Which of the current fireworks/ projection shows are the best? Which are good enough to get a dinner or dessert package (where offered)?
We enjoy good fireworks but don’t know that we need to see every show at Disney.
Currently the options are:
Rivers of Light
Tree of Life Awakenings
Wonderful World of Animation
Fantasmic
Epcot Forever
Once Upon a Time
Happily Ever After
Thanks.
Best to worst (only the ones I’ve seen):
Happily Ever After (would consider dessert party but it’s super spenny)
Tree of Life Awakenings
Once Upon a Time
Fantasmic
Rivers of Light (dessert party here is top notch and even if the show is meh the party is worth it)
HEA and F! are world-class quality shows IMO. Last trip we did dessert party/box for both and will always do that again in the future.
Tree of Life show goes on throughout the night and is easy to see. Happily Ever After is the best show in my opinion. There are three dessert parties ($79, $89, and $99). RoL has both dining packages and dessert packages. If you have the dining plan the RoL package is 1 credit at Tusker and two credits at Tiffins (same amount of credits as eating there without the package. The dessert package is $79 (more than Tiffins). There is a Fantastic dining package at Hollywood Studios. Mama Melrose package is about $5 more than the dessert party and it is the same seating.
For DHS, If you enjoy good fireworks and projections, I would keep an eye on if they bring the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular night show for your dates. My kids enjoyed it more than Fantasmic. Wonderful World of Animation did play, but wasn’t nearly as good as SW:GS - it was just a little pyrotechnics and a lot of old animated items. I appreciated it for the history. I would say SW:GS > F! > WWA.
At MK, I like HEA more than OUaT - HEA might be the best nighttime show at any of the parks.
At AK, both RoL and ToLA are low key. ToLA is just a looping projection on the tree of life. Nice to stare at before you leave the park, but not something to plan around. RoL is nice if you like watching boats on water - there’s no fireworks, and the projections aren’t up to the standards of the other shows.
Epcot Forever is a placeholder show - it’s all old epcot music with some fireworks and kites flying around the lagoon. I wouldn’t go out of my way for it - FP+ should be available up to minutes before the show if you really want it, but you don’t need it. Depending on when you go, it might be replaced by HarmonioUS, which is getting a lot of hype as being fully state of the art.
Thanks for all the good information!
Any idea why TP would remove HEA from a plan for Nov 19 or 20 this year? I’m not going then but I was playing around with dates for our 2022 trip. The message was something about closures or something else - very non specific.
We had the DDP and got the Fantasmic dining package with Hollywood & Vine. The food wasn’t great, but the characters were (it was Halloween seasonal dining when we went). We ended up on one of the benches in the very front for Fantasmic and it was probably my favorite experience of our whole trip. I’m already planning to get some sort of VIP package for Fantasmic again for this trip, either the dining or dessert.
Probably due to a Christmas party - the park closes early on party nights.
We’re all Star Wars fans and three of the four of us rank it in tie for first. The dessert party is very good and worth it, in our opinion.