# Disney Trip Tech Stuff



## ZDurler88 (May 31, 2012)

I was down in Disney World 2 weeks ago and saw "Wishes" at MK. Now let me know if anyone knew this? I, like everyone else, enjoyed the pre-show with the pictures they display from the park that day and the main show itself. When watching the show, it appears as if all the fireworks are launched right behind the castle. However, I just got done watching a video on youtube from somebody who filmed the fireworks from Bay Lake Tower and noticed that the fireworks are actually launched way back behind the castle. I would say at the back edge of the MK property. However, the sight lines and perspective all make you think they're close together and near you. Anybody else realize that? Just thought it was cool and now know why I never saw any fireworks shell casings or ashes. ha


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## josh88 (May 31, 2012)

Have a friend working for the mouse and he posted a picture of the set up a few weeks back I'll see he has any comments about the whole thing.

I'm not to surprised though they're great with forced perspective the castle is the prime example of it since it is t actually that large


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk


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## Edrick (May 31, 2012)

Well ya got it right there, the cleanup would be horrendous and not usually a good idea to shoot by buildings or audience. 

When we do shows we have a minimum of 200' clearance for small shows. The fallout can shoot pretty dang far


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## What Rigger? (May 31, 2012)

Edrick said:


> Well ya got it right there, the cleanup would be horrendous and not usually a good idea to shoot by buildings or audience.
> 
> When we do shows we have a minimum of 200' clearance for small shows. The fallout can shoot pretty dang far




Haha! Come on down to Anaheim! Watch what those guys do. They shoot off the tops of buildings all over the park.


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## gafftaper (Jun 1, 2012)

What Rigger? said:


> Haha! Come on down to Anaheim! Watch what those guys do. They shoot off the tops of buildings all over the park.



The Haunted Mansion section of the fireworks show is AWESOME if you are standing in front of the castle. They shoot these slow moving green "tracer" like fireworks off all around you... giving you that stretching room feeling. It's amazing.


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## derekleffew (Jun 1, 2012)

ZDurler88 said:


> ... and noticed that the fireworks are actually launched way back behind the castle. I would say at the back edge of the MK property. However, the sight lines and perspective all make you think they're close together and near you. Anybody else realize that? ...


Perhaps a similar phenomenon that I've never had satisfactorily explained: While using Xenon searchlights outside, with all the fixtures at 50/50 (pointing straight up), if you stand in the middle of them, all the beams appear to converge at one spot. Now, we know they don't actually converge, as we can see when viewing from outside the circle.

So it's not beyond imagination to think that aerial fireworks a fair distance away will still seem to be directly overhead. As was said, shell casings and ash falling on the audience is frowned upon. And the mark of an amateur pyrotechnician.

.....


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## 65535 (Jun 1, 2012)

From spending time behind the scenes at Disneyland in Anaheim I can tell you they do NOT launch fireworks anywhere near buildings or audience. Fireworks are pneumatically launched from 30' aerial platforms deep in the backstage. They are very well designed and placed to create a very immersive experience.


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## zmb (Jun 1, 2012)

The fireworks launch area must be the clearing on the south edge of the road in this map, zoom in and switch to aerial view to see it.

Who else is aware of Disney's own natural gas powerplant? And it also appears that you could drive around most of the backstage areas like past the monorail shop and graveyard.


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## Chris Chapman (Jun 1, 2012)

josh88 said:


> Have a friend working for the mouse and he posted a picture of the set up a few weeks back I'll see he has any comments about the whole thing.
> 
> I'm not to surprised though they're great with forced perspective the castle is the prime example of it since it is t actually that large
> 
> ...



The fireworks and the castle really showcase forced perspective. Event though the Castle IS tall, the scale is decreasing as you go up. If you ever seen TinkerBell prep for her flight from the top of the tower, you'll see that the "fullsize" window she emerges from is pretty dinky.

Certain areas behind the castle are closed during fireworks. As you look at the castle, on the left hand side, the pathways that head toward FrontierLand/Liberty Square frequently close during fireworks. I do not know why.


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## josh88 (Jun 1, 2012)

This was his picture while at work




Pretty sure they gave him pyro training for all this too, so he was actually working on it that week.


