages being available until February 16. I confirmed the Dining packages are listed for weekends up until Feb 16(Presidents Weekend). Looks like the Calendar still needs some updating to either remove dining packages or add show times. "The calendar for Fantasmic! Dining Packages in the Disneyland app lists more performances — but not a very consistent schedule. Firstly, it doesn’t show availability on Monday, January 6, even though the online calendar states “Fantasmic!” will perform that day. As for the rest of the month and February, performances are scheduled for January 17-19, 24-25, January 31, February 1, February 7-8, and February 14-16. In other words, all Fridays and Saturdays, and three Sundays. The dining packages calendar currently ends after February 16."

TouchdownDec 19, 2024

Perhaps they don’t want APs to flood the park opening night. Makes me wonder if they are targeting a holiday weekend (Presidents Day or Easter)

TheCoasterNerdDec 19, 2024

Good question, maybe they plan to keep it secret as a surprise, or maybe they'll announce it closer to installation. It just doesn't make sense to have that long of a pause unless something is happening.

Starship824Dec 18, 2024

Why hasn't it been announced yet then?

TheCoasterNerdDec 18, 2024

I would assume this is for a dragon, no?

jrhwdwDec 18, 2024

Apparently, F! is off for NYE....Odd

jrhwdwDec 05, 2024

No F! News for the 70th yet.....

jrhwdwNov 11, 2024

On X, New Dining Package for F! announced starting Jan 2025. If F! has no Referb, New Dragon still on the way?

TheCoasterNerdNov 04, 2024

Confirmed it was rain, full pyro has returned tonight. There is still a good amount of stage pyro missing during the Malificent section though, plus no water fire

Nland316Nov 03, 2024

So is the new dragon already supposedly installed? Or being installed currently? I remember some mentioned it would occur during some past downtime for the island.

jrhwdwNov 03, 2024

True that!!!! I was just talking about now. Believe Holiday returns in 2 Weeks. Is it me or is DLR's Christmas Start a little late this year?