Star Wars: Season of the Force 2024 at the Disneyland Resort — WITH FIREWORKS VIDEO
(Re. the STAR WARS FIREWORKS VIDEO: The link to the Star Wars FIREWORKS VIDEO is three paragraphs from the end. Jan)
In the years following the 1977 release of Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, Star Wars has become a global sensation, and in 2012 it became part of Disney, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm. That acquisition opened the door to a massive expansion of the Star Wars entertainment universe.
Plans were made, construction commenced and, in 2019, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened at the Disneyland Resort in California and at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is a land representing the planet of Batuu, with immersive Star Wars theming, buildings, props, characters, rides, entertainment, food & beverages, memorabilia and two fantastic, extensively themed rides: Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and the absolutely mind-blowing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
MILLENNIUM FALCON: SMUGGLERS RUN
STAR WARS: RISE OF THE RESISTANCE
This year, Star Wars: Season of the Force celebrations run from April 5 to June 2, with “specially themed food, beverages, merchandise and more for a limited time.” Expanding upon the Star Wars theme are Star Tours in Tomorrowland with new adventures, and the Star Wars-themed Hyperspace Mountain high-speed rollercoaster.
STAR TOURS
HYPERSPACE MOUNTAIN
On selected dates special after-hours, extra-cost, ticketed Star Wars Nites are also offered with additional special entertainment and more.
However, one day of the year in particular is more special than all of the rest, and it is a day that all park guests may enjoy. It is May fourth, the unofficial Star Wars Day, channeling that iconic line from the Star War movies with a play on words: “Let the Force be with You!” I made the necessary reservation well in advance and then celebrated Star Wars Day at the Disneyland Resort.
As I often do, I rode several of the Star Wars-themed rides, but what I hoped would be the highlight of this special day would be viewing Disneyland’s evening fireworks show from a vantage point within Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, instead of from a vantage point that had a view of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and the projections on the storefronts of Main Street USA.
Thankfully, in official recognition that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is another great place to enjoy the evening fireworks show, the special Fire of the Rising Moons version of the fireworks show was created, complete with synchronized, Star Wars-themed music by John Williams; narration and dramatic lighting of the twin mountain peaks of Planet Batuu. The only caveat is that the evening fireworks show will only be held if the weather permits. The fireworks will not be launched if the wind is too great at high altitudes (even if there is no wind at ground level, which happens). The decision to cancel the fireworks is often made as late as just before the scheduled start time — just in case the weather improves, making the cancellation especially disappointing for guests who had occupied their great viewing spots very early and had been waiting in anticipation for a long time, instead of going on more rides.
Hoping for the best, and aware that the weather forecast was favorable, I joined hundreds of my fellow Star Wars fans around the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Many of those present proudly wielded colorful lightsabers, lighting up the night sky. Even more of us celebrated this special day with themed Star Wars clothing and paraphernalia. There was an intense, palpable feeling of excitement as the time for the start of the fireworks grew closer.
Finally, the lights dimmed and the spectacular show began. With the Millennium Falcon in the foreground, at the foot of the twin peaks of Batuu, the large crowd of fans — many waving lightsabers — cheered and roared their approval as round after round of fireworks burst overhead. John Williams’ Star Wars-themed music — amplified by the surrounding structures — filled the air. One could literally feel the music and the explosions of the fireworks. The combined visual and aural experience was absolutely breathtaking.
Click this link to my edited video, on the “AutoMatters & More” YouTube Channel, of the Star Wars “Fire of the Rising Moons” fireworks show, to experience it for yourself:
For more information about STAR WARS: Galaxy’s Edge, visit: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/star-wars-galaxys-edge/.
To explore a wide variety of content dating back to 2002, with the most photos and the latest text, visit “AutoMatters & More” at https://automatters.net. Search by title or topic in the Search Bar in the middle of the Home Page, or click on the blue ‘years’ boxes and browse.
Copyright © 2024 by Jan Wagner – AutoMatters & More #839r3
Jan, I’ve visited a few more times and the YouTube link photo with the red arrow seems to be permanently in the correct space.
Looks like Go Daddy did fix it.
David.
Thanks, David. Unfortunately the problem still exists when I check it on my devices…
Jan
Jan, I have two automotive forum contacts who use WordPress for their personal websites. As far as I know, they don’t use any intermediaries like Go Daddy to keep their websites “running”.
Admittedly, their websites aren’t as complicated as yours with home page, columns with lots of photos, search function, etc. I would think that Go Daddy should be capable of managing your site. They are a pioneer in this industry.
