We just noticed a CHANGE in Happily Ever After!
They all lived happily… ever… after.
We’ve seen a lot of changes in Disney’s nighttime spectaculars since the COVID closures happened in 2020. We’ve seen Enchantment, Harmonious, the return of Fantasmic!, and even EPCOT Forever come and go since the parks reopened. In April 2023, Disney made the decision to bring back a fan favorite — Happily Ever After. It’s been almost a year since its return…and we just noticed a CHANGE that was quietly made to this popular show. Are you ready to begin?
If you didn’t know by now, we’re at Disney World ALL. THE. TIME. This has led to us picking up on a lot of new, small changes throughout the parks (we’re looking at you, tiny train town) — even when they’re things that aren’t announced by Disney.
Happily Ever After!
Well, we were at Magic Kingdom last night and noticed a small change to Happily Ever After that truly brought us so much joy. Now, we know that this doesn’t hugely impact the show, but we feel like we officially have the original Happily Ever After back (and, yes…we cried).
Happily Ever After Fireworks
When they brought Happily Ever After back in 2023, we picked up on a difference from its original run — at the beginning of the show, the castle wasn’t backlit in the way it used to be during those bigger, more dramatic moments. Along with that, the full-beam searchlights weren’t there in the way that we remembered them.
This is how they used to look!
Well, we were watching the show last night and noticed that both of those things were BACK! To be sure our eyes weren’t tricking us, we even compared it to some previous footage we have of those moments.
On the first beat of the music, and that first moment right before the narrator says, “And they all lived happily ever after,” the castle got a lighting UPGRADE!
Look at that backlighting!
Once we confirmed it — our jaws DROPPED. We can’t lie to you; the change is pretty remarkable once you see the comparison. To have those full-beam searchlights backlighting the castle during those dramatic moments makes a difference.
Also, it’s nice to OFFICIALLY have the pre-pandemic Happily Ever After back in our lives.
Like we said, we’re in the parks all the time, so we’re constantly on the lookout for small changes like this. So, keep checking back in with us at DFB to see what we find next!
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Where is the best place to get good pictures of the fireworks? Coming to Disney World in April with my son’s High School band If I can bring a small tripod, where is a good place to set it up to take good fireworks pics both in Magic Kingdom and Epcot? We were supposed to come in 2020 before COVID hit and at that time I could use a fast pass for a good viewing spot for fireworks. I don’t know if that is still available since Fast Pass isn’t around anymore.
I visited the Magic Kingdom on February 21, 2024. My husband and I were shocked and angry that not only couldn’t we join a virtual que at 7am or 1 pm but we also could not buy a lightening lane pass. Every time we tried to do either it said that it was only eligible for hotel resort guests. We have never encountered this type of discrimination with Genie + in the past. Is this a new policy that Disney is instituting without telling potential Disney + buyers? 😢