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## DHSLXOP (Jun 1, 2012)

Chris Chapman said:


> The fireworks and the castle really showcase forced perspective. Event though the Castle IS tall, the scale is decreasing as you go up. If you ever seen TinkerBell prep for her flight from the top of the tower, you'll see that the "fullsize" window she emerges from is pretty dinky.
> 
> Certain areas behind the castle are closed during fireworks. As you look at the castle, on the left hand side, the pathways that head toward FrontierLand/Liberty Square frequently close during fireworks. I do not know why.



Wishes uses fireworks that are shot off the buildings that house Mickey's Philharmagic/Peter Pan's Flight and Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh/Snow White. The courtyard behind the castle, from Snow White to the Carousel and the Carousel to Mickey's Philharmagic, is closed off during the show, as well as walkways around the front of the Castle on both the Fantasyland and Libery Square sides. These areas close off a little before the show, and don't reopen until at least 20-30 minutes after the show. If you walk around those areas once they reopen, you will notice that they are running sprinklers and that the ground is very wet, so that nothing catches on fire. 

But Disney definitely shoots fireworks off of the buildings. The main launch site is North of the Magic Kingdom (this is where the big fireworks are shot from), but there are also sites on top of those buildings.


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## What Rigger? (Jun 1, 2012)

65535 said:


> From spending time behind the scenes at Disneyland in Anaheim I can tell you they do NOT launch fireworks anywhere near buildings or audience. Fireworks are pneumatically launched from 30' aerial platforms deep in the backstage. They are very well designed and placed to create a very immersive experience.



Nope, preeeeetttty sure they launch off the roof of the Castle, and other buildings in the park, _around the audience_. 30' tall aerial platforms backstage? Like giant scissor lifts? Or permanently installed towers? Anything fired from ground level? Just wonderin'.


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## 65535 (Jun 2, 2012)

+33° 48' 56.90", -117° 55' 1.46"

You'll find a number of them if you poke around backstage long enough, focus on the space north of ToonTown.


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## What Rigger? (Jun 4, 2012)

Wow. Nice.

Hey Gaff, I gotta PM you about this picture.


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## SouthFloridaSFX (Jun 8, 2012)

The MK uses several site locations for there pyro. While there are a few small pyro effects on the castle such as small gerbs and pinwheels, most is fired from far north of the property as well as some from the roofs of Fantasy land. As DHSLXOP said, there are sprinkler systems on the roofs across fantasy land through New Orleans square. Disney also experiments a lot by firing there shells off nitrogen systems, eliminating the burst charge and initial bang and flash from the firing.


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## gafftaper (Jun 8, 2012)

SouthFloridaSFX said:


> The MK uses several site locations for there pyro. While there are a few small pyro effects on the castle such as small gerbs and pinwheels, most is fired from far north of the property as well as some from the roofs of Fantasy land. As DHSLXOP said, there are sprinkler systems on the roofs across fantasy land through New Orleans square. Disney also experiments a lot by firing there shells off nitrogen systems, eliminating the burst charge and initial bang and flash from the firing.



This looks like the main launcher location +33° 48' 56.90", -117° 55' 1.46" Note the security fence and the two air tanks for powering the launcher.


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## tyler.martin (Jul 9, 2012)

Anaheim is the only property that uses Air Launched shells.


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## genericcomment (Jul 14, 2012)

Which begs the question if a shell is air launched how is the burst charge activated while airborne? Wireless circuitry on each shell? Which sounds ridiculously obnoxious since your blowing up a wireless receiver in every shell or is there a time fuse lit with the air launch which seems more practical.


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## jxgriffi (Jul 14, 2012)

genericcomment said:


> Which begs the question if a shell is air launched how is the burst charge activated while airborne? Wireless circuitry on each shell? Which sounds ridiculously obnoxious since your blowing up a wireless receiver in every shell or is there a time fuse lit with the air launch which seems more practical.



There is a circuit in EACH shell. It is activated upon launch and is a timing circuit. Timer runs out...shell explodes. This is how they know precisely when to fire it from when they want it to blow up.

So...yes...there is a circuit in there. But it's cheap enough that it doesn't add too much to the cost of the shell.


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