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Not Afraid
06-21-2002, 09:35 AM
Last night (Thursday) the fireworks, um, um, SUCKED! Which is a surprising thing for me to say since, next to the Swans, they are sacred.

Polar 33 described it on THIS (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=108678#post108678) thread.


Tonight's show was missing the bulk of the fanale...a few ring shells, the Mickey shells and the final comet were the only things that worked. At least the Mickey was good, but the rest was totally wierd to see.

The show was fine until just after Tinkerbell's flight, Then everything just died. I've seen the FWs probably 100 times and never experienced this amount of pyro failure.

I felt really sorry for the guy next to us (an obvious tourist) who, first, completly missed Tink then was dismayed by the lack of pyro to go with the swelling music. I hope he can see the show tomorrow.

The other thing that made the night "interesting" was the closing of EVERYTHING at 9:00, including the Main Street stores. There was a grad night scheduled and apparently they wanted everyone out - pronto! From both DCA and DL all guests were streaming out of the gates and into DTD. It was quite the traffic jam. Needless to say, we walked back to the parking garage.

So anyone know why the Pyro was a no show???

Thomas
06-21-2002, 09:55 AM
Get over it. It is not always perfect. Sorry if DL can not always live up to you expectations. I suppose you even know how high each one is supposed to go in the air.

stan4d_steph
06-21-2002, 10:04 AM
Too bad they had an off night. Maybe it was a bad batch. Does anyone know of any articles that describe the technology used for the fireworks show? I would be interested to read about the computer/pyro interface they use to get such (usually) consistent, reproducable shows day after day.

Rallymonkey23
06-21-2002, 10:07 AM
Originally posted by Thomas
Get over it. It is not always perfect. Sorry if DL can not always live up to you expectations. I suppose you even know how high each one is supposed to go in the air.

Wow. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed....:rolleyes:

Not Afraid
06-21-2002, 10:09 AM
Originally posted by Thomas
Get over it. It is not always perfect. Sorry if DL can not always live up to you expectations. I suppose you even know how high each one is supposed to go in the air.

First of all, may I suggest some chamomile tea, it helps to calm the nerves.

Secondly, you are correct, it is not always perfect, however it is RARELY (or never in my experience) as off as it was last night which suggests a more serious issue.

ThIrdly, no I don't know how high each one is supposed to go. Do you have this information to share with us. I'm sure there's more than one person who would be interested.

Thanks!

innerSpaceman
06-21-2002, 10:15 AM
Originally posted by stan4d_steph
I would be interested to read about the computer/pyro interface they use to get such (usually) consistent, reproducable shows day after day.
I would be very interested to know what they do on the night BEFORE the last night of summer fireworks, when they throw what must be all the "leftover" shells up into the sky and have what has been consistently, year after year, the best fireworks show of the Disneyland season.

Why this has always been the night before the last night, I will never know, but it has never failed.

tinkfreak
06-21-2002, 10:26 AM
Originally posted by Thomas
Get over it. It is not always perfect. Sorry if DL can not always live up to you expectations. I suppose you even know how high each one is supposed to go in the air.

Eeeeew. I don't think she was complaining. Calm yourself, really. When things go wrong at DL, some of us just want to know why...

Ghoulish Delight
06-21-2002, 10:27 AM
Originally posted by innerSpaceman

I would be very interested to know what they do on the night BEFORE the last night of summer fireworks, when they throw what must be all the "leftover" shells up into the sky and have what has been consistently, year after year, the best fireworks show of the Disneyland season.

Why this has always been the night before the last night, I will never know, but it has never failed. Nothing will ever beat that patriotic fireworks addendum they did for a few weeks after 9/11. What better way to celebrate what our country stands for than blowing as much sh.. up as possible!! I swear, every time I watched it, I found myself laughing maniacally for no apparant reason. Good stuff! I guess when Disney doen's have the time to plan a highly correographed, emotionally charged fireworks extravaganza such as Believe, their alternate solution is to throw as many shells up there as they can. Sounds like and excellent plan to me :D

Rallymonkey23
06-21-2002, 10:43 AM
Originally posted by Ghoulish Delight
Nothing will ever beat that patriotic fireworks addendum they did for a few weeks after 9/11. What better way to celebrate what our country stands for than blowing as much sh.. up as possible!!Good stuff!

I agree with ya there GD. I was lucky enought to make it down the long 90 mile trip a couple of times to see the patriotic finale.
It was great! I wish they would use the "fan effect" in Believe though. The first time I saw that I was in awe! I know Disney doesn't like spending money when they don't have to, but we are still at war, so I wish they would bring back the finale.

Hades
06-21-2002, 12:40 PM
I wish they would use the "fan effect" in Believe though. The first time I saw that I was in awe!

