We’ve seen so many changes in Disney World just over the past four years.
Luminous
This is especially true with nighttime entertainment. In Magic Kingdom, Disney introduced the Disney Enchantment fireworks show to celebrate Disney World’s 50th Anniversary. So here’s the thing…fans still preferred the Happily Ever After fireworks show, which ended up making a return once the 50th anniversary celebration had ended. Could we see something similar happen in EPCOT?
Okay, so let’s get back to Disney Enchantment. The fireworks show was never a big hit with Disney World fans, who insisted that Happily Ever After was the better nighttime show. So Disney brought back Happily Ever After and even updated the show, adding projections along Main Street, U.S.A., which many Disney fans believe made it even better. For many Disney World visitors, Happily Ever After is a show that should NOT be missed.
Happily Ever After
Over in EPCOT, many fans actually complained about the 50th anniversary nighttime show, Harmonious. Most preferred the previous nighttime show, IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, which hasn’t been performed at EPCOT since 2019. After that, EPCOT Forever served as a filler nighttime show until Harmonious premiered. Harmonious ended in April 2023, at which time EPCOT Forever returned to fill in until a new show, Luminous The Symphony of Us premiered later in the year.
Luminous
So here’s the thing, where folks talked a LOT about Harmonious (usually, critically), we’re not hearing much of anything about Luminous, which seems somehow worse. If anything, no one seems to care much for Luminous, like it’s just there. It’s certainly not a show that we see recommended as a must-see in Disney World. It doesn’t seem to be a show that Disney fans hate, but more of a show that they’re just ambivalent about. This new show just isn’t really making its mark.
Luminous
So what does this mean? Well, Luminous was meant to act as a sort of tribute to celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary, so could it end so that a previous show could return to EPCOT? We’re not talking about EPCOT Forever, either, which has always been a sort of temporary show between shows. We’re wondering if Luminous might not go the way of Harmonious and be replaced with a new version of Illuminations?
IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth
For one thing, like Happily Ever After, Illuminations is a fan-favorite show, and if you ask many Disney fans, many might say that it’s better than both Harmonious and Luminous. With Luminous getting such lackluster attention, we can’t help but think Disney might decide to bring back a more popular show like Illuminations. Of course, Disney has not yet revealed any such intention, but well, we can dream, right?
Illuminations
We’ll have to keep an eye out to see if Disney might be considering bringing back Illuminations, but for now, we’ll just have to enjoy Luminous A Symphony of Us while we can.
Stay tuned to DFB for more.
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I love the new show Luminous!!! I happen to think its the best fireworks show that Epcot has had, and finally a rival for Happily Ever After in MK!! Even my relatives from MN who only visit every so often, felt that Luminous was BETTER than Happily Ever After (and they saw them on two back-to-back nights). I truly hope that Luminous stays for years to come!!
Luminous the Symphony of “meh”. Had to be the most boring nighttime show that I’ve ever seen at WDW. The music was borderline depressing and didn’t choreograph with the fireworks and lasers. I plan to skip this in the future.
Luminous is decent; I just dislike the mammoth scaffolding in the middle of the lake. I wish they’d at least try to integrate it with the environment a little. Right now it looks like a UFO crash landed in the lagoon. I actually enjoyed Harmonious quite a bit, but only because it was a huge nostalgia rush.
Luminous felt like a big fresh show for me. I’m so tired of all the nighttime spectaculars featuring the same type of extremely stereotypical and clichéd music arrangements. The composers of Luminous finally brought some much needed musicality to a Disney show. The arrangements are creative and beautiful. While I fully understand, it makes me sad that people prefer more typical pop stuff. Accepting change is hard.
I thought it was great! I love that the barges move out of the lagoon during the day and at night i am 100% all in on the show. It doesn’t have to be your favorite, but any show at Disneyworld with fireworks and i am in!
We LOVED the original Illuminations…not the Reflections of Earth, but the original one. It was so beautiful with the lasers and Countries all lit up. We would love to see something like that again. As for the new/current one, we felt like the show presentation would have been so much better IF there was more upbeat music and less lecturing. The music is actually very meh. Not exciting or moving or fun at all. And for all the talking, I get the intent but it was too much. We felt like we were grow school yard lecture about how to get along. I’m sure it’s an important message, but, during a fireworks show, it was more of a party foul.