Wednesday, December 08, 2021
The Brilliant Lighting of the Disney Parks
Disney Tourist Blog: Lighting is an integral part of the Disney theme park atmosphere and experience. The parks come alive at night in large part as a result of meticulously arranged lighting schemes. Without this attention to detail in terms of lighting, at night the parks would be dark and lifeless instead of feeling moody and looking beautiful.
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I've got to say, I usually feel tremendously overstimulated when I'm in Disney parks. Maybe it's the fact that it's full of people and sounds aimed to create the atmosphere of a fairytale. So it's cool to sit down and look at these photos without all the distractions. Probably the most memorable and notable of these looks is Cinderella's castle which probably gets hundreds of photos posted of it a night. One thing though I had never paid a look at it the intricacy of the actual lighting fixtures. The stained glass Coca Cola ones are actually so cute and original, which I don't know if I've ever said that about something at Disney. A lot of the dramatic colored looks look carefully designed and planned out, and definitely contribute to this "other world" vibe that Disney often emulates. Next time I go I'm excited to take a bit of a closer look around.
“Light fixtures may not be of interest to 99% of theme park fans but they are really important to the overall tone.” I love lighting, it’s how I see the world. Without trying I am looking at the lighting and the fixtures everywhere! It’s very nerdy but oh well. Sometimes I notice when streetlights turn on and off and question if the lights are operating on timers or if they are operating on a sensor that detects if it is dark outside and turns on when more light is needed in the area. I really love the pictures that are included in this article. The colored glass lamps are beautiful. I apricate the time and thought that the author has put into this article and the photos of the park. I watched a Khan Academy course on Imagineering, and it was a really interesting look into how much thought and effort goes into designing the theme parks. Maybe I will continue to investigate Imagineering and working a Disney in the future after CMU.
I am totally obsessed with the design of Disney World. Every time I am there (I have only been a few times) I am totally blown away by the lighting, the details in the buildings, etc. Everything is perfectly laid out for people to have the best experiences in every way possible. Just scrolling through these pictures has me so excited and impressed with what the imagineers put into the parks. You can’t see any of the light sources in the pictures of the castle, it is just illuminated to perfection. In addition, they do the same with the mountains and other environmental components of the park. Everything is illuminated perfectly, but you cannot actually see where the specific light sources are. They make conscious decisions to hide things like this which I am always really interested in figuring out how they do that. The fact that they have specific Disney paint colors to make things blend into the sky or into the grass always blows my mind.
Disney design feels so immersive, and something that is surprising to many people is that every single detail of it was an informed and specific decision with a specific goal in mind. Lighting is one of the biggest components of Disney’s themed environments that really melds things together into a cohesive unit. In the times I have visited Disney World in Orlando, FL, I have felt that the lighting is the biggest indicator of what the mood should be. The scenic elements of all their attractions give you the meat, but the lighting provides all the seasoning, so to speak. I noticed a huge difference in being in the parks after dark versus during the daytime, and sometimes it felt like being taken back in time. I felt the same difference at Universal Studios in their Harry Potter areas. The colorful, warm, ambient lighting is so impactful and yet so subtle. It makes all the difference.
I love the lighting at Disney parks. I feel like I say this every time there’s a Disney article, but I have always been blown away by the attention to detail that goes into the parks from the landscaping on the trees to the bricks on the walkway, everything is meticulously crafted to engineer a perfect guest experience from the moment you get out of your car. One of my favorite things to do when I’m walking around the park is looking around for the show lights as Tom Brickers calls them. They are usually purposely placed in locations where most guests are not prone to look, but because they need unobstructed views of Cinderella’s castle, radiator springs mountains, or whatever it is they are trying to light, they usually are not hidden just tucked away. I am blown away by how much lighting equipment is right under guest noses without drawing attention to itself.
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