The Cinderella Castle Dream Lights are one of the most iconic parts of the holiday season at Walt Disney World. Involving over 200,000 Christmas lights, it covers the castle in icy winter magic each year.
The Dream Lights first came to the Magic Kingdom in 2007 and would return every holiday season, lighting up the Magic Kingdom each night with a charming sense of holiday magic that could be seen from the entire park.
While the Dream Lights would light up every night, visiting the park during Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party would bring a special magic to the light display.
During the party, the display would have a special lighting ceremony every night involving a variety of Disney characters.
When the show first opened it featured Mickey and Friends characters alongside Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the Fairy Godmother. They would call upon the Fairy Godmother to light up the castle for the holiday season at the start of each Christmas party. This became one of the most popular parts of the party each year.
But in 2014, this show would be replaced to bring in a new set of Disney characters to celebrate the holidays.
Cinderella and friends would be replaced by the characters of Arendelle. Instead of the Fairy Godmother lighting up the castle, Queen Elsa would use her powers to cover the castle in icicles, a fitting addition to the show. This version of the show was not notably different in style except for the change in characters.
The Dream Lights remained a constant every year, with the crane that put them up becoming an iconic fixture of the Magic Kingdom in its own right.
But, the future of this display is no longer so certain.
The last several years have seen Disney systematically replacing practical light displays with projection mapping. The Osbourne Family Lights, Epcot's Lights of Winter, and more have all fallen victim to Disney's push towards projections.
Now it is appearing that the Dream Lights may fall victim to this same trend, with it being announced that the show will not return in the 2020 holiday season, instead being replaced by a series of projections.
While a lot of entertainment is temporarily being suspended this year, this could end up being a permanent shift, although this remains to be seen.
This light display has been the icon of Christmas at Walt Disney World, and if it is gone, it is a shame that it never received a proper send-off.
Comments
Post a Comment