Being able to watch fireworks from a plane sounds like a five-star, private-jet kind of experience but sometimes circumstances line up in such a way that you can do this from a low-cost airline.
Last night, I caught a late-night flight from Orlando to New York's LaGuardia Airport (LGA). Booked on a Spirit Airlines (SAVE) flight leaving at 8:20 p.m., I did not expect much other than a quick late flight back to where I live with perhaps just a small delay (there had been an earlier announcement that the plane needed to be quickly checked for fuel levels before we could depart). Approximately 20 minutes after takeoff, the pilot announced that if we looked out the window, we could see the nightly fireworks taking place at Disney World (DIS) as we flew over it.
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The plane quickly erupted into whispers, oohs and shuffling as those without a window seat leaned over their neighbors to catch a glimpse. Fair warning: the video I captured in a rush from the porthole and what was not the cleanest state of my iPhone lens made for footage quality that would not normally be fit for publication. The sound is also turned off because there were two screaming babies in the back seat behind me and that does not exactly make for a fitting accompaniment to such a beautiful view.
Veronika Bondarenko
The pilot told everyone to look out the window at the fireworks
And this sight — of bright fireworks circles exploding into the sky above the park's Sleeping Beauty Castle without the loud cracking sound that normally accompanies pyrotechnics — was such an unexpected delight that I wanted to share it.
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At this time of year, the Magic Kingdom Fireworks typically start around 8:45 p.m. and take about 18 minutes from start to finish. As planes move much faster than that, I only saw a small glimpse of the show but it was quite a sight to behold as the plane rose higher into the air and the parks, as well as Orlando in general, dissolved into the darkness.
Once you've seen fireworks, it's hard to make the rest of the flight exciting
Disney's Epcot park also has a light show called Luminous The Symphony of Us at a different part of the area making up Disney World. I assume a plane that would have flown the same route but left a little later would have also caught glimpses of the fireworks starting at 9 p.m.
After the plane flew out of sight of Disney World, the rest of the flight went generally as expected. No more surprises in the two-and-a-half hours it took us to reach New York but, as a travel writer, I couldn't have asked for a better turn of events or reporting opportunity.
Not as fortunate as me, one hardcore Taylor Swift fan once even asked the pilot on her Southwest (LUV) flight to fly over the concert taking place at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles so that she could catch sight of it (the flight was already going that way but the young woman did not take into account that SoFi is a covered stadium so all she could see was the traffic around it.)
