I was watching a episode of The Mouselets recently. (If you like things like the Imagineering Story, or deep-diving into the inner working of Disney, the episodes hosted by Mouselet 2 are fascinating.)
Anyhow, she did an episode about the airspace above Disney. Long story there, but after 9/11, the airspace over most of Disney is essentially a no-fly zone, unless very specialized permission is granted. (I’m curious about bioreconstruct.) This was partly because Disney wanted it that way, but the FAA actually has final say on the matter.
The result is that for a good portion of WDW, including over MK, aircraft are not allowed to fly, INCLUDING drones. Even Disney, themselves, can only request temporary permission to fly anything in the airspace. And this explains why Disney has not been able to put a drone show in MK as they have been to do at other parks.
The space above DS is not part of this restricted airspace, however, which is why they were able to do the drone show there for a while.
Anyhow, I never realized that the reasons for the lack of drones was due to the FAA, rather than Disney just not wanting to do it or wanting to invest in it!
I swear Len and Jim have talked in the past (a few times?) on why Disney has only used drones (for now) at DS. I believe it was discussed that it is really an issue ensuring guest safety. For the fireworks, Disney has a team that spread out throughout an area ready to respond if there is a fireworks related accident. Disney has not used drones in Florida over guests. That has limited these shows to take place over larger water ways.
Does anyone else remember these discussions? Has that changed?
I’m fairly sure that doing it over water is to ensure an abundance of caution…but apparently that isn’t the reason they CAN’T do a drone show over MK. They simply aren’t allowed to because of the FAA.
Interesting. I may have misunderstood Mouselet 2’s comment about Disney Springs. I thought she meant Disney Springs is not part of the no-fly zone at all, but maybe she meant that flying over water at DS is what is allowed.
Even if they did get permission from the FAA to fly over the Magic Kingdom, they’d still have to be over Bay Lake or Seven Seas Lagoon since they won’t (can’t) fly over people. But the problem there is that there are still people in those two bodies of water due to the Fireworks Cruises. And with a dozen or so boats every night at $500 a pop, I doubt they’d want to end the cruises unless they really, really had to.
It’s not a no fly zone, it’s restricted airspace. Surface to 3000.
Most of DAK, all of DHS, all of DS and some resort are not in the restricted area. However, while Disney does not control the airspace, they do control where you are standing. So they prohibit flying(piloting) a drone from their property. As for shows, the flying over water, is more about not being over people. While there are regulations, and exceptions, about flying over people, liability is the real issue. Imagine if a drone fell and killed a guest.
Who knows what the future holds. All of the problems could be overcome, but even then how does a drone show make money?