I would love to see that effect again also! I think it was the best element of pyrotechnics I have seen since the Orange County Centennial celebration show that was held in Mile Square Park, many years ago. That show was 30 minutes long and was syncronized to KEZY FM radio (no longer on the air).

Perhaps if we just "Believe", it will return someday! :D

Undertaker72
06-21-2002, 12:48 PM
What is this fan effect?:confused: I've never heard of it.

JeffG
06-21-2002, 12:55 PM
If you want to see the fan effect again, it is pretty likely it will be used on July 4th. The last two years, it was a prominent part of the absolutely amazing patriotic finale that was added just for the 4th.

Note that this finale was very different, and much more spectacular, than the one they were using for a while last Fall.

-Jeff

cemeinke
06-21-2002, 01:32 PM
Originally posted by Thomas
Get over it. It is not always perfect. Sorry if DL can not always live up to you expectations. I suppose you even know how high each one is supposed to go in the air.

Just a bit of clarification, last night's show just wasn't missing a few shells, it was missing the whole finale - as well as some of the pyro that launches just prior. They got the mickey up, and the last commet, but everything else was a no show as the music swelled to accompany the dissappating smoke. They were'nt launching dud, rather nothing got launched.

It was definately a very strange site to see.

Not Afraid
06-21-2002, 01:32 PM
The "Fan Effect" is where they shoot off a series of rockets in quick succession, one next to the other, to form a fan shape in the sky. I've seen them use different colors, do 2 overlaping fans, use starburst rockets, or just do straight gold or silver. It is very exciting to see.

They were doing a lot of experimentation with the fan effect during Spring Break last year. The effect was used along with the final shooting star. We must've seen it 10 times in those 2 weeks (to the Disney Geek thread I go :) ).

Not Afraid
06-21-2002, 01:34 PM
My computer is being strange and it posted 3 times - oops.

Not Afraid
06-21-2002, 01:45 PM
And in case you missed it the first and second times....:rolleyes:

zapppop
06-21-2002, 04:16 PM
Originally posted by Thomas
Get over it. It is not always perfect. Sorry if DL can not always live up to you expectations. I suppose you even know how high each one is supposed to go in the air.
Hey everyone, it's John !....er, I mean, Marcie !!! :D

zapppop
06-21-2002, 09:43 PM
Tonight he fireworks were fully intact but I couldn't get an answer as to what happened yesterday.

Polar33
06-22-2002, 03:13 AM
From what I know about the system used in Believe... I'd venture a guess that the entire bank of mortars for the bulk of the finale never got pressurized. I would think that there would be some sort of indicator that would go off if something didn't get pressurized properly so there may have been some sort of software glitch too. From where I was backstage that night I could hear that nothing was being launched or exploding on the ground. It was a very strange thing for me to watch, I wouldn't even want to imagine what a first time guest would have thought about it.

Oh...and most pyrotechnics burst at around the 800'-1000' range, including the ones that were absent from Thursdays show. :)

coronamouseman
06-22-2002, 06:52 AM
Given all of the variables involved, it is amazing that Disney is able to pretty much deliver their pyrotechnic displays most every night.

You have the fireworks and mortars themselves, the amount of care and discipline that must be exercised by the staff to set up the shows and the variables of temperature and wind which are important when the fireworks are being set off in such a constricted area as exists at DL.

disguy
06-22-2002, 08:56 AM
My question is who really cares? Nothing is perfect and things happen.

Ghoulish Delight
06-22-2002, 09:06 AM
Originally posted by disguy
My question is who really cares? Nothing is perfect and things happen. It's just curiosity. No one is getting up in arms about it. They aren't demanding their money back, etc. But Disney has, for years, been able to consistently, on a daily basis, pull of a spectacular fireworks show with almost no glitches (we're talking less than 1 in 100). So when the entire finale goes kaput, something MAJOR went wrong. These kind of systems have backups of backups. If one controlling computer goes down, another jumps in and takes. But apparantly, even the backups went out to lunch that night. We're just curious what caused it.

Ace
06-22-2002, 11:56 AM
Originally posted by disguy
My question is who really cares? Nothing is perfect and things happen.

is that you, tommorowlandfan?

Disney Nick
06-22-2002, 12:10 PM
Originally posted by disguy
My question is who really cares? Nothing is perfect and things happen.

is that you, tommorowlandfan?


ROFL! ... sorry. It wasn't me this time AVP :D.

Ace
06-22-2002, 01:20 PM
please moderators, don't yell at me... It was a perfectly acceptable "in-joke" for Mousepad... It refers to recent events that mostly everyone on this board knows about, and another members actions that reflected those of another.


Squinky---