This past summer I was lucky enough to get the chance to see the Disney Springs Drone Show in person twice and I have to say I’ve never seen anything like it! I went to Orlando twice, once on a mother-daughter trip with my daughter, Kora, after she graduated from high school and once with my husband, Dave, on a trip for our anniversary. Both times I saw it I was amazed at how incredible it was. I couldn’t even imagine the technology that went behind it and loved the Disney themes so much it made my heart so happy!
If you haven’t heard about the drone show here’s a little background info. The Disney Springs Drone Show was called Disney Dreams That Soar and this past summer was the first time they have ever done a drone show at Disney Springs. It ran twice a night over the lake and you could even see it from many places in the area, the sidewalk behind House of Blues that runs to the hot air balloon, the tops of parking garages and even at nearby hotels and best of all it was free!
I loved the drone show so much that I’m really hoping they bring it back again sometime soon. Watching it was one of my favorite things I did on each trip.
Here’s a few of our favorite photos from the drone show. You can see how creative it was and how much thought was put into the theming. The audio that played during the show was perfect too. A great mix of music and quotes that were the cherry on top of this incredible experience.
Dumbo
Up
Baymax
Star Wars
The Fairy Godmothers
Figment
The Mandalorian & Grogu (or Baby Yoda ????)
Mary Poppins
If Disney does bring it back to the same location I have a few tips:
- The best location to watch was on West Side Lake Front sidewalk that runs behind the House of Blues all the to the hot air balloon (also called the Aerophile on the map).
- Note: This sidewalk gets very crowded so get there early, if you can get there 45 min – 1 hour ahead of time that should help you get a good spot so no one is in front of you
- When you are looking for a place to stand on this sidewalk you’ll see that they have marked off a viewing area on the ground with tape, this allows people who are still trying to find a place to stand the ability to walk by easily
- This is an important note: the times that we were there, the Disney Springs staff members wouldn’t let people sit on the ground while waiting for the show to start. My guess this is for safety reasons, it does get pretty crowded and I’m sure they don’t want anyone tripping over anyone else
- Once you find a place to stand, if there are people in front of you, don’t worry about it too much, since the drone show takes place so high in the sky having others in front of you usually isn’t a problem, but it really is nice not being crammed in the back while waiting for the show to start
- When you are looking for a place to stand you’ll see they have streetlights lit all along the sidewalk, don’t worry they will turn those off before the show starts
- About 15 min before the show is about to start you’ll see they’ll send out 3-4 test drones, they fly out and up and form a line, it seems to me these drones determine how windy it is and help the staff make the decision whether to go on with the show or not. The first time we saw the show, after these 3-4 drones flew out and back again, they announced the show would be delayed due to high wind, then they sent them out again about every 10 min or so and continued to make announcements about the delay each time. The show did end up starting about 30 min late, but by then it was nice because lots of people left and we had a lot of room to ourselves.
- When you leave you have to walk all the way to the end of the sidewalk. Yep. You have to walk all the way to the hot air balloon even if you you are parked in the parking lot by Cirque Du Soleil. The Disney Springs staff and security won’t let you cut through any of the other sidewalks or pathways along the way, I’m not sure why, most likely they have found it helps with crowd control. But try not to get frustrated by this, think of it as just another part of enjoying your night out.
