The dismantling of Harmonious gets underway on EPCOT's World Showcase Lagoon

Apr 05, 2023 in "Harmonious"

Harmonious barge dismantling - April 5 2023
Posted: Wednesday April 5, 2023 9:50am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Crews are working in the center of World Showcase Lagoon at EPCOT, dismantling the Harmonious show barges.

Work is concentrating on the German "taco" video barge, which looks like it will be the first to be removed from the lagoon, clearing the way for the larger central icon barge to be moved backstage to the marina.



Crews are stripping the barge of lighting and other hardware. Each barge is a complex piece of machinery equipped with pyrotechnic launchers, fountain pumps and piping, lighting, LED screens, computer control systems, fire suppression, and air conditioning.



Although most of the work is taking place on the Germany barge, crews are also removing lighting from the central icon platform.



Backstage, a large crane is ready to move the barges out of the marina and position them on the site originally prepared to build Harmonious.

Disney has not yet given a timeframe for the total removal of the Harmonious hardware, but our estimates put the work at around 6 weeks.

With Harmonious now dark, the interim EPCOT Forever show is being performed, which does not rely on any Harmonious hardware. A new show is currently in development, set to debut this fall.

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jpinkc18 hours ago

Let me guess its the Death Star landing pad. :) Ask the MASTER DISNEY!!!! Dont do more HARM!!!!!

stuart1 day ago

Would imagine that is the case. There's a piling within the hexagon as well which may be for a smaller barge to be moored against

TTA941 day ago

Yeah it’s very difficult to tell what is, if anything, in the center. For all we know, which has been very little lol maybe there is another barge coming? Zooming in on the center it looks like something low profile with maybe 3 small arm ish things on the sides? Maybe something that opens up? I’m probably reading way to much into it lol.

TheMaxRebo2 days ago

The concept art definitely shows fireworks going off in the middle - maybe this is just for a lower profile barge to get in that doesn't need as much infrastructure and is just for this purpose

Magicart872 days ago

Illuminated globe. 🤞

cjkeating2 days ago

Could be for a pyro barge in the centre? Or just to make maintenance easier so they can work from inside the barges and not just inside.

mattpeto2 days ago

The WDW rolling calendar runs to 12/4 and generally moves ahead one day overnight. Right now, Epcot Forever shows on the page for 12/4, which is presumably the last night of the show. I will be curious if Luminous has a page added tomorrow/Monday and some more details are revealed. It’s far enough in advance they might have the nighttime spectacular section blanked for a bit too.

TTA942 days ago

Yeah it does seem like something should be in the center of the dock.

SoFloMagic2 days ago

Could be pre-fab. Otherwise not sure why they'd need boat access to the central dock. Could just be a low profile fountain barge?

James Alucobond2 days ago

Even if it were still offset, the permanent infrastructure is low-profile enough that it wouldn’t be as severe a problem. The issue was that the off-centeredness was magnified by views of the enormous central ring while making your way down the entrance promenade.

trainplane32 days ago

Probably one of the funniest things about this is how the ring is perfectly centered around the old Illuminations dock. This show should be in the middle and not skewed like Harmonious. I think they heard that one complaint pretty loudly, even if it was a truly minor thing.

jrhwdw2 days ago

It would have to arrive backstage pretty quick for a Dec 5th Opening.

SoFloMagic2 days ago

I interesting that there's access to the center L dock. Wonder if we're getting a centerpiece barge?

stuart2 days ago