There is a lot to love when it comes to Disney World!
Spaceship Earth and the New Lights
It is the Most Magical Place on Earth after all, and is full of fun rides, characters, and food (obviously). But, there are some things in Disney World that are…well…not so magical. These things may be different for some people, but there is one thing that practically everyone agrees to hate so far: the Harmonious barges in EPCOT.
You know the gorgeous body of water that allows you to see nearly ALL of World Showcase from whichever pavilion you’re at? Well, the Harmonious barges are kind of a HUGE eyesore to what used to be a stunning view.
Harmonious Centerpiece
We can’t even count the number of times we’ve overheard people complaining about them in the parks! We really can’t blame them because this was the view before…
Epcot World Showcase
…and now the view is blocked. Remember that the barges are not just in position for testing. THEY. ARE. PERMANENT. That’s right, these babies will be sitting in these spots until Disney decides to bring a new show to EPCOT or completely reimagine the show.
Harmonious Barges
In December, we saw the first barge make its way out onto the lagoon, and the second and third barge followed shortly after. There are two more barges that have yet to make their debuts, but we honestly don’t mind if they wait a while! The view is busy enough at the moment, and it’s hard to think that there will be two more giant monstrosities in the water.
Harmonious Barges
But, we’re not the only ones thinking it. We reached out to our DFB readers on Instagram and they had some THOUGHTS on the barges. Many noted how the view across the lake was so beautiful but is now obstructed, or that they take away from the beautiful scenery of the pavilions.
One reader shared that they take away from the “stage and show,” and noted they wish they could be moved out during the day. Before the October 1st premiere of Harmonious, one even said the nighttime show will need to be VERY GOOD in order to make this obstructed view acceptable. Let’s just say we got QUITE a few comments from people who are not very pleased with this view.
Harmonious Centerpiece
But, others were more optimistic leading up to Harmonious’ debut! Some readers said they’re ugly to look at during the day, but will be great at night. Or that they’re sad you can’t see across the lagoon but excited to see the changes taking place. One reader even said they were 99% excited, and 1% nervous. That’s some confidence there and we appreciate that!
New Harmonious Centerpiece
Still others were on the fence, and said they’d just have to wait and see Harmonious, which is a perfectly valid stance on the issue.
Harmonious Barge
Even though we and well, a LOT of people who visit EPCOT might hate the barges in the water, Harmonious has been pretty amazing with its custom-built LED panels, choreographed moving fountains, lights and lasers, and pyrotechnics. These barges also support a six-story tall structure as well as four 25-foot tall LED screens and 54-foot long moving arms. Overall, Harmonious has been received fairly well.
Harmonious
Now that we’ve seen Harmonious, tried out its dining packages, and even streamed the soundtrack on our phones, the sight of the barges stings our eyes a little bit less knowing that those barges carry a dazzling show that celebrates the cultures of the world with lights, music, and effects.
The Harmonious Album © Walt Disney Records
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Disastrous. Who cares what the nighttime show looks like? They have ruined this view for the other 9+ hours of the day.
These need To Go! They are ugly & look like JUNK someone left in the middle of a beautiful lake! Someone CALL THE COAST GUARD FOR REMOVAL!!!!😝😝😝
Dear DFB
I love the newsletter.
About the fireworks islands
Put them in Backstage.
So they can’t be seen
The Fireworks islands….
Maybe they could be painted. Pretty colours?
Form and function before beauty
Jordan
Let’s hope the fountains soften how unattractive things are appear during the day. If Harmonious meets or exceeds the hype, then it should soften the hatred for how things look during the day. I think one objective with production of this show might be to put an end to the time and labor involved in moving barges every day like what occurred with Illuminations.
They need to store these elsewhere, then move them to the lake later in the evening.
It’s way too soon to judge. I’m waiting to see them as fountains before I decide.
They need some serious magic … they could mimic the view behind them by displaying in lights what the barges block. So that they appear invisible. I assume there are color changing pixels on them for the light show. Just light it up with some Florida / Disney images so they blend better in the daytime. Should be easy enough for Disney.
Well, another great view gone! Make the person who decided this be handcuffed to Jar Jar Binks for umm… a month? Sorry, that’s unfair to Jar Jar.
This is ugly, ugly, ugly.. ruins the entire concept. Disney is not good at admitting mistakes, so I don’t have much hope that the beauty that once was the show case will return anytime soon. But it’s disgusting and I’ll just have to hold my nose until sanity returns
We have remodeled many a home for investments or for ourselves. Sometimes the deconstruction and construction are not as appealing as the final updated/decorated product. I applaud the spectacular WDW Epcot plans to provide us via a new evening show. My opinion (which others may disagree with) is the Imagineers will provide us something amazing and in the end all be be great.
I’ve seen these monstrosities in the water at Epcot and it total blocks the beautiful American Pavilion! It might turn out to be a great night time show but you have to wonder who comes up with these ideas to create a show that ruins the day time show of what was once the Beautiful World Showcase!
Couldn’t they have built this to emerge out of the water rather than just sit there all day. Moving these monsters will be too cumbersome (imagine being caught on wrong side of bride while all that gear is moving and you are almost late for dinner res on other side). Any problem can be overcome with engineering, guess they thought the views wouldnt be affected as much.
Disney seems to like disrupting views. The beach at the Polynesian village used to be the best view on property. Now with all the bungalows lining the shoreline, that view is all but vanished. Except for the fortunate few that can actually afford to stay in those super expensive places.
They really should be building and testing them out of view. The STARGATE in particular is annoying and I haven’t even been there in person yet! I’m one of the people who won’t mind the all day Fountain as long as the falling water hides the ugly metal structure. I’ll have already seen it enough by the time the finally get this started. Disney should have taken advantage of the park closures and limited time to get as much of the construction done as possible last year. Even at the height of the covid hype, working outside with a simple mask was safe. so much could have been completed last year for this 50th anniversary, now we aren’t even going to get half of the promised ‘renewals’ completed until next year. For someone who has to save and plan for 2 to 3 years to take my family on a trip, I can’t tell you how disappointed I am with Disney’s decisions regarding construction and showing all the ugly parts of production for so long in EPCOT.
Back in 2000 when the Sorcerer’s Hat moved in front of The Great Movie Ride, many of us were nearly (well, okay, not nearly, but somewhat) dismayed about the view. The hat was fine, but not THERE. Several of us in a long-time usenet-turned-Facebook group took to calling it the BAH (as in, Big A** Hat). We’re now debating whether this is the BAE (Eyesore) or something equally as negative. I really hope fountains and pretty lights will help, but they CANNOT make this okay.
Oh dear Disney – maybe Bob Chapek should show that he really understands the ethos that makes Disney World the wonderful place that it is and reconsider this mess! One of the keys to the success of so much that Disney does is in creating illusion and surprise rather than giving away the technology of a show – here ‘story’ and ‘show’ clearly no longer come first as we are all being treated to the technology before the show even arrives.
‘Illuminations’ was so magical as the centrepiece globe floated across the lagoon and fountains and fireworks emerged from inconspicuous barges positioned just in time for the show – leaving the daytime vista across World Showcase Lagoon as it was originally conceived.
The Harmonious barges look as though Tony Stark has taken over more than just the Old Universe of Energy pavilion and accidentally created a new monster!
They need to figure out how to make that mess go away during the day.
We were there yesterday. Compete eye sore.
The barges are awful. Harmonious is awful.