While visiting Disney Springs recently, we noticed that Disney has installed some new spotlights for the upcoming Disney Dreams That Soar drone show. The addition of these theme park-style spotlights, combined with audio infrastructure enhancements already completed, has significantly increased our expectations for the drone show – to the point where we expect it to be a visual feast for guests visiting Disney Springs this summer.
Disney Springs, oddly enough, is the only location at Walt Disney World to have tried a drone show before. During the 2016 holiday season, the Starbright Holidays drone show was presented over the same lake that the new Dreams That Soar show will be presented. That said, the two shows will likely be quite different. From unimpressive shapes to poor audio, the Starbright Holidays drone show was more of a proof of concept than anything else. The Dreams That Soar drone show will be Disney World’s first real foray into drone shows, and we expect it to be impressive and just the first step for drone use at the parks.
In this article, we’re going to go through all of the recent changes since we last checked in on the project. Let’s go!
Audio Infrastructure Enhancements
We’ll start along the bank of Lake Buena Vista, from roughly the West Side Starbucks down to House of Blues. All along the walkway here, Disney has installed enhanced speakers to create a better audio experience than the Starbright Holidays. This is crucial to creating a worth nighttime performance, and we expect that it will be up to par.
Since we last checked in, the rest of the speaker stands and speakers have been installed from the House of Blues down to the Aerophile balloon.
One of the Disney Springs water taxi docks has been taken over for the brains of the new audio system.
Modified Walkway to Saratoga Springs
To support a safe flight path, the western walkway to Saratoga Springs has been modified to cut through the Strawberry Lot to create a pedestrian-less runway for the drones to use to access the lake and return to the fenced staging area.
It’s a bit of an awkward walk because it takes you to the front of what appear to be the Minnie Van Cast Member trailers, but in terms of extra steps, it’s not that bad. Of course, you really don’t want to be using this walkway from Saratoga Springs anyway as the eastern walkway to the Disney Springs Marketplace will probably contain fewer steps, in general.
Here’s a wide view of the drone runway, with the pedestrian walkway going behind the fenced drone staging area below.
New Theme Park-Style Spotlights
The biggest news is the installation of the theme park-style spotlights across Lake Buena Vista, along the shore of the Saratoga Springs resort. Our first few photos will be from Disney Springs to show you the “width” of the current spotlight array, but we strive to go the extra 2.1 miles here at BlogMickey.com. And yes, that is the exact distance of the walking route that we took to complete a full lap around Saratoga Springs and back to the viewing angle from in front of Summer House on the Lake as seen below.
One of the challenges that we assume Disney faced with the show was creating something to set the drones against. In Disneyland Paris, the Tower of Terror and Sleeping Beauty Castle are excellent landmarks to use to pull the visuals of the show together. Disney Springs doesn’t have anything like that, so we assume the solution is to flood the night sky with more than a dozen high-powered spotlights.
The width of the spotlight curtain that will supplement the Disney Dreams That Soar drone show is from the Congress Park dome tower on the left to the “Welcome Home” sign on the right. This is the view from in front of Summer House on the Lake.
Here’s the view from near Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar, with the BOATHOUSE bar on the right.
And yes, we promised a full walk around the lake, so here’s the close-up view of the spotlights as seen while walking through Saratoga Springs.
Disney even added some uplighting to the area trees.
Disney Dreams That Soar Drone Show
Here’s how Disney describes the Disney Dreams That Soar drone show. Disney has not announced details such as the show runtime, or nightly performance times.
At Disney Springs, drones take to the skies above Lake Buena Vista with “Disney Dreams That Soar,” a summertime experience that will be a late-night perk for visitors. “You can fly” takes on a whole new meaning as we showcase Disney stories celebrating the joy of flight with state-of-the-art drones choreographed to create designs in the sky and paired with a “soaring” musical score (see what I did there?) and memorable movie quotes. After spending a day delighting in shopping, discovering fun activities and savoring diverse flavors at Disney Springs, turn your eyes to the skies above the West Side with a show amongst the stars. “Disney Dreams That Soar” will run nightly from May 24 through Sept. 2!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!