The Disney Parks blog just announced Happily Ever After, a new fireworks-and-projections show for the Magic Kingdom I've never been a fan of Wishes, and that show has overstayed its welcome by any measure, so I'm really excited for the change. The score in the video sounds great (apparently based on HKDL's 10th anniversary song) and the visuals look good, so this seems like a positive move Steve Davison is noticeably absent from the video; I believe he also wasn't involved in Rivers of Light. It will be interesting to see if this show follows his familiar format, or goes for something different
This show looks really good. Does WDW alraedy have projections on the castle like DLP and SDL have? Or id this going to be the first one?
WDW has had a separate castle projection shows since around 2008, but this is the first time projections are really being incorporated into the main fireworks shows (though Wishes projected character outlines on the castle, cutting edge at the time). They've gone through 4 or 5 different projection shows (some with seasonal variations) since then, and they have been generally popular as a supplemental evening show. Their current show, Once Upon a Time, originated in Tokyo as their main evening show, due to the unreliability of pyro with the winds off Tokyo Bay. MK has a slightly edited version (with less pyro, though still more than previous projection shows), which Disney has said will continue to run after the new fireworks show debuts I suspect that the removal of Wishes at MK will parallel the removal of Aladdin at DCA in a lot of ways. Both were very long-running shows that were never all that great on their own merits, but became exceedingly popular because of how long they had been around. Unlike at most parks where guests ask when "the fireworks" will be, WDW guests have been trained to ask specifically about Wishes. It's run almost every night (excluding upcharge parties) for the better part of 14 years now. I suspect that once people realize that the replacement show isn't completely terrible, they will be okay with it, but for now there will be a lot of hand wringing over the change