David.
David,
When, a few years ago, I looked into building a website for AutoMatters & More, I learned that there were two ways to have a WordPress website. As I recall, these were either having a rather straightforward, basic website hosted by WordPress on its own servers, with a WordPress Internet address, or having a more custom WordPress website hosted on its own IP address and the potential to have many more options and features, made possible by having additional themes and plugins. That is the type of WordPress website that I chose to have. Since building it required expertise that I did not have, I chose GoDaddy to build it for me, to my design specifications. A big source of problems became apparent much later. WordPress is constantly getting updated to keep up with the ever-changing and evolving Internet. That, in turn, requires that the themes and plugins constantly get updates. Sometimes these updates to the themes and/or plugins are not compatible with the website.
GoDaddy chose the third party “Beaver Builder” theme with which they then built my website. Sometimes this theme and the plugins have caused problems, or even crashed my website. This is a never-ending process.
I used to command the updates to run by myself, whenever I would be notified by my website that they were available, but once that caused my website to crash so badly that it kept my website down for three days, while GoDaddy fixed it (at my expense, of course). After that I made the decision going forward to pay GoDaddy to do the updates (updates are issued frequently) and fix problems.
Jan
Jan, twice now I have seen the YouTube photo with red arrow in the blank space, but it disappears if I scroll up or down. Very mysterious!
I use my iPhone for this kind of viewing.
David.
David,
I yesterday I paid GoDaddy to update my plug-ins because they told me that their doing so would probably fix that. However now, in addition to that problem which still remains, my the formatting of my website’s Home Page has become scrambled. This is beyond “mysterious.” It is absolutely unacceptable. I pay GoDaddy to keep my WordPress website up and running. They are not doing that.
Jan
Jan, I only see the link imbedded at the end of the paragraph, followed by a large blank space. It does seem that this space was intended to be a photo with a link to YouTube, but there is no photo with the familiar red YouTube arrow.
Hope this helps. David.
Thanks David. That’s what I was afraid of. My computer (a Mac) and my iPhone are doing the same thing. Do you have an Apple computer, too?
If I click the refresh arrow at the end of the Internet address, then the picture appears. Does yours?
I am paying GoDaddy to update a bunch of plug-ins. Hopefully that will solve this problem.
Jan, you are a true Star Wars fan! Your photos were well selected, and the video, especially when held in full size landscape position, was real “movie” quality.
I do believe however that Disney has something to learn on fireworks displays. Every city, town and village in my part of Pennsylvania does fireworks on July 4th, so I’ve seen a lot of displays. It all starts with a budget for the show, which leads to the time it can last for the most dramatic effect.
Because Disney does a display every evening (in good weather), their daily budget is probably similar to what a town does once a year. The idea is to have bursts of fireworks that build up to a big crescendo. Disney did have a decent crescendo, but they had too many gaps between the lead up bursts.
I think they could have had fewer/shorter gaps and saved some of the beginning for a bigger crescendo. I’m absolutely no expert on fireworks, but I’ve enjoyed them since I was a kid, and know that the Big Bang at the end is always what people remember.
Possibly I’m confused. Is there a smaller fireworks display exclusively for the Star Wars pavilion, or was this the full blown Disney evening display?
Good work, David.
Thanks, David,
Your comment is spot-on, but I am pretty sure that I know the explanation for that. You see, at the very same time that Disneyland performs their Star Wars fireworks show, Disneyland also performs their Pixar fireworks show behind the Sleeping Beauty Castle at the end of Main Street USA. That Fireworks show is interspersed with animated projections on the storefronts of Main Street USA and on the castle. Disneyland probably includes pauses in that fireworks show to draw the audience’s attention to those projections. I am 99.99% sure that the same fireworks, but with different audio, are used for both shows simultaneously. The positioning of the fireworks conveniently works for both shows, and the audio for each is so loud that it drowns out the audio from the other show.
I have a question for you. I am finding that my video links with the photo and the red YouTube arrow are disappearing. To get them back, I have to click the refresh arrow at the end of their internet address. That is why I added a separate YouTube link that within the text of the paragraph. That link is different in that it does not have a photo and it takes visitors away from my column, which is not good. Did you see both links, or did you only see the link embedded within the paragraph text, followed by a large blank space and a caption beneath it? I am going to work with GoDaddy (my ISP) before I leave for the day (to go see the new Fantasmic show at Disneyland tonight).
Jan