What happened to the Electrical Water Pageant?

[idratherbeinwdw]

Hi,

There is a thread running on the DIS DVC community boards with a question that remains unanswered, so I thought I would try here.

It seems the Electrical Water Pageant (EWP) is half of what it used to be. I was there in May, and I thought this was due to MK fireworks causing the EWP to run late. I just assumed it was some sort of time constraint for some reason. I was disappointed, but I figured I'd catch the full version on my next trip.

But more than one person has posted stating that they recently visited and they too saw a VERY abbreviated version of the EWP. Anyone have any information on why this is and if and when it's going to return to the way it was?

Hope someone can enlighten me, thanks!

 

[cruisin'Mike]

The EWP only had about 4 floats when we were down in Aug. I heard that several were damaged during the hurricanes this year. Not sure if this is true, someone else should be along soon to verify.

Mike

 

[Lives4Disney]

When we were there in August, my 8 year old daughter pointed out that part of the show was missing.

We thought we just missed it, but apparently she was right. I did see some posts suggesting it was damaged by a hurricane. If it wasn't running as usual in May, I don't know what's up....

I hope it is in its original state when we return next week. We enjoy it!!

 

[Luigi's Girl]

we were at the VWL 10/30-11/7 and i was excited to bring some family members down by the water to watch the parade. boy was i embarrassed when it lasted about 4 minutes (i'm guessing) and they said "that's it"? I figured something had to be wrong. I'm glad someone brought this up.

 

[betterlatethannever]

I had heard that some of the barges were damaged due to hurricanes.

Does anybody else remember the EWP being even longer? Before the WL was built (which added another show to the schedule) it seemed that there were more barges and it lasted longer.

Am I going crazy?

Ed

 

[philaround]

The last time I was there was May 2003. If I remember correctly the EWP was either 4 groups of 3 barges each or 3 groups of 4 barges each. Can anyone verify?

 

[turnlisa]

Just got back on Saturday. My DSs and I watched the EWP every night during our trip from our balcony at the Poly. The parade is shorter. It is missing the octopus, King Triton, and the crocodile. My oldest DS noticed it the first night and we watched every night but it was never restored to the original. Sorry to disappoint everyone! I was sorry to see the crocodile go since he was my favorite part. They do play the music from the Little Mermaid for the octopus but there is no float.

 

[Kimberle]

It was "perfect" during our Sept stay, just before hurricane Jeanne.

 

[NCRedding]

We watched it in June and it was a shortened version

 

[JEANMR1]

I had not seen it before but we huddled together outside at the Poly to watch it last week during the one cold windy night (the rest of the time it was beautiful). I didn't know what to expect but there appeared to be 4 barges and one of them wasn't lighting properly. They showed a serpant and then some flags and then it left. I'm not sure it even lasted 4 minutes. I heard someone else say that they must have been having problems.

 

[idratherbeinwdw]

So far the news seems to be disappointing. I wonder why I haven't read about this elsewhere, especially since it seems to have been a problem for some time now.

I am hoping someone posts some good news soon, otherwise I'm going to write an email to Disney and see what the response is.

 

[sunkissed212]

Well, I posted on another thread I think. We were there in September, right in between Frances and Ivan.

I thought is was all there but now I don't remember everything. I just looked through my pics from the parade and I have:

Serpent - 4
Whale - 1
Turtle - 1
Flying Fish - 3
Serpent - 1
Alligator - 1
King - 2

That's 13 screens. I thought there was an octopus in there too...don't have a pic of that one...are there others missing?

 

[idratherbeinwdw]

The only one I can think of that is missing (according to your post) other than the octopus is the Dinosaur. But this feeble old brain may have forgotten something. I have the EWP on tape from a stay in 2003, I'll take it out in the morning and look.

Originally posted by sunkissed212
Well, I posted on another thread I think. We were there in September, right in between Frances and Ivan.

I thought is was all there but now I don't remember everything. I just looked through my pics from the parade and I have:

Serpent - 4
Whale - 1
Turtle - 1
Flying Fish - 3
Serpent - 1
Alligator - 1
King - 2

That's 13 screens. I thought there was an octopus in there too...don't have a pic of that one...are there others missing?

 

[shafke]

we were down one year once when the EWP was a shortened version also... over 10 years ago. I think that every so often half the barges are taken out of service for rehab. They may be doing that right now, especially since there were reports of some barges damaged by hurricanes.

 

[idratherbeinwdw]

I hope you're right Shafke, and it's just a temporary thing that happens sporadically.

I looked at the video I taped, and sunkissed 12 was right, only the octopus was missing in September between the time of Frances and Ivan. (I am assuming one of the serpents you refer to is what I have always thought was a dinosaur, hence my other post referring to a missing dinosaur).

If anyone goes soon and checks out the EWP please share the latest update when you get back.

 

[turnlisa]

As I mentioned, I was there last week and watched it all week. The only floats are the following:

Sea serpent - Pete's Dragon Music
Whale
Turtle
Stars and Stripes

That's it. No King Triton, no flying fish, no octopus, no crocodile. The barges aren't even attached. It was a big disappointment for us too and does only last about 5 minutes.

 

[idratherbeinwdw]

Originally posted by turnlisa
As I mentioned, I was there last week and watched it all week. The only floats are the following:

Sea serpent - Pete's Dragon Music
Whale
Turtle
Stars and Stripes

That's it. No King Triton, no flying fish, no octopus, no crocodile. The barges aren't even attached. It was a big disappointment for us too and does only last about 5 minutes.

That's pretty much what I saw in May. I am hoping that the poster who said that they rehab the floats at times is right and that the entire show will be back soon.

I agree, what I saw, and what many other people including turnlisa posted they saw, was a huge disappointment. Not to mention a waste of time for those (like me) who weren't staying at an MK resort and made a special trip to see the EWP. I certainly wouldn't gone out of my way had I known beforehand.

I wonder why the official Disney site, and other sites that are usually reliable (ie allears.net) make no mention of any of this in the areas on their sites that discuss the latest rehab news.

 

[mnbrowns]

Does anyone know if they plan on bringing it all back again? I hope they aren't phasing it out. I know it's cheesy, but we love it.